29. Jess
Jess started up a fresh pot of coffee, even though it was much later than when she would normally consider drinking it.
She told herself that after his long journey, Everett might want a nice cup of coffee. But honestly, she was just wanting something to do with her hands.
And it seemed like the others were nervous too.
Glory had surprised her today by spending more time with Liberty than with her favorite cousin. The way she fluttered around her big sister reminded Jess of the way Glory acted when she felt guilty about something.
But what could she possibly have to feel guilty about? She was undoubtedly just fussing over her sister out of loyalty over the wedding fiasco.
Liberty still seemed a little down, but she had been up and about this morning, helping to make Justine’s room more comfortable and chatting with her here and there about the pregnancy. It was clear she wasn’t holding a grudge.
It’s lucky she’s here,Jess thought to herself. If Justine has any questions or worries about her pregnancy, we’ve literally got a pediatric nurse in residence.
Anthem was floating between the kitchen, where she was baking cookies today, and the wraparound porch. She was the only one in the house who still kept her phone in her pocket and Jess couldn’t help noticing that Anthem was dashing outside and feverishly checking for something on the little screen every half hour or so.
She’ll come around,Jess told herself. Or whatever it is that’s got her attention will happen or not happen, and then she’ll come around.
It was so strange to parent adult children. There had been a time when for their own good she might have insisted that Liberty or Anthem tell her what was going on. But she had raised them, and now she had to trust that they would ask for help if they needed it.
Glory, on the other hand, was still technically a child at seventeen. And she still hadn’t given her mother the specifics on what happened at school.
But she seemed to have fully let go of her devices and social media. And she was happy. Jess could sense it. Before they headed home, they would have a heart to heart. For now, this time away seemed to have been exactly what Glory needed.
I don’t have to know everything,Jess thought to herself. As long as they’re happy and safe, and they know they can tell me anything they want without judgement.
The thought tickled her mind, making her think of Silas.
I don’t have to know everything…
Did she really need to know why he had left in order to move on with her life? And what did moving on even look like?
The sound of waves lapping the shore and birdsong echoed in her mind and suddenly she was back on that rock, watching the sunrise over the ocean with Clint by her side.
“What do you think?” Justine asked, interrupting Jess’s thoughts.
Jess shook off the confusion of her mind and focused on her niece, who was wearing one of Glory’s flowing cotton dresses, her hair braided down her back.
Jess had never loved Justine’s usual skin-tight jeans and midriff-revealing t-shirts, though of course she wasn’t her mother, and it wasn’t her place to say anything. But seeing her now, looking absolutely lovely, with her hair pulled back and a pretty dress filled Jess’s heart.
“You look absolutely radiant, honey,” she told the girl, taking her hands. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too, Aunt Jess,” Justine said, pulling her into a hug.
Jess smiled, feeling the swell of the girl’s belly against her own. She’d hoped to be getting a hug like this one from Liberty one day soon. That was unlikely now, given that she had left her husband, but being a great-aunt was a wonderful consolation prize.
The sound of a car pulling up outside had them all on high alert. Anthem dashed over to peek out the front window.
“He’s here,” Justine squeaked nervously.
“You’re a mother now,” Jess advised her firmly. “Be brave, and he’ll see it, just like I do.”
“Wow, he rented a Mercedes,” Anthem said from where she still stood, holding the gauzy curtain slightly back to look.
“Get away from the window, Anthem,” Liberty hissed, gesturing for her sister to come stand by Justine.
Jess smiled proudly to see her daughters flanking their cousin like protective Amazon warriors.
A few seconds later, there was an impatient knock and Jess took a deep breath and headed over to answer it.She opened the door to find her brother-in-law, who was usually so elegant, looking a bit disheveled.
Everett’s white, button down shirt was half untucked from his charcoal-gray trousers, and his dark, silver-streaked hair was slightly tousled instead of slicked back neatly like it usually was.
“Everett,” Jess said. “It’s good to see you.”
“Where is she?” he demanded, his dark eyes wild.
“She’s right here,” Jess told him. “Why don’t you come in? Would you like a glass of tea or a cup of coffee?”
But he had already brushed past her and was staring openly at his daughter. Justine stood with her three cousins, shoulders back and chin up. One of her hands curled protectively around the small bump on her belly.
“Oh, Teeny,” Everett said.
His voice was disappointed and exhausted, like he was scolding a puppy that had gotten into the kitchen cupboards and made a mess.
“I know this isn’t what you wanted for me—” Justine began.
“This is unbelievable,” he interjected. “Who did this to you? Please tell me it wasn’t that idiot, Shawn. I’ll kill him?—”
“But,” she said calmly. “I think it could be the best thing that ever happened to me. You’ve watched me drift, Dad, I know that. But I have a reason to get it together now, a wonderful reason. And I’m going to be the best mom I can be.”
“Oh, you think you’re keeping it?” Everett scoffed.
Jess balled her hands into tight fists to keep from interceding. Everett was failing this test, tearing his daughter down when she most needed him to have faith in her.
“Yes, I’m keeping my baby,” Justine said, her voice still calm and determined. “And I’m going to stay in school. I’ll find a way. Everything is going to work out somehow.”
“Everything is going to work out somehow,” Everett echoed bitterly. “That’s your usual code for Dad’s going to bail me out, right? Well, it’s not happening this time. This isn’t like driving the car into the lake or failing Civics. This is a human being, Teeny. A person who deserves a dignified life.”
“And I can give him or her that life,” Justine said. “I wouldn’t be the first single mom to go to school while taking care of a baby.”
Jess glanced over at Everett, hoping that maybe he was starting to see that Justine was serious. She thought again about her own mother, graduating college with a newborn Jess to care for. But she thought it was probably not an ideal time to bring something like that up.
For a few seconds, he gazed at his daughter, as if considering. And Jess saw the exact moment that consideration melted back into anger.
“You’re nineteen,” he yelled.
“I’m practically twenty,” she replied.
“You’re not even old enough to drink.”
“I can’t drink,” she yelled back, finally losing her cool. “I’m pregnant. And I don’t want to drink anyway. I’m going to be a mom.”
Liberty grabbed Justine’s hand, as if to steady her.
“You’re being ridiculous, Teeny,” her father said, seeming to feel calmer now that she was upset. “We’ll take care of this situation. We’ll get a qualified agency to find a good family to adopt it.”
“Don’t call my baby a situation,” Justine said softly. “And stop calling me Teeny. My name is Justine.”
She turned and ran up the stairs, with Liberty right behind her.
“Go on, girls,” Jess said to Glory and Anthem, gesturing for them to follow.
She was happy to see them do as she said instantly, leaving her alone with Everett. She turned back to him, and he let out a sigh and dropped his head into his hands.
“You’re tired,” she told him. “It’s been a long twenty-four hours. You’ll feel better after a good meal and a little sleep.”
“I think I will take that cup of coffee after all, Jess,” he said, sounding defeated.
“Come on,” she said. “Anthem’s been making cookies all day. You could probably use a treat.”
She headed for the kitchen, which was still fragrant from Anthem’s efforts. Everett trailed after her, sitting at the counter while she grabbed a mug from the cabinet.
“Milk and sugar?” she asked.
“Milk, please,” he replied.
She fixed his coffee and grabbed a plate of oatmeal cookies that hadn’t made their way into tins yet.
“These are still warm from the oven,” she told him, setting the coffee down and the plate beside it. “They’re oatmeal raisin, but Anthem likes to experiment, so you might find dried cranberries in there too.”
“Your girls are so nice,” he said tiredly, taking a cookie. “So wholesome.”
She barely resisted the impulse to roll her eyes. She strongly suspected that Everett’s girls were only a little on the rebellious side because they wanted their father’s attention. But since his own wife left him all those years ago, the only thing he seemed to pay attention to was work. She knew he just wanted to make a secure life for his girls, but she guessed that they would have been better off with him around than they were with the extra money.
She watched him eat and drink for a moment, taking a cookie for herself and savoring the sweetness of the warm oatmeal cookie with tangy bursts of cranberry.
“Thank you,” he said, looking up at last. “I know Teeny wouldn’t have called me on her own.”
“Family shouldn’t keep important things from each other,” Jess said carefully. “And you’re still family to me.”
Dropping that hint was the closest she was going to come to asking for information about Silas tonight. She wasn’t going to beg and give Everett the satisfaction again.
His eyes dropped back to his coffee, but not before she saw an expression that looked an awful lot like guilt in them.
“As for Justine,” she went on, her hand going to the sea glass necklace Mary had given her for reassurance. “You should treat her like an adult if you want her to act like one.”
She held in the scolding she longed to give him for speaking to Justine the way he had. Starting another argument wasn’t going to help anyone.
“I did treat her like an adult,” he said, shrugging. “Against my better judgement. I let her go off to school on her own, and look what happened. She never thinks about the consequences of her actions. She gets that from her mother.”
It was the cruelest thing he could have said, and Jess was deeply relieved that Justine hadn’t been here to hear it.
“The same thing has happened to plenty of well-meaning young people,” Jess said firmly. “But she came to you. Prove to her that she was right to do that. Don’t lose her now. Don’t let that kid grow up without his grandfather, just because Justine isn’t doing things the way you would have.”
Jess had never really known her own grandparents, for just that reason. And she wasn’t going to let it happen here, if she could help it.
Everett sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Listen, Jess,” he said after a moment. “I really do feel bad that I couldn’t tell you anything about Silas. But when a client asks for privacy, they have attorney-client privilege.”
Jess nodded. She’d heard this all before.
“Even if they are my idiotic older brother,” he added softly.
Jess blinked in surprise. That part was new. Everett had never been anything but professional until now. She had seen sympathy in his eyes, but he never once denigrated his brother or said out loud that he felt bad about any of it.
It was a nice change, but his sympathy wouldn’t help her find the closure she wanted.
“The way you talk about this makes it sound like it’s over,” she said. “But it will never be over for me, Everett, not without some answers.”
“I’ll talk to him again, Jess,” Everett said, lifting his dark eyes to meet hers. “I’ll do everything I can to get you those answers. You deserve them.”
She didn’t respond. But somehow, she believed him.
“The thing is, Jess,” he said, his voice almost pleading, “I think you need to get used to the idea of moving on.”
The air went out of Jess’s lungs, and she nodded woodenly.
So, Silas had moved on, then. It really was another woman.
Deep down she had always known it would be. In these situations, it always was. There was nothing special about her husband’s abandonment, except that he was too cowardly to tell her there was someone else.
“Hey,” Everett said, placing his hand over hers and squeezing. “It seems like you’re doing really well here.”
His hand was warm and when he smiled up at her, his eyes crinkled at the edges. He was being sincere. Pride bloomed in her chest and against all odds, she managed to smile back at her brother-in-law.
“Thank you, Everett,” she said.
“Is it really okay for me to stay the night?” he asked. “If not, it’s fine. I saw a sign for a bed breakfast on the way in.”
“Of course you can stay,” she told him. “We made up a room for you next to Justine’s. I can show it to you, if you’d like.”
“That would be great, thanks,” he said. “Let me just grab my stuff from the car.”
She followed him to the living room, watching him jog down the porch steps to grab a leather satchel and a duffel bag from the fancy rental. It was a massive SUV. She had no idea why he felt he needed all that luxury to come down here and find his daughter.
“It was all they had left at the rental place,” he told her as he came back in, as if he’d read her mind. “Cost a fortune, but I didn’t want to wait or take a cab.”
“That’s understandable,” Jess replied, smiling. “You were worried about your daughter. You love her.”
“I sure do,” Everett said, shaking his head, his eyes widening as if he was thinking what it might mean to love Justine now.
“That’s good,” Jess told him. “She’s going to need you to support her choices and believe in her more than ever right now.”
“I know,” he said, nodding. “I know. I guess I should get started on that.”
His eyes moved to the staircase, but before he could take a step, there was a scream from upstairs.
“Mom,” Anthem yelled.
Her voice was filled with a kind of panic that made Jess’s blood run cold.