Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Getting in to work, I turn the open sign on and smile as I sit behind my desk gazing at the most recent picture of Hollis from his new preschool. Another milestone and this one is proving to challenge me. I miss having him here with me. That said, there are still days Anna drops him off since he is only part-time for school. I’m happy to have any time with him I can. Hollis Jacoby is my little work partner. He makes me laugh and smile. There is nothing better than getting to experience life through the eyes of a child. He is a rambunctious four-year-old that absorbs life and knowledge like a sponge. Two days a week, they have full days, and I typically don’t get to see him on those Tuesdays and Thursdays. The t-days as we call them are the hard ones. They always seem to drag on without him here. On the other weekdays, he is at school until noon. Those days, Anna drops him off after school or she will call me to go pick him up.
I don’t mind. In fact, when I pick him up, it’s our thing to swing into the smoothie shop for a treat.
He's a good eater. He picks his strawberry banana smoothie over a milkshake most days. No matter what I make for dinner, he’s always game to try something new too. Yeah, that happens at least once sometimes twice a week, the smoothie treats. It’s this little slice of happiness for me too. The joy and excitement to watch things through Hollis’s eyes. Kids are amazing like that. He has my heart and there isn’t anything I won’t do for that boy.
We have this little system, me and Hollis’s parents. The garage is busy which means Dillon has some nights where he is working late. On those days, I take Hollis home with me, we have dinner, and when Dillon picks him up, I send food home for him and Anna to eat. Anna has the option to pick him up, obviously, he is her son. She usually doesn’t though.
Recently, I noticed Dillon doesn’t take the food home. It used to be a thing, and Anna would text me after they ate to tell me she liked it or just to say thank you. I still offer, but when Dillon declines, I don’t push. I haven’t asked questions, but the little things I’ve gathered from Anna, their home life is under some pressure. I don’t pry, it isn’t my place. Allowing Anna the space to share is all I do. Even as she vents her frustrations, I don’t engage in negative talk about Dillon or even about her. She can be negative in her own self-thoughts and self-talks, I’m not here to add to it. That doesn’t help anything or anyone. We women are cruel enough to ourselves in our mere thoughts, much less when we open our mouths. She is going through something inside herself, that much I do know.
Dillon Jacoby is a man of few words. I have learned he doesn’t like to let anything get deep. I don’t know much about his childhood because he doesn’t share. I have met his cousins he grew up with because the Jacoby brothers come visit and occasionally do work for the Hellions. I am only privy to that bit of information since I do the accounting for the club and have to cut the checks for on the book’s jobs. Outside of Hollis, and the handful of occasions being around his cousins is really the only time it seems Dillon lets his guard down. I don’t know much about his family beyond these few people.
We all love and accept him as a Hellion, but for whatever reason, his personal life with Anna stays away from the club. I’m not sure if it’s her choice or his. It’s strange to me. Once a brother patches in, his family is our family. I know Anna is misunderstood a lot, though, and maybe she doesn’t feel like she fits in. Granted, she hasn’t been around enough to really give it a shot.
Dillon gets frustrated that Anna leaves Hollis here and enrolled him in preschool. I’m not sure of their real home dynamic. I think or sort of assume that maybe he wants her to be a stay-at-home mom. Or maybe she thinks that is what he wants from her. I’m not sure because he has never said he expects her to be a stay-at-home mom or a working mom. I know she has said in the beginning that is what she wanted to have a baby with Dillon and be a homemaker. Now, though, I think she isn’t so sure about what she wants. As a woman, I understand the need to feel like more than a mom. I think to some degree she doesn’t know what she wants from herself much less her marriage. While I don’t have children of my own, I get the impression from Anna that she’s lost. Like Dillon, she doesn’t share much, but there is a sadness in her eyes that I long to fix. I know they love each other or at least once did. What goes on behind closed doors is obviously their business, but I do wish they could find a way to be happy with each other or without. Right now, though, they are both pretty miserable.