She nodded. “The best. Church every Sunday, prayer circles. If someone died, she was the first to go, the last to leave.” She turned and started walking. It hurt to remember. “I wanted so badly to be like her.”
And failed miserably, he was thinking, but he didn’t say it.
“I guess we’re all different for a reason, even if we don’t know what the reason is,” she said philosophically. “Even animals play a part in our lives. They come to us for reasons we may never know. Rikku came to me at a particularly sad time in my life. He got me through it.” She looked over at him. “Life is cold if you don’t have a purpose.”
Hers was to save lives. But he didn’t know that. She sensed that he was about to say something icy, so she grinned at him and said, “I think JJ’s grown an inch already.”
He laughed, cut off at the pass. “Maybe two, at least that’s what Dad says.” He shook his head. “He’s an unusual child. Old for his age.” He laughed softly. “If there are ‘old souls’ on earth, I think JJ is one of them.”
Her heart jumped. She’d been compared to one herself, while she was in college, by a friend. Odd that John would know about such things.
She started to ask him when Heather stuck her head out the back door. “Maddie and Cort are leaving,” she called.
“On my way,” John called back, and Josie said nothing as she followed him inside.
Eight
Despite their unexpected earlier encounter by the display case, and the comradeship of the ranch work, Josie found that after the Brannts left, she could ignore John by simply sitting between Stasia and Heather and Odalie and talking fashion. She didn’t know that much about it, but she was certainly interested.
“I wish I knew as much about clothes as you three do,” she said with a smile. “I’m afraid I just mostly kick around in jeans and I wouldn’t know fashion if it bit me in the nether regions.”
They all laughed.
“I had to know, for my job,” Stasia said softly. “I worked in an uptown art gallery, and I did restoration work along with producing portraits on the side. I needed to appear trendy, and I had an unlimited budget for clothes. I learned. It just takes time.”
“And I just always loved clothes. So did Maddie Brannt’s mother, Shelby. She was a very famous model, and her mother was Maria Cane, the movie star,” Odalie added.
“Wow,” Josie said softly.
“She and Mom are friends,” Odalie added with a smile at her mother. “Mom was famous, too, as a singer, before she married Dad.”
“It’s like Stasia said,” Heather laughed. “You just learn about fashion with time,” she added, rising. “I have to get the cookies out of the oven. I made some for JJ.”
“I’m afraid time is what I have the least of,” Josie said without thinking.
John glanced at her from nearby with an expression she couldn’t begin to read. Josie avoided his eyes and asked Odalie about opera.
Several minutes later, JJ wandered into the room wolfing down a last homemade chocolate chip cookie. “You guys should go try Mrs. Heather’s cookies, while there are still some left,” he told them with a smile. “They’re sure great!”
“I will,” Josie assured him, smiling. “She’s a wonderful cook, isn’t she?”
JJ nodded. Impulsively, he put his arms around Josie and hugged her. She hugged him back.
“Thank you again for all you did,” JJ said. “I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you.”
In many ways, that was true. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she asked softly, her cheek on his tousled hair. “We can do such a simple thing as talking to strangers, and incredible things happen.”
“Sure. Like talking to a wanted felon...” John muttered.
“Stop that,” Heather said before Josie could get a word out. She came in and handed JJ another cookie. “You keep eating, my boy,” she said, and grinned as she hugged hm close. “You need to gain a little weight.”
He was hugging her back and laughing. “If I could cook like you do, I’d weigh five hundred pounds,” he sighed.
Heather just wrinkled her nose. “There are dozens of dishes that need washing,” she began.
“I have morning sickness,” Stasis said at once.
“My opera coach said that getting near dishwater was bad for my throat,” Odalie added, with a straight face while Stasia almost choked on mirth.
