She nodded, her eyes filled with hope even though the rest of her face still looked worried.
“Yes, if you still want to.”
“Of course I want to,” Winnie said, breaking out into a huge grin.
“Darn, I was hoping you’d have changed your mind,” Jessica told her. “Stanford’s so far from home.”
Winnie jumped up and gave her mom the mother of all hugs. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! And don’t worry, I’ll come home every holiday and for the summers.”
Jess hugged her back, breathing in the scent of her little girl. “You better.”
“I will,” Winnie told her, letting go of her mom so she could jump up and down a few times.
Jess watched her daughter for a moment, feeling simultaneously happy and sad at the same time. She may have just made it easier for Winnie to go off and live her dream, but it meant she’d be halfway to an empty nest. Tears threatened to come forward, but she forced them back. Her nest might be empty before she knew it, but she was still going to find a way to fill up her life with something she loved. She’d be all right, and just as important, she and Mike would be too.
She smiled across the table at him, only to see he had a pensive look on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I was just wondering what this means,” he answered. “I mean, I get that you don’t want to go to law school, but what do you want to do?”
Shrugging, she grinned at him. “I don’t have the first clue, but I do know I’ll figure it out, and whatever it is, I’m going to love it.” Her stomach growled, so she took her first bite of ham and mushroom pizza. After she swallowed, she said, “I’ll stay on at the law firm until I know for sure what’s next for me. That’ll give Aaron time to find someone else.”
Mike smiled at her, finally looking relaxed. “Sounds good. And just so you know, if you do want to go back to school, we’ll find the money for it.”
Jess teared up, not because of the money, but because after everything, here was her wonderful, perfectly good, fabulously ordinary husband, offering to support her next big dream, whatever it may be. “Thank you,” she whispered.
They ate in a content silence for a few minutes, and Jessica realized this was exactly the type of moment she should write about in her gratitude journal. A simple, perfect moment with the four of them together.
“Hey, what about the test tomorrow?” Mike asked.
“Oh, you mean, am I still going to put myself through three and a half hours of sweaty, absolute hell, even though I’m never, ever going to law school?”
He chuckled. “Yeah.”
Nodding, Jess said, “I am.”
Noah wrinkled up his nose. “Why would youeverdo that to yourself?”
“Lots of reasons,” Jess answered. “To finish what I started, for one. But mainly to prove to myself I can.”
“Wow. That’s crazy. I would never take a test I didn’t have to.”
“I would totally have thought that at your age too,” Jess told him. “But you know something? When you’re an adult, it’s too easy to let yourself be comfortable all the time. You forget to stretch your limits and test yourself out, but it’s important. If you don’t, you forget what you’re capable of.”
“Sure, but maybe try out something fun, like skateboarding next time,” Noah told her. “Don’t dothisto yourself again.”
Jessica laughed. “Good point. I’ll keep that in mind because this really was a bit much, wasn’t it?”
Murmurs of agreement were heard around the room. The rest of the meal was peaceful. No bickering, no tension, just a calm, happy-but-all-too-brief moment in their lives. Jess knew they were all sharing a sense of relief. The storm had ended and they’d come out the other side together. She knew she’d been the one to cause the storm, but she also knew that everyone around this table had taken—or would take—a turn. This time it had been hers. Hurricane Jess had blown through, and they all survived, and there was great comfort to be taken from that knowledge.
Later that night, Jess found Winnie sprawled across her bed, working on her math homework. Her daughter looked up at her. “What’s up?”
“Can I ask you something?”
Winnie put her pencil down. “Sure.”
“First, let me preface this by saying, I’m not mad at you. I’m just extremely curious. Remember when you said you weren’t worried about me getting into law school?”
Winnie’s cheeks turned bright red and she set her gaze onto her text book. “I’ve been wanting to apologize to you about that. It was unfair of me to say that in front of the family.”
