Jessie let out a sigh of relief at the successful tasting behind her as she entered the house and closed the door behind her. Min Jun had signed the contract and dragged Luke away with him. For the first time in almost two weeks, she was stalker free.
She had considered calling the police early on, but it hadn't taken long for her to realize Luke was harmless. Strange, yes. He would sit and work on his laptop. He drank tea and kowtowed to anything Betty asked, or at least he tried to. Apparently, training as a popstar did little to prepare him for manual labor.
But now, she was ready to put life at the bakery behind her and relax. She looked at her watch. One hour and sixteen minutes to soak in a bath, have dinner, and make it to The Buzzed Bee for her shift.
She bent her neck from side to side, releasing some tension as she slipped off her shoes and left them in the shoe cubby by the door. The quiet was heaven until the sound of retching broke the tranquility.
Another sigh. This one in resignation. Jakara. Compassion trumped indulgence. She headed to the hall bathroom that Liam and Steph shared, and now Jakara.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she stood outside the bathroom. Inside, the girl was still heaving. The acrid smell stank up the hall even with the door closed.
Jessie tapped on the door. "Jakara? Are you all right?"
A muffled 'yes' followed by dry heaving broke her heart. She remembered her own pregnancies and bouts of morning sickness that sometimes lasted all day.
"I'm coming in," Jessie announced before opening the door.
Makeup, hair products, and an assortment of cleansers and moisturizers covered the counter. Towels littered the floor. On the other side of the towels, Jakara's head was draped over the toilet. Her long hair was pulled to the side and held by a blue scrunchy.
Jessie opened a cabinet and pulled out a clean washcloth. Running it under the tap, she said, "You poor thing. No one is ready for this. It feels like an alien is trying to escape your body, and in a way, it is." She wrung out the cloth and knelt beside Jakara, lifting her hair to place the cloth against the girl's neck.
Jessie rubbed Jakara's back for the longest time and waited until the girl's distress abated. She helped Jakara back to Liam's room and tucked her into bed before heading to the kitchen and brewing two cups of herbal tea. By the time she had put together a plate of crackers, Jakara sat at the kitchen table with her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them.
Jessie sat the tea in front of her and slid the plate of crackers toward her as she sat. She wasn't sure how to do this, but she needed to talk with Jakara.
"Have you heard from Liam?" Jessie asked.
Jakara nodded.
"Is he still in school?"
"Yeah. Liam sold his car."
"I'm sorry it came to that."
"He would have needed to sell it when the baby came anyway. A baby seat wouldn't fit in the Mustang. Not a family car."
"When are you due? Have you seen a doctor yet?"
"Next week."
"Is Liam going with you?"
Jakara nodded. "He promised to be there."
"Is there anything I can do? Are you craving anything? Can I talk to your parents for you or knit booties or something? I don't know how this grandmother thing works."
"Liam said you might let me work in the bakery? I mean if you want. I'd like to learn." For the first time, Jakara looked at Jessie. Hope filled her eyes.
"Sure, I can do that. I can't pay you much, though."
Jakara interrupted her. "Oh, I don't care about the pay. I like to cook. My parents forced me into a nursing program, but after the baby is born, I want to apply to a culinary arts institution."
"Is that so? Is it nearby?"
"Across town, but I'll make it work. By then, maybe Momma will have cooled down and will help me with the baby. She helped my sister and brother with theirs, so I have hope. I always wanted Momma to be important to my kids. You too, of course, if you want."
"I'd like that, Jakara. Liam and Steph have been my only family for a long time now. It will be good to spread the love." She reached over and placed a hand on the girl's. "That includes you, if you want."
Jakara gave a tentative nod. "You might not want me, but I have to tell you something."
"What's that?"
Tears dripped down the girl's face, and she wiped at them with a shaky hand. "I don't love Liam, and I don't want to marry him or anything. I don't think he loves me either. I just want this baby. It's mine, you know. I made it, and I owe it to him or her to raise it right."
Jessie processed this information slowly. She never thought that Liam was ever in love with Jakara either. To be honest, there were days she doubted he loved anyone but himself.
She was relieved Jakara had no illusions of happily ever after. On the other hand, was a sense of responsibility a good enough reason to bring a child into the world? Particularly for someone so young and ill-prepared to take care of a baby.
Jessie never gave a lot of thought to abortion rights. As far as she was concerned, that was a personal choice tied up in a whole range of variables. She had no right to tell this girl what to do. On the other hand, after experiencing parenthood firsthand, Jessie wasn't sure she would ever willingly choose to raise children alone. Not because of a lack of love for her children but because she wasn't sure if it was fair to the kids.
She hated to imagine how badly her divorced from their dad had scarred Liam and Steph. At least she was here to help them pick up the pieces if they wanted the help. That is more than she could say about David.
Jessie took a sip of tea and asked the one question she couldn't avoid asking. "I'll only ask this once. Jakara, are you absolutely sure this is what you want?"
"Yeah, this is what I want."
"Well, okay then. Looks like I need to learn how to knit booties."
* * * *
Jessie carried in two trays of leftovers from the tasting and sat them on The Buzzed Bee bar.
"Evening, ladies and gentlemen. Come help me celebrate a new Flour Pot client and the impending birth of my first grandchild." Jessie was all in now.
"Congratulations!" Max called from where she was sharing a basket of fries with Jackson at the other end of the bard.
"Condolences," Jackson said. "Do I need to kick Liam's ass?"
"Steph could be knocked up," Max said.
"No, she's got too much sense. No, it's Liam's," Jackson said. "That boy never could keep it in his pants."
Max asked, "Whose is it, Jessie?"
"Jackson's got you on this one, Maxie."
The curly-headed blonde pulled a ten out of her picket and slapped it on the bar next to Jackson. "Damn profiler background. Next time we bet on something I've got a chance of winning, like me having sex before you."
Jackson grunted and shoved the money back at her. "You win. I concede."
Jordan came out of the kitchen and made a beeline for the treats. "That's right. My daddy has only had sex once, and that was when he made me. He can't improve on perfection, so he'll never have sex again. I'll have sex before he will." She grabbed up some cookies and took them over to her dad. She kissed his cheek and plopped a cookie in his mouth.
"When she's thirty," Jackson said around his cookie.
"That's still before Jessie," Maxie added.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," came a familiar voice from behind Jessie.
Jessie did an about-face to see Min Jun strolling toward her with all the swagger of a man accustomed to getting what he wanted.
"You don't," Jessie said.
"Don't what?" Min Jun asked.
"Have anything to say about it."
"OMG!" Jordan exclaimed, pointing a finger from Jessie to Min Jun. "You two know each other?"
"They were swapping spit out back last weekend," Jackson chowed down on a fry.
"We weren't swapping spit," Jessie interjected, her head ready to explode with the direction this thing was taking.
Min Jun put an arm around her shoulders, and she tried to shake it off, but he just held her tighter. "Swapping spit? That means kissing, correct? Yes, I like kissing Jessie."
Jessie glanced at him and saw a smug smile on his face. Determined to knock it off, she shot an elbow into his ribs.
"Oomph." Min Jun dropped his arm from around Jessie to protect his side.
"No way!" Jordan said. "She doesn't even know who BEXT is. Why does she get MJ?"
"You can have him," Jessie said.
"No, you can't," Jackson and Min Jun echoed one another.
"Aw, come on," said Jordan. "I promised MJ is off limits. Jessie can have him, but I never said anything about him." She pointed to the man with silver hair who was setting up an amp and guitar on the small stage that was mostly used for Wednesday night karaoke.
When the man looked toward the group, Jessie recognized him as Luke. His hair was shorter now and the color was gone.
"Luke?"
Jordan put an arm around Jessie. "Oh, honey, that's not Luke. That's Hong Gi."
"No, that's Luke. He's been basically living at The Flour Pot."
"No, that's Hong Gi, the youngest member of BEXT. He's twenty-six, five feet eleven inches, one hundred seventy pounds. Tenor. Likes video games, horror movies, and Cheetos. He's a dancing maniac who can pop and lock like nobody's business. I could go on, but the point is that is Hong Gi." She turned Jessie to a table in the back of the room where a guy wearing a maroon hoody sat with his back toward them. "That is Luke."
Luke looked at them from over his shoulder. His periwinkle hair peeked out from beneath the hoody.
Jessie looked from Luke to Hong Gi and back. Twins. She had spent days in the company of Luke, and still, if not for the difference in styling, she could not tell them apart.
"Is Luke your backup plan?" Jessie asked Jordan.
"No man, everyone knows where Hong goes Luke follows. Dating Hong Gi is like getting a two-fer-one special."