I sit forward. “Miss Maggie, I’d like to ask if I could have permission to date your daughter.”
“Oh, now you ask,” the old woman chuckles.
“Better late than never,” I tease. “Do you really think she looks happy?” I wish I was as confident as she is.
“I do.” Maggie shields her eyes from the sun, watching her daughter kneel down to study a patch of weeds. “Do you remember how curious she used to be? Always bringing home some plant or weed she’d found on one of your adventures. She’d spend hours after you dropped her off looking them up.”
“Or rocks.” I lean back in my chair, relaxing. “She was always looking up rocks.”
“And bugs,” Maggie chuckles. She wags a finger in her daughter’s direction. “We just need to keep nurturing that side of her.”
Aspen runs over to Jenny, holding the bottom of her shirt in her hands. I’m sure it’s filled with things to show her. Jenny immediately sits on the grass, and Aspen settles on her lap. Together they go through each item, holding it to the light like it’s the best thing they’ve ever seen.
“Oh my god, is that a snake?” Maggie asks, gripping her chest.
A laugh bursts out of my mouth, and Jenny and Aspen both look our direction.
Jenny smiles as Aspen holds a little garden snake up high for us to see. Jenny whispers to her, and an ornery grin pulls at the corners of my granddaughter’s mouth. She jumps to her feet giggling and starts to run toward us.
Maggie begins to protest loudly, and both Aspen and Jenny’s smiles widen.
Jackson whistles, halting the little turd in her tracks. “Don’t you dare be chasin’ your grandma with that thing.”
Her head falls, but she’s still grinning. She walks back to Jenny, both of them hardly containing their amusement. Aspen backs herself up and drops onto Jenny’s lap like she’s done it a hundred times. The sun cuts through the trees, and both of them squint against the light. It’s enough to take my breath away.
“Those two are going to be trouble,” Maggie complains, but the tears in her eyes tell a different story. She’s happy. The happiest I’ve ever seen her.
“Well, I wonder where they get it from?”
Maggie waves a hand in front of her face, blushing. “Oh, they donotget it from me.”
My phone rings, and I pull it to my ear. “Hello.”
“I told that woman of yours to be here at two,” Dan grumbles, forgetting pleasantries.
I look at my watch. “Oh, yeah, shit. We lost track of time.”
“Get your asses moving then.”
“Oh my god,” I whine. “I hate rushing. Don’t rush me.”
“Then pay attention to the damn time!”
“Alright. Alright.”
When I hang up, Maggie gives me the side-eye. “You’re stalling. I’ve seen you check your watch at least a hundred times today, and we both know Jenny has absolutely no concept of time.”
“I’m worried that the warehouse isn’t the right place for her to stay. You yourself said she seems happy here.”
“I said sheishappy. Not seems.”
“Okay, well, what if she isn’t happy at the warehouse?”
“Then we find somewhere where she is. Raffe, sometimes you just have to make a decision and go with it. After sleeping on it last night, I think this is what’s best. I want Jenny to spend as much time here as she can, but she needs more. She needs a life of her own. I’m afraid if she stays here, she’ll never leave.”
Jackson looks at his phone, his mom, me, and then his phone again. He types as he walks toward us. I don’t know how he manages not to trip on any animals or toys in the yard. “Dan says you and Mom are supposed to be at the warehouse. Lily is waiting for her.”
Maggie chuckles.
