Page 22 of July (New Orleans #7)

J ill had really wanted to kiss Willa when she dropped her sister off at school, but she had had to settle for longing glances and smiles.

They hadn’t had any time to talk because Juni had been excited about whatever project they were working on that day, so they had agreed to talk later, and Jill had taken off for work.

Choosing to park at Melinda and Kyle’s place, she got out of the car just as the couple was leaving for the day.

“Hey, Jill,” Kyle greeted.

“Morning,” she said. “Want to walk in together, Mel?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Melinda replied and pulled Kyle in for a kiss, “Bye, babe. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“Hey, can I actually talk to both of you for a sec?” Jill asked, approaching them.

“Sure,” Kyle said.

“I know you and your mom have… had some issues,” Jill began cautiously.

“You could say that,” Kyle replied.

Kyle’s mother hadn’t been a great parent to her or her sister, Jolie, but she had also lied to Kyle about how her own mother had treated her, which was how Kyle had ended up in New Orleans in the first place: she had wanted to discover the truth of her family history.

“But things are better, right?” Jill asked.

“I guess, yeah. She’s coming up on one year sober, so that’s pretty big. Jolie says she’s going to therapy and goes to meetings at least twice a week.”

“But things between the two of you, are they better? I mean, she was hardly around, right?”

“She was around. She just wasn’t always a functioning adult.”

“You had to kind of raise your sister?”

“Sort of, yes. We didn’t always have money for things, and I took care of her a lot, yeah.”

“Is your relationship with your mom beyond full repair?”

“Full repair?” Kyle asked as she wrapped an arm around Melinda’s shoulders.

“Sorry. This is too much. I–”

“No, Jill, it’s fine. I just haven’t had my coffee yet today,” Kyle said, laughing a little.

“Well, I think full repair might be off the table, but that’s mainly because I’m here, and she’s there.

I feel like we would need daily therapy for the rest of our lives to get to whatever full repair might look like, but we’re better than we were before I came here.

She’s got a job now and has held it down for seven months.

That’s practically a record for her. She calls me about once a week or so just to check in.

So, I guess it’s better than I ever expected. ”

“Is this because of your mom?” Melinda asked Jill.

“Yeah. I just don’t know what to do anymore, and I’m worried more about Juni than me.

I’ve been fine with my mom being in the background of my life for a long time, but Juni is only ten.

If Mom screws up and leaves her now, that’s it for their relationship, maybe.

If she decides to come back in, like, ten years, Juni will be grown-up.

She’ll probably be in college and maybe in a relationship, and I’ll be inviting them awkwardly into the house to do the meet-the-sister thing, trying not to think about the fact that they’ll be sharing the same bed because they’d probably had sex in their dorm rooms and trying to remember that she’s an adult and can do whatever she wants. ”

“Well, I think you might be getting a little ahead of yourself there,” Kyle noted. “Right now, you only need to think about it day by day. Does she have her lunch packed? When she gets home, is she doing her homework? What’s for dinner? Then, you do it all over again tomorrow.”

“But the weekend is coming up, and I have no idea what to do with her on the weekend.”

“Bring her here, if you want,” Melinda offered. “She can run around in the backyard. We’ve got board games, too. We can all have lunch, and she can play.”

“Or, take her to a park or a museum or something. She’ll be so tired after that she’ll probably just nap while you make dinner. It used to work for my sister, at least.”

“So, just day by day?” Jill asked.

“That’s about all you can do right now,” Kyle replied, giving her a sympathetic smile.

“Yeah, thanks,” she said.

“You ready to go?” Melinda asked.

When Jill nodded, Melinda kissed Kyle again, and they hit the sidewalk.

“So, how was your date last night?” Melinda asked.

“How did you even know about that?”

“Rory.”

“Rory told you?”

“I texted her last night to see what she was up to in case she and Logan wanted to grab dinner, but she told me she couldn’t because she’s your new favorite babysitter.”

Jill laughed and said, “She was available last minute.”

“Kyle and I have this giant mansion of a house,” Melinda reminded, motioning a little behind them at the house they’d walked past.

“And you want to practice before you have your own. I know. I know.”

“Juni’s a sweetheart.”

“She is. I wasn’t planning on going on a date last night, though. Rory and Logan kind of talked me into putting myself out there; getting the proverbial cards out on the table with Willa and seeing what happened.”

“And what happened was a date?”

“A perfect date,” she said with a wistful smile.

“That good?”

“Mel, the way she kissed me…” Jill shook her head. “It was like the kiss at the end of a rom-com when the music swells, and they all live happily ever after.”

“Okay, but did little bunnies braid your hair this morning, and little mice help you get dressed?”

“No, but little birdies are going to fly into your hair and mess it all up because you’re being mean to me right now.”

Melinda laughed and asked, “When are you going out again?”

“I don’t know yet. I hope soon, but that depends on my Juni schedule, which is what I’ve decided to call my new life.

When I finish my tours today, I’ve got to run home to my apartment and get some new clothes because I wasn’t planning on staying past a week.

I miss my new, shiny apartment. Well, it’s not exactly new, but it’s relatively new to me .

All my stuff is there, and I don’t want to live out of a suitcase. ”

“Has your mom reached back out?”

“No, which means I need to decide what I want to do. My grandma called me this morning, waking me up, actually, telling me that she would still take Juni if Mom doesn’t come back.”

“Maybe that’s the best idea. They’ve been parents before.”

“It’s not. I love her for trying, but while they might not be deathly ill, they’re not exactly healthy, either. I don’t want Juni growing up there, having to move and change schools right after she finds out that her mother left her.”

“I understand,” Melinda replied just as Jill’s phone rang.

Jill pulled it out of her pocket, hoping it was Willa on a break or something, but was surprised to find that it was her mother calling.

“Speak of the devil. It’s her. Can I catch up?”

“Want me to wait just in case?” Melinda asked.

“No, it’s okay. Thank you, though.”

Melinda nodded, squeezed Jill’s forearm, and walked on.

“Mom?”

“Hi,” her mother replied.

“Where are you?”

“I called to tell you that I’m fine. I made it to Arkansas.”

“Arkansas?”

“Yes. Remember Aunt Robin?”

“Yeah,” Jill said of a long-time friend of the family who wasn’t her real aunt.

“She lives here with her husband now. I’m staying with them.”

“That’s it? That’s all you called to tell me?”

“You’ve been texting and worried, so I wanted you to know that I’m okay. Can you tell your grandmother, too?”

“No,” Jill said. “You want her to know something, pick up the phone and call her.”

“Fine. I’ll call her later, then,” her mother replied.

“Do you even care?”

“About what?”

“Your child, Mom. You haven’t asked about Juni once. Or me , for that matter. Do you even care that this is completely changing my life? That I don’t have the money to afford this? Or that Juni keeps asking to talk to you because she doesn’t understand?”

“You’re twenty-six, not sixteen; you can handle it.”

“Mom, are you fucking kidding me right now?” Jill said in disbelief. “You dropped a kid on me, left me no money, and the mortgage payment is due. Are you planning on paying that?”

“Shit. I forgot about that,” the woman replied. “I’ll send you money for that.”

“Yeah, right. You said you’d do that before, too.”

“I’ll send money this month and put it up for sale. Can you meet with a realtor or something?”

“What?” Jill asked, pacing on the sidewalk now. “You made me move into that house for Juni, and now, you’re just going to sell it?”

“I’ll give you some of the money from the sale for her.”

“Mom, she needs a place to live.”

“You have an apartment.”

“That you didn’t want her to stay in.”

“You can get a bigger one when the house sells.”

“Stop,” Jill told her, wanting to cry. “Mom, just stop. There are laws against what you’re doing right now. Do you realize that?”

“I left her with you. You are perfectly–”

“You abandoned your kid, Mom. Either I have to file some paperwork for guardianship, Grandma and Grandpa have to take her, or she’ll end up in some foster home.”

Her mother sighed and said, “You don’t know what it’s like, Jill.”

“What’s what like?”

“Loving someone so much and losing them unexpectedly when you have a kid at home who looks just like them.”

“A lot of people have had that happen, and they don’t abandon their children.”

“They must be stronger than me, then. I’ll send you the money for the mortgage this month, and I’ll try to send it next month, too, but I’ve got to go.”

“Mom, do not do this,” Jill replied. “Come home. I am begging you. Juni doesn’t know. You can just pretend your lie was real, and it’ll be fine.”

Jill didn’t hear a click, but she knew her mom wasn’t there anymore.

“Mom?” she asked, just in case.

◆◆◆

“How did it go?” Melinda asked when Jill walked into the back office.

“Not well. She’s in Arkansas, and she’s not planning on coming back.”

“Did you tell her about the whole getting the cops involved thing?”

Jill sat down in the other chair next to Melinda and said, “Yup. She didn’t listen. Her argument is that she left her kid with me and that I’m twenty-six and, therefore, perfectly capable of taking care of her. She doesn’t give a shit that she’s ruining my life and Juni’s.”

“God, what is wrong with people?” Melinda said.

“I don’t know. The mortgage is due, though, so she told me she’ll pay it this month, but then, she wants the house to be sold.”

“What?” Melinda asked.

“She actually asked me to find a realtor. Is Juni supposed to sleep on my couch forever?”

“If it comes down to it, the two of you could always stay with Ky and me. We have the space.”

“You two are about to get married. You’re not starting your married life with me and my little sister living in your house,” Jill replied. “Thank you, though.”

“It’s an option until you can figure something else out.”

“I know how much the mortgage is because I saw the bill, so I can eat into my savings and use credit cards for a bit to pay the early termination fee on my apartment and move into the house and pay the mortgage for her.”

“You love that apartment,” Melinda noted.

“I know. But I have to think about Juni now, and it’s too small for both of us. I want her to have as much stability as she can. I’ll have to tell her about Mom sooner than later.”

“You’re a very good person, Jill,” Melinda said, smiling at her.

“I didn’t get it from my mother, apparently,” Jill replied.

“So, why didn’t you tell me about your mom problems and your sister before? I’ve known you for years, and nothing.”

Jill nodded and said, “Yeah, sorry about that. I know I should have, but you and I weren’t super close at first. Really, it wasn’t until last year that we became real friends outside of work.”

“That’s still a long time, and I see you practically every day for hours.”

“I got ditched for a new man and a baby, Mel. It’s not exactly easy to talk about. And my mom was fine, I thought. I had no idea this was coming. Besides, they weren’t in my life all that much to talk about, so there wasn’t a point.”

“I get it. It’s your story to tell. I’m not mad or anything. I know I’m technically your boss and your friend, so I didn’t want you to think you couldn’t tell me stuff.”

“I didn’t tell anybody,” Jill replied with a shoulder shrug.

“But the woman you’re dating knows already?”

“Low blow, Mel,” she said with a chuckle.

“She knows because she’s Juni’s teacher.

She knew my mom wasn’t there to pick Juni up.

Now, she knows more because I really like her, and we’re dating.

I don’t know if I would have told her had I met her under different circumstances, though.

I think I would. There’s just something there with us, and I want to tell her everything all at once, which is crazy, but it’s how I feel.

At the same time, I want to slowly reveal things to her so that we never run out of new things to learn about each other. ”

“That actually sounds really nice,” Melinda said. “Now, go open the front door so that we can get the walk-ins.”

Jill laughed and replied, “Walk-ins this early only want directions to good diners and coffee.”

“Then, tell them where the good coffee lives and ask them if they want a tour,” Melinda joked.

“Yes, boss,” she said.

Out front, Jill turned on everything that needed turning on, rearranged the brochures that people had messed up the previous day, and pulled up the list for her first tour, which was a Garden District walking tour and one of her favorites when she was super stressed, like today.

She had ten people signed up, which was a decent-sized group that would help keep her distracted and not thinking about her mom or worrying about Juni.

A few minutes later, a walk-in opened the door and approached the counter.

Jill slipped her customer service smile on and waited.

“I was wondering if you knew where I could get some good local coffee,” he said.