Page 28 of Promised Summer
Mom handed me the mac and cheese dish my grandma made for me to take over. I placed it on the passenger seat, then turned to find my mother watching me with a shit-eating grin I wasn’t fond of.
“You’ve been spending so much time with the younger Denn boy recently,” she stated.
“Mother,” I warned before she could speak and glanced at Karla, who was watching us while kicking her legs.
“What? Can’t a mother be interested in her son’s life?” she replied, eyes wide with shock. I shook my head, knowing how good she was at faking being innocent.
“It’s still new, okay? So can we just…not?” I pleaded, eyes flicking to Karla again. She was still young, but I swore she was smarter than her age and picked up things quickly.
I tried to keep the PDA with Jones to a minimum when Karla was watching, even if I wasn’t successful some of the time. I told myself I was doing this to protect Karla, in case things with Jones didn’t turn out the way I wanted. Though sometimes I wondered if it was Karla I was protecting or myself.
“Okay, honey,” Mom said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “I just want to say you’ve been smiling more in the past few weeks. You look happy.”
I glanced at Karla, who was hugging Puppy and patiently waiting for us to finish our conversation so she could see Lily. Aside from the occasional nightmares that woke her up in the middle of the night, she’d been smiling and even talking more often these days.
Then I thought of the man whose warmth rivaled that of the summer sun. The man who held me when I broke down when reminiscing about my best friend, cared for Karla as if she were his own, and had unintentionally become a place of comfort for me, and, I believed, Karla as well.
“I am happy,” I told my mom, and when my words rang in my ears, I realized how true they were. Mom beamed and pressed a kiss to my cheek before going to do the same for Karla.
“Make sure to video call us before bedtime or else I won’t be able to sleep without seeing my little girl,” she teased Karla, causing more giggles to ring out.
After reassuring Mom I would call them tonight, we were on our way.
Jones was sitting on his rocking chair with Lily lying by his side, just like the first time we came to spend the night. This time, though, he immediately popped up from his seat, laughing and waving as he made his way toward us before I could even turn my car off.
The feeling of coming home washed over me, and I couldn’t shake it off even when Jones opened the back car door.
He unbuckled Karla from her booster seat, lifting her high in the air and making her giggle before pulling her in for a kiss on the cheek. Karla squealed in her happiness and pulled on Jones’ beard.
“Gentle, baby,” Jones said in a pained tone. Karla thought it was hilarious and tugged harder. Jones groaned dramatically in pain, though I knew from experience that he wasn’t completely faking it. The girl was small, but she already had a fierce grip!
“Baby, you’re giving him an ouchie,” I gently chided her and tried to pry her fingers open. She protested by clinging to Jones’ neck and pasting herself to him.
I watched helplessly. Jones laughed at the action with a soft look in his eyes as he patted her back.
“Don’t you want to say hi to Lily? She’s been waiting for you,” Jones commented.
The mention of her best friend immediately got her attention, and she waved her legs to be put down. Jonesobliged, and the two ladies ran around in the yard chasing each other.
As soon as their attention was off us, Jones stepped close enough for me to get a whiff of the scent of clean soap. It was nice, but I preferred the smell of sun and fresh dirt that lingered on his skin when I could get up close and personal to him…and I quickly shook that thought out of my head, because this would be the absolutely worst time to get a boner.
“I missed you,” he murmured. He glanced toward the lawn, probably double-checking Karla wasn’t watching us, then brought me in for a sweet kiss that ended entirely too soon.
He was pulling away before I could properly melt into him. “I missed you, too,” I said, and I couldn’t resist pressing a kiss on his slightly darkened cheeks when I noticed him acting all shy.
We let the girls play a little longer, being sure to keep an eye on them in case Karla got a little too rough on the future mama. Now that I looked closer, Lily was a lot rounder in her middle than everywhere else, and her nipples hung low on her belly. It was a wonder we hadn’t realized she was pregnant sooner.
When Karla was tired from all the running, we called them inside for dinner. I reheated the mac and cheese my grandma made while Jones plated up the rest of the food. He grilled up steak and tossed a salad for the two of us, and whipped up some homemade chicken nuggets for Karla since she was picky with her food. Hetold me in private that he’d mixed carrots and cauliflower into the nuggets to make them healthier. I was skeptical that she’d like them, but I was also touched that he was thinking about her health.
When he saw she was happily babbling and eating them, Jones beamed like a proud father who’d sneakily gotten his kid eating vegetables.
Jones and I worked together to clean up after dinner while Karla rolled around on the carpet with Lily. Afterward, we took them outside and sat on the rocking chairs on the front porch.
I pulled Karla onto my lap, Jones brought his rocking chair close to ours, and Lily lay down at our feet as we slowly explained to Karla that Lily was about to have puppies.
Every time I mentioned the word baby, she kept pointing to herself and claiming herself to be a baby. Jones kept laughing and agreeing with her, which was totally not helpful in this situation, even if I also found it amusing.
She understood, eventually, I think. Jones showed us a picture of the ultrasound he took on his phone and explained that Lily was going to be a mama and there were puppies inside her stomach.
