CHAPTER FIVE #2
“That’s possible, but maybe she should just focus on other areas of her life while she waits instead of dating every single guy that comes along.”
Amy’s phone chirped an alert. She pulled it from her purse and read the message.
Plz bring me ice cream. Pretty please! Xoxox
She smiled at Jessa’s text. “Jessa wants some ice cream. Good thing we hung around here.”
After getting a text with what Jessa and Lance wanted, Will went back up to the counter while Amy finished up her ice cream with the girls.
“Thank you,” Amy said as they walked to his SUV a short time later. “That was lovely.”
“You’re welcome.” Will opened the back door for the girls and then the front one for her. Once she was settled, he handed her the tray holding the ice cream for Jessa and Lance.
“Hope it’s not soup by the time we get there,” Amy said as they headed out of town.
“No worries,” Will assured her. “This thing can spit ice cubes if I crank the A/C.”
Sure enough, by the time they got back to the manor, Amy had goose bumps. She waited for Will to come around and open her door after he’d let the girls out. He took the tray and stepped back so she could slide off the seat. Once out, he returned the tray to her.
“I’ll let you deliver that to Jessa. I’m going to go see what the girls are up to.” They’d darted off around the side of the house as soon as they’d been freed from the vehicle.
Amy walked beside him and waited as he opened the front door of the manor for her. “Thanks again for the ice cream.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Anytime.”
She laughed. “You might regret that.”
“I doubt it,” Will said as she began to climb the stairs to the second floor.
Amy resisted the urge to respond. He’s being nice because he’s a nice guy.
That was what she had to keep reminding herself.
She was not about to revisit past heartache, and she had no doubt that allowing herself to feel anything for Will would only lead right back there.
There was no way she wanted to be this man’s second choice.
She couldn’t imagine being involved with a guy who still mourned his wife.
She rapped lightly on the door to Jessa and Lance’s suite of rooms. It opened right away to reveal Lance. He smiled as his gaze fell on the tray she held.
“C’mon in.” Lance stepped back. He’d changed into a white t-shirt and a pair of shorts, and his hair stood up on end in spots like he’d been sleeping.
Jessa was curled on her side but pushed to a reclining position on her pillows when she spotted Amy. “Oh, you are my favorite person.”
“Don’t thank me. Isabella and Julia came up with the idea to go, and Will paid for it. I’m just the delivery girl.”
Lance took the containers off the tray and handed one to Jessa. He sank down on the bed next to her and stretched his legs out. “Thanks for watching Julia.”
“You know she’s no problem. She and Isabella get along very well.”
“Is Will with them?” Jessa asked.
“Yep. I think they are in the backyard. He said he’d keep an eye on them while I brought you the ice cream.”
“You and Will getting along okay?” Lance asked.
“Sure. He’s not the chattiest man I’ve ever been around, but he kind of reminds me of how Josh was before Cami. He did crack a joke, so I assume he can be interactive when he wants to be.”
“He cracked a joke?” Jessa asked.
“Yeah. We were talking about his car.”
“A joke about his car?” This time it was Lance. “I’m impressed.”
Amy looked back and forth between them. “Why? He doesn’t usually joke?” She’d thought him rather serious compared to how he’d used to be, but had thought it was maybe just with her since he didn’t know her.
“Not that I’ve heard. He’ll sometimes laugh at other people’s jokes, but never cracks any himself.”
“Guess we’d better mark this one on the calendar,” Amy said with a smile.
Jessa glanced at Lance as she said, “Yeah, we’d better.”
“I’m gonna head down. Did you need anything else?”
“Nope. We’re good,” Lance said. “I’ll be down in a bit.”
Amy detoured to her room to change into her shorts and then gathered her hair back up in a ponytail.
Her mother had always frowned on her going out in public in shorts, and she’d never gotten out of the habit of changing before leaving the house.
Shorts were, however, definitely more comfortable on a day like this.
She stopped by the kitchen, and made a pitcher of juice and put it on a tray with some glasses.
Will was in the same seat he’d had before they’d left.
He was looking at something on his phone but glanced up as she approached.
He slid the phone into his pocket as he stood and reached for the tray.
He set it on the glass-topped table in front of the chairs and poured some juice into the glasses.
When he handed one to Amy, she took it and said, “Thanks.” She settled back into the lawn chair and took a sip. “Jessa and Lance were certainly enjoying the ice cream when I left. Must be one of her pregnancy cravings.”
“Yes, I seem to remember Lance mentioning something about that.”
“Come push me, Amy,” Isabella yelled from the swing set.
“She knows how to swing,” Will commented.
Amy smiled as she put her glass down and stood. “I don’t mind giving her a few pushes.”
“Are you going to push me?” Isabella asked as she got herself up on the swing.
“Are you going to ask nicely?” Amy replied.
Isabella sat for a moment then said, “Would you please push me?”
“Certainly,” Amy said and smiled. She walked behind the girl, relishing the feel of the fresh grass beneath her bare feet. “Hang on.”
~*~*~
Will watched Amy push Isabella on the swing.
He hadn’t missed her request for Isabella to ask nicely.
As he observed Amy’s interactions with his daughter, he could see that he had failed in more places than he’d realized.
Even asking politely was something he hadn’t forced her to do.
It was just easier to give in. He didn’t know how it was when his sisters watched Isabella, but they seemed to be wary of insisting she toe the line when he was around.
Amy, on the other hand, had just put it out there that if Isabella wanted something, she was going to have to ask nicely.
He knew he wasn’t doing his daughter any favors by allowing her behavior to continue.
Maybe he needed to talk to his sisters about helping him out in working with Isabella.
Watching Amy with his daughter brought an ache to his gut.
Delia should be the one spending time with the little girl.
When his eyes stung, he lowered his sunglasses to cover them.
Sometimes he wondered what he’d do differently if he’d had the chance to go back.
Would he listen to Delia and not push for children?
That would mean he’d have Delia but no Isabella.
He didn’t know what he’d choose. He wanted a family.
He still didn’t understand why God couldn’t have let him have both.
As he sat there though, Will realized that he may have wanted both, but he wasn’t doing very well with what God had given him.
It was becoming more and more apparent to him that he needed to change his outlook where Isabella was concerned.
He did love her, but had such a difficult time showing it.
In a way it had felt a bit like he was betraying Delia by loving the child she hadn’t wanted.
However, he had wanted that child and yet here he was, acting like he hadn’t.
“Hey, bro.” Lance sat down in a chair on the other side of Will. “How’s it going?”
“It’s going. How ‘bout with you?”
“I feel bad Jessa is cooped up in that room. She would love to be outside.”
“Couldn’t she just sit out here?”
“I think we’re both too scared of what might happen. Sitting out here for the little bit that she did earlier was good for her, but she wouldn’t come out again now. I know we may seem extreme in our approach, but I honestly don’t know what another loss would do to her. To us.”
Will understood the pain in Lance’s voice.
He knew that with each passing day their hopes rose for a successful delivery.
He didn’t blame them at all for doing what they could to achieve that objective.
There would be many Sunday afternoons that Jessa could enjoy outside with her family once the baby was born.
He saw Isabella slow her swing and slide off. As she joined Julia in the playhouse, Amy made her way back to where he sat with Lance. It was hard to not notice her long tanned legs and the curves of her figure as she moved gracefully toward them.
“Hey, Lance,” Amy said as she joined them, but she didn’t sit back down. “You out here for a bit?”
“Yep. Unless Jessa needs me.”
“If it’s okay I think I’m going to go in for a while.” She picked up her phone and her glass of juice. “Just text me if you need something.”
“Don’t worry about anything. We’ll be fine.”
“Thanks again for the ice cream, Will,” Amy said with a smile.
Though he wanted to watch her walk into the house, Will turned his gaze back to where the girls were playing.
The last thing he needed was to do anything that might give Lance—or anyone else—the wrong idea where he and Amy were concerned.
Of course, he needed to keep that in mind for himself as well.
She clearly saw him as a friend—maybe even a brother—and nothing more, which was probably a good thing.
He found her interesting and appreciated that she seemed at ease with him.
But that was no reason to start looking at her as anything more than the friend of the family that she was.
~*~*~