Chapter 3-2
1095 Words
“Hey little brother.”
One hand on the door to The Daily Grind, Jace cursed Livia’s proclivity toward being early for everything. But he fixed a smile on his face as he turned to greet her. “Hey big sis.” He wrapped an arm around her in a hug.
“So, Mom tells me there’s a girl.”
“There’s no girl.” There wasn’t. He hadn’t even asked Tara out, so there couldn’t be a girl. Right? “How’s the library treating you?”
“Could be better. Our hours are going to be cut again. I just know it.”
Jace winced. The Wishful Public Library had been suffering from epic budget constraints the past year and a half, a reflection of Wishful’s languishing economy. Livia, the children’s librarian, had been operating at three-quarter’s salary for months. Given the salary was a pittance in the first place, that was very bad indeed.
“I thought things were getting better around here since the new city planner started.”
“They have. But the kind of trickle down we need takes a long time. Mitzi has been doing the budgets this week and looking grim. I think I’m going to have to give up my apartment and move back home until this gets straightened out.”
Pulling open the door, Jace made an after you motion. “You know Mom would be delighted to have you back for more than just tree season. She loves nothing more than having all her chicks under one roof.”
“I know. And I love it out at the farm. It’s just demoralizing. You aren’t supposed to have to move home at twenty-seven.”
“Well then, let me buy you a hot chocolate or something.”
“I won’t say no.”
Tara stood behind the counter, chatting with a customer and Jace had to work to keep the smile off his face. He spotted the kids hanging out in a nearby booth. They hadn’t seen him yet or he was sure they’d be running over to greet him.
“—doing since the gas main exploded? That’s out near you, isn’t it?” the customer asked.
Jace’s ears perked. Like everybody else in town, he’d heard about the gas main explosion. It’d taken every fire fighter in the county to get the blaze under control.
“We’re mostly fine. It wasn’t close enough to do any damage to the house. But a lot of our stuff runs on gas. The heat, the stove, the water heater. The gas company said the damage was so bad, we’re not going to have service again until after Christmas.”
“That’s awful!” said the woman.
Jace stepped around her. “What have you been doing without heat, hot water, or a way to cook?”
“Hey Jace. We’ve been roughing it the last few days. Camping in the living room with space heaters. That hasn’t been so bad since it warmed up. We’ve been cleaning up in the locker rooms at the gym. And thank God for crock pots. We’ve been eating tons of soup. The kids look at the whole thing as an adventure, but the shine’s going to wear off of that soon.”
“Serious cold front’s coming, too. Have you seen the forecast? They’re saying we may have our first white Christmas in generations.”
Tara grimaced. “Yeah, I heard. The kids are so psyched about that. But it’s definitely not ideal under the circumstances. I have no idea what we’re going to do if the gas company doesn’t pull off some kind of Christmas miracle.”
“You should come out to the farm.” The words were out of his mouth before he even knew they were there.
“Excuse me?”
“We’ve got an apartment upstairs in one of the barns. It’s usually used by seasonal staff, but this year all our help is local, so there’s nobody in it now.” In his periphery, Jace could see Livia giving him the side eye. “It’s just a little two bedroom with a kitchenette, but it’s furnished, and, more importantly, it has full utilities and heat.”
He could tell before she even opened her mouth that she was going to say no. “That’s very kind of you, Jace but—”
“Jace!” Ginny, finally catching sight of him, raced over from the booth, throwing her arms around his legs.
He ruffled her hair. “Hey, Peanut. What’re you doing out of school?”
“It’s a teacher day,” she informed him. “How are Pepper and Rupert?”
“They’re good. They say hi.”
“I wanna say hi back,” she insisted. “I asked Tara if we could bring them carrots for Christmas but she said we had to ask you first.”
“You can absolutely bring Pepper and Rupert carrots for Christmas.” And then Jace decided to play dirty. “I was just trying to talk your sister into bringing all of you out to the farm for Christmas as our guests, since y’all are out of heat.” He placed extra emphasis, figuring part of her objection would be money.
Ginny’s eyes got huge. “Tara! Oh can we can we can we? Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!”
“Yeah, Tara,” Austin added, “we could help with stuff at the farm.”
“Sure,” Jace said, getting into the idea. “I could teach you how to drive the wagon.”
“For real?”
“Sure.”
“That’d be awesome!”
“It’s settled, then. These two will work for their keep. We need a couple of elves around the place.” Jace made a show of checking Ginny’s ears for points.
Tara’s expression only got stiffer. “I really appreciate it, but—”
Ginny’s face crumpled and Jace could tell she was about to cry. He scooped her up and pressed his cheek to hers. “C’mon. How can you say no to this face?”
Tara’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t play fair,” she murmured.
“He doesn’t,” Livia agreed. “I’m sorry to say, he learned that from me. But seriously, we’d love to have you. Having some kids around will get Mom off our backs for not having given her grandchildren yet.”
“Well, I...” She trailed off, looking from Ginny to Austin before closing her eyes. Jace knew she was going to cave. “Thank you. We appreciate it.”
“Hooray!”
Jace put Ginny down and the kids launched into some kind of complicated victory dance.
Tara just shook her head, a reluctant smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. “Did you actually want coffee, or were you only here to railroad me?”
“Oh coffee, absolutely,” Jace said.
He and Livia gave their orders and headed for a table. “Thanks for backing me up.”
“No girl, my ass,” she said. “How long will it take you to move your stuff out of the apartment?”
Jace maintained an innocent expression. “Not long. And I’m just spreading the Christmas spirit.”
“You’re spreading something.” Livia laid a hand over his. “It’s a nice thing you’re doing. But be careful. Those kids have been through a lot.”
So had Tara. And Jace was willing to bet nobody had been thinking about helping her.
- Writer
