Chapter 11 #2
Ah. I felt the ache twist in my chest. The girls hadn’t talked much about their grandma, probably because nobody wanted to be the first one to get sad.
“I know you guys miss her,” I said, as gently as I could.
“You can talk about her anytime you want. Even if it makes you cry. It’s okay to be sad.
Being sad is good sometimes. Crying is good sometimes. ”
Neither of them responded, but I could tell they’d heard me.
I scooped up the box and brought it into the kitchen, setting it on the table. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” I said, reaching for my Leatherman. The act of slicing through packing tape felt weirdly satisfying, like breaking a seal between my old life and the new.
The box popped open, and inside were two smaller boxes and a note, hand-written in blue pen:
These are for the girls’ room. Believe me, they’ll need them. Give them my love. —Billie
Billie. Of course it was Billie.
“What is it?” Joey bounced beside me.
“It’s from Billie for your room.” I pulled out the boxes. “This makes noises like raindrops or an ocean, and this can make your room all different colors or have stars on your ceiling.”
“Mallory has that!” Joey clapped. “I always wanted one of those, but Grammy said if I wanted to see the stars, I could look outside.”
Grammy wasn’t wrong, but I remembered all the noises Billie used to hear at her grandparents’ house.
I couldn’t count the number of nights I’d be sound asleep and get a call on my walkie-talkie because she’d heard a noise or seen a scary shadow on her ceiling.
She was making sure his girls didn’t experience the same thing.
She made it really fucking hard not to love her.
Another knock sounded on the door, this one less tentative and more businesslike.
Joey’s eyes went wide as if she’d just heard the jingle bells of Christmas morning. “Billie!” she whispered, the word a wish and a command, and before I could warn her about running on the hardwood in socks, she and Andi were tearing for the entryway.
I trailed after them, still towel-drying my hair with a dish rag, my steps increasingly hopeful with every footfall, until Joey wrenched the door open and the fantasy dissolved. It wasn’t Billie.
A good-looking guy stood there who looked like he’d just walked off a construction site, and the boys I’d seen in the backyard with superhero capes on.
“Hey, man,” the guy said, sticking his hand out to shake mine. “Sorry to bother you. I’m Cole, Bailey’s fiancé.”
“No bother. Hi.” I accepted the handshake as one boy jumped on top of the other. “Adam. Nice to meet you. These must be your—”
“Nephews, Luke and Leo.” Cole gestured down, pointing to each one individually, as the boys collided in a heap.
“Hi!” Luke popped up from the dogpile. He was missing a front tooth and had the stance of a kid who’d just won a gold medal in mischief.
“Hey!” chirped Leo before executing a backward roll off the porch, landing with both feet on the grass and an unmistakable look of pride. His brother immediately followed, not to be outdone, with a cartwheel that took out three dandelions.
“They’re in ninja mode,” Cole deadpanned as we watched the duo descend in a flurry of limbs and laughter.
“I see that,” I said.
Joey and Andi, still hovering by the door, exchanged a look so loaded with yearning I could practically feel their need for a new neighborhood crew radiating in waves.
“Can we play in the front yard?” Joey pleaded, hands folded under her chin in the universal gesture of desperate child negotiation.
“Yes, but don’t go past the driveway,” I said.
“We know!” Joey delighted, as she grabbed Andi by the wrist and the two of them skipped past Cole and onto the lawn, where they were instantly absorbed into the boy tornado.
Cole turned back. “I know you’re probably busy and tired, but Bailey asked me to come over.”
Alarm bells started ringing in my primitive “protect Billie at all costs” cortex. “Is everything okay?”
Cole’s brows knitted slightly. “Yeah, everything’s fine,” he assured me as his lips twitched at the corners in amusement. “Bailey just had a favor to ask, and it’s kind of a big one.”
I relaxed. “Oh, okay, what’s up?”
“Birdie has a shoot today—”
“For The Vow, right, Billie mentioned it.”
“Oh, did she?” He seemed more amused that Billie had shared the information.
It seemed she hadn’t mentioned that she’d been over last night.
“Yeah, that’s the one. The family who was supposed to model all came down with the flu.
Bailey is scrambling because the family is what they built the whole concept around. Flower girls, mom, dad, the works.”
“Brutal,” I said, sympathy rising. “So, she needs—?”
“Your girls,” Cole said, nodding toward the lawn. “They’d be flower girls. It’s just for pictures, no actual wedding, obviously.”
"Oh, um, I don’t know if they would. Andi is really shy and…” as I said that both girls were chasing Leo and Luke around the front yard, screaming at the top of their lungs. “She’s shy around adults.”
“I get it. Well, if you change your mind, the boys are doing it, too, they’re supposed to be junior ushers or something. Also, there won’t be a bunch of adults. The only other model is Billie.”
The needle on my brain scratched when I heard her name, and the record stopped. “Billie?!”
“Yeah, she’s—”
“Billie is modeling?!”
Cole smiled at my reaction. “She’s the only one who fits the sample sizes.”
Billie hated having her photo taken. This would be her literal version of hell. She was going to break out in hives. How was she going to take photos that were supposed to be in magazines if she was broken out in hives?
Shit. If I were there, would it hurt her or help her? I didn’t know. If this were twenty years ago, I would have my answer, but now… Still, I couldn’t be this close and not go and make sure she was okay.
“I can’t promise that the girls will want to have their picture taken, but we can try.”
“Are you sure?” Cole’s eyebrows practically touched his hairline as he grinned, not bothering to hide how entertained he was at the whiplash with my answer.
I gave him a half-hearted grin. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
Cole’s grin stretched wider. “Great! I’ll let Bailey know. She said the boys need to be there in thirty minutes, but if you need more time, it’s seriously no problem.”
“Okay, thanks.” I’d been responsible for successfully leading highly classified, dangerous missions of up to thirty men, but getting two five-year-old girls out the door on time was one I was not confident in succeeding in.
“No. Thank you. You are saving the day. We’ll see you down there. Oh, and come in the back when you get there, the shop is closed for the day, so the front will be locked.”
“Got it.”
Cole headed next door, calling his boys who appeared bummed to leave their new friends. “You’ll see them soon,” Cole explained, and the boys were asking why and when, as I called the twins in.
The girls ran up the steps totally out of breath. “Can we play with Luke and Leo today?” Joey asked.
“Luke and Leo are going to be doing a photo shoot with Billie today,” I said, and Joey’s shoulders slumped. “Do you want to do it, too?”
Her face lit up like I’d just told her we were going to visit Santa Claus. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“What about you, Andi? Do you want to do a photo shoot?”
“What is that?” she carefully queried.
“You will put on pretty dresses with your sister and take pictures with Billie and Luke and Leo.”
Her eyes nervously shot to Joey as she bit the inside of her lip.
“You don’t have to decide now. We can go and see if you want to, and if you don’t, you can just hang out with me, or Billie’s sisters are going to be there, so you can hang out with them.”
A huge smile spread across Andi’s face at the mention of Billie’s sisters. “Okay.”
“Alright, why don’t you girls go clean up your breakfast bowls and get dressed.”
The girls took off squealing like I’d just shot the gun at the starting line, and I leaned against the door. I’d barely been able to handle seeing Billie yesterday in jeans and a shirt, and now I was going to see her as a bride…what did I just agree to?