Jonnie stepped into Rowan’s room with a huge smile. “Barbie’s, my daughter swallowed that pill too,” she admitted, eyes scanning Rowan’s room and the massive amount of Barbie everything.
“Rowan’s our bookworm,” I proudly boasted when Lyndsey picked up her favorite book, Sir Wrinkles, by Lenora Kerr.
“Her mom waited in line for three hours to get that book. It’s signed. She’s very proud of that book,” Paxton explained.
I felt sad about that for a second. I never knew that. I knew that it was her favorite book, and I knew that it was the only one that got a special place on the top shelf. I just didn’t know the story behind getting it. That hurt a little.
Next we went into Phi’s room. “Our little tomboy,” I said, happy smile returning. She had some girl things, but the skateboard, and the dinosaurs were a dead giveaway. Ophelia had a collection of them, and every piece of paraphernalia they made. It worked out, both girls played with the Jurassic World as much as they played with the Barbie’s in Rowan’s room.
We went into the room where the door was boarded up with plywood next.
“Don’t mind the paint smell. We’ve been working on this room, trying to get it ready. I have a window coming. I should get it in this week.”
“We’re kind of up in arms on who to give this room to. I feel like Rowan should have it since she’s the oldest.”
“She’s not that much older than Ophelia. Vander should have the room with the private bath,” Paxton argued. We both looked to see whose side our guests took.
They didn’t take either. “I’ll take this room,” Jonnie decided.
It was rather empty. We painted the room a neutral color, sort of between blue and silver. Comfort Gray was the name on the little card.
The state ladies left us with a lot of hope, and they both assured us they planned to step up to the plate. That made me extremely happy. We walked them to the door, thanking them for coming, hand in hand.
Jonnie stopped on the bottom step and turned to us. “I love the way you two are so in love. That’s important in a family.”
I smiled and leaned into Paxton. “Yeah, that’s fake. I don’t really like him that much,” I teased.
Jonnie snickered. “Sure, was that mud for us, or did your husband hug you when he came rushing in late?”
I looked down my cream colored blouse to the streak of mud down my left side and smiled. “Something like that.” He hugged me because I was freaking out. He also didn’t tell me about my muddy shirt for two hours. Idiot.
Fourteen
Paxton took us all out again that night, ice cream and putt-putt golf, too. I’m pretty sure it was for me, to get my mind off of what came next. It worked. The girls talked nonstop about their day with Mi. She gave them both incense, telling them some story about our family stones, and burning the lavender for a sense of calm.
“I think it’s for to make our rocks be powerful more,” Ophelia decided from the backseat.
“What would you girls think about getting another stone? Make our family a little bigger?”
“Paxton,” I protested, stopping him before he promised something that may not happen.
“What? We should tell them.”
“Stop, not yet.”
“Are you going to have a baby?” Rowan asked in a squeal. “You are, aren’t you Mom? Yay, Georgina got a baby brother.”
“I don’t want a girl,” Ophelia announced while helping out her sister.
“I’m not going to have a baby. We’re not getting a baby.”
“He’s five,” Paxton said, totally overruling me. “His name is Vander.”
“Hey, I’m five,” Phi said with more excitement than needed.
“Where’s his mommy?” Rowan questioned.
I turned to Paxton and told him how I felt about him. “I hate you.”
“Talk them. Tell them what’s going on.”
I didn’t say a word at first. I only stared at Paxton, pondering what to say while he drove us home. Home from a great night that he was about to ruin.
“Remember when Mommy had her wreck?” I began.
“Yes, we missed you,” Phi said while twisting in her seat, pulling her seatbelt, in and out.
“I missed you, too, baby. Stop doing that. What if Daddy slams on his breaks? You won’t be safe. I wasn’t alone. My sister was with me, too.”
“Where is she?”
“Did she die?”
“We don’t know where she is. We haven’t found her yet, but we’re looking. Vander is her little boy, and he needs a family until we can find her.”
“Maybe she went to the mall,” Ophelia said while offering her silly opinion.
I frowned, and looked to Paxton’s smiling face. “She’s not at the mall. I don’t know where she is. Maybe she’s hurt and she doesn’t remember who she is.”
“Like you, right?” Row questioned.
“Maybe, but I bet her little boy is as cool as she was. She was my best friend.”
“They were twins. Your mom had a twin sister that looked just like her.”
“Has, I have a twin sister that looks just like me. She’s just lost, but we’re going to keep looking.”
Although it felt good to talk about her, to finally express my love for her, it was hard. I didn’t know a lot about her, a handful of things I had thought to be true, but really wasn’t sure. I didn’t remember her, and it bothered me. A lot.
That night when I laid down with my family to recharge our stones and read Ophelia’s book choice, I focused really hard on it. On having Vander right there with us, Spiderman pajamas and his own little stone stuck to ours, connected by Paxton’s larger stone.
I looked over the girls, sitting cross-legged while Rowan read the book, ‘The Day the Crayons Quit.’ Phi loved that silly little book. Paxton’s hand laid over Ophelia’s, holding her hand while she held the charging stones, bringing more power to our family. His eyes were already on mine when I looked over, feeling a lot. Too much. I wanted Vander more than I wanted anything in life, and I would have done anything to get him. I thought about where Izzy was, and how I was supposed to explain it to Vander. If I got him. How the hell do you tell a five-year-old that his mommy was lost?
I love you, Paxton mouthed with no words.
I winked at him, placing my hand in his. Phi held my finger, never taking her eyes from her big sister’s finger, following the words as she read.
As soon as Rowan said the end, Paxton was on his feet. “Night lady bugs. I’ve got to go get the trash ready.”
Ophelia wasn’t ready to sleep yet, she’s the one that started the wrestling match. Paxton tossed her over his shoulder and spanked her butt while Rowan went after him. I jumped up before they all fell to the bed on top of me.
“Phi, come on. You’re going in your bed tonight,” I said in a loud tone as I walked to the door. I hit the wall with my hand and said it again when she continued to scream, attacking her dad. I quit and walked to the kitchen where I heated water for tea, started the dishwasher, and wiped something sticky from the island.
I sat on the barstool and opened the folder left for us by the social workers, an instant smile taking over my lips as soon as I saw his little face.
Paxton slid to the stool behind me, kissing the back of my neck. “Can I buy you drink?” He teased.
I smiled and walked to the whistling pot. “No, do you want tea?”
“What the fuck is this? Are you collecting lemons?”
I looked to the vase full of lemons and back to my cup. “Mi brought them. She knew the social workers were coming. They absorb all the negative energy put off by people coming into your house.”
Paxton shook his head and shifted his attention to the paperwork. He wasn’t about to touch that one. Or maybe he was.
“She’s fucking nuts, just so you know.”
I laughed and joined him as he scanned the mountain of information the state wanted. Everything but our grocery list.
“Oh, my God. Look at this, Gabriella,” Paxton said with a straight finger on one of the pages.
We met half way and he showed me his birth certificate. “That’s Ophelia’s birthday. You had them on the exact same day, the exact same year. That’s fucking insane, like creepy insane.”