It was a week after the big house reveal and things had settled down again. We were packing up everything, taking longer than we thought. Turns out you could stash a lot of crap in a closet, no matter how small it was. Freddie had discovered vacuum sealed bags earlier in the year and apparently used them on everything. I had taken a break to go through the mail and have a cup of tea when Freddie interrupted me.
“Whatcha looking at?”
“Letter from the lawyers.”
“Open it.”
I was scared to, opting to stare at the unopened envelope instead. I didn’t want to open something that could potentially tell me that we had another court date. I hadn’t heard from Anna. She had just disappeared. What if she decided she wanted the money after all?
Freddie watched me for all of two seconds before she snatched the letter out of my hand and ripped it open. “No fudging way,” she yelled.
“What? Show me?” I tried to snatch the letter back, but she was holding it away from me. “What does it say?”
“It basically says Anna is foregoing all her rights to custody, which gives you the green light to organize adoption like you wanted to.”
Freddie hugged me, crushing the letter between us. “That’s awesome. Josie is ours to keep.”
I hugged her back. “She’s not a possession.” I couldn’t help but tell her. “But yes, we’ll get to keep her.” I just wondered how this had happened so quickly. Why would Anna just back down?
I joined in her squeals, causing Oma to come out of the living room to see what all the noise was about, Josie trailing after her with her donkey in one hand, a cheese stick in the other.
“What happened?”
“Anna is gone. She’ll never bother us again,” Freddie blurted out before picking up Josie and spinning her around the kitchen.
“How?” Oma asked, taking the letter.
“I have absolutely no idea. But we’re free of her and that’s all that matters,” I said. I had some idea of who had done this for us. Unexplained disappearance aside, he said he had taken care of it. And it seemed like he really had come through.
“She can go where the pepper grows,” Oma said. Freddie and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. That was a new one.
“I’ll second that,” I said and raised my mug. “To new beginnings.”
The front door opened and Rhett called out, “Where is everyone?”
“Kitchen,” I called back.
“What’s going on? Something happen while I was out?”
“Josie is ours to keep,” Freddie sing-songed, still bouncing Josie through the kitchen.
I walked up to him and tipped my head back. He didn’t hesitate and kissed me, keeping it chaste.
“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked, holding on to my hand.
“What would be the point? The last few times I texted you, you didn’t reply.”
He frowned at me. “I don’t text.”
“I noticed. And I don’t call unless Cassie makes me.”
“I also don’t really know what you’re texting me.”
At that I had to smile. “This I also noticed, old man.”
“I’m only two years older than you.”
“Yet you don’t know the meaning of lol. Who doesn’t know what lol means?”
