Almost a Family

“Where did you get the lipstick?” Molly took a slow step into the bathroom, and Sara’s smile faded.

“From your bag.”

“Did I say you could go into my things?”

“No.” The little voice was hardly audible and she stared at her toes. Molly saw the bottom red lip start to tremble and she tried to remember to be patient. Sara was only a child and the accident had thrown her routine completely out the window. She took the tube of twenty-dollar tinting, capped it and put it back in her make-up bag.

Molly grabbed a Kleenex from the box on the coun

ter and tilted up the girl’s head. “So next time you’re going to ask, right?”

The chin bobbed up and down quickly.

“Okay. Let’s get this cleaned up a bit. I found some chicken nuggets for supper. Maybe you can help me make them. And after supper you’ll have a bath and we’ll call your mom.”

“Okay, Aunt Molly.” The tiny voice was innocently acquiescent now.

Molly wiped the garish color from Sara’s lips.

“Aunt Molly?”

“Hmm?”

“Can Uncle Jason come over? I miss him.”

Me too.

The thought came so quickly, Molly had no chance to guard against it. Where in the world had that come from? She hadn’t seen Jason in six years. Not since she’d left for law school. Not since he’d left to become a veterinarian. And if she thought of him now and then, big deal! It didn’t necessarily mean anything. It didn’t mean she missed him.

You didn’t forget your first love. Or your first broken heart.

“Not tonight, okay? Hey, where’s Bubbles? I thought you had a dog.”

“Uncle Jason’s dog-sitting.” Sara grinned. “I’m gonna be a dog-sitter when I grow up.”

Molly ran a hand through her still damp hair. Jason was everywhere. Molly had no idea how to look after a preschool-aged child. Meanwhile, she had a dozen files in her briefcase that needed attention.

It was going to be a very long three weeks.

*

Jason poured another cup of coffee, went to the cupboard and took out the whiskey bottle. Staring out the window over the sink, he spun off the cap and made his coffee Irish.

Molly.

He’d known for four days that she was coming. He’d had four days to prepare himself for her arrival, but it hadn’t been enough.

He took a long, punishing drink of caffeine and liquor. She hadn’t changed. Except maybe she was more beautiful now than before. She’d pinned her blonde hair into a snooty sweep, but he’d seen the tendrils tucked behind her ears and remembered taking pins from her hair years past, how the long tresses had fallen over his hands, through his fingers like silk. Her eyes, once innocent and trusting, were now older and more guarded, but no less intriguing. Her lips were full and had been carefully tinted with red lipstick. She’d waltzed in here in her designer shoes and her expensive coat that probably had cost more than his living room furniture, and had figured she’d take over. That much was plain.

She’d always thought she’d known everything. He scowled. She always had to be right. Even all those years ago, when he’d begged her to stay, she’d turned a deaf ear. Seeing her today should have been nothing. Nothing. Instead he’d opened the door and had felt like he’d been sucker-punched in the gut.

Jason shook his head and drained his cup. That sort of thinking wasn’t going to help anything. The house seemed quieter without Sara already. He wondered how Molly was making out with her. Bedtime was the hardest part of the day for Sara. It was the time when Kim read Sara her favorite story and sang lullabies. Jason had tried his best and they’d managed, but Molly didn’t know the child at all. She had no idea how to look after a toddler. She didn’t know potty emergencies or nightmares or grapes cut in half. She knew files and legal documents and corporations.

The focus had to be on Sara. He put his empty mug in the sink and grabbed his jacket off of the back of a kitchen chair. If he had to see Molly at the same time, well, it couldn’t be helped. That was not why he was going, he assured himself.

He rang the bell twice. When his finger was poised to ring the third time, Molly opened the door, her neat sweep of hair now in shambles, her face devoid of makeup, her sleeves pushed to the elbows and water splashed all over the front of her pink sweater.

“What in the blue blazes are you doing?” Jason pushed his way inside.