Page 27 of Promised Summer
I couldn’t stop the smile that had wiggled its way onto my face. Jones was an unexpected, butextremelypleasant, bonus to moving to Kither Springs.
After what I did to him when we were teens, I’d been fully prepared to be snubbed by him if we ever bumped into each other in town. Jones, being the same Jones I remembered, not only didn’t do that, but evenwelcomed me and Karla with arms just about as open as they could get.
I was pressing the call button and Jones had answered before I realized what was happening.
“It’s official. Lily’s pregnant, and I’m going to be a grandpa.” Jones’ voice was grumpier than usual. There was the hint of a pout in it.
I smiled, imagining the giant of a man with his shoulders slumped, pouting like a kid. As dependable as Jones was—and he’d been a huge help these past few weeks with Karla—I loved it when he showed me his vulnerable side.
“Did you take Lily to the vet this morning?” I asked, and hearing her best friend’s name, Karla looked up from where she was coloring with my grandma in the living room. She abandoned her gigi and padded to where I sat at the kitchen table.
“Papa?” she asked, head tilting adorably in question. Mom had styled their hair in matching ponytails that were comprised of small strands of braids. Each braid was tied with some kind of hair accessory that jingled when she moved.
“No, baby. He’s not papa, he’s Jones,” I insisted and moved the phone from my ear. Jones muttered something that I didn’t catch while I was putting him on speaker. Karla just stared at me with her bright blue eyes and didn’tacknowledge my comment.
I doubted she even knew what a papa was since we’d never used that word around her before, and itwasn’t common to hear it in the city. But Jones had a habit of calling himself Lily’s papa, and Karla probably figured if he was Lily’s papa, then he had to be hers as well.
Karla had become attached to both Lily and Jones so quickly that I was terrified of what would happen if Jones decided he didn’t want to be with me anymore. What if he got tired of being with a single dad and always being put in second place? Because I was serious when I told him Karla wouldalwaysbe my priority.
“Is that my baby girl?” Jones asked through the speaker, and Karla giggled with so much joy.
A bit of my worry slipped away because this wasJones. A decade might have passed since I last saw him, but at his core, he was still the same person I’d known. The kind, gentle boy who reached his hand out to crying strangers. Even if things between us didn’t end up going well, I had faith he wouldn’t do anything to hurt Karla.
Though the selfish part of me hoped that Jones and I were as steady as the hill we’d made ours on those bright summer days.
“Lily?” Karla asked, her face pressed hard into the phone. I laughed and loosened her hold on it in case she hurt herself.
There was the sound of heavy breathing, then a soft bark as if answering her.
“Lily!” Karla called again, and the dog and child mumbled nonsensical noises to each other like they were having an actual conversation.
“Baby, can you let Daddy have the phone so I can talk to Jones?” I asked after a minute. She nodded seriously and handed me back the phone, but instead of returning to her coloring, she plopped her upper body onto my lap.
I turned off the phone speaker and put it back against my ear. “Can you hear me?”
Jones’ warm chuckle tickled my senses as he answeredaffirmatively. It reminded me of the way he’d rub his hands down my spine in the rare moments we were able to cuddle in bed together. I wanted more of those moments.
“If you’re not busy after work, how about you and Karla come spend the night? I can show you two Lily’s ultrasound?” he asked, voice hopeful.
My heart warmed knowing he was eager to spend more time with us, even after seeing us almost every day.
“You got her an ultrasound? I thought they could test for pregnancy without that,” I replied with my own question.
“I wanted to be doubly sure,” he grumbled. “The vet says she’s almost certain Lily has three pups on the way. My poor girl is gonna be a mother to triplets.”
I laughed at how mournful he sounded. I knew he was just worried about his girl going through pregnancy since he hadn’t been expecting this at all.
“I’ll have to explain to Karla what it means to be pregnant,” I mumbled mostly to myself.
“We can explain it to her together,” Jones replied.
“Yeah?”
“I think, as Papa, it’s the least I could do,” he said with a laugh. I wasn’t sure if he meant Papa to Lily or Karla, but a warmth settled in my stomach as I played with my baby’s hair.
Jones being Karla’s papa, maybe even the two of us raising her together? That sounded like a dream.
Later that afternoon, when Jones texted he was home, I packed our stuff into the car and buckled Karla up for the drive over.
