Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Heard of a Napoleon complex?” Mama Jess asked from the side of her mouth. “That’s him. Tries to make up for in mouth what he ain’t got in inches.”
“Probably not just inches in height.” Meredith parked her cart to the side and frowned at Crawford’s departing back.
“Mer!” Kerris pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to hold back a laugh.
“Oh, she’s probably right.” Mama Jess offered a hearty laugh of her own. “Who’s this?”
“My friend Meredith. Mer, this is…”
How should she describe this woman? There was so much she’d only ever told Walsh, and then later, Cam. She grappled with the proper way to address the woman after all this time.
“It’s Mary Jessup, but you can call me Mama Jess.”
“Nice to meet you,” Meredith said, shaking hands.
“Well, you heard the man,” Mama Jess said. “I need to get back to work.”
“We can’t just—couldn’t we…I mean, when do you get off?” Kerris was desperate not to lose Mama Jess again now that they’d run into each other. “Maybe we could have dinner or something?”
“My shift ends in about”—Mama Jess glanced down at her watch—“’bout an hour.”
“We’re registering for the baby,” Kerris said. “Let’s meet back here in an hour. Come home with me for dinner.”
Mama Jess’s smile was as warm and wide as Kerris remembered. She grabbed Kerris’s hand and squeezed.
“I’d love that, Lil’ Bit.” She stepped back to reach for a customer’s receipt, highlighter poised. “In an hour.”
Kerris had trouble focusing on the registry items. Meredith, of course, buzzed with questions about Mama Jess, which Kerris answered as honestly as she could, without revealing too much.
“So why’d you have to leave her house?” Meredith scanned an item, searching Kerris’s face.
Kerris struggled to find words, glancing up and down the aisle to see if they were alone. Was she really about to do this? Share a secret she had guarded so closely, on aisle seven with the formula, wipes, and diapers?
“Her brother molested me.” Kerris pushed the words past her cold lips.
The thud thud of her heart drowned out the bustling sounds of the store around them, and the world narrowed down to the shelf in front of her. She fixed her eyes on the bib she was scanning while she waited for Meredith’s response. The silence was thick and deafening. It went on so long Kerris finally made herself look over her shoulder. Meredith’s eyes were filled with tears, her tiny fist clenching and unclenching at her side, her lips pressed together.
“Oh, Ker.” Meredith pulled her into an embrace that communicated all the things she couldn’t seem to find words for.
Kerris closed her eyes, relishing the contact. There were no tears, though. TJ wouldn’t get another tear from her. He wasn’t worth it. Didn’t deserve it.
“It’s okay.” She rubbed her own soft cap of curls against the hair Meredith had recently chopped off and dyed platinum blond. “I’m okay.”
“You wait to tell me something like that in the middle of Walmart?” Meredith finally offered a small smile that did its best to lighten the moment.
“The worst part was losing Mama Jess. And now I’ve found her again. I can’t tell you what it means to me.”
Kerris glanced at her watch, eager to finish registering and get back to the mother she had lost. To the only mother she had ever known.
That night, Kerris and Mama Jess caught up, preparing dinner together and speaking frankly about what the last decade and a half had held for them. Mama Jess made the lasagna Kerris remembered so well, even after all these years. Kerris scribbled the recipe, slipping it under a magnet on her refrigerator. She tossed the salad and squeezed lemons for lemonade. She was taking garlic bread from the oven when Cam walked through the door.
“Hey, baby.” He dropped a kiss on Kerris’s baby bump and cast a speculative glance at Mama Jess. “Something smells good.”
“Hey, sweetie.” Kerris searched Cam’s handsome face to see if it would tell her which husband had come home. “You remember me telling you about my foster mother Mama Jess?”
Cam’s face screwed up a little, obviously searching his memory.
“Which one?”
Kerris wondered how she should qualify Mama Jess.
“My favorite one,” she settled for, returning the smile Mama Jess sent her way.
“Oh, yes. I remember.” Cam aimed a smile loaded with his deadly charm at Mama Jess.
Mama Jess contemplated him with a small curve of her lips, her eyes slightly narrowed at the corners.
“Nice to meet you,” Mama Jess said. “You taking care of my Lil’ Bit?”
“Um, yeah,” Cam answered after a heartbeat. “Of course.”
“Baby, dinner’s almost ready.” Kerris reached up with a smile to smooth his hair back. “Why don’t you go put your things down in the office and come on back in to eat?”
Cam walked back toward the office, and Mama Jess pulled the lasagna out of the oven.