Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
JO
“Auntie Jo Jo in the house!” I call as I walk into my oldest sister Hallie’s house, closing the door behind me.
“Back here,” Hallie yells from the direction of the sunroom.
Walking towards the back of the house, I take everything in, the way I do whenever I come here. The cozy furniture. The art on the walls. Pretty decorations. Everything neat and organized. Put together. Grown-up.
Glancing down, I smile ruefully at my torn jeans, orange T-shirt with multiple paint stains from the Super Science Saturday program I ran this morning at the museum where I work as the Program Director, and my favorite pink high-top Converse. It’s possible the paint on my shirt is also in my hair. As a matter of fact, I’m sure it is.
I am the opposite of grown-up and put together, but I figure the people I’m here to see won’t mind. Not that I would know how to be grown-up and put together even if they would mind. That’s just not my vibe. My vibe is more chaos demon in mismatched colors. It works for me.
“Hi, my babies,” I sing as I walk into the living room and plop myself down on the couch next to Hallie, who is holding her one month old twins, Caitlin and Jack. I lean over and kiss Hallie’s cheek before plucking Caitlin out of her arms to settle into mine.
“No hi for me?” Hallie jokes, shaking out her arm as if it’s asleep from holding a baby for too long.
“You’re old news, Hal. I desperately need a baby fix.” I bend down and kiss Caitlin’s head, breathing in the new baby smell I love so much. “I can’t believe how big they are. Did they grow again?”
“Since you were here yesterday? I doubt it, although by the way they’re eating, it’s not out of the question.”
I study Hallie, cataloguing her messy ponytail and the dark circles under her eyes. “Were they up all night again last night?”
“Yeah, you bet. It was an every hour situation.” Hallie smiles down at Jack in her arms and then Caitlin in mine, the look on her face full of love and awe, as if she didn’t just tell me she didn’t sleep at all last night.
I look down at Caitlin and grin. I love kids. Before Hallie had these two, I hadn’t spent much time around babies, but one month in and I can confidently say that babies are high on the Jo’s Favorite Things list too. It’s a pretty long list.
“Why are you keeping your mom up all night, baby girl?” I ask Caitlin, who fixes her big blue eyes on me. “You know what I think? I think you have a lot going on in that gorgeous head of yours. Will you be our wild child?” I bop her on the nose, and no one in this lifetime or any other would be able to tell me she doesn’t smile at me.
I am rocking this aunt thing already.
“Takes one wild child to know one,” Hallie says with a grin that makes my chest expand with happiness. There was a time, years ago, when Hallie and I weren’t as close as we are now. That was mostly my fault. Our middle sister Hannah and I were certified pains in the ass for a long time before Hallie blew up one night at a family dinner and told us to get our shit together and start acting like sisters and less like self-centered, melodramatic asshats. The three of us have gotten a lot closer over the last two or three years, and I love my sisters with my whole chest.
“Can I really be considered a wild child if I’m twenty-seven years old?”
Hallie narrows her eyes at me. “Two months ago, you dragged Hannah and me out at eleven o’clock at night to watch you ride a mechanical bull.”
I laugh because, yeah, I did do that. “But it was fun, right?”
“I was thirty-four weeks pregnant with twins, Jo. I had to pee every four minutes, I was so enormous that even maternity leggings were uncomfortable, my feet were so swollen I had to wear flip-flops in February, and I couldn’t even have a fucking drink. Who, exactly, was it fun for?”
I shrug, not feeling the least bit remorseful because when Hallie doesn’t want to do something, she doesn’t do it. As a recovering people pleaser, she wasn’t always that way, but she sure is now. She might be saying otherwise currently, but she was right in the front row, cheering me on as I rode the damn bull. “It was really fun for me, even though I did end up with that bruise on my ass.”
“You deserved it,” Hallie grumbles, but her voice is amused.
Caitlin lets out a little squeak, and I grin down at her. “What do you have to say about that, Caitey? You just wait, baby girl. You and I are going to tear up the town. I have so much I need to teach you.” I glance over at Jack, who has yet to stir. “I don’t think your brother will be able to keep up with us, bestie. Probably not your mom either, and maybe not even Hannah. I think it’ll just be you and me babes.”
Hallie stretches as best she can with a baby still in one arm and leans back, propping her feet on the coffee table. “I think Jack will be a reader, like me. We can wait for you at home while you guys go out and spread your crazy.”
“Hey, I read.”
Hallie tilts her head to one side, studying me. “But do you, though?”
I laugh because, no, not really. “It’s not my fault there are so many amazing things happening out there.” I gesture towards the window. “I want to do them all.”
Hallie laughs too. “I know how you do. Never change, Jo.” Then she lays a hand over mine, her expression turning serious. “Thank you for being here. Seriously. Not just today, but every day since the twins were born. I don’t know how Ben and I would have made it through the last month without either you or Hannah coming over every day to hold babies and make dinner and sit with me while I nursed endlessly. I know you’re both busy with work and life, and I just appreciate you making the time. I really needed you both, and you showed up.”
I lean my head on Hallie’s shoulder. “You would have done fine. You have your friends too.” Hallie has three best friends who are as close to her as Hannah and I are—maybe even closer—and their husbands are Ben’s best friends. The eight of them are like this big, sprawling found family, and if I’m being honest, I’ve always been a little jealous of that, though I’d never say that to Hallie. I’m a lot, and friendships haven’t always come easily to me. My sisters are my best friends, and I’m content with that, though the idea of belonging to a big, loud friendship group has always been something I’ve low key dreamed about.
“I do, and I love them for it, but sometimes a girl just needs her actual sisters, you know?”
I sigh, happy to just exist right here in this moment, sitting with Hallie on the couch, each of us holding one of her babies. I’ve always felt strongly that life is a collection of moments meant to be lived out loud and made into memories. But sometimes it’s nice to exist in the quiet. Emphasis on the sometimes because quiet and still are not my usual volume and speed.
“I really, really know.”
“Hey Jo Jo.” I glance up and smile as Hallie’s husband, Ben, strolls into the sunroom and walks straight to Hallie, setting the giant water tumbler he’s carrying on the side table next to her and bending to press a kiss to her lips.
“You okay, Hallie girl?” he murmurs, running a hand over her ponytail.
“I’m perfect,” she says, leaning into him a little.
“You think you have enough drinks there, Hal?” I ask, taking stock of the two tumblers, coffee mug, and two different seltzer flavors.
Ben laughs, taking Jack from Hallie and kissing her one more time before settling down in a chair across from the couch with the baby cuddled up on his chest. Gah. Never have I ever felt anything more than brotherly affection for my sister’s husband, but show me a woman in the world who would not be affected by the sight of a big, gorgeous blond man cuddled up with a teeny, tiny sleeping baby.
I am not that woman.
I’m pretty sure that woman does not exist.
Hallie groans, reaching for the cup Ben just brought in and sucking water through the straw like she’s been walking in the desert for a hundred years. “You cannot even imagine how thirsty nursing babies makes you. Like, there is not enough water in the world. I think Ben has filled up this cup like eight times today.”
Ben grins and winks at her. “It’s been my job to keep you appropriately hydrated since the day we got together. It’s just more important now.”
Hallie grins back at him. “Come on. You were keeping me hydrated well before we actually got together. I just didn’t see it for what it was.”
“And what was that?”
Hallie shrugs. “Pining.”
Ben chuckles and the look they share is so full of love that, for a second, I feel like I’m intruding on a private moment. Ben was in love with Hallie for more than a decade before he finally admitted his feelings to her, and even years later, I am one hundred percent sure no one has ever loved someone the way Ben loves Hallie.
I shift Caitlin to my other arm and Hallie doesn’t miss the movement. “You want me to take her?”
I hold Caitlin closer to my chest and give Hallie an are you kidding me look. “Learn to share. You get them all the time, and you know how I need my baby fix every day or I get sad. Besides, you just told me they were up all night last night. Take a break, Hal. Take a nap. Take a shower. Read a book. Just enjoy having two arms free for a minute.”
Hallie takes another sip of water and stretches her arms above her head. “Well then, don’t mind if I do. Just the enjoying having two arms free thing, because I think my ass is glued to this couch right now.”
“But what a gorgeous ass it is.” Ben pats Jack’s back, settling him down when he stirs a little.
“Takes one to know one.” Hallie gives him a heated look.
“Can you guys not be gross for, like, two minutes?” I ask, amused, as always, by their obsession with each other. “You’ve been together for a hundred years. Simmer down.”
“No can do, Jo Jo,” Ben says. “We could be together for a hundred more years and it will still be like this. Besides, she’s got that whole hot mom thing going on now.”
I snort out a laugh. “You guys are my favorite people.”
They really are. You hear all these stories about how hard a newborn is on a marriage, but Hallie and Ben are amazing. They have twins and still have hearts shooting out of their eyes when they look at each other. Being here so much since they came home from the hospital has given me a front row seat to their relationship. Ben is so attentive to everything Hallie needs—he’s always checking on her, making sure she’s eating and drinking and sleeping when she can, and generally being the most supportive partner and calmest new parent in existence. It’s really amazing to watch. These babies are going to grow up in such a happy house.
“Everything is your favorite thing,” Hallie says, giving me a soft smile.
I shrug because she’s not wrong. Like I said, the Jo’s Favorite Things list is long. “What can I say? I’m a lover, Hal. And right now, what I love is you and Ben, mostly because you gave me babies and right now, they’re at the top of the list.”
Ben smiles and starts to say something but his phone rings, interrupting him.
He lifts a hip to dig it out of his pocket, glancing at the screen. “It’s Jeremy,” he says, looking at Hallie. Her eyes go wide as Ben swipes to answer.
Jeremy Wright is one of Ben’s best friends from college. He’s a former professional hockey player and is married to Hallie’s best friend, Emma. He lives in Pittsburgh, too, and they see each other all the time, so I wonder what’s going on to warrant a phone call. No one calls each other anymore. Sad, in my opinion. I prefer hearing the voice of the person I’m talking to. Texting is such a boring and impersonal way to communicate.
“What’s going on?” Ben asks in greeting, hitting the button for the speaker phone.
“The package has been secured.” Jeremy’s voice is amused, and from the background noise, it sounds like he’s in the car.
Ben lets out a low whistle. “No fucking way. Did he put up a fight?”
“Not much of one. I told him to get his ass in the car and he folded like a house of cards.”
“You know I’m right here, right?” A second voice comes from the phone, this one low, rumbly, and laced with irritation.
“You sure are,” Jeremy says. “Right where I want you, even if you have been speaking in grunts and sighs for the last four hours.”
“Fuck off,” the other voice says. “I’m here. What else do you want?”
“A little gratitude for rescuing you from that hellhole of concrete and tourists you call home maybe?”
“Forget it, he’s too grumpy for gratitude.” Ben smiles at the phone. “But at least his ass is in the car. What’s your ETA?”
“About two hours. Gather the troops—it’s family time.”
“You got it,” Ben says. “See you then.”
“Later.”
“I can’t believe Jeremy got him in the car,” Hallie says the second the phone disconnects.
“Uh, can someone fill me in, please?” I ask, my gossip meter blaring. I fucking love a little gossip, and whatever is going on here seems top tier.
Hallie answers me. “Jeremy drove to New York last night. He somehow talked Jordan into getting in the car to come here to visit. I think he used the babies as an excuse.”
“When was the last time he was here?” I ask, turning this information around in my head.
Jordan is Ben’s other college best friend. He used to live here and was part of Hallie and Ben’s group of friends. Two years ago, his fiancée, Allie, died tragically, and he left Pittsburgh a few months later to move to New York. Hallie and Ben and their friends have been to New York a few times over the last two years, but I don’t know when his last visit here was.
My last memory of him is from the day of Allie’s funeral, slumped in a chair at a table in the bar Ben and Jeremy own together, with messy hair and shattered, red-rimmed eyes, as his three brothers tried, unsuccessfully, to get him to talk. I remember thinking that if I knew him better, I would have gone to sit next to him. Seeing someone hurting and doing nothing about it goes against every instinct I have.
“He hasn’t been back since he moved,” Hallie answers.
“Never?” That surprises me. I can’t imagine having a group of friends like they have and not wrapping myself in their comfort when the worst happens.
“Nope,” Ben says, fumbling his phone as he tries to type one handed. “But he’s coming now, so I’m going to let everyone know to come here tonight. That okay with you, Hal?”
Hallie nods. “For sure. I can just sneak away when I need to feed the babies and put them down, for however long they’ll stay asleep.”
I glance down at Caitlin, who is now fast asleep in the crook of my arm, the wheels turning in my head. Then I look back up at Hallie. “Do you ever give them bottles?”
“Yeah, we do formula at night so Ben can do some night feeds, and I’m not attached to a baby twenty-four hours a day. Why?”
“Good. I’ll stay and handle the babies tonight. Let Jordan and all your friends fuss over them, and then when they need to eat, I’ll take them upstairs to feed them and put them down. It’ll give you all some time to be together. Jordan should have all his friends with him for his first time home in two years.”
“Are you sure, Jo?” Hallie asks.
“Two babies are a tall order.” Ben studies me intently like he’s trying to discern whether I’m capable of keeping his children alive.
I smile at his concerned parent voice. “And yet you guys have done it every day for the last month.” I cuddle Caitlin closer, pressing a kiss to her downy head. “Seriously, guys, you have to learn to share. Be with your friends. Let me hang with my tiny besties. If there’s some kind of issue, you’ll be right here, but I promise there won’t be. Despite the fact that I’m currently dressed like a teenager and probably have paint in my hair, I swear I am a fully formed adult.”
Hallie laughs and turns to Ben, who smiles and nods. “You’re on, Jo Jo. Consider yourself our first babysitter.”
I grin at them, jazzed for some one-on-one time with my favorite babies. “I love this for me.”