Page 16 of July (New Orleans #7)

“S o, you two are dating but not dating?” Logan asked.

“We’re not,” Jill replied. “But we want to. We will.”

“You will?” Rory asked.

“It’s complicated,” she said on a sigh and took a drink of her sweet tea.

“Because of your mom?” Rory asked.

“Yes. There’s something I haven’t told you two.”

“What?”

“My mom said she’s not coming back,” Jill revealed.

“What?” Logan asked.

“Juni’s dad was the love of my mom’s life, not my dad.

They hardly spent a moment apart. Hell, I was Juni’s babysitter when she was little because they went on date nights several times a week.

I’m not sure they wanted a kid so soon after meeting each other.

They were still in that honeymoon phase.

So, they left her with me a lot when I was still living at home.

It was like this man hung the moon for my mom, and when she lost him last year, I told her to see someone.

I asked her to talk to a grief counselor or a therapist. My grandparents came to New Orleans for a few weeks after because she could hardly move, let alone take care of a nine-year-old.

When they left, she seemed a little better.

” Jill took a deep breath then and added, “I haven’t exactly been happy with my mom for years.

She had her new life, and everything else, including me, became an afterthought, at best. I know she loves me, but it was hard for me, so I didn’t spend a lot of time with her to make sure that she was okay.

She left because she doesn’t want Juni without her dad.

She told me she can’t take care of her anymore. ”

“She doesn’t have a choice. She’s a parent,” Logan said. “That’s her job.”

“Oh, I know,” Jill replied. “I just don’t know what to do about it. I thought she might come to her senses, but I asked Rory about what the law would do if they knew my mom had abandoned her.”

“You said temporary,” Rory noted. “That she might be gone a little longer, and you wanted to make sure you could take care of Juni, if you had to, until she got back.”

“It was temporary, but she might not come back.”

“You’ll have to become her guardian, Jill.”

“I know,” she repeated. “And I can’t believe this is happening. I thought if I had kids one day, they’d be my own.”

“What are you going to do?” Logan asked.

“If my grandma can’t talk some sense into her within the next few days, I’ll have to tell Juni at least part of what’s going on.

I’ll have to tell the authorities and file the paperwork, too.

Right now, I have no legal rights over her, and my mom isn’t answering the phone, so if something happened, I don’t know how we’d deal with that. ”

“It’s the right thing to do,” Rory said. “It would protect both of you.”

“But it would also hurt my mom, right? She could be in trouble for child abandonment or neglect.”

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Rory replied. “I’m not sure they would file those charges. She did leave Juni with you.”

“With no money and a house that she hasn’t paid off.

She got a letter in the mail yesterday that the mortgage payment is due in a week.

I don’t know if she has any intention of paying that.

I can’t pay the mortgage and my rent, and if I break my lease to move in officially, I’d have to pay a giant fee there that I can’t afford. ”

“We’ll help,” Rory offered.

“Rory, you already have, like, seven jobs,” Jill teased.

“I do not . I only have NOLA Guides and my nanny gig. I haven’t worked in the bar with Candace for ages. She has a full staff now.”

“I’ll help however I can,” Logan added. “And I’m sure the others will, too. We can all pitch in.”

Jill knew her pride was telling her not to accept this help, but all she could think of was that she’d made a mistake.

She had never given these amazing people a chance to really get to know her and her story.

Because of that, she was surprised that they were all ready to help, but she shouldn’t have been because that was just who her friends were.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll let you know what I need when I decide what to do.”

Logan gave her a nod and wrapped an arm around the back of the booth behind Rory. That move had Jill thinking about Willa, which made her smile.

“What was that?” Rory asked with a smirk.

“What was what ?”

“You just smiled. You must have thought of something good.”

“Willa,” Logan stated knowingly. “You were thinking about Willa.”

“Fine. Yes,” she admitted with a little laugh. “You didn’t see her with Juni last night. She brought us dinner and made sure to get Juni dessert. She was…”

“Jill, I know you’re going through a lot, but maybe you should still go out with her,” Rory suggested. “You clearly like her.”

“I might be a parent soon, legally. I don’t need to pull her into this. She doesn’t want some kind of instant family.”

“Have you asked her?” Rory asked. “Directly.”

“What? No. We haven’t even gone on a date yet.”

Rory laughed and looked at Logan.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Logan noted. “You can’t say you won’t go on a date because she doesn’t want something when you don’t even know what she wants because you haven’t asked her to use it as an excuse for why you can’t date her.” She looked at Rory. “Did I get that right?”

“I think so,” Rory replied with a smile aimed at her girlfriend.

“Well, I can’t just go out with her.”

“Why not?” Logan asked.

“Yeah, we’ll watch Juni. Go on one date. Maybe you’ll figure out you don’t want another one anyway, so that’ll be it, and you won’t have to worry about it.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Jill said and pushed her plate away.

“Yeah?” Rory asked.

“I can’t explain the pull, but there is a pull. There has been ever since I saw her from a million miles away in the Square.”

Jill’s phone, which was sitting on the table, rang.

“Shit. It’s her. It’s Willa. What’s she calling for? I need to answer.” Jill looked around as if the place was on fire. “I’m going to take it outside.” She stood up and rushed out of the busy restaurant until she got to the sidewalk. “Hey,” she answered with a smile.

“Hi,” Willa replied, not sounding like she was smiling.

“Wait… It’s during the school day. Why are you calling me now? Is Juni okay?”

“She’s fine. She’s eating lunch. They all are.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said, trying to get her heart rate to calm down. “Well, what’s up? Want to hang out tonight? I think I can get my friends to watch Juni. I’m at lunch with them now. They volunteered. Maybe we could call it a date and just give this a try. It’s only a date, right?”

“You said you couldn’t right now,” Willa replied.

“I know. I was an idiot,” she said with a light laugh. “I like you. We can figure it out.”

“Jill…”

“Oh,” Jill said softly because she knew that tone.

She’d heard it from Enid recently as well as from other women she’d dated who had said her name just like that when they had been about to tell her that they didn’t want to do this anymore.

“Oh, what?”

“You changed your mind.”

“What?” Willa asked.

“About the date thing. It’s okay. I get it.”

“No, that’s not it,” Willa insisted. “Jill, I haven’t changed my mind. I want to go out with you. But–”

“A ten-year-old doesn’t come with your ideal date?”

“Jill, are you going to be her guardian? Has your mom responded at all?”

“No,” she replied. “And I don’t know, but probably.

I answered that out of order, didn’t I? I meant that I will probably have no choice because, no, I haven’t heard from her.

My grandma can’t get through to her, either.

I’ve thought about having Juni leave her a message, but I can’t do that to her. ”

“I’m going to be Juni’s fifth-grade teacher,” Willa said.

“Okay.”

“Jill, I just got my class assignment. Normally, I teach some fourth-grade classes and fifth grade, but they’re asking me to only teach fifth next year since they found someone who will do fourth. Juni is assigned to my room. I’ll be her teacher.”

“You’re her teacher now .”

“And you’re her sister right now. We’re in that gray area where it was okay for me to ask you out because I was only going to be her teacher for a few more weeks before she’d move on to fifth grade, your mom would come back, and you would no longer be her… well, parent, for lack of a better word.”

“Oh,” Jill said.

“It’s less gray now.”

“But it’s still gray?” Jill checked.

“Very, very dark-gray, bordering on black. I think that maybe we should hold off, like you said, until we know more about what you are going to do. Dating a student’s sister is gray, but I don’t think it can get me into any trouble.”

“No one has to know. Juni will only be in fifth grade once, right?”

“You want to date in secret?” Willa laughed.

“I don’t know.” Jill sighed and looked around at the bustling city she lived in. “It’s all so complicated, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Willa replied. “And I hate to do this, but I have to run. The kids will be finished soon.”

“Can we just talk about this later? I don’t want to not talk about it again.”

“I’m working at the museum tonight. I’m in the gift shop.”

“Right. Okay. Well, maybe a call or something?”

“Sure,” Willa replied. “I’ll call you after my shift.”

“Okay,” Jill said, but she wasn’t convinced Willa would actually call her. “Willa?”

“Yeah?”

“No one gives hugs like you.”

Willa was silent for a long moment before she replied, “Ditto. I’ll talk to you later.”

After they hung up, Jill walked back into the restaurant feeling even worse than she had been before the call.

“What happened?” Rory asked when she saw her face.

“I guess she’s going to be Juni’s full-time teacher when the school year starts, and she doesn’t think we should date if I’m going to be Juni’s guardian.”

“She’s probably right,” Rory said. “I don’t know if there are rules specifically against that, but–”

“It’s not like I’m sleeping with Juni’s professor or something, and Willa’s going to give her a Ph.D. because we’re together. It’s the fifth grade.”

“Yeah, I know,” Rory said.