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I had heard enough. I didn’t want to hear anything else negative about Bone. He was a hero in my eyes at the moment and I wanted to keep it like that for a while longer. “Your bacon is burning,” I pointed out.
She scrambled off to the stove while I exited the kitchen. I helped Jess into her pink blouse, pink skirt and pink shoes.
“Is Denise coming to visit again today?” she asked, carefully tying her shoelaces.
“Um … no. Not today. She might be coming in a month’s time.”
“That’s good. Because I like her. She’s nice.”
“Jess, you know she is your real mother, right?”
“Yeah.” She looked at me and flashed me a brilliant smile. “But I still want to call you Mommy.”
“But not when your mother is around, okay?”
“Why not?”
“Because she wants you to call her Mommy.”
“Why?”
“Because she loves you.”
She looked confused. “She does?”
I nodded.
She was silent as she thought about it. “So what will I call you when she’s around then?”
“Call me Della.”
She made a face. “Oooo … I don’t like that.”
“Well, you know we all have to do things we don’t like, right. I have to go to work even though I’d rather stay at home and play with you, but …”
“You have to,” she finished.
“Exactly. You don’t like eating broccoli, but …”
“I have to,” she sang.
“I don’t like eating spinach, but …”
“You have to,” she sang even louder.
I held back my laughter. “That’s right. You don’t like going to the dentist, but …”
“You have to,” she screamed.
“Well done,” I said then squashing her face to mine, I kissed her sweet, innocent mouth with a smacking noise. God, I loved her so much I would become a fugitive of the law and run away with her rather than let Denise put her in a home where she would be so frightened and lost. “Alright then. Let’s go have some breakfast. Nichole is making a full English breakfast for us.”
Her eyes lit up. “English breakfast?”
I grinned at her excited face. “Yup.”
“With sausages?”
“Yup.”
“What about bacon?”
“At least two slices per person,” I said with a grave nod.
“And eggs too?”
“Eggs too.”
“Scrambled?” she asked, her hands clasped in front of her.
“Scrambled,” I confirmed.
“What about toast?”
“That too.”
“And orange juice.”
I giggled. “Of course.”
“Oh goodie, Mommy. We’re really having a big English breakfast!” she cried clapping her hands with glee.
And that was what we did. As I watched her and Nichole eating, I felt happy. No matter what it took, even if it meant groveling at Denise’s feet or paying her money, I was determined to have Jess. By hook or by crook, I was keeping my baby.
Della Ray
As I went through my day I couldn’t stop thinking about Bone, but I also didn’t want to call him. I had shunned him so thoroughly the previous day and yet, he had come through so completely for me that I felt a deep-seated sense of shame about the way I had treated him.
But by midday, I couldn’t take it anymore and I went out to the back of the diner and placed a call to him. My heart was racing as his phone rang. All morning, I had mentally rehearsed everything I wanted to say.
Six rings in, when I had already decided to take the coward’s way and hang up, he picked up. My heart skipped a beat. “I’m not a crybaby,” I said.
He went silent for a few seconds. “Della-Ray?’
Immediately my paranoia went into overdrive. Hell, the man didn’t even remember who I was. I tried to laugh it off. “Ha, ha, you go around calling everybody crybabies?”
“No, I only know one,” he said.
I wrinkled my nose at the tease. “I uh … I wanted to call to say thank you for last night.”
“Sure.”
What do I say now? What do I say? I say the stupidest thing I could, “Uh … okay. So … I’ll see you around?”
“Have dinner with me?” he asked abruptly.
“Sure,” I replied, releasing a long, pent-up breath of pure relief. It was a quiet night and I was sure Henry wouldn’t mind if I didn’t turn up. Most of the time I was aware they were giving me shifts because they knew I needed the money, anyway. I would miss the money from this shift, but maybe I could just cut back on something else.
We agreed on a time and the call came to an end. I looked around the bare alley as I felt a surge of excitement and anticipation. I caught myself doing a little skip as I returned to the diner. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t put a halt to the foolishness.
There’s nothing to this, I reminded myself.
It was just a polite prelude to sex, but even though I had turned into almost a bodily function mode, I couldn’t restrain the buzz of excitement coursing through my veins.
