Stumbling Into Forever (Stumbling Through Life Book 2)

by Molly O'Hare

  Today, Jimmy came to live with them.

  Of course, his social worker, Carol, would still be making frequent checks, but as of this morning, Jimmy was officially their foster child. It had been two months getting all the foster certifications, and everything else, but all the wait was worth it.

  Holy freaking crap on all the crackers!

  Holly placed her hand on her growing stomach. Who knew so much could change in the blink of an eye?

  Holly looked around their home and sighed. She wanted to pat herself on the back. They’d spent a great deal of time making sure everything was in order. They redecorated one of the guest rooms for Jimmy, which Ben had a blast doing.

  Seriously, when they went into their local toy store, Ben’s face lit up like he was a kid in a freaking candy shop.

  It was cute. A little disturbing, especially when he pouted after Holly told him to put back a couple of items that were more for him than Jimmy. But still cute.

  They had everything in place.

  But maybe…

  Holly jumped from her spot on the couch and ran to the spare bedroom that would now be Jimmy’s room. Waffles and Ripley ran along side her with Twitch trailing them.

  Poor little Twitch he was always one step behind.

  Once Holly got to the room, she did another once over.

  Bed: check.

  Clothes: check.

  Toys: double check.

  As her eyes scanned the room, she noticed Waffles had moved to the corner. He was on his back already snoozing with his tongue flopped out. Typical Waffles.

  That was fast. Wait a second!

  “A dog bed!” Holly yelled. “We need a dog bed in here! Why didn’t I think of it sooner?” She smacked her forehead with her hand. Once the room was finished, Waffles and Ripley had taken turns with who owned it. Ripley normally won since she easily pushed Waffles out into the hall. It was quite funny to watch them fight over the room.

  Holly ran back into the living room where they had an abundance of dog beds that none of the dogs used — since they’d rather sleep on the couch — and brought one of the beds back into Jimmy’s room.

  After she placed it in the corner, she sighed in relief. “Crisis averted.”

  Then her eyes shot open. “The nursery!”

  Holly ran into her and Ben’s room grabbing the expensive dog bed they bought a few months ago that was only ever used by Twitch, and brought it to the nursery.

  Holly placed the bed in the opposite corner of the crib. Proud of herself, she stood in the middle of the room and looked around. Holly then smacked her forehead with her hand. “Why in the hell did I just do that?”

  The nursery was nowhere close to being done. And now, in a disheveled room there was a dog bed just chilling on the floor. “I need to get a grip.”

  As if Waffles wanted to agree with her, he barked.

  “Thanks, Bub.”

  Waffles barked again.

  Deciding to ignore him, she went back into the living room to wait patiently. Why in the hell am I all over the place?

  Oh yeah, that’s right, her and Ben were about to bring a child into their home.

  Holy crap.

  This was real.

  Holy. Freaking. Crap.

  Holly took a deep breath as she sat on the couch. This was it. There was no going back now. She placed her hands on her stomach. “Are you ready for this, Peanut?”

  Holly was instantly rewarded with a small bump to her hand. Damn, every time that happened, she still freaked out a little. In a good way, well, after the first few times that is.

  I’m gonna take that kick as a yes.

  She still couldn’t believe there was a baby growing inside of her.

  The first time Peanut kicked, Holly thought some part of her body had broken. It wasn’t strong, but it was enough to get her attention. And got her attention did it ever.

  Holly and Ben were lying in bed when it happened.

  At first, Holly could swear her bladder exploded and she’d peed herself. Then after feeling it again, she couldn’t stop herself from envisioning an alien creature jumping out of her stomach before doing a tap dance on the bed.

  Ben thought it was funny

  Holly not so much.

  However, once her irrational fears were gone of being ripped in half, or eaten from the inside out, she loved feeling Peanut, even if it was small little bumps.

  So did Mildred.

  The old bat would follow Holly around work begging the little one to kick. It was hard to explain to the board of directors the day they came in why a crazy old lady wouldn’t let go of Holly’s stomach.

  Although, as much as Mildred annoyed Holly, she’d really helped her and Ben out. Between Ben’s lawyers and Mildred’s contacts, they were really able to get everything in order for Jimmy to live with them.

  Holy fuck, Jimmy was coming today!

  There had to be more that she could do. “Maybe he’d want cookies. That’s what parents do, right? They make cookies. I can do that.” Holly jumped from her seat and ran into the kitchen.

  “This can’t be so hard.” Holly pulled out her phone before searching easy fast cookie recipes. Once she found one that only had a few steps she moved around the room searching for the ingredients.

  With Waffles, Ripley, and Twitch weaving in between her legs, she did her best to stay focused. Calling the fire department was not on her list of things to do today.

  Holly looked down at her fur-babies. “I need you all to simmer down now. Mommy’s going to try and bake some cookies.”

  Ripley and Waffles both cocked their heads.

  “Don’t give me that look.”

  Then that dang judgmental dog of hers sent her such a side-eye it almost knocked her on the floor. “Waffles don’t you dare judge me. I can do this.”

  He huffed.

  “I can!”

  Holly could swear Waffles rose his tiny brows at her. Well, I’ll just show him. Ignoring her holier than thou dog, Holly turned to the oven and set it to preheat.

  Carefully she read the instructions and started placing the ingredients in the bowl. “Softened butter? What the hell is that?” Holly looked at the recipe. “What do you do, sit on it?”

  She heard Waffles bark from the other room.

  “Stop judging me!”

  Waffles barked again.

  “No treats for you!” She then heard a dramatic whine. Serves him right.

  After going back to her recipe, she looked at all the steps involved. This one seems too hard. Seriously, softened butter was stupid. Deciding to backtrack she quickly found another recipe with only a few steps.

  Perfect.

  Looking at her bowl of already mixed ingredients she shrugged. I’m sure it’s close enough.

  This recipe also called for melted butter rather than softened. That I could do. She threw the butter in the microwave.

  How long do you put butter in for?

  Hitting three minutes she waited.

  When it hit the thirty-five-second mark the popping started growing louder. Waffles and Ripley followed by Twitch ran into the kitchen to investigate.

  As the noise got louder, they started barking and jumping all around the room begging her to do something.

  “I know, I know, I don’t know what to do!”

  It’s like bombs were going off in her microwave.

  Holly quickly grabbed the lid of a pot and shielded herself as she released the latch opening the microwave door.

  “Ahhh!” she screamed as loud as she could as she jumped back hiding her head behind the lid. After a few seconds, the popping subsided so Holly carefully looked past her shield to see the bowl sitting in the microwave as if nothing had happened.

  Holly wiped her brow. See, that wasn’t so bad. I could do this all the time, she thought. Cookie master, here I come.

  Waffles and Ripley, on the other hand, we’re running around like it was World War III. Deciding they were just being overly dramatic,
Holly grabbed two potholders and carefully removed the butter and placed it on the counter.

  “Damn that’s hot.” Of course, it’s hot dumdum it nearly exploded in the microwave.

  Once the butter was in the bowl with the other ingredients, Holly gently started mixing. When she read the recipe further it called for baking soda. She looked through their cabinets but came up empty. “That’s the same thing as baking powder, right?” Ehh, it’ll be fine.

  Holly finished mixing in the ingredients deciding to forgo the salt too. Who puts salt in cookies? That sounds horrible.

  She looked down at Waffles who was once again giving her a severe side-eye. “Stop judging me, you judging McJuderson. No one needs your type of negativity in their life.”

  Holly carefully spooned out droplets and placed them on the cookie sheet.

  After they were all on the baking sheet, she took a good look at them and grimaced. They did look a little weird. One of them was even spreading outwardly like a blob trying to eat the other blobs. She shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

  She placed them into the oven and set two timers. One on the stove and one on her phone.

  See no fire department this time. I’ve got this. Call me Chef Holly from now on.

  She’d rather not add this to Ben’s ever-growing list of incidents with her cooking.

  Holly’s phone chimed signaling she got a text message. Mindlessly she placed her hand on her stomach as she read it.

  Grace, I’m pulling into your Dad’s. We’re going to stop at the store and then we’ll be home. Don’t do anything stupid.

  Holly glared at the phone. Why would I do anything stupid? She sent back.

  Grace…

  Oh, he was going to get it. Do not Grace me!

  We’ll be there soon. Have you heard anything from the social worker?

  Before she could respond the doorbell rang. “Oh god, it’s happening. It’s really happening!”

  Holly ran to the front room stumbling over the dogs as they ran next to her. The moment she got to the door she swung it open with her arms held wide to greet them.

  “Waffles!” Jimmy ran right past her and straight for the dogs.

  “Nice to know up front where I rank on the importance list,” she laughed causing Carol to laugh along with her.

  “Don’t feel so bad. All Jimmy’s talked about since everything finalized was Waffles, Ripley, and Twitch. I guess the times we’ve come for supervised visits really resonated with him.”

  Outranked by the pets. “At least we have that going for us.” Holly placed her hand on her belly.

  “How are you doing?” Carol asked.

  “Pretty good. Heartburn makes me pray for death, but other than that I’m good. Still want the donuts, though.”

  Carol laughed.

  “Mrs. Holly, can I go play outside with the dogs?” Jimmy ran to her with his big expressive eyes pleading.

  “Call me, Holly, squirt, we’ve talked about this.” Holly softened as she looked at the little brown-haired boy with the green eyes that had captured her heart. “How about we wait for Ben to come home and we can all go outside and play. He’ll be here soon.”

  “Oh, man.” Jimmy turned back to the dogs. “Sorry guys.”

  “Why don’t you grab your stuff from the car, and we can put it in your room?”

  Jimmy’s eyes brightened. “That’s right! I get my own room now!”

  It was funny how attention spans changed so quickly with kids. Like a flash, he was running to the car grabbing his belongings. It was heartwarming to watch as Waffles and Ripley run along with him as he grabbed his things.

  On Jimmy’s last visit to the house, they’d shown him where his room was going to be. You’d think the kid had won the lottery or something. Her smile spread from ear to ear as Holly turned to Carol. “Thank you.”

  “I didn’t do anything, Mrs. Richman.”

  “But you did.” Holly’s heart pounded in her chest as Carol looked at her with a warm smile.

  Life is perfect.

  Ben pulled into the driveway with Henry in the passenger seat. His heart raced and his palms were sweaty.

  This is it.

  This was their moment.

  Ben saw Carol’s car parked in front of their house. He knew the second he walked through the front door his life would be forever changed.

  “Son, I can’t tell if you’re excited or gassy,” Henry joked.

  Ben laughed as he looked at Henry with a smile on his face. “This is it,” Ben answered.

  “It is. And, how do you feel about that?”

  “It’s about damn time.” Ben jumped out of the car, with pure adrenaline. He felt more excited than ever. He ran around the passenger side and carefully helped Henry out. Sure, he was eager to get through the front door but he knew so was Henry.

  Henry hadn’t been able to meet Jimmy yet. All of the supervised visits had been conducted at their house.

  Ben imagined Henry was just as excited to potentially meet his first grandson as he was to finally have Jimmy home with them.

  Once they made it to the front door, Ben pushed it open as his heart slammed against his chest. There in front of him was Jimmy on the floor wrestling with Waffles and Ripley with Twitch jumping on him whenever he got a chance. Then he saw Holly on the couch holding her extended belly. When she caught his eye, she winked before her smile overtook her whole face.

  This was home.

  “Ben!” Jimmy jumped from his spot on the floor and ran toward Ben wrapping his arms around his waist giving him a tight hug. “Oomph.” Fuck, his heart nearly exploded in his chest.

  “Hey, little guy!” Ben squeezed him back before rustling his hair. Yep, this is what could bring a man to his knees.

  “You’re here! We can go outside and play with the dogs now!” Jimmy started running towards the back door but Ben stopped him. “Hold up a second, squirt,” he laughed. “I want you to meet someone.”

  Jimmy moved his focus to Henry. “Hello,” he said shyly.

  “Hi,” Henry answered. Ben could hear the emotions in Henry’s voice. “I’m Grandpa Henry.”

  Jimmy cocked his head to the side. “I’ve never had a grandpa. Mine died before I was born.”

  “Well, then.” Henry puffed out his chest. “I’m glad I came around.”

  Jimmy face morphed into a toothy grin.

  “I’m Holly’s dad.”

  Jimmy turned to Holly who gave him an encouraging nod. “That’s right. He’s my dad.”

  “That’s cool!” Jimmy then surprised them all by running to Henry wrapping his arms around his waist. “It’s nice to meet you, Grandpa Henry. Can we go play with the dogs now?”

  Ben bit back his laugh through his emotions. Leave it to kids to have a one-track mind.

  Ben glanced over at his wife. The smile she had on her face melted him.

  Yep. This was home.

  “Yeah,” Henry answered. “I can’t play too well with them. See I’ve got some issues, but I can watch you play along with the pups.”

  Jimmy gave Henry the once over assessing him. “That’s okay. I can play with them for both of us.” Jimmy grabbed onto Henry’s good hand as if he knew, and carefully pulled Henry toward the backdoor.

  Holly and Ben stared at them in shock.

  Holy shit. Yeah, they wanted Jimmy to feel comfortable with them and Henry, they didn’t expect this.

  “I have to tell you both, since that first meeting at the dog park, Jimmy has changed considerably. He smiles, he talks nonstop about both of you and the pets.” Carol’s face softened looking at them. “I know this isn’t a done deal yet, but I have to say, I became a social worker for cases like this. The ones where in the end everything falls perfectly into place.”

  Joy filled the room as Holly moved into Ben’s arms. He couldn’t agree more.

  Then he heard it. It was faint, but he definitely could hear something. “Babe, what’s that beeping noise?”

  “Wh
at beeping noise?”

  Ben sniffed the air. “Is something burning?”

  “Shit! My cookies!” Holly raced from his arms into the kitchen. Ben saw her glare at the oven timer that was still set to ten minutes. He had to bite his lip to stop from laughing. Clearly, Holly never hit start on her cookies. And seeing that her phone was on the counter, the ringer turned almost all the way down, she didn’t stand a chance.

  “Oh no!” Holly pulled the cookies out of the oven.

  Instantly, his stomach churned. He didn’t know cookies could look like that. Wait, she did say they were cookies, right?

  “They’re ruined!” Holly turned to him, tears in her eyes.

  Damn pregnancy hormones. Then again cooking was never her strong suit. Pregnant or not. “No, Grace, they’re fine. They are just a little well done.”

  “Well done? These are beyond well done. They aren’t even cookie shape. They’re like this big ole blobby thingy.” She looked back at him the tears now threatening to escape. “I followed the recipe. I promise. Well, kinda.”

  “I’m sure they taste fine, Holly.” Ben swallowed hard as he looked at the cookie sheet. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but I have to ask, with your track record what made you want to bake cookies in the first place?”

  “That’s what moms do! They bake cookies. I wanted to bake Jimmy cookies!” she cried.

  “What’s all the calliwacking going on in here?” Henry asked coming in from the back yard. “We could hear the squawking from all the way out there.”

  “Holly tried to bake cookies,” Ben answered.

  “Why would you do something crazy like that?” Henry asked appalled, looking at his daughter. “Wait are those the cookies?” Henry’s face morphed into disgust.

  “Yes!” Holly growled. Damn the mood swings are strong. He placed his hand behind his neck. Did he just get whiplash from that?

  “They don’t look like any cookies I’ve ever seen.” Henry scrunched his nose.

  “Hush, your face old man.”

  “What did you say, young lady?”

  There was that whiplash again. Tears appeared in Holly’s eyes as her body deflated. “Sorry, Dad.”

  “That’s more like it.”