by Jaime Maddox
“Do you dispute this woman’s claim that she’s Miss Finan’s sister?” He was addressing the Finans’ lawyer.
“No, Your Honor.”
“Thank you. Miss Coussart, do you wish to serve as the guardian for these children?”
Nic wondered if it was appropriate to remind the judge that she was a doctor. Would it help her cause? It was her cause now. She’d decided to help Jet, to help these kids, and now it was important that she do her best for them. Using her title never hurt. “Your honor, it’s Dr. Coussart, and yes, I do. I do wish to serve as their guardian.”
“Well, Doctor,” he said, stressing the word, “then you shall have your wish.”
The Finans’ lawyer objected, and the judge told him to stand down, and the Finans began shouting and cursing until they were threatened with arrest. Nic was too scared to celebrate, but Rae smiled and then hugged her.
“That was easy,” Nic said, when the judge rose from the bench and left the courtroom. She had a terrible fear in her heart that she wouldn’t have too many more easy moments in the coming days.
Rae shrugged and held up her hands. “I’m a great lawyer, Nic. What can I say?”
Nic tried to suppress her smile, but somehow it emerged anyway, as it had been tending to do when she was in Rae’s company. “You’re just lucky there are no diapers to change.”
“Well, it was my pleasure. And Nic—happy birthday.”
Nic looked at her niece and nephew. Andre was talking to Jet, his face animated as he relayed something of vital importance. Chloe stood behind and to the side, her arms wrapped around Jet, her eyes piercing Nic with a threatening stare.
Nic swallowed and forced a smile. “Best. Present. Ever.”
Chapter Twenty-six
Shopping Spree
Much to her surprise, Nic learned her car was equipped with a LATCH system to hold Andre’s car seat in place. After watching Jet struggle to secure it, she hoped for the sake of her manicure that she never had to do it herself.
After taking inventory of the kids’ clothing, supplied in a duffel bag by Mr. and Mrs. Fox, Nic decided they needed to shop. They couldn’t possibly function with one bathing suit, one pair of shorts, and one T-shirt each. Her heart raced at the thought of a few hours at the King of Prussia mall; she’d seen a new purse in a magazine and was sure they’d have it at Bloomingdale’s or Nordstrom. Her mouth watered at the thought of the delectable lunch they’d have at The Cheesecake Factory. She could hardly wait.
“So where do you guys normally shop?” she asked after they were all buckled up and heading toward the mall. “Bloomie’s? Lord and Taylor?”
“Target!” Andre continued to speak for both of them, and Nic was unsure if his sister was shy or skeptical of Nic’s ability to function as their caregiver. Or perhaps she sensed something more was happening than she’d been told. They knew their mother needed surgery, but not why. They didn’t know their father was dead. And they didn’t know the circumstances of their mother’s birth and why this strange woman named Nicole Coussart was suddenly in charge of their welfare.
Nic looked in the mirror, but she couldn’t see Andre’s eyes. “They sell clothes at Target?” She’d been there for a hair dryer and a toaster, but never clothing.
“Yeah. They have superhero underwear.”
“And Hello Kitty,” Chloe added shyly.
“You like Hello Kitty?” Nic was thrilled to hear Chloe’s voice. “I loved her when I was little. I even had a Hello Kitty lunch box in second grade.”
Suddenly, Chloe came to life, her voice enthusiastic. “Really? That’s cool. I just have a shirt, and pencils, and a backpack. And pajamas.”
Nic smiled to herself as she remembered the little girl she’d been on her first day of second grade, with that pink lunch box clutched tightly in her hands. “Well, I guess it’s Target then. But do you want to eat first? I’m kind of hungry.” She tried to recall if there was a Target near the mall but couldn’t remember seeing one there.
“Yes, please,” Andre said.
“How’s The Cheesecake Factory sound to you guys?”
After a moment’s silence, Chloe answered quietly. “No, thank you.”
“What? You’re not hungry?”
“We don’t like cheesecake, Aunt Nicole.”
“Oh, don’t worry. You don’t have to eat cheesecake. They have other things there.”
“Why can’t we just go to McDonald’s?” Andre asked.
Nic groaned in ecstasy as the image of a cheeseburger came to mind. “You guys like McDonald’s?”
“Yes,” they shouted in unison.
“Me, too.” Maybe kids weren’t so bad after all.
She drove to City Avenue and exited the expressway, and in a few minutes they were walking into the restaurant.
“What will you guys have?” she asked.
“Can we get Happy Meals?” Andre asked.
“Of course. What kind?”
Andre chose chicken nuggets, with barbeque sauce and a Hot Wheels toy, while Nic and Chloe had cheeseburgers, with Twinkle Toes toys. Nic allowed each of them to carry their boxes to the table, and then they filled their own drinks from the beverage fountains.
“My mommy likes cheeseburgers, too,” Andre informed Nic.
“Well, she’s a smart lady.” Nic was more than a little curious about his mother but had been hesitant to interrogate the kids. Since Andre had opened the door, though, she decided to walk through it. “What else does your mommy like?”
Chloe chewed, swallowed, and then frowned. “Vegetables.”
Nic chuckled. Obviously Chloe didn’t share her mother’s taste. “Is she a good cook?”
“She doesn’t like to cook too much,” Andre said.
“Me either,” Nic said, wondering if this was a genetic flaw they’d inherited.
“She cooks sometimes,” Chloe said, sounding defensive.
“What’s your favorite thing your mom cooks for you?”
“Hot dogs,” Andre replied, very seriously, and Nic was quite relieved. She, too, could manage hot dogs.
“How about you, Chloe? What do you like to eat?”
“I like it when we have breakfast for dinner. My mom makes good pancakes.”
“I like pancakes, too.” As they ate their lunch, Nic asked more questions about their mother, and the obvious joy they felt in talking about her assuaged any guilt Nic may have felt about pumping Katie’s children for information.
“You guys are so lucky,” she said after a while. “When I was little, my parents never let me eat at fast-food restaurants.”
At first she thought she imagined the look that passed between them, but when they suddenly both became very interested in their French fries, she knew she’d been conned. “Wait a minute, you two. You aren’t allowed to eat here, are you?”
Chloe looked up first, guilt and remorse all over her beautiful face. “Only on special occasions.”
Nic looked from her to her brother and took a deep breath. “Well, I think this is sort of special, don’t you? I mean, us meeting each other?”
“Yes!” Andre screamed, and Chloe smiled.
“Aunt Nicole,” he asked, “how come you never came to see us before?”
Nic sat back and thought about an answer, then decided it was best to deflect it. “I’m going to let your mom tell you that story. But I’ve been thinking, Andre, and I don’t think I like being called Aunt. It makes me feel old. How about if you call me AJ instead?”
“What’s AJ stand for?” Chloe asked.
“It’s an acronym. A for Aunt, J is for my middle name, Jeanne. AJ. Sound good?” Nic’s suddenly thought about Jeannie and had a clearer understanding of her mom’s loyalty to her dear friend. There was certainly a good story behind her middle name. Too bad it’d taken thirty years for her to hear it.
“Yeah, and I can be AF,” Andre said conspiratorially, bringing Nic’s thoughts back to the table.
“What can I be?” Chloe asked. �
��I want an acronym, too.”
“Okay, you can be CF. How’s that?”
“I don’t like it.” She frowned and shook her head, then bit into her cheeseburger.
“Why don’t we think about it for a little while, okay?”
Nic could tell by the frown on her face that Chloe wasn’t thrilled to be cheated out of an acceptable nickname. Nic looked at the toy in her food box, then reached in and handed it to her. A smile instantly replaced the frown. All was blissful for exactly half a second.
“Hey, how come she gets two toys and I only get one?”
Nic wasn’t prepared for this parenting psychology and frowned in frustration. She’d warned both Jet and Rae that they shouldn’t trust her with small children, but they’d insisted anyway. She looked at her watch. It was approaching one o’clock. She’d had custody of them for less than an hour and already faced her first conflict. But if she could just hold out for seven more hours, Jet would come to the rescue. She sat taller, fortifying her conviction. She could do this.
Nic looked at his adorable face and tried not to laugh. “Well, I’m sorry about that, Andre. Would you like a Twinkle Toes toy, too?”
“Ewww!”
“Well, then why are you complaining?”
He had no answer, but Chloe seemed to like the way Nic had handled that and was a little friendlier as they headed to the store.
“I don’t like shopping,” Andre whined as they unbuckled their seat belts.
Nic turned in her seat and faced him. “Okay, you can stay in the car while we shop. When you need a clean shirt, you can wear one of your sister’s.”
“Ewww! I’m not wearing girl clothes.”
“Well, then I guess you have to shop with us.”
To keep their interest, they stopped first in the toy department, where Andre picked out a dozen things. Nic made him narrow it down to two, and he held his Legos triumphantly while Chloe browsed the aisles slowly and carefully. Finally, she settled on a board game and shyly asked if she could get a book instead of another toy.
Her hesitancy nearly melted Nic. “Of course you can,” she said as she patted her shoulder. Nic picked out her own toys—a Frisbee and a plastic ball and bat. They had a lot of time to kill, and she figured they’d stop at the park next.
They picked up the necessary toiletries to sustain them and then made good time through the clothing sections, picking out a variety of items in a sufficient quantity to allow Nic to avoid washing laundry for at least a few days. Andre found superheroes and Chloe found princesses and Hello Kitty, and when they left the store several hundred dollars later, both children wore broad smiles on their beautiful faces.
Nic looked at the clock on her dashboard as she buckled her seat belt. It was 2:15. What the hell could she do for another six hours? Counting perhaps another hour for dinner, she still had almost five hours to fill with fun and exciting activity. She didn’t possess the endurance to throw a Frisbee for that long. Then she had an idea. She could take them to see a movie. Whipping out her smartphone, she searched for movies playing locally. To her dismay, she found none with a rating appropriate for her niece and nephew, who she’d learned were eight and six years old. Then another idea occurred to her. She was just around the corner from the zoo, and she knew they could easily spend the afternoon there. She zigzagged through gardens and ghettos and finally found her way to Girard Avenue. From their backseat views they recognized the zoo’s entrance as they approached. “Did you ever go to the zoo, AJ?” Andre asked as she rounded the corner toward the parking area.
“Oh, once or twice. How about you? Did you ever go?”
“We went last year. But they didn’t have an elephant.” His voice was heavy with disappointment.
“Oh, that’s too bad. I guess we shouldn’t go today then, if they don’t have an elephant.”
“It was still fun,” Chloe exclaimed.
“Yeah, they still have snakes and giraffes.” Now Andre was excited, too, and as she pulled the car into a parking space, he shrieked. “Are we really going to the zoo?”
Nic turned in her seat to face them, trying hard not to smile at his enthusiasm. “If we go to the zoo, we need rules. Are you guys okay with that?” They both nodded. “First, no running. Second, you always have to keep me in sight. If you can see me, I can see you, right? That way, we won’t get lost. Third, Andre, you have to pee in the girl’s bathroom.”
“Ewww, why?”
“I think they have a family bathroom, AJ. We can go together,” Chloe informed Nic, her excitement overriding the hesitancy she’d displayed earlier.
“Okay, that’s fair. So do you guys agree to my terms?”
“Your what?” Chloe asked.
“The rules.”
They both nodded, and Nic smiled as they reached the sidewalk and Chloe took her brother’s hand. It surprised her that Andre allowed it; he was rather feisty. Yet he seemed to like the attention she paid him—at McDonald’s she’d wiped the ketchup from his face, and at the store she’d helped him to pick out a toothbrush and found the right size clothes for him. Her affection for him was obvious, and as Nic took a closer look, it was just as obvious that he loved her, too.
They reached the gate and Nic pulled out her credit card as she requested the tickets. The attendant informed her it was only a few dollars more for a season pass, good for an entire year from the date of purchase. Nic calculated the math in her head and reasoned that they only needed to make one return trip to the zoo to make it a worthwhile investment. As far as she was concerned, they could come to the zoo every day if it kept them occupied.
“You mean we can come here all the time?” Chloe asked, seeming bewildered.
“Whenever you want.”
“AJ, this is the best present ever. Thank you!” Before she knew what was happening, Chloe’s arms were wrapped around her waist, and then Andre joined her.
The sudden display of affection surprised her, and she had to admit that these children had as well. Although she’d never met them, she’d pre-formed her opinions of them based on what she’d learned about their mother, and Katie didn’t sound like the kind of person capable of caring for herself, let alone her kids. She’d truly anticipated meeting juvenile delinquents and had been fully prepared to tell Jet and Rae to go to hell. Then the look of delight on Andre’s face when he first saw her had melted her heart, and the hug he’d given her weakened her knees. She was smitten.
In the two hours they’d been together, Nic had seen that Chloe and Andre were two intelligent, well-mannered kids. The unsavory details Detective Young had shared and the news accounts she’d heard about Katie just didn’t jibe with what she was seeing. Something was off here, and knowing that made Nic even more confused about her feelings for their mother. It would be easy to walk away and avoid Katie if she were truly the woman who’d been described to her. Could Jet and Jeannie’s version be closer to the truth than she wanted to admit?
It was all so overwhelming Nic was truly grateful that Katie was in the SICU and she didn’t have to worry about it just yet. Things had a way of sorting themselves out, and she hoped that with time they would.
“You’re welcome, guys,” she said, clearing her throat of the tears forming there.
Their first stop was at the snake habitat, followed by polar bears, giraffes, monkeys, and a variety of big cats. They saw the city from a hundred feet up in a replica hot-air balloon and then ate ice cream in the shade of a giant oak tree. They saw a lemur exploring the new Treetop Trail, a walkway for animals suspended above them, winding its way around the entire zoo. Nic was exhausted by the time they left and wondered, not for the first time, how parents kept up with their children. But they had been polite and well behaved, inquisitive and enthusiastic. In spite of her fatigue, Nic knew as they walked through the gate on the way to the car that she would bring them back to the zoo anytime.
After making sure everyone was buckled in, Nic leaned back and took a deep breath. She was fucking ex
hausted. The dashboard clock now read 5:05. How could it be only 5:05? “Are you guys hungry?” she asked. It had only been a few hours since lunch, but they’d hopped around the zoo like kangaroos and certainly worked up an appetite.
They answered yes and no simultaneously, and Nic was amazed at how many times they’d wanted to go in separate directions in their short time together. Keeping them on the same page was a challenge.
“Well, we’re going to have to eat tonight. How’s pizza sound?”
When they agreed, she pulled out of the zoo parking lot and into the rush-hour traffic. The roads were crowded even heading into the city, and it was forty minutes before they were seated at the restaurant. She’d texted Louis and asked him to join them, but he was understandably tired after his night on call and asked only that Nic be kind enough to bring leftovers for his dinner, because he wasn’t up to the challenge of cooking.
Chloe and Andre showed no signs that the eventful forty-eight hours was affecting them. Chloe continued to mother him, and they remained pleasant in spite of the occasional flash of sibling rivalry. Andre tended to whine, and Chloe’s tactic of ignoring him seemed to be the perfect remedy.
“Do you ever make pizza?” Nic asked as they sat waiting for theirs, playing with straw wrappers to see who could create the best design out of the long strip of thin paper.
“I’m a great pizza chef,” Andre said. “And I don’t make a mess.”
“That’s probably the most important thing,” Nic replied. “What do you like to put on your pizza?”
“My favorite thing is chicken,” Chloe said.
“I like meatballs,” Andre added.
“Get out. You guys are really creative. I usually just do pepperoni.”
“Boring,” Chloe commented.
“Tell me about the chicken pizza.”
“Well, you cook the chicken in the oven, cut it in little pieces, sprinkle it on the pizza, and then put cheese and sauce on top.”
