I lean a blue-jeaned hip against the small counter island. “Rough night?”
She has purple smudges under her hazel eyes and her dark auburn hair is sticking up every which way, but she’s smiling.
“Eh,” she hedges. “At least it’s summer break and I can take naps during the day.”
Douglass is completing her undergraduate degree in cognitive neuroscience at Rice. A dream she thought she’d never get to have, but one her husband made sure she got.
“Is your house open for visitors?” she asks, taking baby Cassidy from Jordan.
As soon as Cassidy is in her mama’s arms, she quiets immediately and grabs a fistful of Douglass’s hair.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jordan grumbles.
“She’s a mama’s girl, aren’t you, precious?” Douglass coos to her daughter.
Cassidy replies by yanking the clump of Douglass’s hair she has a hold on, hard.
Wincing, Douglass narrows her eyes at Cassidy, who happily squeals and bicycles her tiny, chubby legs.
“So, it’s like that, is it?”
Going back to her question, I reply, “You don’t even have to ask. When are you looking at?”
“In a few weeks. Is the first of August okay?”
I do a mental checklist of my schedule. I have a few required meetings, orientation, and some teacher in-house days before the official start of the academic year, but those aren’t until the second week of the month.
“It’s a go.”
Douglass bounces Cassidy up and down on her thighs in celebration. “Did you hear that? We get to visit Unkie Mason.”
Cassidy makes a flurry of excited baby babble, her arms flapping like duck wings—then recreates the pea soup scene fromThe Exorcistand spits up all over Douglass.
Douglass drops her head back on her neck and beseeches the ceiling. “Why?”
“Holy shit, that was a big one.” Jordan snickers.
I join him. “Now you see why I nicknamed her Little Monster.”
Douglass glares at me, then at Jordan. She passes a very happy and wiggly Cassidy to her husband.
“Our daughter is part demon, and she gets it from your side of the family,” she complains while looking down at her soiled T-shirt. Hopping up from the couch, she tells me, “We’re walking and talking, babe. I need out of this nastiness.”
I’ve stayed at Jordan’s family estate while visiting Douglass and Harper. The place is massive. I notice a few of Harper’s paintings hanging on the walls in brief blurs of color as Douglass walks out of the living room and heads toward the east wing where her and Jordan’s bedroom is located.
“Anyway, like I was saying, we’ll be coming to North Carolina first of August and will spend a few days at the Montgomery place, then head your way. Fallon is flying back from New Zealand and wants to meet his niece.”
Fallon is one of Jordan’s brothers. There are eight siblings in all. Three sisters and five brothers, all with different mothers. Their bio dad, Phillip Montgomery, was a bit of a cheating manwhore. He was also a billionaire. When he passed away and Fallon found out about the siblings he never knew existed, he took over his father’s business, then divided everything up equally between the eight of them. Because of my friendships with Douglass and Harper, I was automatically welcomed into the Montgomery clan, and they became my family as well. For a guy who started out life with no parents, no family, and no one to love him, it’s a bit surreal to have so much of it now. As Jordan’s older brother Trevor likes to say, “Sometimes the best families are the ones you create, not the ones you’re born into.”
“Come whenever. You know you’re always welcome. I’ve missed you, Dee.”
I hadn’t seen her in a couple of months, not since Cassidy’s birth.
“I’ve missed you too.” She nibbles on her bottom lip for a second, then says, “I also had an ulterior motive for calling today.”
Holding the phone in one hand, I open the refrigerator with the other and scan the inside for something to eat. I spot a tub of cold pasta salad. Drawers open and close as I try to find a fork before I remember they’re packed with the dishes in the box on the counter. I can eat with my fingers.
“And what’s that?” I ask, but I already know what she’s going to say.
