“How did it go?” he asked, dipping his head to peck her lips.
Another sigh escaped.
“It was fine. Troy, their son, had to leave after their early dinner. He needed me to clean things up and get them situated for the night.”
“They don’t have a home care nurse? They’re not in an assisted living place?” He looked confused, but she couldn’t blame him. It was a strange situation.
“Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two adult children who take turns most nights checking in on them. They’re in their late eighties but still do mostly fine on their own. By the end of the day, though, they get overtired and usually need a little help getting through the dinner and bedtime routines, sometimes help changing clothes, getting from room to room, that sort of thing. They can do everything on their own most of the time, but some days Mrs. Johnson gets shaky and they worry she might fall or try to clear the heavy dinner dishes on her own and hurt herself.
“So, no, they don’t have in-home nursing care because they don’t need it just yet. They refuse to go into assisted living until there are no other options. The kids are both professionals who make enough money to pay for additional support as needed, which is where I come in. Sometimes they need help cleaning, sometimes prepping dinner, running occasional errands…. Other nights I might have to help them with everything if one of them is having a hard day. It’s only a few hours here and there over the week and it’s good money. They’re very nice people.” Gina shrugged.
Jaydon nodded. “That’s cool. I’ve never heard of a job like that.”
She shrugged again, too exhausted to talk.
“Let’s eat, please?” the begging in her voice came through and Jaydon laughed.
“Absolutely. I’ve been smelling it baking the whole time you were gone and it was heavenly torture. It smells incredible.”
“Let’s hope it tastes as good. I’m so hungry I’d eat it even if the bottom was black, though.”
“It’d better not be!” Eva interrupted, “I made sure to keep an eye on it and take it out as soon as it was golden and bubbly!”
“Thanks, mamá,” Gina gave her mom a soft smile and set about tossing a quick salad while the garlic bread warmed.
In minutes, they were settled around the mission style table in the dining nook adjacent to Gina’s brightly lit kitchen and digging in. Oh man, this is amazing. I hope everyone else likes it. The gooey, cheesy, saucy deliciousness coated her palate as she chewed. What was it about cheese and carbs that tasted so stinking good?!
Yes, denying herself these simple pleasures for the last year was worth it when she finally looked in the mirror, but surely, she could afford a little bit every now and then in moderation without falling completely back into old habits, right? Especially when she’d learned to modify recipes to make them healthier, like replacing half the noodles with strips of zucchini and using part-skim ricotta instead of the whole milk kind.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt Jaydon’s large hand squeeze her knee under the table. The pressure sent a surprising zing up her leg and head snapped to attention.
“I’m sorry, I was so hungry that I zoned out there for a sec!” she admitted sheepishly.
“Can’t say I blame you. That was delicious, G. Really. What was the green stuff in there?”
“Thank you,” she replied, her cheeks feeling warm from the compliment. “I make a huge batch of my sauce from scratch a few times a year and freeze portions of it for different meals. And the green stuff was zucchini and spinach layered in for more nutrition.”
“That’s smart. I can’t wait to taste your other cooking.”
She sent him a smile that she was fairly certain showed way too much of the attachment she already felt.
Jaydon gave her a sideways grin with a glint in his eye that told her he had a secret to tell. She grew instantly curious, wondering what on earth he could know that she didn’t.
Gina flicked her eyes over toward her mother, who looked nervous.
She set down her fork with hesitation and quickly swallowed the bite she’d just taken. The gooey cheese from mere seconds ago became a congealing lump in her throat. Stalling for just another moment, she wiped her mouth and swished a mouthful of water.
A deep, cleansing breath, and she braced herself for whatever it was they had to tell her.
“Okay. I’m ready. Lay it on me.”
Jaydon’s hand grasped hers and their eyes connected. In an instant, her apprehension disappeared and was immediately replaced with peace. How does he do that?
“It’s not bad news, babe,” he assured her as he raised their joined hands to his lips and placed a scratchy but sweet kiss to the back of her hand. “Trust me.”
She did, strangely. Had she ever just trusted a guy this way? Those intense sapphires drew her in and she found that she did trust this guy.
“I do.”
He grinned and squeezed her fingers gently. It’s like he knows I’m trying not to worry. How does he know I need that reassurance?
“Well, obviously your mom and I got to talking while you were gone. We did talk about Hailee, but first there’s something she’s been waiting a long time to talk to you about.”
The comfort she found in his hand holding hers insulated her from the cold panic that she was sure would have set in otherwise.
“Hija, Jaydon and I enjoyed getting to know each other. You’ve got a good man here and I can see he makes you happy. I wish I had been blessed with someone like him…although I probably wouldn’t have recognized or appreciated it if I’d had that. But even with everything I put you girls through, you stayed close by and took care of me so well.”
Eva reached for her glass of water and took a small sip.
“You know how I’ve been going through all of the old boxes of my parents’ things that I saved? The other day I came across something that I think you should have. I only gave you a few pieces of the story when you were little, and your abuela didn’t know much more than that.”
Gina accepted a photograph from her mother’s shaking hands.
“That is me, with your father.”
Gina looked up sharply at the revelation. Quickly, her focus returned to the image on faded color photo paper. A much younger version of her mother smiled up at a very tall man with long, wavy brown hair and a patch of hair under his lips. The hazel-eyed man grinned into the camera, his arm around twenty-year old Eva. Gina flipped the picture over and read “Eva and Reggie” with a month and year. The year before she was born.
“His name was Reggie?”
“To my knowledge, his name is Reggie. Reginald Hayes, actually. I named you after him.”
“What about the other stuff Abuela told me? That he worked for the phone company or something?”
“He did. A cell phone company, actually. One of the first to come through Albuquerque. His job had something to do with installing the towers.”
Gina nodded.
“What happened to him? To you guys?”
“We had a whirlwind romance. Met him at a bar downtown and we hit it off right away. He wasn’t like a lot of the other guys I partied with. He wanted to get to know me, take me on dates. We were together for several months, and when his job here was finished he went back to Texas.”
Eva looked sad as she dragged her fork through a pool of sauce on her plate.
“He asked me to go with him. He even offered to take Tonya, so we could be a family. But I was a selfish woman back then, young and stupid, and I didn’t want to be tied down yet. I still wanted to live hard and love free. I told him no and he left before either of us knew I was pregnant. Foolish girl that I was, I moved home with Mamá and Papi until a couple months after you came and then went right back to my other life.”
Her regret was palpable.
“I’m so sorry, mija. I know I’ve already said it too many times, but I am.”
Jaydon squeezed her hand and let go to wrap his arm around her. She reveled in the c
omfort she found in that perfect space between his arm and his body. It gave her the strength to say the words her mother needed to hear. She’d feel everything later. She couldn’t even contemplate what to do with this information right now. Her gut said probably nothing, at least for a while.
“I forgive you, Mami.”
Eva blew out a lungful and the breaths she drew in shook. She dabbed her eyes with a napkin and whispered, “thank you, mija. I love you, baby girl.”
Gina nodded in silence. A few deep breaths and an internal prayer, and she pushed her plate away. Good thing lasagna was even better reheated the next day, because she couldn’t even think of eating right now.
Jaydon cleared his throat and shifted. “So there’s one more thing we should talk about tonight. I was looking forward to sharing this news with you both, but it seems your mom got the scoop before I did.”
He paused and his eyes shone. It had to be really good for his joy to outshine the bomb that had just detonated in her lap.
“Last Sunday, in church, Hailee gave her life to Christ.”
Gina’s heart leapt in her chest and she couldn’t deny the happiness she felt.
“Are you serious?” She was reeling, wondering what the timing of everything meant.
“Yeah. I knew something was happening during ministry time, but I didn’t know exactly what. I guess she’d wanted to tell me about it at Dino’s, but—”
“…but I showed up and sat with you guys and she decided to wait.”
“Basically. But get this—I talked to her last night at youth service and she couldn’t wait to share the changes God has already been working in her life.”
Eva interrupted excitedly, hopping in her chair with the excitement of a preschooler. “Yes! Actually, she and I have been talking for a little while now about church and about Jesus. Oh, mija, Jaydon told me that you two have been praying that I would be willing to mentor Hailee. That blesses my heart so much. God has already been using me to do just that.
“She was timid around me for a long time, but after talking to Jaydon I see why. Anyway, over the past few months, I’ve been open about going to my meetings, because she covered my shifts a lot when I needed to go. I had no idea things were bad at home for her. She seems like such a sweet, smart, healthy, mature, hard worker.
“She takes care of her little brother, and I guess now that I think about it she does work a lot of hours. She reminds me a little of both you and Tonya when you girls were younger.”
This made Gina suck in a breath and looked down. How had she dropped so many crumbs into her lap? The crumb brushing ceased when Eva clasped both her hands.
“Baby, I’m so sorry for the way I neglected you girls, and all the other terrible choices I made that hurt you both. You had to grow up so fast. There are too many gaps in my memories, and the ones I have are so hazy, but I know you must have taken good care of each other. Just like you always took good care of me.”
Her voice grew quiet and Eva whispered, “you still do.”
“I always will, Mami. I don’t know how not to. Somehow we made it through okay.”
“Yes, praise the Lord for that. It certainly wasn’t anything I did. Back to Hailee. Sometimes when it’s slow, we talk. She’s got big dreams, that girl. She keeps her home life to herself, but she talks about everything else. Monday after school, she came in for her shift and I knew that something was different. I’ve been praying for her.
“Ever since I came to Christ, I’ve been trying to drop little nuggets here and there. Like when I read my Bible or hear something interesting, I tell her about it. Well on Monday, the girl looked like she would burst! She told me about how she felt Jesus speaking to her, and how she finally understood what had been different with her and her boyfriend. She was curious about his faith.
“Tonight, when Jaydon told me that the two of you were hoping I could step in and maybe help you do something to minister to her, I laughed! Isn’t it amazing how the Lord works?”
Gina smiled at the way her mother’s accent said “amazing” more like “a-MAY-zeen” without the G. She also spoke fast, like she would if she were using Spanish.
“It really is, mamá. God is so good.”
“He is. And it’s all Jesus. I can already see Jesus is doing something new in her.”
Jaydon’s deep voice piped up.
“Yes, he is. Last night during youth service, I could see a change in her eyes. A couple weeks ago I first learned of Hailee’s situation. She’d been threatened by her mom’s dealer. He implied that if Hailee didn’t pay her mother’s debt, he’d find a creative way to accept payment from her.”
Gina gasped at that. That was horrible. Her stomach flipped and she wanted to throw up, just imagining some nasty man doing to Hailee what that filthy pig had tried to do to her all those years ago. It would have been so much worse for Hailee, because she didn’t have Tonya to protect her. She didn’t have anyone. Gina grieved for what else the girl may have been through.
Jaydon, God bless him, must have recognized Gina’s distress. He reached for her hands and dipped his head to ensure eye contact.
“She had been saving up, babe. She had to dig into her secret savings to make the payment and pick up a few extra shifts that week, but she made it. He didn’t hurt her.”
Profound relief surged through her. She whispered prayers of thanksgiving to God for protecting Hailee and providing for her.
“I suspect she’s been paying most of the bills with her income because her mom is in and out of work. She was saving up for a car but had to use it all to pay off the thugs. She assures me that she’s at peace about it. She actually told me that she knew without a doubt God would provide a way—just like he had been all along.”
Gina’s heart felt so full it might burst. Sure, the reaction was a tad strong for a girl she’d only met twice. But there had been something there. She’d identified with Hailee and her heart had gotten involved right from the first tentative smile.
“What can we do to help?”
Jaydon began stroking his beard, his fingers pulling through the very end of it. She smiled. The movement was just so him.
“You need to trim that thing, babe.”
He narrowed his eyes and raised one fuzzy brow. And with a teasing glower, gave the scraggly chin mane one more pull-through.
“I honestly don’t know. Things could be so much worse than we think, or it could be blown out of proportion. We don’t know exactly how bad it is over there, so it wouldn’t be wise to just up and call child services. We need to know more.”
The trio considered this a few moments.
Eva spoke first. And in a single breath, the youngest in Christ pointed out the most obvious course of action.
“We should pray.”
And they did.
Chapter 19
Gina
One week.
In one week she’d gone from feeling like a floundering has-been to a beautiful, treasured woman perilously close to falling head-over-heels.
She’d spent more time in that one week with Jaydon Bennett than she’d spent with any other guy in the last ten years put together.
Already she knew Jaydon was a man who meant so much more than anyone ever before. And here she was, getting ready for an all-day excursion with the man who unexplainably couldn’t get enough of her, either.
She laced up the hiking boots that just this morning had been brushed clean of a thick dust layer from years of hiding deep in the closet.
Last night’s dinner out, followed by a goodnight kiss at the door that had sent shivers she’d felt all the way into the soles of her feet? In a word, perfect. Even if they’d had to eat with the retirement crowd so she could get to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson on time.
Now it was Saturday, and somehow, he’d managed to talk her into a hike on one of the many trails in the Sandia Mountains. Spring was in full glory with new foliage, chirping birds and blessed sunshine overhead. Lunch was waiting in her backpack
, several bottles of water and other supplies in his, and he held her hand as they walked the trail.
The further they walked into the trees, the more her body relaxed. For the better part of an hour, they carried on light conversation over mostly level ground. The trail began a slow incline and as their breaths grew more labored, talking ceased. The quiet was pleasant, and she marveled at the assortment of sounds and smells flooding the environment.
Peace. Their leisurely stride complemented the setting and for the first time in a long time, Gina felt herself fully relax. Here there were no worries, no convoluted histories or wounds. No decisions to make or people in need of her care. Just peace and the splendor of God’s creation.
They reached a spot just off the main trail where an array of huge boulders invited climbing. As they made their way to the top of the massive rocks, Gina realized that they overlooked a rare bit of water. The whole scene was peaceful and enchanting, like they’d left Albuquerque and the New Mexico desert behind and entered another place entirely.
Jaydon had been quiet for a big part of the day, and it made her wonder what was going through his mind. As they sat on the boulders side by side, she nudged his shoulder.
“You’re quiet today. Got a lot on your mind?”
His body tensed, and the set of his jaw as he stared into the horizon brought to mind the lost-in-thought look she’d seen back at the botanic gardens.
Was that really only a week ago?
She felt like so much had changed already since then. Quit, G. He’s working up to something. Pay attention, girl. “You want to talk about it?”
“Gettin’ there, I think. I, uh,” he hedged, still mulling over how to begin, apparently. “I wanted to talk to you about those questions you had on Sunday. If that’s okay. I know we’re still in the early stages of exploring this thing between us, but I don’t want to start off with secrets.”
Secrets? Trust was already such a hard concept for her. This week it had been so easy to trust. But he had secrets? Her stomach sank. This is Jaydon, a small voice reminded her.
Whatever Comes Our Way (Everyday Love Book 2) Page 14
