“I told you I have money to run the air.”
Rowan caught how Juniper refused to make eye contact as she passed by her to walk down the hall toward her bedroom.Then she looked back to the shorter but no less formidable woman standing in front of her.
“Hi, Anita.”
Anita squeezed her into a tight hug. She was short enough, and Rowan tall enough, that her head fit perfectly under her chin.
Anita leaned back from her hug. “Oh, you can’t call me Auntie anymore?” She teased in a soft voice.
“I didn’t know,” Rowan said, unsure, her eyes barely meeting Anita’s.
“Always. Don’t be silly.” Anita beamed and hugged her again.
Rowan pressed her chin into the center part of Anita’s hair and for the second time in as many days, she had to blink away tears as she held onto someone she loved as they overwhelmed her with the unconditional nature of the way they loved her back. This time her effort to stop the tears was unsuccessful. She sniffled as she brought the back of her hand up to her eyes to wipe them away.
Anita let her go after another tight squeeze.
“I would tell you ‘don’t cry it’s okay,’ but I’ve been told that’s not the way parents are comforting their children anymore. Wren never stops getting on me about that.”
Rowan chuckled through her tears. “The ‘it’s okay’ part works, if it is okay?”
Anita sighed and looked at her tenderly. “It’s okay, Ro. Not one person on this earth knows what another is going through except them. If you don’t judge me, I don’t judge you.”
“That’s very, very fair.”
“Now come sit down and eat. You’re looking scrawny.” She turned her head to yell down the hall. “Junie, did you know Rowan was so skinny? You haven’t been feeding her anything at lunch?”
“What?!” Juniper yelled exasperatedly from down the hall.
Rowan laughed. This was exactly like she remembered. The warmth, the good kind this time, enveloped her.
Juniper finally emerged out of the hallway, and Rowanimmediately had an intense desire to snuggle into her. To breathe her in. To kiss her again. She thought of all the little things she wanted with her, like fixing dinner together, then snuggling on a couch to watch a movie. Fuck, she wanted to feel that soft, dimpled ass beneath her hands again too.
“What are you talking about?” Juniper’s sharp but playful question brought her back to reality.
“I said,” Anita emphasized, “that you need to start taking an extra lunch to work because my baby girl is too skinny.”
Juniper rolled her eyes and looked at Rowan. “Do I need to bring you lunch every day? Because I will.” She jammed her hand against her hip.
Rowan looked at Anita instead. “I mean, I wouldn’t turn that down,” she said with a playful shrug.
Anita flipped her arm out, palm up, in Juniper’s direction to underscore her point. “See.”
“No, we’re not going to do the gang up on Juniper thing again,” she directed at both of them, a warning finger in the air.
Anita and Rowan passed a teasing look to each other, and they both started laughing.
“Pick a side, Birdsong,” Juniper declared as she crossed over to them.
“Hell no,” Rowan responded, which caused Anita to laugh even harder.
Anita winked at Rowan. “You can’t just threaten people, Junie.”
They really had the same personality. It was like Anita copied and pasted herself to make Juniper.
Anita motioned to the kitchen. “Come in here and let me fix you something to eat. Cornbread’s in the cast iron on the middle of the table already.”
Juniper started to pull out paper bowls for the chili on the stove.
