“Sure can,” OJ said. “He just lives out on the highway when you’re driving to Jackson.”
“It’s only a couple of miles,” Georgia said. “And I figured you’d be going back up the canyon anyway.”
Bailey nodded, her smile etched in place. But no, she wasn’t going up the canyon to stay with her parents in the luxury lodge where they lived. Bailey had signed papers to purchase a house right here in town yesterday, and while it didn’t have any furniture whatsoever, Bailey had bought an air mattress and a camp chair that morning, and she’d be staying in her very own house tonight and through the week until she had to return to Butte.
“I’ll have him back by four,” Bailey said. That should give her house time to be a reasonable temperature. She’d stopped by this morning, fitted the key in the lock, and walked across the threshold of her new home to turn up the thermostat.
“Come on, bud. Are you ready for this?”
“So ready.” OJ grinned at her and skipped down the steps, his long legs jumping over every other one.
“Don’t run everywhere,” Georgia called after him. “He’s growing fast right now, and he’s a little clumsy.”
“I can doctor him up if he falls,” Bailey assured her.
Georgia hugged herself against the cold, though she wore a bright red sweater, and smiled at Bailey as she turned to leave.
The scent of freshly fallen snow filled the air as Bailey followed OJ, and she joined him in her car. “All right,” she said. “Where are we eating for your birthday?”
“Can we go get pancakes?” OJ asked. “My daddy says they’re only for breakfast, and he’ll never take us to that all-day pancake place, but it’s so good.”
“Sure,” Bailey said.
“They have tons of flavors,” OJ said, as if Bailey needed further convincing. “I like the chocolate chip ones, but I got fresh strawberry last time, and they were totally scrumptious too.”
Bailey grinned at him as she pulled out of the driveway. “Okay, can you get me there?”
“Of course I can.” He leaned forward as she came to a stop at the end of the street. “You go left here.”
She did what he said every step of the way, and only ten minutes later they arrived at Powerhouse Pancakes. Bailey parked, and she and OJ went inside. Her stomach swooped as she opened the door, because she really hoped this would be the place he could remember fondly.
“Two?” the hostess asked, and all Bailey could do was nod.
They got led over to a table against the window, and she sat across from her biological son and smiled at him. “So, are you excited to turn fourteen?”
A quick smile cut across OJ’s face. “Yeah.”
She reached for her water and took a sip. “What do you think will be different about it?”
“Daddy said I can get a phone of my own.” His eyes glowed with wonder. “So I’ll have a new number soon. It’ll only text, and Momma says I have to plug it in by her every night, and I can’t delete any messages, so she can see what I’m saying and whatever.”
“That’s smart,” Bailey said, and she had no idea how to parent a thirteen-year-old. She’d started to feel like she might be ready for a serious relationship, though, and perhaps if she could find someone she loved with everything she had, they could have a family one day.
You better get going, she thought, because she’d be thirty-seven in a few months, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to have kids forever.
“Listen, OJ,” she said. “I have something I want to tell you.”
“Are you guys ready to order?” A waitress appeared at the edge of their table, her note-taking pad in her hand and a pencil poised to write.
OJ looked at her and said, “You go first, Bailey.”
She marveled that he’d been taught such gentlemanly behavior. “I’ll have the buckwheat pancakes,” she said. “With a side of sausage links, and a side of bacon, please.”
“You got it.” The woman smiled over to OJ, who suddenly needed to study the menu like he’d never seen it before.
“I think I’ll have the chocolate chip pancakes,” he said. “Can I get that maple brown sugar oatmeal too? Oh, and the buttermilk syrup, not the regular kind.” He set down his menu. “It’s so good, Bay, and since the chocolate chip pancakes are already sweet, it’s nice to have something that’s not maple.”
She had no idea where he came up with the things he said, but she simply handed back her menu and let the waitress slide OJ’s off the table before she left.
