Jackson giggles. “Maybe.”
She smirks as she finally looks back up at us. Bringing Jackson was definitely the right call. Some of the ice has melted, even if it’s only momentary.
Thank you, kid.
She stands, holding her hand out for Jackson. “Come on in.” The kid happily slides his hand into hers as we all follow her into the apartment.
Sienna sits on the corner of the couch with Jackson at her side. The rest of us sit down around the small room.
“So, what’s up?” she asks. Her eyes dart between all of us.
“We wanted to make sure you’re really okay,” Grayson says.
“I’m fine. I promise.”
An orange cat darts out from the hallway, jumping on Jackson’s lap.
“Nacho,” she yelps. “What are you doing?”
Jackson giggles, petting the cat.
Sienna’s forehead scrunches as she stares at them. “So, it’s just me you hate, Nacho. Geez.”
Oblivious to her confusion, Jackson looks up at her with big, round eyes. “Can I go play with him?”
She shrugs. “Go for it. I’ve never seen that cat play a day in my life, but I have a feeling if he’s going to play with anyone, it will be you.”
Nacho follows Jackson to the corner of the room. He starts playing with him like he does with Mack.
Glancing back at Sienna, I find her staring at her hands that are knotted together in her lap. “I’m sorry,” she mutters.
For what, exactly?
She finally looks up. Her eyes catch on me first.
“I don’t know how to do this whole ‘just friends’ thing, given the situation. It seems I went straight from…” She trails off, looking over at Jackson. “Everything we were doing to freezing you guys out altogether.”
None of us says anything.
“Gram told me this afternoon, it’s okay to let people help me. I’m not very good at that, if you haven’t noticed.”
Grayson huffs out a laugh, which makes her smile, even if it’s laced with a bit of sadness.
“I’m going to work on finding that balance of being friends and letting you be involved. I just haven’t quite figured it out yet,” she says, looking almost defeated.
Warren, who’s sitting on the couch, scooches over until he’s next to her. She stiffens slightly but doesn’t move.
“Even before, we were all friends,” he says quietly. “I think we can be the way we were with each other, just minus the,” his head wobbles from side to side, “you know.”
She smiles at him, giving his thigh a squeeze. “You’re right.” She looks over at Grayson and me. “I’ll work on it. You guys don’t deserve to be pushed away from all of this.”
“We all want to be a part of this for the baby, but we care about you too,” I say.
She drags in a breath, nodding.
“I care about you guys, too.”
As friends.
