I still couldn’t decide which wasworse.
Chapter Three
Roni
Ipickedup a coffee and some breakfast at Nudge to eat on the drive, with tea and scones for Jessa, and headed over to her place. It meant a drive into downtown, over the Lions Gate Bridge and into North Vancouver, in rush hour, then all the way back, also in rush hour, to get to work on time. It would give me only a half hour or so at her place, but I didn’tmind.
Right now, I’d take pretty much any chance to hang with Jessa that I couldget.
We’d become closer this year, ever since she’d moved back. As close as we’d been as teenagers; maybe more so. But with a newborn baby literally sucking her energy, I expected to fall down her prioritylist.
“Please, come in,” she gushed when she answered her front door. “I’m starved for adult conversation.” She was cradling baby Nicholas in her arms, and he was feeding. Asusual.
This would’ve been Jessa’s permanent social media status these days, if she were on social media:Boob in baby’smouth.
“Baby Nick’s not much of a talker,huh?”
“Unfortunately,no.”
She gave me an awkward hug as we tried not to squish the baby. He wriggled and made a slurping sound, and I told her for the millionth time how adorable he was. I didn’t even have to exaggerate; Jessa and Brody’s son really was the dictionary definition ofadorable.
I followed her through the living room, the one at the front of the house that was rarely used, and into the dining room, where Jessa settled onto the antique couch that had come from Brody’s grandparents and was her favorite spot to sit and nurse Nick. It put her kinda central in the house, where she could see both into the kitchen and out into the backyard. She had a bunch of pillows propped up to support her arms on either side of her while she cradled the baby, like a breastfeedingthrone.
I put the tea and scones on the edge of the table, within her reach, and she thanked meprofusely.
“Do you want somebreakfast?”
God love her, she actually asked me that, right while she was smack in the middle of doing what she wasdoing.
“No worries, babe. I already ate. Let me get you aplate.”
I started into the adjoining kitchen… and stopped in mytracks.
I was not a kitchen girl. Jessa Mayes totallywas.
She had the fancy electric mixer, the knife block, the industrial blender, the giant food processor, all gleaming and lined up just waiting to be used, her pretty tea cozies and matching tea towels usually all clean and ready, so that she could whip up hearty, healthy, low-cal meals at a moment’s notice, for herself, for her man, for whoever dropped by. That was just Jessa. Didn’t hurt that Brody had hired on a part-time housekeeper to help keep everythingspotless.
Nottoday.
The entire surface area of the kitchen was strewn with dishes, some clean, some not, and baby gear—clean bottles lined up to dry, nipples, milk collection bags and pacifiers and random toys. I even glimpsed what had to be Brody’s underwear mixed in with the clean towels and baby linens that had been dumped on one counter, waiting to befolded.
“Holy shit. The orphanage called. They want their kitchenback.”
Jessa sighed, a sound of sleep-deprivedsurrender.
“How many babies do you haveagain?”
“One,” she said, unamused. “And until you have one, I kindly request that you do notjudge.”
“Not judging. Just… startled.” I found a clean plate for her and tossed a scone on it, then pulled out my phone and texted my boss that I was going to be late. He wouldn’t care. Sadly, he had a thing for me, so there was that. And since I didn’t care enough to make a fuss if he threatened to fire me, we both knew he wouldn’t. To be sure, I made it sound like a somewhat-familyemergency.
Helping my sick friend with her baby. Be in just a tad late. Sosorry.
Then I got to work tying on one of Jessa’s cutesy aprons and searching for the surface of her countertop under the layers of whatnot, despite her half-assed protests. “I’m going in. If I’m not out by Monday, call inreinforcements.”
Jessa sighed in surrender again, this time gratefully. “Thank you. Just a bit,okay?”
“Where’s your housekeeperlady?”
