She waved me off, already heading to the table. I liked that she was comfortable here, and I had a smile on my face when I knocked quietly on Jasper’s door. I always waited for him to invite me in, but he surprised me when he opened the door instead of just calling out for me to enter.
“What?” he murmured, keeping his voice low so he didn’t wake Isla.
Keeping the same volume, I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “Your math teacher is here. Did you forget to tell me we were meeting with her about teaching Isla?”
His wince said he didn’t do it on purpose, which honestly felt like progress to me. He wasn’t keeping it from me because he didn’t trust me or because he didn’t like me. He forgot. I forgot shit all the time. I let him off without drawing attention to it, tipping my head toward the stairs.
“Come on. You two can walk me through what you want to do and how I can help.”
He looked me over with a frown. “You’re going to meet with her dressed like that?”
Did I want to tell a thirteen year old I liked the way she looked at me half dressed? No, that probably wouldn’t go over well.
“I’ll get changed real quick, meet you down there. Sounds good?”
He nodded, pulling his door open fully. When I looked inside I couldn’t help but snicker. “Dude. Didn’t there used to be a carpet in there?”
He scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Are you going to start demanding I clean my room?”
I shrugged, making a face. “No. That sounds like a pain. You’re thirteen, you’re old enough to do that stuff on your own.But if you don’t want to do all that laundry on your own, just throw it in with my stuff in the laundry room. I’ll do it.”
My response seemed to shock him, but I wasn’t sure why. I did Isla’s clothes with mine all the time. The only reason I hadn’t done Jasper’s laundry yet was because he’d told me he could do it himself and to not touch his stuff. I respected his boundaries.
“I’m gonna change quick. Offer Simone a drink, will you? It’s the polite thing to do when someone does you a favor.”
Ducking into my room, I changed into a pair of worn jeans and an old band t-shirt. I ran a comb through my hair, considered shaving off the stubble on my chin, then decided against it. Isla liked the texture. She’d taken to playing with my face lately and it was cute.
Creeping past Isla’s room, since that little girl would scream like a banshee if anyone woke her up early, I tiptoed down the stairs and let out a breath when I reached the landing.
Simone’s laugh caught my attention and when I glanced at her, she gave me an amused look, tipping her head toward Jasper when I cocked an eyebrow in question. “You two came down the stairs in exactly the same way.”
I made a face, moving to join them in the kitchen. “That baby can rattle windows when she gets worked up. One of the quickest ways to piss her off is to interrupt nap time. We’ve learned to stay quiet or face her wrath.”
Jasper nodded in agreement, and I felt my spirits lift a little higher. I wouldn’t call us close, but in the past week, we’d been getting along a little better. At least enough to where I didn’t feel like I needed to walk on eggshells around him.
“He’s right. She’s always been like that. Mom said women need their sleep, and to never wake a sleeping baby.”
“Your mom was right,” Simone agreed. “Let’s use the time to our advantage, shall we?” She pulled out some papers from her purse, spreading them out on the table. “I did some research onearly childhood development and made a list of things we can start doing now. I’m sure there are things you’re already doing on the list, feel free to ignore those.”
To both our shock, Jasper pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, adding his own list to the pile. “This is what I remember Mama teaching me,” he mumbled awkwardly. “I’m not sure I have the ages right, but I tried to remember what she told me and what she and Mom planned for Isla.”
It took work not to say something that would piss him off. I lost track of the number of times I’d wanted to tell him the way he cared about his sister was sweet or cute. I got the feeling he’d hit me if I tried.
“This is an excellent list, Jasper. We can definitely use it to guide our planning.”
Her praise seemed to have its desired effect because he straightened and brightened a little. Reading over the list, I frowned at how much shit we were supposed to be doing already. I didn’t teach her anything yet. Aside from a few curse words I was glad she wasn’t old enough to repeat yet when she went with me on jobs. That feeling that I was holding the kids back sat heavily on my shoulders just looking at how far behind I already was. What if taking them in only made things worse for them? Sticking them with an electrician barely scraping by with the new expenses who couldn’t follow along with math for the life of him felt like I was doing them more harm than good.
“She’s supposed to know all this already?”
A hand settled on my forearm and when I forced myself to look up at Simone, she pressed her lips together, her expression reassuring. “This is more than most people do for their babies. Jasper asked me to put this together because it’s what his mothers would have wanted. You aren’t behind by not having done anything on this list yet. You’re just not thinking like a math professor.”
I huffed out a laugh. “I barely passed high school. Professor is so far out of my league, it’s not even funny.”
“From what I’ve learned over the years, teachers are the most pushy parents,” she explained with a chagrined smile. “They know what kids are capable of, and usually have a life plan on education before their kids are even born.”
Jasper nodded, speaking up in my defense for the first time since we met. “She’s right. None of my other friends back home did math games with their parents after school like I did. Mom said she never did that stuff with her family either. Mama was the math person. She did things different.”
Looking up at him, I made a face. “I’m not sure if I should feel bad for you or praise your mama for teaching you like she did.”
