Page 23 of Finding Solace
I nod my head in approval, "Yep, movie and ice cream too." Hopefully, I can take her mind off Reid for a little while and maybe minetoo.
"Yay! Jama party!" she claps her hands, and her giggles fill theair.
I spend the rest of my evening sitting on the floor in the center of a pillow fort, eating junk food while watching a movie with mydaughter.
* * *
After the usualpaperwork in the mornings, I grab my first chart of the day. For now, I have a shift that will allow me to have the evenings and nights off, but will need to rotate some weekends and holidays now and then. The hours are a lot better than the shifts I worked at the hospital. I worked wherever they needed me and when theyneeded.
After lunch, I make my way to the nursing station to update my patient's files in the computer when I hear a gruff man's voice call my name. "Mila Vaughn?" I raise my head from looking at the computer screen to see an officer standing in front ofme.
"Yes?" in his outreached hand is a white envelope. "I'm here to serve youpapers."
Looking around, I notice a couple of people briefly look at me. Shrugging my shoulders in embarrassment, I ask him, "What for?" I take it from him and tuck the envelope into the shirt pocket of myscrubs.
"I don’t know ma'am. I only deliver them. Have a good day," he says, giving me a sympathetic look before turning to walkaway.
My parents come to mind as I finish up my updates and quietly apologize to those around me for the disruption before walking down the hall and stepping outside for some fresh air. Retrieving the envelope out of my pocket, I open it. Notice of Eviction? I thought Grams owned her home? I don’t understand any of this and I need to get to the bottom it. I don’t have much money, but I happen to know a lawyer, and maybe he will be willing to at least give me some advice. The door beside me starts to open, so I stuff the papers back into my pocket and move to theside.
"Mila, I thought I saw you come out here. Is everything okay?" Tracie, my supervisor asks as she stepsoutside.
"Everything's okay, Tracie. Just a little unexpected news, but it's nothing I can'thandle."
She gives me an understanding nod, "Listen, we need you to stay until 7:00 pm today. I know you have a daughter in preschool, so I wanted to give you a headsup."
I guess I can call Bella to pick Ava up for me and see if she would keep her until I get off work. I hate to ask her, but she is the only person besides myself on the approved pick up list at Ava's preschool. "I'm going to call someone who can pick up my daughter," I tellTracie.
"Sure. Come find me when you get finished." She says and walks back inside. Digging my phone out of my pocket, I bring up Bella's number anddial.
"Hey, girl. What up?" sheanswers.
"Hey. I need a bigfavor."
"Sure," shesays
I let out a heavy sigh, "Could you pick up Ava for me? They need me to work a few hours over my normal timetoday."
"I can do that. I was going to visit Alba after work, so Ava can play with Gabe," Bella happily tellsme.
I hate asking and burdening people, but sometimes I don’t have a choice. "Thank you. Listen I need to get back to work. I'll let you know when I'm on my way. Do I need to pick her up at your place orAlba's?
"I'll probably be at Alba's since the guys have something going on out at the clubhouse this evening," she tellsme.
"Okay. Thanks again,Bella."
"You’re welcome. We'll see you later," she says before we hang up and I head back into thebuilding.
By the time I leave work, I'm dragging and ready to pick up Ava and head home. It's not a long drive to Alba's home from work, so it doesn’t take me long to pull into her driveway. I don’t even reach the door before it opens, and a pregnant Alba greets me. I think Gabriel's goal is to keep that woman pregnant. "Hey, Alba," I greether.
"Come in, we already had something to eat, and I just finished giving the kids baths and putting Gabedown."
"You're the best. Thank you. As tired as I am I was going to get fast food and put us straight to bed tonight," I say following her into thekitchen.
"While Bella is upstairs putting some clean clothes on Ava, I'm going to grab you a plate of food. We had plenty of lasagna leftover from dinner. You can eat before yougo."
I take a seat at her kitchen island as she sets a plate of warm food in front of me. It smells so good. I put the first bite in my mouth and savor the flavors. I'm always so busy that I don't get a lot of home cooked meals like this. The kind that tastes like they’ve been simmering allday.
Alba laughs, "Youhungry?"
