Page 20 of With This Wish

My heart picks up speed at the mention of every day forever, and speeds up even more as I watch JJ come over and climb onto Jake’s lap. “Pictures,” he says, pointing at the photos in the book in front of him.

Jake looks like he’s holding his breath, not wanting to disturb the moment. Finally, he exhales, the brightest smile I’ve seen spreading across his face as he points at a photo of JJ in his crib. “That’s right, bud. This is baby JJ.”

“That me,” JJ exclaims. His body leans down to get a closer look at the image, so much that his button nose almost touches the page. Jake adjusts the way he’s sitting, cuddling JJ closer as the two of them look at the book.

Seeing another opportunity to give them some much-needed time together, I stand to go out into the store. “I’m going to let you two enjoy the photos,” I say, walking over to the doorway. “I should probably do my job a little, after all.” With that, I grab a feather duster and start making my way around the store.

Doing my job was also a convenient excuse to come out and gather my thoughts, settle the feelings swirling around inside me like a February blizzard. Thankfully a few customers start pouring in and give me ample time to distract myself for a bit. The rest of my life, is what Jake had said. I want to believe that he means it, but it’s not even been two days. Hope blossoms in my chest like a rose in springtime, and I don’t bother to tamp it down. Now that I’ve seen what life could be like with him in it, I don’t want to go back to what it was before. I have no idea how to go about keeping him here, but I’ll try. He already has one reason to stay—JJ. Maybe I can work a little harder to give him one more.

Chapter Sixteen

Jake

The last few days have been amazing, astounding really. My mornings are spent making calls, trying to line things up so I can move to Starlight Lake, not just to be closer to Maya and JJ, but to be with them as we were always meant to. We still haven’t had our talk about the future, but I’m hoping Maya and I will get a chance to do that tomorrow night after dinner. It has snowed the last couple of days, so we’ve been spending most of our time inside, laughing and playing with our little boy. Maya sometimes works on the baby booties and blankets she’s been using as a side hustle to make money while I build towers, color, or read with JJ. Hopefully, Maya will be able to focus on that as her full-time job like she wants to, once I’m here permanently.

I’m hoping the future we talk about includes the three of us living together as a family once I move here. Eventually, I plan to ask Maya to marry me, but I’m going to keep that to myself for now. The pull I feel toward her is magnetic, and it’s even stronger now after having spent the last couple of nights reading through the journals she kept. The entries from the last year or so are mostly just bits of cute or interesting things JJ has done, a small window into the world I missed while I was in Denver. The journals of the time before that were more than a window. It was like Maya threw open the door to her thoughts and feelings, inviting me to come in and walk around in her shoes, taking in the highs and lows from her time being pregnant and from JJ’s first year of life. It would have been easy to wallow in the fact that I missed so much, but reading these journals gave me a sense that I was there, experiencing every moment with her. I felt her joy at the sight of our little boy on the ultrasound screen, and I also empathized with the bone-deep tiredness she felt that fist month with a newborn. I’m not sure I’ve ever been that tired, but her words had me feeling the exhaustion right along with her. At least next time, she won’t have to go it alone.

Kids are something I’ve always wanted, and we have JJ, but I think one or two more sounds like a good idea. It will have to wait a while, though. Getting to know my son better and his getting to know me is important, as is spending as much time with his mom as possible. There have been so many times over the last few days when I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms and kiss her until we were both senseless, but I haven’t been able to act on it just yet. It seems that anytime we get close, JJ finds a way to interrupt us. It almost seems like it’s on purpose, but I feel like he’s taken a liking to me over the last week, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of kids always being around. We get along well, and he even comes up to hug me when I visit.

The fact that he’s been referring to me as “J” and not “Daddy,” still chafes a bit, but I plan to bring it up later when Maya and I talk. Hopefully, what JJ calls me will get rectified soon enough. What I need to straighten out immediately is my job. I have an idea for what my career could look like from now on, but I’m not so sure my dad will go for it. The calls I’ve made all week have been to current clients to gauge their willingness to work with a remote consultant, and to local businesses to see how willing they would be to work with a marketing consultant to increase their customer traffic and revenue. After favorable reactions from both, I feel like I can move onto the next step.

Currently, that next step involves me sitting in the rental cabin. I told Maya I needed to make some more calls this morning, and I wasn’t lying. As I gaze around at the stone- and wood-paneled walls, taking in the green sofa in the small seating area of the tiny one-bedroom as well as the deer head mounted on the wall, I try to think of the best way to approach the request I’m going to put forth to my dad. When I have a plan and put off the call as long as I can, I finally dial his number, hoping things go smoothly.

“Jake,” my dad’s voice booms from the other end of the phone. Alexander Mackenzie is a big man with an even bigger presence, so much so it pours through the phone, causing my nerves to stir. “How’s the vacation?” He says “vacation” so distastefully it’s almost funny. The man needs to relax. Maybe some time off work is something I can convince him and Mom to do once they learn about JJ. A trip to the mountains could be just the ticket to get my dad to loosen up. I would attribute my own sense of renewed energy to the fresh mountain air, but I know it’s from being around Maya and my son.

“It’s good. Great, actually,” I tell him truthfully. “It’s the reason I called.” My father makes a low humming sound in the phone, already disgruntled before I’ve mentioned one word of my idea. He gives me the space to continue, so I do. “I have some thoughts regarding the business that I wanted to run past you.”

A sound of relief pushes through the speaker. “Oh, so you’re coming back early. You can call Heather to make an appointment or we can talk at dinner when you get back into town.”

I chuckle humorlessly, trying to refocus the conversation. “Um, no. I’m not ending my vacation,” I confess. “If anything, I’m extending it in a way. I’m hoping to open a small branch of the consulting business here in Starlight Lake.”

My dad sputters for a moment, no doubt choking on his second cup of coffee despite the fact it’s only eight o’clock in the morning. “What? Starlight Lake? Where even is that?” I hear the clacking of keys over the phone and assume he’s looking up my current location. “That town is the size of a postage stamp, Jacob. There is no way we’re expanding to a tiny mountain town when there won’t even be enough business to keep us afloat.”

Summoning all my calming skills, I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. I really need this to work out, but me getting too emotional about it will be a surefire way to get him to reject my idea. “Here me out. Please, Dad.” I don’t ask for much, so he can give me this at least.

After a moment of taut silence, he finally speaks. “Fine.” He sighs, and I get directly to the point of my plan.

“The town has a number of businesses in need of major updating, and there are a few small towns located within a short driving distance from here, so there are more opportunities literally just around the corner,” I explain, keeping the conversation moving so he doesn’t have a chance to interrupt. “I can still work on my same accounts remotely, and I can even drive into Denver periodically to meet with them in person on anything we can’t get done electronically or via video chat.”

My mind speeds along as I continue explaining some of the logistics of my idea, how I can work from home until I find a suitable office space to meet with clients, and how even though the businesses would be smaller and bring in less money, the amount of time needed to maintain their portfolio would be much less. Hell, I even offered to take a pay cut to make this happen. Thanks to my dad’s advice over the years, I’ve made several wise investments and the three of us can live off the interest for a time should we hit a rough patch. “Well,” my dad says hesitantly. “It’s an interesting plan, and while I’ll need to see a more formal proposal, some hard numbers and projections, I think it could be possible. Tell me, though, Jacob, why this town? I haven’t even heard of it before today.”

The air whooshes out of my lungs. It’s not that I’m not excited to tell my parents about JJ. I am, it’s just that I hadn’t planned on doing it over the phone. It’s not exactly the kind of truth bomb you drop in casual conversation, not that this has resembled that even remotely. “I’d really rather do this in person, or at the very least, with Mom on the phone too.”

“I’ll conference her in,” my father days decisively. Any hopes I had of putting off what will be a surprising but hopefully happy conversation are completely upended as I hear him dial her in.

“What is it, Alex?” my mom’s voice chimes in. “I’m supposed to be meeting Kathleen for some early Christmas shopping soon.”

“Hi, Mom,” I say, bursting in before I can chicken out and end the call. This is too important to screw up with something as silly as a few nerves. With one last silent prayer that this conversation goes well, I continue, “I’ve just been talking to Dad and we thought it would be a good idea to get you on the line.”

“Yes,” my father says gruffly. “It seems Jacob wants to open a satellite office in some small mountain town out West.” Out West makes it sound like I’ll be living in the wild and not a mere three hours from where they live, and I roll my eyes at my father’s dramatics.

My mother makes a choked sound. “What? I thought you were working toward a promotion. Moving wasn’t part of your plan.” There are those plans again. The plans of the past continue to haunt me, but instead of sticking to what I thought was best for me more than a decade ago, I’m going to do what’s best for me and my small family now.

“I came up with that plan when I was seventeen, Mom. Plans change. People change,” I tell her, admitting that I have changed. Being with Maya changed me, and while I tried for three years to stubbornly stick to being the person I used to be, I should have been embracing the person I want to be, the person I felt like when I was with her. The kind of person that breaks plans to experience new things, the kind of person that believes in magic. If not the supernatural kind, then the kind that comes from meeting that one special person that makes you feel seen in ways no one else has. That’s the kind of magic I felt with Maya, and I want to experience it every chance I get. After taking a deep breath, I proceed to download a much-shortened version of the story to them. How I met Maya, fell in love with her instantly, left and tried to go back to life as usual, and how when I came back to her three years later, I discovered I had a child. They have a grandson.

“What’s his name? What does he look like?” my mother asks. There is a bit of excitement in her voice even though I know she’s probably a little disappointed that I’m not following the path they helped guide me to take. Grandkids go a long way toward smoothing things over it seems.

Thinking about my beautiful little boy has me grinning. “His name is JJ, short for Jacob Johansen, and he looks pretty much like any picture you have of me as a two-year-old. He’s all red curls, big smiles, and an even bigger heart.” I swallow thickly, at danger of being overcome by just how happy I am. “You’re going to love him as much as I do.”

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