“Marriage?” he chuckled a little, thinking she was joking, but then he saw the look in her eyes. “Oh, you’re serious.”
She held his stare, her expression unchanging.
“In general, I’m neutral. Before I met your mom, I wasn’t really a fan for myself, but if we are talking about me and your mom?—”
“We are.”
“I’d go to city hall today to make it official.”
“Good.” She grinned a grin that would make Deaconverynervous if she wasn’t on his side. “I have some ideas.”
31
Jenna checkedher phone for the tenth time as she stood next to the bridge at the Riverside Rec Area. Blake had asked her to wait after her parade because she needed to talk to her. She was staying at her dad’s tonight, otherwise, she would have just told her they could talk when she got home.
The parade festivities were winding down. A few minutes ago, Jenna heard over the loud speaker on the main stage that Tiana’s ex, Brock Bartlett, had given some of the money raised at the gala, a million dollars actually, to Healers Beyond Horizons.
Jenna watched as most of the parade goers were heading down Main Street towards Sue Ann’s and the booths. Although she tried not to, Jenna couldn’t help herself, she found her eyes scanning the crowd for Deacon. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, he was nowhere to be found.
Earlier she’d seen him waiting for the cheer float with Tabitha, Poppy, AJ, Liam, Niko, Tiana, Yaya, Mr. Santino, and Zion. Tabby was wearing the Junior Cheer shirt Blakehad made for her, and all Jenna wanted to do was walk over and fall into Deacon’s arms. She wanted to be with him, to wait for the float with him and Tabitha.
It’s not like she was alone. She waited with Asher and Ava, who somehow she didn’t feel like a third wheel around, Viv, who took the role of aunt to Blake very seriously and was filming the entire parade for content for Blake’s social media, and Viv’s husband Glenn and their kids. Jenna volunteered for baby duty, mainly for the distraction, but it had turned into something completely different. Over the course of the hour or so she’d been caring for baby Gabriel, she caught the baby bug, which was ridiculous. Blake was almost grown. But that was sort of the point. Blake was almost grown. She was fifteen. In a few months she’d be driving and then gone. It had been so long since she’d held a little one, and she’d actually forgotten the new baby smell.
No. She shook her head. She was probably just having a midlife crisis. Could you have that at 34? She checked her phone again and saw that Blake still hadn’t replied to her last text asking where she was and how long she’d be when she heard a familiar voice.
“There she is! My Barbie girl.”
Yaya.
Jenna lifted her head and saw that not only was Yaya walking towards her, the whole gang was. Well, she didn’t see Deacon, Tiana or Niko but everyone else was headed down towards the river.
“Hi.” Jenna was so happy to see Yaya that when she opened her arms for a hug, tears sprung in her eyes. She hoped that Yaya hadn’t noticed before she wrapped her arms around her, sniffed, and wiped them away.
Unfortunately, the woman might be 90, but she didn’t miss a thing.
Yaya placed both hands on Jenna’s cheeks and patted them. “No girl so beautiful should ever look so sad! Why sad?!” she demanded.Loudly.
Jenna glanced around hoping it hadn’t drawn attention.
“I missed you.” Jenna sniffed.
Yaya’s brows furrowed as if she didn’t believe her.
“I did.” Jenna smiled widely, but her stupid eyes welled up again.
“Come, come, come.” Yaya ushered her over to the bench. “Sit, sit, sit.”
As soon as she sat, Yaya took her hands. “What is it? What is wrong?”
“Nothing. I just haven’t seen you in a few weeks because we’ve missed your appointments and I was going to go see if you wanted to get coffee, but I didn’t want to bother you?—”
“Ahh! You no bother!” Yaya gasped and patted her face again. “Too beautiful. My girl. You are my Barbie Girl, I am Yaya, no bother me. No, no, no.”
“You’re a newlywed.”
“Ahh, he fine. Grown man.” Yaya waved her hand to Arthur. “What is wrong, Moro mou?”
Jenna wasn’t even sure how to put what was wrong with her in words. After her and Asher’s conversation, she felt even more confused. She just stared at Yaya and shrugged as more tears filled her eyes. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
