Page 63 of Undeniable You

Jo whipped around, looking at Juniper’s door.

Our child.

When there was no sound, Jo let out a breath and slid sideways onto the couch. “We’ve gotta be careful.”

“Yeah,” I said.

I was going to be thinking about those two words for the rest of the night.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jo

Larison seemed a little distant that night. That wasn’t exactly the right word. Maybe introspective was a better one. Maybe she was thinking about all this. How fast things had changed.

I’d pretty much been with both of them for two full days and that was a huge change.

We managed to convince Juniper that we didn’t need to order pizza, again, and got her on board with tacos.

The three of us were eating on the couch again when Larison looked over at the dining table.

“I need to get another chair. Or a new dining table.”

I didn’t have one myself or else I would have given her mine. But I was going to be on the lookout for one. Maybe one of our neighbors would move out and leave one behind. That had happened to me before and I’d gotten some great stuff.

“The couch is pretty comfortable,” I said, adding some more rice to my plate.

“I love our couch, Mama,” Juniper said.

Larison and I laughed. “There’s nothing bad about the couch. But we only have two seats at the dining table, and Jo’s going to be with us, so we need a place for three people, don’t you think?”

Her words made my heart do a little squeeze. Larison was making room in her place for me already.

None of this was casual, and it hadn’t been from the start. There would be no dates where we got dropped off and shared a brief kiss at the end of the night.

“Yeah, I think we do,” I said, reaching out to squeeze her hand.

“Jo Jo, when can we have our sleepover?” Juniper asked, setting her plate down and turning to face me.

“How about next weekend?”

“But that’s so far awayyyyyy,” she whined, and I could sense that she was still tired and close to getting upset.

“I know, sweetheart,” I said, pulling her into my lap. “But I’m going to stay here tonight, and I’ll make you breakfast tomorrow, okay? What would you like to have?”

She sniffled and I glanced at Larison.

“I don’t want anythinggggg,” Juniper wailed, and the only thing left to do was to hold her and explain that we’ll have a sleepover soon and that everything would be okay. She eventually calmed down and I found Larison watching me intently. More intently than usual.

I got up and fetched some tissues to wipe Juniper’s nose and then gave her hugs and kisses all over her face until she was laughing.

“Do you want to play a game with Mozzarella?” I asked her and that perked her up.

Juniper ran to the cabinet under the TV and pulled out her favorite game and set up the pieces on the floor.

The three of us played until it was Juniper’s official bedtime and since she’d had her nap, she was unenthusiastic about going to sleep again.

Larison pressed her fingers to her forehead and I told her that I’d take care of Juniper’s bath, which she was unhappy about and had started crying again. It was frustrating, but I just kept reminding myself that she was only five and that learning how to be a person took a lifetime. A lot of adults could barely regulate their emotions.

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