Chapter 10 MJ
MJ
“Our plan appears to be working,” Rose whispers as I pass her the pot I just washed in the kitchen sink.
“Our plan?” I ask. “I thought you absolved yourself of all responsibility.”
“Well, I did,” she says, drying the dish with a towel. “Until I saw how brilliant my idea turned out to be.”
Echoes of laughter waft in from the living room, and my heart swells. Lindsey might have been surprised, or even a little upset at first, but from the way she smiled and giggled next to Oliver on the couch, I could tell that any frustration she felt had already melted away.
“He’s a good egg, that one,” Rose says, reading my mind.
“That he is,” I agree, busying myself by scooping toasted hazelnut coffee into the filter and filling the carafe with water.
Oliver is more amazing than I imagined. In fact, I’m not sure I could’ve found someone as perfect as him if I’d been given the opportunity to handpick a match for Lindsey myself.
He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t just ask if he can help with the dishes.
Instead, he gets up and starts doing them.
When he asks Lindsey questions, you can tell he genuinely cares about her answers and that he’s filing the information away for safekeeping.
“Grandma!” Emily’s voice tinkles like a bell. “Can I have a cookie?”
I give her tiny cherub cheek a squeeze. “Why don’t you let your dinner settle a bit longer and then I’ll bring some dessert into the playroom?”
She sighs. “All right.”
I turn long enough to pull some mugs from one of the upper cabinets, and in that amount of time, I hear the sound of porcelain scraping and the snickers of two people who think they’ve pulled one over on me.
?“Rose!” I whirl around just as Emily scampers from the room with a fistful of cookies.
“What?” my sister asks, pushing off the cabinets with her good foot, sending the office chair she’s sitting in gliding across the room. “Did something happen?”
“You think you’re so sneaky.”
“Dammit, Myra Jean. You have eyes in the back of your head or something?”
“Of course, I do. I have three kids.”
“Let’s get back out there.” Rose tugs the sleeve of my cardigan. “Things were just getting good.”
The coffee maker starts to hiss, and I roll her back into the living room.
“Coffee’s on,” Rose announces as I wheel her to the love seat, and I take my place beside her, curling my legs beneath me.
“Did you ever play?” Oliver asks Ben, motioning to the football game on the television.
Ben leans forward in the recliner, resting his elbows on his knees. “Nothing more than some pickup games with friends. I did play some soccer in high school, though.”
“No kidding? Me too.” Oliver’s eyes brighten. “What position?”
“Keeper,” Ben says. “You?”
“Center fullback.” Oliver laughs easily. “But I wasn’t very good.”
“What about you?” Oliver asks, turning his attention to Lindsey. “Did you play any sports in school?”
She presses her hand to her chest, eyes wide. “Who, me? Nooo. I’m not very athletic. In fact, my PE coach in high school requested I sit out because I accidentally knocked him in the crotch with a golf club while he was teaching me how to swing.”
“That’s my girl,” I say with a chuckle, and Oliver laughs.
“You’ve learned a thing or two since then,” Ellie begins. “It’s because of Lindsey that the kids had a soccer program this past spring.”
“Really?” Oliver angles himself toward Lindsey, and my inner body-language-armchair-expert has a field day. “Is that so?”
Lindsey, ever humble, ducks her head. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
“Oh, it was,” Ben says. “Coach Morgan tore her ACL right before the start of the season, and the rec center couldn’t find a replacement on such short notice.”
“They thought they were going to have to cancel the whole season,” Ellie goes on. “The kids were crushed. So, this rock star stepped in to help with zero knowledge of the sport.”
“You should have seen her.” Lucy moves forward and looks past her sister at Oliver. “She watched soccer-for-beginners videos at work on her lunch break for two weeks straight.”
Lindsey runs her hand through her hair and shakes her head. “It was nothing, really. I saw a need, and I filled it. That’s all.”
“Well, it meant the world to Noah and Emily.” Ellie regards Lindsey with a warm smile.
“Ref Caldwell, on the other hand, was glad when the season ended,” Ben says with a laugh. “Lindsey gave him so much hell.”
Lindsey throws up her hands. “Um yeah, because he never called offsides, and why would he when his daughter was playing for the other team? Nepotism at its finest.”
Oliver breaks into a grin. “Please tell me you’ll be doing it again next year, because I need to witness this in person.”
“Lucky for everyone, Coach Morgan will be taking back her spot next season,” Lindsey says.
Lucy blows a puff of air through her lips. “The only person benefiting from your absence is that toad of a referee.”
Ben rubs his palms together. “You know, Nashville has their own soccer team now.”
“I wanted to go to a game when I first moved here,” Oliver says, “but I never did make it.”
“We should go when the season starts in February,” Ben adds, clearly over the moon to not be the only guy in the fold anymore. “All of us.”
“Hell yeah, we should.” Oliver turns to Lindsey, his eyes flickering over to her sister and Willow seated on her other side. “Would y’all be up for that?”
Rose and I exchange wide-eyed glances as we wait for Lindsey’s answer. Luckily, we don’t have to wait long.
“That sounds fun.”
Lucy shrugs. “I’m always down for an excuse to drink overpriced beer.”
“Count us in,” Willow says.
My heart is overflowing, like the shimmering bows in my Christmas gift wrap organizer.
“And what about you guys?” Oliver turns to me and Rose. “You’ll come too, won’t you?”
“Of course, we will,” Rose answers before I can even attempt to bow out. That’s all right—there’ll be plenty of time for that.
“It’s a shame we have to wait till February. This one” —Lucy pinches her sister’s arm— “works entirely too hard. She needs a little fun.”
I silently praise my youngest daughter for playing right into my hands.
“She certainly does,” I agree. “And then add to that the stress of the fire incident. You really do need a break, sweetheart. You need to get out and blow off some steam.”
Warning lights flash in Lindsey’s eyes.
Oliver clears his throat. “Well, maybe we could grab dinner together. We could even finish up that town tour we started.”
“Oh. Um…” I can almost see her wheels turning to spin out an excuse.
Oliver adds, “I have tomorrow night off.”
“I was supposed to get the stuff to make cookies and gingerbread houses with the kids after work, remember?” Lindsey says with a pointed glance in my direction. “They’ve been looking forward to it.”
“Rose and I will do it,” I insist. “We’d love to. And this way Noah and Emily will still get to have fun while you go on your date.”
Lindsey’s cheeks turn pink at the mention of the word date.
Oliver peers at Lindsey expectantly. “Well, what do you say?”
Her eyes flash over to mine so quickly it’s imperceptible to anyone else but me, and I give her an encouraging nod.
“I’d love to.”
I clasp my hands together as my daughter gives me a tight are-you-happy-now smile. “It’s settled, then.”
After the game, everyone is getting ready to go home when Lindsey and Lucy pull me aside in the kitchen.
“Mom, can we talk to you?” Lindsey asks, and I brace myself for a stern lecture.
“Sure,” I answer. “Is everything okay?”
“We need your help with something.” Her face is pinched with worry as she tugs on a lock of her milk chocolate hair.
“We’re in a bit of a bind,” Lucy adds. “It’s kind of a big ask, though.”
My mind races with possible scenarios. Are they having trouble at the clinic? Do they need money?
“You know I’ll do anything I can to help you,” I say. “Now, what’s this all about?”
Lindsey sighs. “You remember the puppy I was keeping for my client, Mr. Phillips? You met her the other day.”
“Oh, June Bug,” I say. “She was there during the fire, wasn’t she?”
“She was,” Lindsey answers.
I remember the little furball. She was curled up, asleep in Lucy’s lap, the morning I went to check on Lindsey.
I nod. “Her owner’s the man who got sick while he was at the clinic, right?”
“Yes,” Lindsey says. “Oliver was there when it happened. That’s how we met. He’s Mr. Phillips’s neighbor. Anyway, it turns out, he’s going to be gone a bit longer than anticipated.”
Lucy nods. “And she’s so tiny and sweet that I’m afraid our dogs might hurt her. They haven’t taken too kindly to having their space invaded. Noah and Emily love her. We’d ask Ben if he wasn’t—”
“Allergic,” I finish for her, the big ask clicking into place. “So, you want to keep the puppy here until this Mr. Phillips gets back.”
“Can we, Mom?” Lindsey’s eyes are pleading, and it reminds me of all the times she presented her case to me and Henry when she was growing up, begging to adopt whatever homeless, or in some cases, wounded animal she’d found.
“Just for a few days. It would be such a big help. We can’t really give her the attention she needs while we’re at work during the day. ”
“Of course,” I say as Ben comes bounding into the room to place a couple of empty mugs in the sink. “I’d be happy to. I’ll work from home for a few days so I can look after her. A puppy would be good company for me.”
Lucy smiles. “Oh, she will.”
“You’re getting a dog?” Ben asks.
“No,” Lindsey answers. “Mom has kindly agreed to help me by keeping June Bug until Mr. Phillips gets back.”
“Huh?” Ben blinks. “The baby dragon?”
“I, uh, put her in a dragon costume the other day,” Lindsey explains quickly. “And she was the cutest little dragon, wasn’t she, Ben?” She shares an inscrutable glance with her brother, who tilts his head like a confused Saint Bernard.
“Um, yeah,” he says finally. “One might even say aggressively cute.”
I have to admit, I’m excited. I considered adopting a pet after Henry died, but I knew it’d be yet another loss I’d have to endure one day, so I ultimately decided against it.
“You’ll love her,” Lindsey adds, squeezing my arm.
“It’s a puppy,” I say, thrilled that even though my kids are grown, they still look to me for help. “What’s not to love?”