“You knew about this?” Johanna asked, pointing at her sister.
Melissa grimaced. “I haven’t known the whole time.”
“But how long?”
“I mean, I’ve known awhile,” she admitted, playing with the bracelets on her wrists.
“How long is awhile, Mook?”
She shook her blond hair and the little Christmas bells attached to her earlobes jingled. “A few months?”
“A few months!”
“Grandma Mo, Grandma Mo!” cheered Lexi as she came running into the living room and threw her arms around Maureen.
Johanna’s heart stopped as she reeled around to stare at her father. “Grandma Mo?!”
“Your sister’s right. I think we should eat,” he said with a nod.
“So she’s your dad’s girlfriend?” asked Whitley, teetering on the edge of the mustard yellow bathtub in the Hughes family’s upstairs bathroom.
Johanna, who had excused herself in an attempt to gather her bearings before returning to the family dinner, was palms down on the bathroom counter with her head slung low between her shoulder blades. Dejectedly, she lifted her head and stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. “That’s what I’m gathering.”
“But he never told you about her?”
“Nope.”
“Isn’t it kind of awkward that you had to find out now of all days?” Whitley crinkled her nose.
“Yup,” she agreed, even though awkward didn’t begin to describe what she was feeling.
“Whoa. Sucks to be you right now.”
“Yup.” The two women were silent for a moment as Johanna tried to gather her thoughts.
Finally, Whitley piped up again. “So, you don’t like her?”
Johanna watched her reflection frown. “Like her? I don’t even know her. I had no idea she even existed! How am I supposed to know if I like her or not?”
“Why wouldn’t your dad tell you about her?”
Johanna threw up both arms. “I have no idea.”
Whitley still looked confused. “So, is she different from his other girlfriends or something?”
Johanna made a face. “Yeah, she’s different. She exists!”
“She exists? What’s that mean?”
“As far as I’m aware, my dad has never had a girlfriend since Mom died.”
“Aww, your mom died? That’s so sad,” said Whitley with big, puppy dog eyes. “I lost my mom too. I was just a little girl. How long ago did yours die?”
“When I was in college,” whispered Johanna. Just speaking about her mother made tears burn in her eyes.
“You’re thirty-five, right? So that was kind of a long time ago?”
“Yeah.”
“So why is it weird for your dad to be dating again?”
Johanna sighed. She didn’t really know how to explain it. “It’s not weird that he’s dating, I guess. I mean, I always assumed he would eventually.”
“So, it’s not eventually yet…?”
“I suppose it is,” she said, crossing her arms across her chest and turning to lean her butt against the edge of the bathroom counter. “It’s just that for the first few years after Mom died, Dad never mentioned dating. I was thankful, because back then, I wasn’t ready for him to get over losing Mom, and I certainly wasn’t ready for a stepmom. And then, I got engaged and the world was this happy place and I wanted Dad to be in that happy place with me.”
“Wait. You were engaged?!” asked Whitley, her mouth agape.
“Yeah. It was a long time ago,” Johanna whispered.
“What happened?”
“Can we not talk about that? I don’t want to get into the details.”
Whitley shrugged but let it go.
“So when I was engaged, I was ready for Dad to start dating. Mook and I suggested women to him all the time. We both wanted him to try dating websites, which he refused, of course. But he was never interested. He said he had us, and then Lex and Henry came along and he loved to babysit and be the doting grandfather, and dating was never on his priority list.”
Whitley shook her head. “What changed for you?”
With wet eyes, Johanna looked down at her hands. She wasn’t sure if she could say the words. Her voice was weak as she continued, “Umm. My fiancé—his name was James—he, uh, he passed away.”
“Oh, Hanna!” breathed Whitley. She stood up and threw her arms around Johanna’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry!”
“Thanks.” She gave Whitley a tight smile and dotted at her eyes with a tissue. “I’m okay, it was a while ago. Just being home and, I don’t know, this time of year always does this to me, I guess.”
“After James passed away, you weren’t ready for your dad to date anymore?” mused Whitley with a knowing nod.
“Yeah, I guess. I leaned on Dad a lot. He’d loved James too, you know. At that time, James’s family lived next door, so Dad had watched us grow up together, and losing him was really hard on both of us.” Johanna smiled through the fresh tears. “We bonded over our loss, Dad and I. And it was almost like he’d lost Mom all over again because he felt my pain so deeply. He just knew what I was going through.”
“Wow,” Whitley said, stunned to hear Johanna’s story. “That’s so sad.”
“So, I guess I felt like Dad and I both had this unspoken pact. Neither of us would date until the other was ready.”
“But surely you didn’t think that would last forever?”
Johanna smiled and brushed her hair back from her face. “I know,” she whispered. “I knew it wouldn’t. I just would have appreciated a little warning, I guess. Mook’s known about this for months.”
“Yeah, I would have been furious if Essy know something important about our dad for months and didn’t tell me.”
“Right?” asked Johanna. “And not even that. They’ve been dating for almost a year! That’s twelve months that Dad didn’t tell me himself!”
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Johanna glared at it. “What?!”
“Who ya talkin’ to in there?” boomed Melissa’s voice.
12
“I’m talking to myself!” Johanna hollered back, having forgotten for a moment that no one there could see or hear Whitley.
“Can I come in?” asked Melissa from the other side of the door.
“No.”
“Oh, come on, JoJo. Lemme in.”
“Go away, Mook. I need a minute.”
“Don’t make me bust down this door!”
“Dad would kill you if you busted the door.”
“Open this door right now, JoJo!” It was her father’s voice outside the door now.
Johanna sighed and glanced at Whitley.
“Let him in,” she begged. “Give him a chance to explain.”
“But I don’t want to,” Johanna whined.
“Who’s she talking to in there?” she heard her dad asking her sister.
“Herself,” said Melissa.
Johanna heard Maureen’s voice next. “Maybe I should talk to her. You know, woman to woman.”
Oh God, please no.
“I don’t think she’d like that very much,” said Kevin.
“What’s the matter with Auntie JoJo?” asked Lexi.
“Woof!” barked Rocky from outside the door. Johanna could hear his tail thwacking against the sheetrock in the hallway.
“Are you all out there?!” asked Johanna as she peered in the mirror to make sure she had dried all the tears.
“No. Henry’s downstairs on his tablet,” hollered Lexi. “Want me to go get him?”
Johanna opened the door to see the whole family, with the exception of Henry, staring back at her. They smiled in unison.
“Listen, JoJo, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Mo,” said Denny. “Can I come in and we can talk about it?”
“No,” Johanna sniffled.
“For what it’s worth, JoJo, I told your father to tell you about me months ago,” said Maureen. “I remember it was, what, Easter when we
told Melissa, and even she said we should tell you.”
“Easter?!” Johanna stared at her sister. “You’ve known since Easter?!”
“Sweetheart, that’s not helping,” said Denny, patting his girlfriend’s hand. “Can you all please go back downstairs? I need to speak to my daughter alone.”
Melissa nodded as she herded the family back down the wooden staircase. “That’s right. Show’s over. Keep it movin’,” she prodded. When they’d all gone, Melissa turned around. “Alright, now we can sort this out.”
Denny stared at Melissa. “Mook, I want to speak to JoJo alone.”
“We are alone.”
“Just me and her.”
Melissa curled her lip. “Like, without me?”
“Yeah, without you.”
“But, Dad!” she whined.
He pointed at the stairs. “We’ll be down in a minute.”
Melissa wrinkled her nose and grunted but turned and headed back downstairs.
Denny closed the door and looked at his daughter. “I’m really sorry, JoJo. I should have told you about Mo.”
“Yeah, you should have!”
“Ya gotta understand! At first, I didn’t know what was gonna happen between me and her. I didn’t wanna go around sending out announcements it if it turned out to be nothin’. Ya know. I wanted it to be something first.”
Johanna’s heart thumped against the wall of her chest. Even though she knew the answer, she had to ask, “So it’s something?!” She sniffled into her wadded-up tissue.
“Well, yeah, of course it’s something. Mo’s a great woman. The kids love her. She takes really good care of me. I think you’ll like her.”
“That’s not the point,” said Johanna stubbornly.
He hung his head, the light bouncing a glare off his thinning scalp. “Yeah, I know it’s not the point. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just wasn’t sure that you were ready to hear about me dating.”
Johanna played with the skin webbed between her fingers. She still wasn’t ready to hear about him dating, but she didn’t feel like she could say that. Not now anyway. It was too late.
“But now that I know that you’ve been seeing someone on and off for the last five years and didn’t tell me, I guess I don’t feel so bad.”
Johanna closed her eyes. Of course that would come back to bite her in the ass. “Yeah,” she whispered.
“So when are we gonna get to meet this Mitch guy?”
“His name is Mitchell, Dad.”
“He doesn’t like to be called Mitch?”
Johanna shrugged. She didn’t know if he liked to be called Mitch or not.
Denny leaned his bottom against the tile counter. “So if we’re both ready to start dating again, maybe we need to be okay with each other dating again. Right?”
Wrong. “Right,” she whispered.
“Alright, then! Come meet Mo. You’re gonna like her.”
“Was she the one who decorated the house?”
Denny sighed. “Yes. And I think she did a great job. Don’t you?”
Johanna sniffled and then lifted her lip. “She put a star on the top of the tree. Mom always put our angel up there.”
“That angel was so old it was falling apart, JoJo. I didn’t want it to get destroyed. I wanted you girls to have it someday.”
“But you never got a live tree when Mom was alive.” The fact that he’d splurged for this new woman and not her mother really hurt something deep inside Johanna. Maybe that was silly, but it hurt nonetheless.
“Your mother never wanted a live tree.”
“How could she not have wanted a live tree?”
“She was just as frugal as I was. She thought it was a waste of money to buy a live tree year after year, just to throw it away in the new year.”
“She thought that?”
“Yeah, she thought that! She wanted to spend the money on you and your sister instead of on a tree that dried the house out.”
Johanna felt a little bubble of laughter rise to the inside of her throat. “That sounds like something Mom would say.”
“Because it is!” he said with a broad smile. “JoJo, I get that this is all new to you, but I just want you to be happy for me. Mo makes me happy.”
Johanna’s shoulders slumped. She wanted her dad to be happy too. “Well, she better, or she’ll have to answer to me and Mook.”
“You think I don’t know that?!”
Johanna smiled as her dad threw an arm over her shoulder.
“Come on, pumpkin. Let’s go downstairs and eat. I’m starving.”
“Me too.”
“It’s a smartwatch,” explained Johanna, leaning across the sofa’s arm and Denny’s lap to point at the screen. “It’s got Bluetooth. It can do anything from tracking your heart rate and counting your steps to checking email or making a phone call. Now there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to reach you.”
“Again, JoJo, you’ve got that game warden thing on lockdown,” said Kevin, winking at her from across the room. “That’s exactly what men love is to be able to be reached by the women in their lives twenty-four seven.”
Johanna giggled. “Or, it’s just an attractive watch, Dad. Whatever.”
Denny leaned over and kissed his daughter on the cheek. “It’s beautiful, pumpkin. I love it. Thank you!”
Suddenly they heard Esmerelda let out a “Rawr!” on the other side of the room. All heads turned to see Rocky bouncing around the cat. Esmerelda’s grey fur was fluffed up around her and her claws were bared.
“Rocky!” Johanna shouted. “Are you antagonizing Essy?”
“Woof!” He was being playful and she knew Esmerelda could handle herself, but still, Johanna worried about the two of them getting too carried away.
“You leave her alone. Go lay down,” said Johanna, pointing at the other room.
Rocky let out a whine but kept his eyes trained on Esmerelda.
Johanna turned to face her sister next. “You’re next, Mook.” She pulled a card out of the backpack she’d brought along and handed it to her sister.
“Ooh, a card. Is it filled with cash?” laughed Melissa, shaking the envelope next to her ear.
Johanna shrugged with a mischievous smile. “Open it!”
“I am, I am!”
Melissa tore into the envelope and fake-read the sentiment on the outside of the card before opening it. A folded piece of paper fell out. She unfolded it to discover a picture of a stand mixer.
“Tada!” shouted Johanna with a little giggle.
“You got me a picture of a stand mixer?”
“No, I got you a stand mixer. It’ll be delivered sometime next week. I’ll email you the tracking number if you want.”
“Oh, nice. Didn’t want to lug the thing from Manhattan to Jersey?” asked Kevin.
Johanna smiled broadly. Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? “Yes, absolutely.” She pointed at the paper. “I got you the deluxe one with all the extra attachments. I think you can make sausage and pasta with it.”
“Oh, JoJo, this is so sweet! Dad must have told you mine died last week?”
“Yeah, he mentioned it.”
Melissa stood up and gave Johanna a hug. “Thanks, sis. I’ll make you some cookies when I get it. I’ll bring them to the big family get-together next weekend.”
That piqued Whitley’s attention. Sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Henry, who was quietly playing with the new electronic game Johanna had gotten him, she lifted her head. “What big family get-together?”
Johanna shook her head at Whitley to silence her. “Oh, I almost forgot about that. What time does it start?”
“Well, it’s Christmas Day, so I’d say we could go over there anytime,” said Melissa.
Denny shook his head. “Jack said we can all start coming anytime after ten.”
“It’s at Uncle Jack’s this year?”
“Yeah,” said Melissa. “Kev and I can pick you up if you want. We’re picking Dad up.”
>
“Sounds good,” said Johanna. “Are we supposed to bring anything?”
“No, Aunt Lucy said they were taking care of the meal, so we’re good. Are you coming, Mo?”
All heads turned to Maureen, who sat with her hand resting on Denny’s knee. “And get to meet the rest of the Hughes family? I wouldn’t miss it!”
“Hey, I got a great idea,” said Denny, pointing a finger at Johanna. “Why don’t you bring your new guy?”
“What new guy?” asked Whitley, bright-eyed from the floor.
Johanna shook her head wildly, her eyes open wide like a deer caught in the headlights. “Oh, gosh. Thank you for thinking of him, but no. He’s got his own… umm, family thing. We’re spending Christmas apart.”
“Oh, JoJo, that’s so sad!” said Melissa. “You finally get a boyfriend and now you two aren’t going to spend it together?”
Whitley’s brows dropped. “Wait. You have a boyfriend? You never told Es and me!”
“He’s not my boyfriend, Mook. I told you, he’s just this guy I bump into now and again.”
“Do you hear how coy she’s being?” asked Melissa, swatting at her husband’s arm. “My sister, the tight-lipped one! She never tells us anything. We didn’t even know she’d gotten engaged to James until he told his folks and they casually mentioned it to Dad while he was taking out the garbage one morning.”
Johanna’s head shook wildly. Things were getting out of control. Maybe it was time to just tell them the truth.
“Rawr, rawr!” hissed Esmerelda from the other side of the room.
“Woof, woof!”
Johanna buried her head in her hands. Her cheeks were warm to the touch. Had someone turned up the heat?
Denny reached out and put a hand on his daughter’s arm. “I don’t care how serious you two are, JoJo. I want to meet him. It would mean a lot to me. I’d feel so much better about dating again if I knew that you were happy and dating again.”
“But, Dad…,” she began uncomfortably. She wasn’t sure what the right words were to explain that she’d sort of embellished the truth.
“Rocky, no,” hissed Whitley.
Johanna’s eyes followed Whitley’s gaze to see Rocky had caught hold of Esmerelda between his massive paws. She batted at his nose with her claws, but by now, he was used to it. “Oh, Rocky! Let her go!” shouted Johanna.
Snow Cold Case_A Mystic Snow Globe Romantic Mystery Page 9
