Chapter 26 #2
“We can prove to you Stacia was friends with your cousin,” I say, stepping forward as well. “Would you let us do it inside? I’d really like to see Cricket. I’ve missed her so much.”
“I’m not calling her that.” Jada jerks her chin. “Her name is Christine after Jules’s mom.”
“It’s a nice name.” Spencer speaks calmly from behind me. “Would you mind if I see her? I’ve never met the little girl.”
Jada doesn’t move at first. She studies the three of us again as if weighing her options. Another cry sounds from behind her, and I force a desperate smile.
“Please?” My tone seems to soften her, or the noise of a fussy baby.
Jada steps back, opening the door wider. “I guess y’all can come in.” She walks ahead of us, picking up discarded socks, a T-shirt, and a plastic bag. “It’s kind of a mess in here. I never had a baby before.”
“It’s okay…” I follow her carefully, doing my best not to shove past her. “Babies can be overwhelming at first.”
The room is small, but a lamp is lit on a small, doily-covered table, and lace curtains are pulled back to allow light through the windows.
Several area rugs cover the dull wooden floors, and it’s cluttered but appears clean.
A faint scent of poop lingers in the air, and I imagine she doesn’t know about Stan the Manny’s Diaper-Genie trick.
My chest tightens at the sound of a baby girl humming in a fretful way from the floor across the room, then Cricket’s little head peeks out from behind a plush armchair.
She’s dressed in a long-sleeved beige shirt and soft knit pants, and she’s looking down at the floor as she rocks back and forth on her hands and knees.
Every muscle in my body tenses, and I hold myself back from racing across the small space to scoop her into my arms.
“I think she’s trying to crawl or something,” Jada explains. “She makes a lot of sounds, and she says ‘Ba’ a lot.”
“Can I hold her? Please?” I don’t wait for an answer. I go to her before Jada replies, bending down to sweep her onto my hip. “Cricket?” My voice is soft and high. “Hey, baby! You okay?”
Her little eyes widen, and she pats my face, squealing and then leaning forward to put her forehead against my jaw as she chants, “Ba ba ba.”
“I know, baby girl. I missed you, too.” I close my heated eyes, swallowing the ache in my throat as I rub her back. “I’m here…”
I stop myself from finishing that sentence. I want to tell her I’m here to take her to her daddy, but I don’t want Jada throwing up walls and kicking us out.
“It looks like you’ve been busy,” Spencer notes in a neutral tone. “Do you live alone?”
“Yeah.” Jada picks up a pair of shoes off the floor. “My boyfriend comes over a lot, but he doesn’t spend the night now that the baby’s here. She cries too much for him.”
“That must be difficult.” Spencer takes a turn around the living room before coming to a stop.
“He don’t bother me none. I’m taking care of my family, and he can deal with it.”
My throat is dry, and I hug Cricket tighter. She puts her little head on my shoulder, humming quietly as she sucks on her finger, and I realize we have a problem. I’m not going to be able to leave here without her.
“That’s very admirable of you,” Spencer replies.
“It’s the right thing to do.” Jada straightens defiantly. “Family takes care of family. I don’t have much, but I expect that’s what Jules would’ve done for me if the tables were turned. Baby Christine will grow up here, where I can tell her about her Mee-maw and Pawpaw and her aunts and uncles…”
I look at Spencer before turning to Jada and asking, “Are Jules’s parents still alive?”
“No, her daddy died in a car wreck a long time ago, and her momma got cancer. But I can still tell her about them.”
“Yes, you can.” Spencer nods, putting a hand on his waist. “I think Mr. Bradford would be very open to your being a big part of Cricket’s life. He comes from a large family himself.”
“Mr. Bradford’s not her daddy.”
“Let me show you some pictures.” Stacia steps forward, holding out her phone.
“This is a picture of Bonnie and me at the National Cheer Championship competition in Orlando in high school… and here’s one of us when we were seniors in college.
This is the night I found out I made the Saints’ Cheer Krewe.
It was the last time I saw your cousin.”
Jada leans close, studying the pictures Stacia swipes through on her phone. “That’s Jules… You didn’t photoshop those or make them with AI?”
A warm smile breaks across Stacia’s face and she shakes her head. “I knew your cousin very well. She was obsessed with Mamma Mia, and…”
“Oh, man, she stole that video from the library, and she watched it every single day!” Jada shakes her head. “She always dreamed of going to—”
“Santorini!” Stacia says the word at the same time as Jada.
The girl’s eyes widen, and I want to high five our cheerleading friend. That did it.
“Well… that’s good to know.” Jada nods. “I’m glad she had friends to get her through those dark times. I don’t know why she wanted to spend them in New Orleans instead of here, where it’s peaceful.”
“I think she liked the city,” Stacia says carefully. “I think she liked the energy.”
“Maybe so.” Jada lifts her chin. “That still doesn’t mean I’ll give up her baby.”
“Taking care of a baby is a lot of work and a lot of money.” I take the baton, still hugging Cricket against my chest. “Are you sure you’ll be able to keep her here, all by yourself?”
“I’ll figure something out. The ladies at the church’ll help me, and they have a food bank and a thrift store.”
Spencer is still as a statue, watching the scene play out before him, and I’m glad he hasn’t pulled out his stack of bills. It seems Jada doesn’t want money for her cousin, which is a major relief to me… It’s also a pretty major roadblock.
I clear my throat, doing my very best to choose my words carefully and present them gently, non-confrontationally. “Wouldn’t you want to honor your cousin’s final wishes? She wanted her baby to have the best in life, and she wanted her to be with the man she loved.”
Jada frowns. “Aren’t you his girlfriend?”
“Yes.” I nod. “So I understand why your cousin would love Knox. He’s a kind man, and he wants to be a good father to… Christine.”
“Maybe he does, but that doesn’t mean it’s what Jules wanted. Just because you show up here and say all that doesn’t make it true.”
My eyes go to Stacia, and I remember Spencer saying hearsay doesn’t prove anything.
“I can promise you it’s what she wanted,” I say.
Jada shakes her head. “I don’t think so.”
Stacia steps forward again, smiling and holding out her phone. “But what if I have this?”
“What?” Jada reads the message on her phone screen.
“It’s a text exchange I had with Bonnie when she told me she was pregnant. She didn’t know who the father was, and I was worried about her. You can read right here what she wanted.” Stacia slides her finger up the screen. “She wanted her baby to be with Knox.”
Jada lifts her chin, and her brown eyes hold Stacia’s for a moment.
Then she turns to me, where I’m standing in the middle of her living room with a sleeping Cricket in my arms, doing the little baby bounce. Her eyes go to her cousin, and she frowns.
I consider making a break for it, when my uncle steps forward and makes her an offer.