After that, he let me go but grabbed my hand and we went in to finish the sundaes. Ethan was not in the kitchen but he was the first one I went to where he was sitting on the couch in the family room and I handed him a bowl.
He tucked in immediately and was lifting the spoon to his mouth but doing it with his mouth moving in order to declare, “When I get a girlfriend, we’re just holding hands. None of that kissing stuff.”
I pressed my lips together in an effort not to laugh.
The Taylors and Amber didn’t bother.
It was Conner who spoke. “You are so full of it.”
Ethan swallowed an enormous bite of sundae and turned his eyes to his brother, “I’m not.”
Conner’s eyes were twinkling when he replied, “Bud, trust me. You so are.”
“Am not,” Ethan returned.
Conner grinned at his brother, turned his attention to me and winked, then looked back to the game.
I gave the other bowl I had to girl Taylor before I went back into the kitchen to get more bowls that Jake was assembling.
I did it smiling.
I also did it feeling sad for Donna.
She was very much missing out.
But even sad for her, I was delighted for me.
For I was absolutely not.
* * * * *
“At this very minute, the Colts are playing,” Ethan, sitting in the pew on the other side of his dad, groused.
“Shut it, bud,” Jake, sitting in the pew next to me, muttered.
Ethan didn’t “shut it.”
He declared, “We’re missing it.”
“Eath, it’s taping,” Conner, on the other side of Ethan, pointed out.
“I better not find out the score before we get home,” Ethan warned.
“Ohmigod,” boy Taylor, sitting next to Amber who was sitting on my other side, whispered excitedly. “There’s Kieran Wentworth.”
“Where?” girl Taylor’s fabulous sheath of shining black hair flew this way and that as she looked around.
“Four pews back, on the other side,” boy Taylor told her and went on to note, “He must be home from school for the weekend or something.”
I leaned into Amber and murmured, “Who’s Kieran Wentworth?”
She leaned into me and murmured in reply, “He was a junior when we were freshman. He’s so hot, he’s a legend. He’s at Boston College now. Taylor has been in love with him since forever.”
I looked over my shoulder and four pews back on the other side I spied a highly attractive young man with short-clipped dark sandy blond hair, an exceptionally square jaw and cheekbones that would be immensely photogenic.
He also had very broad shoulders.
Further, he was wearing a rather stylish dark blue tailored shirt and wearing it quite well.
I turned back and leaned back into Amber. “He’s most attractive.”
“Yep,” she agreed.
“I cannot imagine he hasn’t noted Taylor’s charms,” I remarked.
“Uh…Josie, he’s nineteen and in college. She’s sixteen. That’s not gonna happen.”
Hmm.
“Give it two years,” I stated.
“He’ll be snapped up in two years,” Amber returned.
“Not if he has something to wait for,” I told her and felt her eyes turn to me so I turned mine to her.
She was smiling.
I winked.
Her smile got bigger.
I felt Jake lean into me and I turned my attention to him when he said, “I know Taylor’s father. Don’t go there.”
I looked into his eyes then looked away and murmured, ‘Hmm.”
“Babe, the kid’s nineteen,” Jake stated something Amber had just told me.
“And?” I asked.
“He’s also in college.”
“Yes?”
He stared at me.
The choir started singing so I grinned to myself and stood with the rest of the congregation.
I did not miss it when, several minutes later, Reverend Fletcher came out, looked amongst his flock, saw me with the Spear family in our pew and he smiled at me.
Further, I absolutely did not miss it when, some time after that, Reverend Fletcher asked us all to pray for Arnold Weaver and his family as they had, just hours earlier, lost their beloved Elizabeth.
And I completely did not miss it when this was announced and Jake’s arm, already extended behind me to rest on the back of the pew, curled around me to pull me tight to his side at the same time Amber reached out and grabbed my hand.
I was devastated for Arnie and his family.
Even so, I couldn’t help but be happy for me as I’d finally found one.
Last, not too long after that, I made certain one Kieran Wentworth did not miss it when we were exiting the church and I maneuvered myself, Amber, Jake, Ethan, Conner and most especially the Taylors close to him. He was standing somewhat removed from a woman and man who must have been his parents. I then faked tripping, and as I’d done it so often in my life, I was good at faking it.
Of course, I wouldn’t have wanted to fall to the floor so I had to grab something. The something I grabbed was girl Taylor, thus swinging her with me and directly into one Kieran Wentworth.
Jake caught me.
Kieran Wentworth caught Taylor.
He blinked when he looked into the exotically beautiful face of the girl curled in his arm.
I grinned as he did it.
Jake’s arm tightened around my belly as he did it and his lips went to my ear.
“Seriously?” he asked and his tone sounded both amused and perturbed.
I had no answer to this question for I didn’t understand it as I often didn’t understand it when Jake, his children or others around us used this same word frequently. So I decided to ignore it and moved forward, pulling Jake with me.
“I’m so sorry. I’m quite clumsy,” I shared, grinning innocently (I hoped) in Kieran Wentworth’s face.
With obvious effort, he tore his gaze from girl Taylor and looked to me.
“Uh…not a problem,” he replied.
I noted he still had a hand on girl Taylor’s waist.
I nodded to him, smiled at him, pried Jake’s arm from around my belly but did it taking hold of his hand and then I dragged him away in order to let nature take its course.
“That was epic,” boy Taylor, trailing us, decreed.
“It’s Josie who’s epic,” Amber, also trailing us, contradicted.
At her words, so much warmth washed through me, I couldn’t handle it all and I tripped, genuinely this time.
Jake hauled me close and clamped an arm around me.
He said nothing but when I looked up at him, he was grinning.
We waited at the cars for a full ten minutes before girl Taylor finally joined us.
And I was delighted to see when she did, she looked dreamy.
* * * * *
In the afternoon two days later, I leaned into Arnie, my hand on his arm and touched my cheek to his.
When I had it there, I whispered, “She will be missed.”
“She will, my dear,” he replied. I leaned back and he said, “I’ll see you at the house.”
I nodded, gave his arm a squeeze and moved away. Jake moved in, shook Arnie’s hand and murmured his condolences. He did not take a great deal of time doing this and shifted away quickly to allow others to approach.
He got close to me, slid an arm around me and commandeered the umbrella I was holding, pulling me even closer and holding the big black umbrella over our heads as he moved us to his truck.
I walked through the sodden grass of the cemetery trying not to let the spike heels of my black boots sink into the turf, and failing.
They would need to be cleaned, air dried and shined and hopefully, in the end, they would not be ruined.
Jake performed somewhat of a miracle both holding the umbrella over me even as he helped me climb up in the truck, a difficult task in my black pencil skirt.
Once I was in, he closed my door, folded the umbrella, tossed it in the backseat and moved around the hood of the truck with the drizzle falling on his unguarded head and fantastic Hugo Boss suit.