Page 15 of Yours to Lose
“Okay, well, no time like the present for the most amazing candy of all time.” Clearly seeing that I’m not making any move to open it, Jo takes the Fireball from me, opening it and dropping it into my palm.
Without any reason not to, I pop it in my mouth and immediately taste the familiar spicy cinnamon sweetness. A thousand memories flood me.
Jo tosses another one in her mouth and grins at me. “Good, right?”
I nod, not sure exactly what to say. But Jo doesn’t seem to mind. She glances at the baby monitor next to her and then lays back down with her eyes on the sky, chattering away about how much she loves the stars.
I lay back down too.
With the taste of the Fireball on my tongue and the voice of a girl I barely know in my ear, I feel oddly settled for the first time in as long as I can remember, and I can’t quite work out the reason why.
CHAPTERFOUR
JO
“Good morning, Dippy,” I sing to the dinosaur statue as I pass him on my way into the Carnegie Museum of Natural History where I work, smiling at the Pittsburgh Renegades scarf wrapped around his neck.
“Why are you saying good morning to a statue?” The voice halts me in my tracks, and I turn to see a little boy who looks to be around six, wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a blue backpack. Smiling, I crouch down so I can look him in the eye, setting my bag and coffee cup on the ground.
“Hi, I’m Jo. What’s your name?”
“Evan.” He puts his little hands on his hips and eyes me.
“It’s really nice to meet you, Evan. That’s not just a statue; that’s Dippy. He’s aDiplodocus carnegiidinosaur. I say hi to him every morning because he’s the first thing I see when I get to work, and he’s very cool. Did you know, if you go inside the museum, you can see a whole entire skeleton of that very same dinosaur? It’s one of the most famous dinosaur skeletons in the entire world.”
“Seriously?” he asks.
I nod. “Seriously. This museum has a huge collection of dinosaur bones. More than almost any other museum in the world, and it’s right here in Pittsburgh.”
The boy’s eyes go wide, and he turns around to look at a woman who I assume is his mom. “Can we go see them?”
She smiles and nods at him. “Of course we can, but you have school today. If you want, we can come on Saturday.”
“Yes!” he exclaims, whipping back around as the woman mouthsthank youto me.
I nod at her and dig around in my bag until I find one of the little Dippy figures I make a habit of carrying around, handing it to the boy. “Here’s a Dippy for you to keep until you can come back to the museum and see the real thing inside.”
“I can have it?” he asks, voice filled with awe. God, I just freaking love kids.
“You sure can. I have to go to work now, but I know you’re going to have an excellent day. Every day that starts with Dippy is a great day.”
“Thank you so much,” the woman says quietly as I stand. “We just moved to Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago, and he’s had a rough transition, especially on school days. You made his day.”
“Anytime,” I say, digging back into my bag, unearthing a business card and handing it to her. “I’m Jo Evans, the program director at the museum. I work on Saturdays, so if you drop me an email and let me know when you’re coming, I can give you guys a special tour of some of the cool stuff going on behind the scenes. There’s also a kids’ science class on Saturday mornings at ten. It’s a fun place to meet people if he’s looking for some friends. We get a lot of regulars.”
“Thank you; that would be amazing. I appreciate you taking the time like this.”
“Of course, I’m happy to. I hope I’ll see you guys on Saturday. Have a good day at school Evan.” I wave and make my way into the museum, already loving everything about this day.
I started working here in the special events department right after college, and I fell in love with every single inch of the museum. Over the years, I’ve held a handful of different jobs here, but I’m most proud of the position I’ve held for the last three, running all of the museum’s programs. It’s fun, challenging, and different every single day, which I adore. As I walk through the dinosaur exhibit on my way to my office, I can’t help but grin up at the towering fossils because it really never ceases to amaze me that I get to come to work here every day.
“Hey, Jo,” my boss Barb calls when I push through the glass doors to the staff offices. “Come see me once you get settled, okay?”
“No problem,” I call back.
I toss my bag on my chair and set my coffee cup on my desk—my version of settling in—and then make my way to Barb’s office.
I knock on the doorframe and give her my sweetest smile. “Am I in trouble? Did someone complain again about their kid being covered in paint from Science Saturday? If it helps, you can tell them I was covered in paint, too, and I had to wash my hair three times to de-yellow it. But honestly, they’re kids. They’re supposed to be dirty and covered in paint.”
