Page 52 of Already Home

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Serenity and Tom arrived right on time. Jenna wasdetermined to be pleasant and welcoming, offering to be the one to go and greetthem.

“Good morning,” she said as cheerfully as she could, whiletrying not to let her eyes bug out when she caught sight of Serenity’soutfit.

Her birth mother wore a long, flowing dress of rainbows. Notrainbow colored, which would be marginally better, but fabric covered inbrightly colored rainbows. They swirled, they flowed, they circled into akaleidoscope of color that nearly made her dizzy. Dangling earrings that lookedlike stained glass competed for attention. By contrast, Tom was practicallynormal in jeans and a tie-dyed shirt.

“My little girl,” Serenity said as she entered the house. Shepassed her casserole dish to Tom, then approached Jenna and lightly kissed heron each cheek. “You look beautiful.”

“Thanks. Um, so do you.”

Tom gave her a smile and also leaned in for a kiss—single cheekthis time. Jenna took the casserole dish from him and stepped back.

“Serenity, you remember my mother, Beth Stevens. Mom, this isTom.” Jenna saw her father making his way toward them. “And this is my dad,Marshall. Dad, Serenity and Tom.”

The men shook hands.

“Come into the kitchen,” Beth said. “For years I tried to getpeople to hang out in the living room, and it never happened. So I’ve given up.Now we simply migrate to the kitchen and keep it casual.”

Part of the reason Beth had remodeled the space, Jenna thought,proud of her parents’ home. There was a big work area, bar seating at the highcounter, a sofa by the window and a fireplace tucked into the corner.

“Refrigerator or oven?” Jenna asked Serenity, raising thecasserole slightly.

“If we’re eating in the next half hour, it can stay out. I madea breakfast rice pudding with vanilla rice milk and dried fruit.”

Which didn’t sound too awful, Jenna admitted. “Rice milk, notsoy or almond milk?”

“Too much soy can mimic estrogen. Almond milk is delicious, buttoo sweet for the recipe. I use rice milk often. Most people who have grainissues are fine with rice.”

“God’s food,” Tom added, coming up behind Serenity and puttinghis arm around her waist.

Serenity laughed. “That’s what we used to tell our boys.”

Jenna didn’t know what to say to that. Fortunately, Beth hadalready handed Marshall the bottle of champagne.

“I thought we’d start with mimosas,” she said. “Toast to ournew relationship. I’m so delighted you’ve come to get to know Jenna.” She pulledout a pitcher of orange juice. “I squeezed it myself, from organic oranges.”

Serenity looked pleased. “That was very thoughtful of you.”

“Wait until she gets a load of the plate of breakfast meats,”Marshall murmured in Jenna’s ear.

Jenna did her best not to grin.

While the champagne was opened and mixed with the orange juice,Beth got Serenity and Tom seated at the counter. She disappeared for a second,only to return with an armful of photo albums.

Jenna groaned. “Mom, no.”

“They’ll want to see them.”

“We will,” Serenity said, taking the glass Jenna offered.

Beth set the largest of the albums between Serenity and Tom.“Jenna, stand here and explain what everything is.”

“You’ve labeled every picture. It’s very clear.”

Beth shot her a warning look behind their backs.

“Fine,” Jenna mouthed and took up the position.

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