Chapter 36
Bennett
WORDLESSLY, I STOOD and started a pot of coffee while Jill arranged the cookies and brownies she’d brought home from the bakery on a pretty plate. All of that took about ninety seconds and after about a minute, the tick- tick- tick of the kitchen clock became too much.
“Jill,” I warned. “I need you to take some deep breaths. I’m not sure what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours, but whatever it is, you need to pack it away before that girl walks in here. This could be something, or it could be nothing... and I don’t think going into this meeting with expectations of any kind is healthy.”
“But—” Tears were welling.
“No buts, baby.” I grabbed the coffee pot and placed it on the ceramic trivet she’d placed on the table for just that purpose. “We are about to meet Jase’s friend.” I emphasized the word ‘friend’ because something in the boy’s eyes told me there was more to it than that, plus we were in need of a little comic relief. Jill smiled. Mission accomplished. “Let’s see the situation for what it is and see what happens from there.” She nodded.
We heard a little knock, and Jill practically teleported to the door. “Come in, come in.” She tried to smile her tears away, but the emotion in her voice made it hard to mask what she was feeling.
Jill entered the kitchen first, followed by one of the most beautifully exotic faces I’d ever seen. She looked as though she could’ve just stepped out of a 1970’s disco movie, with her wide, expressive eyes and head of unruly black hair. I hadn’t really envisioned an image of Jase’s friend, but even if I’d done it a thousand times, it could never have been as breathtaking as the little broken bird standing in front of me at that moment.
“Becky,” Jase began. “Let me introduce you to Jill and Bennett Hanson. Jill… Bennett… meet Rebecca Johns. She goes by Becky.” I took her tiny, little hand when she offered it, but when she did the same for Jill, she was pulled into an unexpected embrace that both melted my heart and hardened it all at once. Because I knew what was going on in my wife’s mind. And the likelihood of anything coming of this was depressingly low.
“I’m sorry,” Jill told Becky, quickly swiping under her eyes for errant tears. “I don’t know what came over me. Can I get you something to drink?” A nervous Jill was a chatty Jill, and while I should have probably jumped in to save her from looking frazzled, it was just too precious to stop. I hadn’t seen her this happy in a long time. And even if it lasted only five minutes, it would be worth it.
“I’d love some milk, ma’am.” The girl’s words were shaky and I hoped it was nerves and not fear to blame. Jill had a tall glass of milk on the table before I could blink and Becky thanked her, then looked at Jase with disbelieving eyes. I was a pro at reading people, and this girl wanted to know what the hell she was doing here. She was on the verge of falling apart, I could tell.
“”So, Bennett and Jill are certified with the state of Texas as foster parents, which means—”
She sighed. “I know what that means, Jase.” She turned her gaze to Jill and me, as we both just sat there staring at her, like freaks. “Sir, ma’am, Jase has designated himself my own personal superhero. He’s swooped in to save the day for me a lot lately. I’m sorry that he’s bothered you tonight, but I’ll be okay.” She took another deep breath. “You don’t have to—”
Jill rocketed out of her chair with so much force, it tipped backward and landed on the tile with a loud bang. “Please, don’t go.” And everything I’d just been thinking about Jill’s five minutes of happiness being worth it flew out the window. I was about to witness my wife’s already broken heart shatter into a few more jagged pieces. Her wild eyes moved between the two teens sitting at our kitchen table. “Please… ” She reached out and placed her hand on Becky’s arm, then looked to me for backup. Please don’t let her leave, her face said. Please.
“Rebecca, we have a guest room,” Jill started. “Heck, we have three guest rooms, and Bennett and I… ” She giggled, then looked at me for approval, which I automatically gave. “We would be happy to let you live with us until… well, I don’t know how to end that statement. Forever, I guess. I mean, if you want to… ”
A comment like that should have set off all kinds of warning bells and red flags. Red alert, red alert, wife is in danger of utter and complete destruction. But it didn’t. Because I could read Becky Johns like a children’s book. This girl was alone in the world and scared to death. All she wanted was to feel safe and loved. And while there’s a laundry list as long as a football field of things my wife and I can’t do, loving this little girl wasn’t one of them.
We were all awkwardly standing by then. Becky stood to leave, Jill stood to stop her, Jase stood to stop Becky, and naturally, I stood because I’d spent enough time sitting after the bombing. Becky took a few steps toward us and asked a simple, yet haunting question. “Why would you want to do that? You don’t even know me.” Her unkempt hair and face free from makeup, added to her small stature, gave the illusion she was ten or eleven and not sixteen. It was hard not to think of her as a child. But she wasn’t one. She was practically an adult.
“Well,” Jill twisted a small towel in her hands, while she thought. The poor thing would be torn to shreds by the end of the night if I didn’t save it. “According to your superhero here, you’re a child with no family. Is that correct?”
Becky nodded, her eyes like wide pools of deep brown, fringed with long, thick, black lashes. Jill reached for my hands before adding, “And we’re a family without a child. It seems to me the puzzle pieces fit.” The words hung in the air like the sweet scent of honeysuckle on a warm, summer breeze.
Becky turned to face Jase, giving the tears that had been balancing on her eyelids all night permission to escape. “Was this the plan you mentioned earlier?” He nodded and she closed the gap between them, hugging him so tight I’d have feared for his life had his smile not told me he was exactly where he needed to be. The Papa Bear inside me—something I didn’t know I even possessed—started to stir. I tucked my wife in under my arm, hoping against hope that this story would have a happy ending. If not for all of us… then at least for the sweet girl clinging to her friend like a lifeline.
Finally Jase, the sixteen-year-old voice of reason, explained that letting her stay with us immediately might be frowned upon by child services. But his mother, a family law attorney, would be home tomorrow—and at that point, we could make a plan to have Becky legally placed in our temporary care. Reluctantly, we agreed. What the boy said made perfect sense, but this whole spending the night with boys thing was over once she became ours.
And really, who was I kidding? She was already ours. We’d claimed Becky Johns the second we laid eyes on her because she was the answer to years and years of prayers. All we ever wanted was a child to love. And to become parents. We were already asking for so much, I didn’t think we had the right to be picky about the packaging.
After saying goodbye, we crawled right into bed, dinner completely forgotten. Pulling my wife into the crook of my arm, I whispered, “Are you happy?” I felt her warm tears on my bare chest, but in spite of that, she nodded.
“She’s already mine. I know I’m setting myself up for an epic heartbreak, but I just can’t help it. When I hugged her, she became mine.”
“You mean ours, don’t you?”
She lifted her head just enough to meet my eyes and I looked down my nose at her. “What?”
“She’s not just yours, baby. She’s ours.” Jill slowly nodded, a soft smile danced across her lips, before settling back down on my chest.
“There’s only one problem with that though… ” I cocked my head. I’m sure there were about a million problems we’d have to tackle before she could truly be ours, but I wondered which specific one she was talking about.
“What’s that, babe?”
“I think she may already belong to Jase Pearson.” She giggled when I growled.
Sure, Jase Pearson was one of the smartest, most well-mannered kids I’d ever met. And he already looked at her like he’d personally change the rotation of the earth if she asked him to, but I wasn’t quite ready to admit that. Because I wasn’t sure he was good enough for my girl.