“I have no idea.”
“Maybe that’s why she won’t give it to you.”
Jesse smiled. “If you’re going to be reasonable, we can’t have this conversation.”
“Sorry.”
“That’s okay. Enough about me. I know you live with your mom. What about your dad? Are they divorced?”
“They were never married. My mom doesn’t talk about him at all. It’s always been just the two of us. She worked really hard when I was young. Money was tight. She did everything for me.”
A possibly scary thought, although Jesse decided not to judge until she knew all the facts. “She sounds nice.”
“She is mostly. She didn’t care that I was into computers. She never bugged me to go outside or worried that I didn’t have a lot of friends. She kept saying I’d grow into who I was meant to be and not to worry if things weren’t how I wanted them now.”
“Good for her,” Jesse said.
“When I was fifteen, I got really frustrated by this computer game I was playing. I broke into their system, accessed the code and rewrote it. Then I took the new version to them. They licensed it from me. Our money situation got better then.”
Jesse stared at him. “You licensed a computer game when you were fifteen?”
He nodded.
“For a lot of money?”
“It’s a couple of million a year.”
If she’d been drinking she would have choked. “So you’re rich?”
“I guess. I don’t think about it much.”
“You’re rich and you wore a pocket protector?”
“You’ve got to let that go. I said I threw them all out.”
“You’re rich.” She couldn’t get her mind around that fact.
“What’s your point? Does it change anything?”
More than he knew, but warning him about women only after him for his money was something they could talk about later. She laughed. “It changes who’s buying dinner.”
CHAPTER THREE
JESSE HAD ALREADY DECIDED to get all the reunions over as quickly as possible. It was like jumping in the deep end of a cold pool. Sure the shock nearly killed you, but it was over fast. So she did her best to shake off the conversation with Matt, ignoring the rapid pounding of her heart and the mass of memories that crowded her brain, then drove to a second unfamiliar address, guided by the trusty nav system.
This house wasn’t gated, but it was nearly as large as the one she’d just left. Yet instead of being a testament to great architecture, it was a rambling two-story house that proudly announced a family lived there.
A tricycle and several toys littered the wide covered porch, while a minivan was parked in front of the garage. One of those decorative wreaths hung on the door, which made Jesse wonder if she had the right address. Nicole had never been the wreath type before. Maybe she’d changed.
Jesse tried to imagine it, but couldn’t. Still, in the five years she’d been gone, not only had her sister married-a wedding Jesse hadn’t been invited to-but she’d had a son and twin girls. The information came compliments of Nicole’s fraternal twin, Claire, the sister Jesse had never really known.
She parked on the street and grabbed more pictures from her purse. Convincing Nicole who had fathered Jesse’s child was nearly as important as convincing Matt, although for very different reasons.
She got out of her car and walked up the main path. As she approached the front door, her shoulders slumped. The old feelings she’d thought she’d gotten over returned. The voices that said she was nothing but a screwup. That she ruined everything she touched, didn’t appreciate anything.
“Stop!” she said aloud, pausing in front of the steps. “I’m not that person anymore.”
She wasn’t. She’d grown up and changed. She was responsible, a single mother who’d made it on her own. When Jesse left, Nicole had claimed she would come crawling back in a matter of weeks. That hadn’t happened.
After squaring her shoulders and raising her chin, she walked up the stairs, then pressed the bell and waited.
She heard yelling from inside, and the sound of running feet. The front door jerked open and a little boy stared up at her.
“Who are you?” he demanded loudly, his voice competing with the sound of babies crying. Apparently both twins were awake and not happy.
“Eric, I’ve told you. Don’t answer the door without checking with me first. And don’t ask who the person is.”
Eric had blond hair and blue eyes like his mom. He was the same size as Gabe and just about the same age. He sighed and addressed Jesse.
“I’m not supposed to answer the door on my own.”
“I heard. So maybe you want to go get your mom.”
“I’m here,” Nicole said, walking around the corner, carrying a baby in her arms. “Can I help-”
She came to a stop. Her eyes widened and all the color left her face.
“Hi,” Jesse said, feeling awkward and unsure of her welcome. “It’s been a long time.”
Nicole stared. “Jesse?”
“It’s me.”
“I can’t believe it.” In the distance, a baby continued to cry. Nicole glanced in that direction. “It’s Molly. Holding them both when they need to be walked is impossible. Hawk’s out of town. He didn’t want to leave, but he and Brittany had planned the trip celebrating her graduation from college for a while and it didn’t seem fair to cancel it because I have twins who aren’t sleeping.” She rocked the crying baby in her arms and looked desperate.
“I can help,” Jesse said, stepping in the house without being invited. “Here. Let me take this one.”
“Are you sure?” Nicole asked, obviously reluctant to hand over her baby.
“I raised one myself,” she said.
“Right. Sure. Here.”
Jesse took the wrapped baby and smiled down at her. “Hello, pretty girl. How are you? Keeping mom up? She’ll remember and punish you later. You might want to think that through.”
The baby’s eyes focused on her face, then slowly began to close. Nicole hesitated a second, before retreating to the back of the house to collect Molly. Eric stared at her.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m your aunt Jesse,” she said as she closed the front door, stepped over several toys and followed him to a family room.
There was a sofa and television, along with toys and a couple of baskets of laundry. A stack of diapers sat in one chair. Shoes littered the hallway leading to the kitchen.
Jesse remembered Nicole’s house being mostly tidy and quiet. It was a place Jesse had never felt at home. While this place made her feel at ease, she couldn’t believe her perfect sister lived in chaos.
A small, hairy white dog raced through the room, followed by a slightly larger black-and-white dog. Pets? Nicole had pets?
“That’s Sheila,” Eric told her. “Rambo is her son. Like I’m my daddy’s son.” He seemed proud of the fact.
Nicole returned with a second infant and collapsed in a chair.
“Clear a space,” she murmured, rocking her daughter with a desperation that spoke of many nights without sleep. “Come on, Molly. It can’t be that bad, can it?”
Kim, the baby Jesse held, had quieted enough for her to ask, “Want me to put her down?”
