“Who is it, Mommy?” I looked at her blonde-haired daughter and smiled.
She grinned right back at me. Julianna’s daughter was the spitting image of her beautiful mom.
Julianna took a deep breath and opened the door a bit further. “This is Jake. Jake, this is my daughter Caley.”
I knelt down and smiled at her. “Hi, Caley.”
She eyed me for a moment and then nodded at the flowers. “Are those flowers for me?”
“One bunch is, and the other is for your mommy. Can you give this to her?” Caley took both bunches from my hands, smelled them, and then gave one to Julianna.
I could tell that it instantly put her at ease. “Thank you, Jakey!”
I laughed at the nickname.
Caley stepped forward again. “Do you like to swing? Mommy and Daddy got me a swing set, and I go on it all the time. Well, when Mommy says I can. Only after I do my homework.”
“I do! In fact, your mother and I used to play on the swings all the time! Maybe you and I will swing together sometime, okay?” She nodded and then ran away.
Julianna lifted a brow, her face showing her admitted defeat. “Well, she’s smitten with you. Why don’t you come in.”
Julianna gave me a brief tour of her home, which was considerably smaller than my brother’s guest house. It was charming, though. The way it was decorated, and the homey feel to it fit Julianna perfectly.
“Thank you for the flowers,” she said, putting both bunches into vases.
She positioned them on the kitchen counter where they’d get plenty of sunlight.
“And thank you for the other night.” Julianna came over and sat down next to me. “Are you hungry? Because it’s almost dinnertime. I’m making oven-fried chicken, and you’re welcome to stay.”
Even though I was fairly full from the cookout, I didn’t want to miss the chance to spend time with her and Caley.
“Starving,” I lied.
I helped set the table while she cooked dinner, and even pushed Caley for a bit on the swing. Julianna looked out at us a few times and smiled. All three of us conversed over dinner. Caley told me all about her school, how she’s her art teacher’s favorite student, and how she loved reading, too. Julianna and I told her about how we went to school together, and her eyes’ got bigger when I told how long we’d known each other.
“That’s longer than I’ve been alive.”
We all laughed at her comment.
“She has quite the personality,” Julianna said.
“Probably gets it from her mother.” I winked at her and then turned back to Caley, who was pushing broccoli around on her plate. “You don’t like broccoli?”
“No,” she said with a pouty face. “And mommy won’t let me leave the table until I eat it.”
“My brother loves broccoli,” I told her. “In fact, he told me that only cool people eat broccoli. And you seem like a pretty cool kid.”
She gave me a huge grin before promptly eating her broccoli. We sat and waited for her to finish. Julianna gave her a celebratory clap and kissed her on the cheek. Then Caley immediately jumped down and ran off. I carried my plate to the sink and turned around, watching Julianna clean up. "Could I use your restroom?"
Julianna smiled and pointed toward the hallway. "First door on your right."
I washed my hands and stared at myself for a moment, not entirely sure what I was doing. I was going with the flow for once. It just felt refreshing to be around Julianna and her daughter. When I came out of the bathroom, Caley was walking up and down the hallway in a different outfit. “What’s the special occasion?”
“I’m gonna be a model when I grow up,” she said, twirling around.
“I can definitely see you doing that,” I said as I followed her upstairs into her bedroom.
She ran into her closet and started to throw clothes all over her bed, picking up each piece and telling me which were her favorites.
