Page 103 of Songs for Libby

After fifteen minutes, the food and downtime had almost convinced me that I had the energy to go get some real food from the kitchen. Almost. But as I was procrastinating, a knock came at the door.

Paranoid thoughts of rumor-hungry reporters posing as vacationers and staying in Sean’s house crossed my mind before I convinced myself once again that Sean wasn’t dumb enough to let anyone stay in his house. Also, Nick was watching from his apartment across the street and received alerts anytime someone came to my door. He now texted me a thumbs-up, indicating that whoever was at the door wasn’t a threat, and I got up to see who it was. Sure, I could have looked through the peephole, but since he was watching anyway, I’d asked him to give me the thumbs-up or down so that I didn’t have to haul myself to the door for no reason.

I was gobsmacked when I opened the door. “Debbie?”

“Hey, sweet girl,” she greeted, opening her arms.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as she wrapped me in a hug.

“You and Sean think alike. Just like you asked me to take care of him, he’s asked me to take care of you.”

I squeezed her tight, tears burning my eyes, thrilled to see her again. “I haven’t seen you since Daddy’s funeral.” I blinked hard to try to get rid of the tears. “Come in.” I pulled back and invited her inside.

As soon as I closed the door, she took my hands and held them out to my sides. “Let me look at you.” She did a full body scan and then pressed both hands to her mouth.“You are a maternal goddess.”

“You’re sweet,” I said with a laugh. “Come in and sit down. How long are you here for?”

“Until Sean comes back, of course.”

“The whole four weeks?”

“Yes. I’m not letting you do this on your own.”

I gave a little shake of my head, confused. “But I need to be able to do it by myself,” I protested. Wasn’t that what sending Sean away had been all about?

“Hogwash,” she declared.

My eyes widened.“Hogwash?” Who says hogwash anymore?

“If your daddy was alive, would he be letting you do this on your own?”

She pinned me with a look, but I couldn’t answer.

“If you had any siblings,” she continued, “do you think that they would let you have a baby all on your own? Or would they be here, doing all they could to love and support you?” Again she gave me the look I couldn’t argue with. “Family helps each other, sweet girl. And like it or not, Sean and I are your family. Now, I know having him here would be different. I understand you two need to work out how to balance everything. But you can’t tell me that you’d be better off if I weren’t here. So you just be gracious, say thank you, and tell me what I can do to help.”

I gaped a bit. “Well,” I stuttered, “I am hungry.”

“Oh, good.” She jumped up. “It’s been ages since I had anyone to cook for but myself.”

I marveled as I watched Debbie take control of my kitchen, pulling a meal together as she kept the conversation going, asking me my thoughts, feelings and plans about every subject she could imagine.

A bit of melancholy slipped into my heart, realizing how much I had missed her, and wishing I could get that time back. But she was here now, and I was more than ready to soak it all up.

♪♫♪

Nick’s job became almost superfluous once people realized that Sean was making appearances all over the east coast. Proving that, just as I suspected, I became a lot less interesting when Sean wasn’t around.

Still, he was my faithful shadow and Debbie and I had a good time teasing him and asking his opinion whenever we went shopping.

As the weeks went by and the end of Debbie’s visit loomed closer, I finally worked up the courage to ask her something that had been rolling around in my head for a long time.

We were in the kitchen making sandwiches for lunch when I drummed up the nerve, my muscles tight with uncertainty. “So, would you consider maybe…being here when I have the baby?” I snuck a look at her face but couldn’t hold her gaze. It was a big ask. I knew that. But I didn’t have a mom. And I didn’t have a sister. And I didn’t have Serena.

“Oh, sweetie.” She immediately crossed and wrapped her arms around me. “You know I would love that. And I’m honored you asked me, but—”

My heart sank, hearing the denial in her voice already.

“I think there’s someone who deserves that privilege more than I do.”

My brow furrowed and I pulled back to look at her.

She smiled sadly and tucked my hair behind my ears. “Don’t you think Jonas’s mom would want to be here?”

I blinked. Having Jonas’s mom here hadn’t occurred to me. I hadn’t considered that Louisa would want to be there, but of course she would want to be here for the birth of her granddaughter. Why was I so self-absorbed that I hadn’t thought of that?

I closed my eyes and shook my head, upset at myself.

“Do you not want her to come?” Debbie asked, sounding worried.

“No, it’s not that,” I assured her. “Of course you’re right. Of course I should ask her. I just…” I blew out a breath. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

She gave me a side hug and rubbed my back. “It’s okay that you don’t think of everything.”

It didn’t feel okay.