Alicia held her breath as Jeff and her mom gazed at each other. Not only was Alicia cringing over the fact that Jeff was actually in her house and a front-row witness to the disaster that was their home, but her mom looked ready to pounce.
“I have a lawyer friend who can help you with whatever the cops are going to charge you with,” Jeff said. “Can I have him call you tomorrow?”
Alicia looked to her mom, surprised that she wasn’t immediately turning Jeff down. “All right. He can call me at 11:00 tomorrow morning. I like to sleep in a little.”
Jeff nodded, and relief swept through Alicia. She couldn’t guess what was going through his mind right now, and she wouldn’t blame him if he left and never knocked on her door again.
“Great. His name is Dawson Harris,” Jeff said. “He helped me with some important legal matters recently, so I highly recommend him.”
Her mom narrowed her eyes. “Alicia said you’d been to court. How much does this lawyer cost?”
“Turns out he owes me a couple of favors,” Jeff said with a smile that Alicia was sure he didn’t truly feel. “So there won’t be any charge for him to help you.”
At this, her mom seemed to be impressed. “All right, then. Eleven o’ clock, but no earlier.”
“Great,” Jeff said. “Also, I wondered if you’ve ever made jewelry. Each week, my mom does orders for an Etsy company. She makes earrings and bracelets, and she’s always looking for help.”
Alicia stared at Jeff, but he was focused on her mom.
“Jewelry?” her mom said.
“Yeah, it pays pretty well, too,” Jeff said. “You can do it at home, and then my mom can pick up the finished pieces and mail them for you. Or Alicia can mail them. What do you think?”
Her mom shrugged.
Jeff pulled out his phone, then walked over to her mom. “Here’s a picture of some of the jewelry my mom made.”
Her mom peered at the picture that Jeff showed her. “Those are pretty. How much do the materials cost?”
Alicia couldn’t believe her mom was interested in this. She would have never guessed.
“No cost to you,” Jeff said. “My mom would just bring over the materials, you make them, and then you get paid as soon as they are shipped. It’s all automatic and comes into whichever account you want it to.”
Her mom glanced at Alicia, and she recognized the calculating look on her mom’s face. She was probably trying to figure out if she could make decent money.
“It’s up to you,” Jeff continued. “My mom loves it, and she can make as much or as little money as she wants. She can do it at home while she watches TV or listens to an audio book. Should I have her call you?”
Her mom shrugged. “Your mom was always nice to me. I remember those cinnamon rolls she used to make.”
Jeff laughed. “Yeah, she still makes them. I’m sure she’d love your help. Should I tell her to call you?”
Her mom paused. “She can call me tomorrow at 11:30 because I’m talking to that lawyer of yours at 11:00.”
“Okay, great,” Jeff said. “I will let them know.” He met Alicia’s stunned gaze. “I’ll see you later.”
“Wait,” Alicia said, glancing at her mom, who’d turned back to the fire. “I’ll walk you out.” She followed Jeff out of the house, and before he could step off the porch, she grabbed his arm.
He turned to face her, his eyebrows raised, as if he was surprised she’d followed him.
“You don’t have to do all of this,” she said. “I mean, you’re going way above and beyond this friendship thing. Even I know that Dawson would never work for free, and does your mom really need help with her jewelry business?”
He grinned.
“Jeff.” She moved closer and lowered her voice. “My mom is a really difficult person. I feel bad that you’re in the middle of this.”
Jeff placed his hands on her shoulders. “I want to help your mom. I want to help you. You’re just going to have to live with that.”
Alicia exhaled. He was really close, and she strangely felt like either kissing him or crying. So she should probably go back into the house before she did either. “I just don’t know if I can ever thank you.”
“I’m not looking for thanks,” he said. Then he leaned down and kissed her cheek.
Alicia was so startled, she didn’t move for a moment. Before she could come up with any sort of response, he said, “See you tomorrow. Call me when you get the police report, and we can conference Dawson in. It would be good to have a strategy before he calls your mom.”
He moved away, and Alicia nodded numbly. She remained on the porch as she watched him climb into his SUV and drive away. She might have waved goodbye, or she might have just stared at him blankly. She wasn’t entirely sure.
By the time she went back inside, her mom was curled up on the couch under a pile of dusty afghans, sound asleep. Alicia locked the front door and turned off a couple of lights, leaving the living room one on for her mom. Then she changed from her hostess dress and climbed into her bed.
When she closed her eyes, she saw Jeff’s blue eyes watching her. She saw him leaning toward her. She felt his lips on her cheek.
No, she told herself. He’s just being a friend. Nothing more. But her heart wasn’t listening to her brain. Her heart was imagining what it might be like to kiss Jeff. To be pulled into his arms, and to have his lips on hers . . .
Alicia burrowed under her covers and wished she could just get this night over with—all of it. From her mom’s arrest to the spinning thoughts in her head over Jeff. She couldn’t think of him as anything more than a friend. She couldn’t survive another heartbreak over him. She still hadn’t recovered from the last one.
It was a long time before she fell asleep.
When she awoke to the morning sun, Alicia’s first thought was that it was a new day. Her mom was safely at home. Jeff was going to help them.
Alicia checked on her mom, who was still sleeping on the couch, before she got into the shower. She knew she had to make a phone call to her dad, and although she dreaded it, she hoped that her dad would help her find a solution. The more she thought about her mom wandering in the neighborhood at night, the more worried she became about going to work that night. But if she didn’t go to work, or if she quit her job, then she might go crazy herself. Not to mention completely broke.
She dressed, then blow-dried her hair. By the time she came out of her bathroom, her mom was up and eating some scrambled eggs. Alicia knew better than to ask if her mom had made enough for two, so she searched through the pantry for a box of cereal.
She moved aside two herb pots that contained dried dirt and dead plants to make room for her cereal bowl at the table. All the while her mom eyed her, making sure Alicia didn’t somehow damage the herb pots.
When her mom apparently deemed the dead herbs safe, she left the kitchen and turned on the TV in the front room. This was a good sign. Her mom hadn’t nagged Alicia or tried to start an argument. She also wasn’t searching through boxes, frantic to find something. Watching TV usually meant that her mood was mellow.
Alicia’s phone dinged. An email had come through from Officer Leo Russo. She thought of the gangly dark-haired kid who’d always been playing pranks in school. He’d grown into a well-built police officer who was all business. She opened the attachment and read through the police report while the TV droned in the next room.
Her mother was being charged with trespassing on private property, petty theft, and obstruction of justice. Alicia scanned the account written up by the arresting officer. It sounded like her mother didn’t cooperate much; the officers had asked her plenty of questions, which she’d refused to answer.
Alicia exhaled. She was debating about whether to call her dad before or after her mom talked to Dawson Harris. She hated to keep relying on Jeff, but she had zero experience with this kind of stuff, so she saved the PDF on her phone, then texted it to Jeff. Call me when you have a chance to look over this.
When he called her about twenty minutes later, Alicia was in her room, the door locked.
“Thanks for calling,” she said, trying not to think about his innocent kiss on her cheek last night.
“How are you?” he asked.
Of course he would ask that. “I slept in.”
“That’s good,” he said. “I think I’ve given up on ever getting a full night’s sleep again.”
Alicia sighed. “I’m sorry about that. If I hadn’t called—”
“That not it at all. I’m glad you called.” He lowered his voice. “I want you to call.”
Something about the tone of his voice made her already fast pulse quicken.
“I don’t know how to thank you for all you’ve done,” Alicia said. “I mean, I’d make you cookies or brownies, but I really don’t trust my mom’s kitchen. You saw how unsanitary and dangerous it is.”
He chuckled.
“What’s funny?”
“I don’t think a kitchen can be dangerous—just maybe a person in it.”
“That too,” Alicia said. “My mom doesn’t like me to move things around. She’s pretty territorial.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“About that . . . I’m sorry you had to see the house last night. It’s pretty terrible.”
“Stop apologizing,” Jeff said. “Your mom’s ill. You don’t have to apologize for that. You’ve been amazing with her.”
Alicia exhaled. “I just don’t know what else to do, you know. How do I keep her out of trouble? Lock her in the house? I don’t even know if I should go to work tonight.”
“We can figure something out,” Jeff said. “It’s not good for you to be stuck in that house either.”
“Yeah, I know.” She stood from her bed and crossed to the window to look out at the snowy backyard. “Remember when we used to have wars on the swings? See who could swing higher, and then we’d try to make each other fall off.”
Jeff chuckled. “Until that time when I broke my hand. Our parents were so mad, they grounded me for a week.”
“You got lucky,” Alicia said. “I was grounded for two weeks.”
“But you didn’t have to wear a cast.”
“True.” Alicia was smiling, but then she sobered. “That was the summer before my parents split up. It seems like everything sort of changed after that.”
“We were both fourteen,” Jeff said. “Everyone goes through changes at that age.”
Alicia nodded, even though Jeff couldn’t see her. The silence between them stretched.
“Hey,” Jeff said. “I need to talk to you about something. It’s sort of . . . well, it’s sort of awkward.”
She stiffened. “Okay, what is it?”
“In person,” Jeff said. “I’ll come over with my mom later, if your mom gives the all-clear on the jewelry thing.”
Now Alicia was really curious.
“In the meantime, I texted that police report over to Dawson, and he’ll call your mom at 11:00 like she asked.” He paused. “It looks like they’re throwing everything at her that they can. But that’s normal for a police report. A lot can change between now and the court appearance.”
“Do you think she’ll have to do jail time?” Alicia asked, her heart hammering at the thought.
“No,” Jeff said. “I talked to Dawson for a few minutes last night, and even though I didn’t know the exact charges, he had a pretty decent idea of them. He said if there are any felony charges, he can get them reduced to misdemeanors.”
“Good,” Alicia said. “Although I hate everything about this still, I’m glad there’s more hope than I thought.”
“Can I get your dad’s phone number?”
Alicia frowned. “I haven’t called him yet to tell him, but I plan to this morning.”
“That’s good,” Jeff said. “I want to give the number to Dawson, because we might need a character statement from your dad.”
“They’re divorced; how is that going to help?” Alicia asked.
“Both your mom and dad lived in the neighborhood together for years,” Jeff said. “Dawson wonders if there were any issues with those neighbors in the past.”
“I don’t think so,” Alicia said. “But I was much more wrapped up in my teenage self than what any neighbor disputes might be.”
“Me too.”
They both went silent for a moment, Alicia still curious about what he had to tell her in person.
“Oh, it looks like Dawson’s calling,” Jeff said.
“Talk to you later,” Alicia said and hung up.
Before she lost her nerve, she pulled up her contacts and called her dad. He answered on the first ring as if he’d been waiting for her call.
“Dad?” she said.
“Oh, hi, I was about to make a call, and your number came through,” he said.
“I’m glad you answered,” she said. “I have something to tell you about Mom.” For the next ten minutes she explained the situation to her dad about all that Jeff was doing, and about the lawyer phone call that would happen at 11:00.
After uttering a couple of curse words, her dad asked, “The lawyer’s helping your mom for free? How’s that possible?”
“Jeff said—”
“Are you sure you want to trust Jeff Finch?” her dad cut in. “Last I knew, you guys hadn’t even talked to each other since high school, and now suddenly he’s very much involved in your life.”
Alicia knew her dad meant well, but she had been on her own when it came to dealing with her mom, and Jeff had stepped in to help without a second thought.
“Like I told you, honey,” her dad went on. “Your mom’s an adult. If she can’t take care of herself or stay out of trouble, then she needs to go to that residential facility. She’ll have care around the clock, she’ll have friends, and she’ll do a lot of activities.”
“She’ll go crazy in a place like that,” Alicia said, her skin heating up with indignation. This was where every conversation with her dad went. Stick her mom in an institution somewhere and forget about her.
Her dad wasn’t finished. “You’ve watched too many old movies. The residential facilities are like resorts now. They treat the mentally ill patients like Hollywood VIPs.”
“Stop, Dad,” Alicia said. “I need to get through whatever these charges are against Mom. Other than this incident, she’s been improving.”
Her dad scoffed. “Improving? How?”
“Well, I threw away a pair of hot pads the other day, and even though we argued about it, she calmed down after,” Alicia said. “We actually had a decent conversation about it.”
“Over a hot pad?” he said. “Sounds like progress.”
Alicia was tempted to hang up on her dad. She didn’t know who she was more annoyed with right now—her sane parent, or her insane one.