Page 20 of Undeniable You

I helped her draw a pizza and added green peppers and “pepperinos” to the top.

We had just propped the finished drawing up on the coffee table when Larison arrived home.

Once again, my heart did something strange, but instead of tripping, this felt like it was jumping up and down like Juniper did when she was excited about something.

Juniper ran to greet her, and I watched Larison’s shoulders slump as she hugged her daughter and closed her eyes. She was tired. I wish there was more I could do about it. At least I’d covered dinner.

“Mama, we have a surprise for you!” Juniper ran over and grabbed the card and ran with it back over to Larison.

“What’s this?” she asked, and I watched as her eyes read the words Juniper had written with my help.

“What is this?” She looked up at me and I felt my cheeks go red.

“I just… We, uh, wanted to do something nice for you.” There. If I could convince her that part of it was Juniper’s idea then it wasn’t that weird.

“Oh,” Larison said, blinking a few times. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know.” I stood up from the couch. “The pizza and everything else will be here in two hours.”

I grabbed my bag and tried not to stand too close to Larison. It was too risky. These feelings I had toward her got worse the longer I was in her presence.

“Jo,” Larison said, reaching out and touching my arm.

“Yeah,” I blurted out.

“Thank you. I really…” she trailed off and closed her eyes for a minute. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” I said, and I meant it. But for right now, I needed to go or else she was going to hear how erratically my heart was beating or I’d end up doing something really awful like licking her face or falling at her feet or smelling her hair. Truly embarrassing, but that was what happened when I was around her.

“Have a good night, Jo,” Larison said.

“Bye, Jo Jo!” Juniper said, waving. It was the first time she’d called me that and I didn’t hate it at all. In fact, I kind of loved it.

I skipped down the stairs and out onto the street.

Chapter Eight

Larison

Jo getting us pizza went above and beyond the call of duty and I wanted to repay her in some way. Since she’d given me food, it seemed simple to reciprocate with food as well.

I had a favorite cookie recipe for vanilla chai cookies that was a winner with anyone I’d tried it with, so while we waited for the pizza, I set out the ingredients and let Juniper help me mix up the dough.

“Mama, do you like Jo?” Juniper asked as I shoved two trays of cookies into the oven and set the timer.

“Yes, I like her a lot.” Liking her too much was actually a real problem, but Juniper didn’t know about any of that.

Juniper licked sugar off her fingers. “Me too. I wish she could stay with us all the time.”

“Oh love, I know. She’s pretty great, isn’t she?”

Juniper nodded and then sighed when I pointed toward the sink so she could wash her hands.

Jo was great. She was spectacular. She’d only been working for me for two full days and already I didn’t know what I’d do without her. Every now and then when I’d be working onsomething at the bookshop, I’d have a little panic moment about my daughter but relief would quickly wash over me when I remembered that she was with Jo. Jo would take care of Juniper.

Juniper asked if we could play a game, so I got out one of her favorites and she made me play it three times. The cookies came out of the oven and they looked perfect.

“Mama, shouldn’t we test them before we give them to Jo?” Juniper asked.

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