Page 14 of July (New Orleans #7)

“W hat do I do? If I file a police report, they could take Juni away,” she said.

“Would they, really, though?” Enid asked. “You’re her sister, and your mom basically left you the house. You have a place to live, so you’d just need to convince them that you can take care of her.”

“How can I do that? I make enough money to support myself, but that’s it.

I have a little in savings, but most of my saved-up money went to my apartment when I rented it.

I’m waiting on Mel to promote me, which will get me better benefits, but Mel doesn’t cover dependents or anything, so I’d have to pay for insurance for Juni, too.

I assume she’s covered under my mom’s now, but I don’t know that for sure because she won’t call me back again.

Even if that’s the case, my mom left town, so she’ll lose her job, if she hasn’t already, and there won’t be those benefits anymore.

I don’t know if she’s still employed. I could call her work, I guess, but I don’t want them to know what’s going on.

If they gave her a week or two of sick time or vacation, and she ends up coming to her damn senses and comes home, I don’t want to cost her a job by telling them that she ran out on her kid and them. ”

“So, your options are to just handle things for now and hope she comes back or tell people she’s gone and risk whatever would happen if she does come back?”

“Basically,” Jill replied.

“Can I help somehow? I mean, I have no idea how, but I’m pretty good with numbers.

If you want me to maybe take a look at your finances and some insurance rates or something just to give you a budget estimate for you and Juni or help you figure out the benefits thing, I’m here.

I don’t know if there’s anything else I can really do, but I’ll babysit, too.

If you need a night off from it or need to take care of things for your mom, I’m there. ”

Jill smiled and said, “Thank you. I really appreciate that. And I just don’t know yet. I’ll let you know, okay?”

“Yeah, whenever,” Enid replied and checked the time on the wall clock in the back office. “I’ve got to run. I have a class, and I’m meeting Care on campus after.”

“How’s that going, by the way? Give me some good news, please. I could use it.”

Enid smiled and said, “Really good. I know it’s new, so I shouldn’t be this invested yet, but I am. She’s seemed extra happy lately, too.”

“Probably all the sex you’ve been giving her,” Jill joked.

“Or, the fact that she now has an apartment with her best friend and she’s pursuing her art.

We spend at least half our nights at my place because I live alone, but I think she likes living with Jodie.

Viv is there a lot of the time, too, so Care gets to hang out with her friends, do what she loves, and have some privacy at my place.

I’m going to be really lame and get her a two-month anniversary present when the time comes.

You haven’t been to my place yet, but I’ve got this little nook, kind of, in the corner of the living room that I had no idea what to do with, so I’m going to get her an easel and some art stuff and set it up over there.

It’s by a window, so she’ll get good light and have a place to sketch or paint if she wants. ”

“That’s cool, Enid,” she said. “And what do you mean you shouldn’t be this invested?”

“We met last month.”

“So?”

“We basically live together already.”

“Which is very lesbian of you. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing. I love it,” Enid replied.

“Then, keep doing it. Your relationship; your timeline. Don’t be one of those people who lets everyone else tell you what you should do in your own relationship. If it feels right for you two, do it. If not, don’t. Fuck everybody else.”

“And where is this coming from, this sage advice on love?”

“I didn’t say anything about love,” Jill noted, lifting an eyebrow.

“Okay. I’m going to go. I’ll talk to you later,” Enid said very quickly. “Let me know if you need anything.”

“Enid’s in love,” Jill teased. “Enid loves Caroline.”

“Bye, Jill,” Enid replied and left the office just as Mel walked in.

“What’s going on back here?”

“Oh, I was just picking on Enid.”

“Sounds about right.” Melinda laughed. “Jill, have you met Myra?”

There was a woman standing slightly behind Melinda, so Jill tilted her head to see her more fully.

“Oh, yeah. Hey, Myra,” she said. “You were at the–”

“Yeah, hi,” Myra said back with a smile. “Nice to see you again.”

“We’re going to eat lunch upstairs while we go over some plans for the house.”

“ More work on the house? Really?” Jill asked.

“It’s a surprise for Ky,” Melinda explained. “As a wedding gift, I want to do something in the house for her that she wouldn’t do herself because she’d think it would be too expensive or not worth it.”

“What is it?”

“You can’t tell her,” Melinda said.

“You don’t think she’ll notice work being done on her own house?” Jill asked.

“We won’t start it until after I tell her about it before the wedding. Myra’s going to do the work with her team while we’re on the honeymoon.”

“Okay. What are you doing?”

“Giving Ky an office,” Melinda said with a smile.

“She works from home but doesn’t have an office, and she’s got an employee now.

Yes, that employee is remote and lives in Portland, but her business is a legit deal, and she’s working from the bedroom or the living room.

Sometimes, she works out of the apartment upstairs here, but we have these guest rooms, and we won’t ever have that many kids to fill them.

I was talking to Myra, and she said she had some ideas to turn one of them into a kick-ass office for Ky. ”

“I had lunch with her last week and asked questions like I’m working another job,” Myra offered in explanation. “To see what she might want if it was her office.”

“Super spy Myra,” Jill teased.

Myra shrugged a shoulder.

“Anyway, we’re going to be upstairs to talk about that, but you’re taking off soon, yeah?” Melinda asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got to pick up Juni. Is it really okay that I keep having to leave a little early every day? I can take a few night tours.”

“It’s fine with me. We’re staffed right now, and I know this was just thrown on you.”

“I could use the extra cash, though. If I can get Rory or Enid to maybe watch Juni for an hour or so, can I pick up a ghost tour this week?”

“Sure. Just work it out on the schedule. Ky and I will help, too, you know? If you want to drop her off at the house, she can hang out with us there.”

“Yeah? That would be amazing.”

“No problem. Just let me know when so we can make sure we don’t have anything else going on,” Melinda replied.

Jill was so grateful for her friends right now.

She knew she had great friends, of course, but because she had kept so much of herself from them, for years in some cases, she wasn’t sure how they would react to her needing something from them for the first time.

Just last night, she had been thinking about how she was so alone, and now, they were all coming through for her, and she knew she’d do the same for them.

She finished her last few minutes in the office by checking in one tour, ringing out a few walk-ins, and giving directions to Jackson Square and to a casino, which was common.

Tour guides knew where everything was, yes, but they weren’t exactly just people waiting around to answer questions for free about how to get places.

People didn’t seem to realize that or care, so Jill told them where to go and left it at that.

She walked to the bus stop and waited for it, letting it take her most of the way to her mom’s house before changing to another bus and walking the rest of the way.

She could have driven in, parked in Melinda and Kyle’s driveway or on their street, at least, and walked from there, and she did that some days, but today, she hadn’t been in the mood to see their big, fancy Garden District house when she was living at her mom’s old ranch-style place with a sister whom she had no idea how to take care of.

Jill arrived just in time to get Juni from school, and while she had no energy to get out of the car and greet her before they drove off, she did want to see Willa and thank her again for last night.

She had woken up in her arms, and it had been the best sleep she’d gotten in days, despite the fact that she’d gotten the worst news.

Jill couldn’t explain what was going on between them, but there was this crazy familiarity with Willa where she felt like she could just fall into her arms, and it would all be okay.

She also really wanted to kiss her. She’d thought about that fact a few times the previous night, but it hadn’t been the right time.

Still, something told her that Willa would kiss her back, and it was the same something that had Jill feeling that familiarity she couldn’t explain.

“Hey. Did you have a good day?” she asked when Juni emerged after a few other students.

“Yeah,” Juni replied.

“Talkative as ever,” Jill joked.

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” she replied and looked at the door just as an adult emerged.

It was likely another teacher, but it wasn’t Willa.

“She’s not in charge of pickup today,” Juni said as she pulled the door open and threw her stuff inside.

“Huh? Who?” she asked, playing dumb.

“Miss Mailor. Duh,” Juni said.

Great. Jill was being so obvious that even her kid sister had noticed, so she turned around to get back into the car, giving up on seeing Willa today.

“Oh, I wasn’t–”

“Hi.”

Jill turned back around, saw Willa walking briskly down the stairs toward them, and did her best to keep her smile in check so that her sister wouldn’t make fun of her.

“Hey. Juni said you weren’t doing pickups today.”

“I’m not. I just wanted to say hi,” Willa replied with a smile as she got closer. “So, hi.”

Jill smiled then and said, “Hi.”

“I’m getting in the car,” Juni stated, sounding completely uninterested.

Willa laughed a little and said, “I think she’s annoyed with us.”

“Probably. But she’s ten; isn’t she annoyed with everything? I was when I was her age.”

“What were you annoyed with at ten?” Willa asked as she laughed again.

“Dolls, mostly.”

“What?”

“My mom kept buying me dolls, but I was a tomboy back then. I wanted the toys the boys got.”

“I bet you were a really cute tomboy. Are there pictures of this somewhere that I can see to prove my theory, perhaps?”

“God, I hope not,” Jill replied.

“How are you?” Willa checked, changing the subject.

“Okay, I guess. I haven’t filed the police report yet. I honestly don’t know if I should. My grandma said to give my mom a few days. She’ll come around. She’s been calling her, too, and leaving her messages.”

“Grandmas are wise. Maybe she’s right.”

“I hope so. She also told me that if Mom doesn’t get her shit together, they could take Juni for a while.”

“Oh, wow. Do you want that?”

“Not really,” Jill replied. “They’re old, and my grandma smokes inside the house.

She has for decades. I don’t want Juni around that.

A visit is bad enough. Trust me, I’ve been to that house.

The walls are yellow, and I swear, they’re sticky.

Besides, Juni would have to move. She’d be changing schools and would have to make new friends. ”

“It would be tough,” Willa said.

“And I’d have to explain what’s going on to her if I did that,” Jill added. “Right now, I’m just telling her that Mom is busy with Grandma and Grandpa but that she’ll call soon.”

“You’re doing the best you can, Jill. And for what it’s worth, I bet a lot of people in your shoes would send her to your grandparents and look the other way.”

Jill turned to see Juni staring at her from the passenger side window. Her sister looked so small; Jill couldn’t believe her mother would do this to that little girl.

“I can’t do that.”

“I know,” Willa said. “She looks like you.”

“Who?”

“Your sister,” Willa replied, laughing. “Juni looks more like you than your mother. She has your hair. Your mom’s is darker. And Juni has blue eyes. Your mom’s are brown.”

Jill wasn’t sure she had ever really noticed it before. She knew they looked a little alike, but not that Juni looked more like her than their mother.

“Both of our dads had blue eyes,” she replied as if that just explained everything.

“Right,” Willa said with a soft smile. “I have to get back inside. I’m on detention duty today.”

“Detention in summer school?”

“Detention all year round.” Willa chuckled.

“I’ll see you later, maybe?” Jill asked.

Willa nodded and said, “She’s sticking her tongue out at you, by the way.”

Jill turned to see that, indeed, Juni was making a face at her.

“Little brat,” she said as she laughed.