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Charlie looked at Jean with his eyebrows sky-high.
“I hit her with a box,” Jean said. She bent and picked it up. “She doesn’t seem okay. I’ll go get Arthur.”
Charlie moved over to his mother, who’d leaned against the hood of a car parked in the driveway. Jean took the box inside, and it had been labeled kitchen.
She found Robin there, and she slid the box onto a patch of available countertop. “I think I may have broken something in here,” she said. She gestured back the way she’d come. “I hit Alice with the box, and she seems…off. She said she’s okay, but she’s not.”
Robin looked over to her, alarm on her face. “She’s not?”
“Have you seen Arthur?”
“Yeah, he’s with Shad in Jamie’s room, putting the dresser back together.”
Jean nodded and went to find him. Shad knelt on the floor in the first bedroom Jean came to, and she leaned halfway into the room. “Arthur.”
He looked over from the corner of the dresser. “Yeah?”
“I hit Alice with a box, and she seems really hurt.”
He waved his hand at her. “Come hold this for Shad.”
Fear bolted through Jean. She couldn’t help put together a dresser. She barely stood over five feet tall, and a stiff wind could whisk her feet off solid ground. Still, she did walk over to where he stood.
“Put your hand here,” he said. “I’m holding that in place while he bolts it together.”
“I don’t think I can.” Jean reached out hesitantly, and Arthur guided her hand to where it needed to go.
“Just stand here, Jean. You’ve got it.” He left in a hurry then, and Jean watched as Shad worked with nuts, bolts, and tools.
A few minutes later, he got to his feet. “We’re good now, Jean.” He gave her a smile, but Jean could barely return it. Accidents happened, she knew. She just wished she’d kept a clear head instead of letting her hopes and dreams cloud her reality.
She’d lived in that land before, and coming back to reality was too painful. She had to stay here all the time, or she never wanted to come back.
She left the bedroom with Shad, and she took a right and went out the front door. Alice now stood near the corner of the moving truck, drinking a bottle of water. Charlie, Ginny, and Arthur all crowded in around her, and she shook her head as she lowered the water bottle.
Jean approached, and she asked, “How are you, Alice?” when she got near enough for her voice to be heard.
Alice turned toward her. “I’m fine. Honestly.”
Jean took her into a hug. “I’m sorry. I was just inside my own head and I didn’t hear anyone come up behind me.” She pulled away and couldn’t meet Alice’s eyes. The woman was a lawyer, and Jean already felt inferior to her in so many ways. She’d be able to see the turmoil in Jean, and she disliked that something amazing and joyous had caused turmoil at all.
“Areyouokay?” Alice asked.
“Yes.” Jean forced a smile to her face. “I was just up late last night practicing a gluten-free recipe. One of girls texted last night that she was just diagnosed with a gluten allergy.” That wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the reason Jean had been caught in an alternate reality.
As the moving in continued, Jean kept her focus on the tasks at hand. She laughed and chatted with the people there to help Robin and Duke, and she could feel the impact they’d had on the lives of the people there. They were well-loved, and Jean counted herself lucky to know them.
Now, if she and Reuben could just get lucky enough to be chosen as adoptive parents, all of Jean’s hopes and dreams would come true.
ChapterTen
AJ Hymas helped in Robin’s old kitchen, where she’d been all morning long. When she’d first arrived, she’d put Asher in a bouncy seat, plenty of toys attached to a bar in front of him. When he’d tired of that, she’d moved him to a swing.
He’d slept there for a while as she’d helped Eloise clean the entire first floor of the house. Robin and her girls had moved everything off the second floor days ago and cleaned that.
At the moment, they were waiting for Kristen, Clara, and Scott to arrive with the first load of items. AJ wouldn’t leave the kitchen. She’d been assigned to be one of the unpackers here in the house. Matt couldn’t come help as Saturday in the summertime was the busiest day at the golf course.
She currently wore Asher in a sling, the baby secure against the front of her body. “I’m guessing Aaron said no to that,” she said.
