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“Yep. And if we get lazy and don’t clean our rooms, no one will know.”
“Except for when I come to visit you,” Aria said, waving her hand at Janessa’s room.
“Shut up.” Janessa jostled Aria with her elbow. “I’m going to clean this weekend.”
Janessa figured that she expended her energies keeping the clinic clean and tidy. Her room wasn’t dirty, but it was a bit messy. While some people thrived on cleaning, Janessa didn’t really feel up to it after a long day at the clinic. That meant that cleaning took place on the weekends, usually Saturday afternoons.
“My bedroom isn’t a whole lot better at the moment,” Aria admitted.
Their conversation turned to their plans for the weekend. Surprise, surprise. Aria’s included Gareth. Janessa’s included… cleaning her room. How exciting…
“I’m thinking of volunteering to work on the church’s fall dinner committee,” she said.
Aria shifted to face her. “Really?”
“Yep. I figured it would give me something interesting to do. I’m also thinking of starting a new hobby. Any ideas?”
“What’s brought all this on?” Aria asked with a frown.
“I’m just finding my evenings a little boring. I mean, I know I could clean, but I’d rather do something that I actually enjoy after working all day.”
“You’ve never really had a hobby before, have you?” Aria asked.
“Not unless you count the phone games I play before I fall asleep.”
“I don’t think those count. So what are you considering? Misha said that Denise has really taken to knitting. Maybe you should get her to teach you.”
“Would you all want knitted socks and mitts for Christmas? Because if I start knitting, I’d have to give away most of what I made.”
“Well, you have enough siblings that you’d have plenty of people to give what you made to.”
“This is true,” Janessa said. “However, they would also tease me mercilessly if what I gave them wasn’t perfect.”
Aria chuckled. “Makes me glad sometimes that I never had any siblings.”
“Oh, but you’ve gained a whole bunch by moving here, even if you and Gareth aren’t married yet. If you don’t think they’d tease you too, you are sorely mistaken.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
“I’m definitely right.”
She was grateful that Aria had been so welcomed by everyone in their family. In much the same way that Misha had been. Of course, the Halversons had a long history of being welcoming. It probably would have been more surprising if they hadn’t embraced Aria or Misha.
They hadn’t been as enthusiastic about Casey, Jay’s long-time, on and off girlfriend, even though they’d all known her from before they became a couple. Everyone was much happier that Jay was dating Misha.
“Well, I think you should try some sort of handwork for your hobby and ask Denise to help you. She’d probably love that.”
Janessa liked Misha’s mom a lot, but there were times, as she watched Misha and Denise together, that she wondered how things might have been had her own mom not passed away. She loved Cathy Halverson with all her heart, but she had so few memories of her birth mom, so she couldn’t help but wonder.
She was grateful that the Halversons had taken her and Jay in, opening their home and hearts to them. Life could have turned out much differently had her mom, before her death, not planned out everything concerning her children’s future with the Halversons.
Though things had worked out okay for her and Jay, the effects of losing both parents as a young child had left wounds inside her that had never fully healed. Some of those wounds had only manifested themselves as Janessa had gotten close to the age her mom had been when she’d made the decisions that had led to her getting married and becoming a mom.
“You’re quiet,” Aria murmured. “What’s on your mind?”
“Nothing much,” Janessa told her, not really wanting to share her thoughts about the mom she didn’t really remember. Though Aria had also lost her mom, she’d had her in her life into her adult years, so she had so many more memories of her.
“You still need to talk to Jay,” Aria said. “And maybe Will.”
