“Around the block. Do you have time for a walk before you head back?”
Not only did Jess have the time for once, but she had been hoping they’d get the chance to talk again. But now that she had Lena’s company, words failed her. She didn’t want to talk about work or the logistics of driving back and forth. Most of all, she wanted to hear Lena’s voice.
“How is working with my mom? Do you still like it?”
“Like? That doesn’t do it justice. I love it. I’m learning so much. And do you know what I love best?” In her enthusiasm, Lena pushed the stroller faster up the hill.
“No?” To her surprise, Jess wasn’t out of breath—yet.
“Maggie’s work approach. She can’t stay too long on one task and switches between outlining, writing, and editing all the time. It’s wonderfully chaotic.”
“Really? I take after my dad in that regard and plan everything meticulously, then stick to the plan.”
“But we made a plan too and are still on schedule, just not in such a linear fashion. She takes a lot of breaks to tend to her garden, and I use those to work on my sketches. At the end of the day, we’ve worked way more than eight hours, but it doesn’t feel that way because of all the little breaks. And that schedule works really well to take care of Ella.”
“Wait, are you taking care of Ella too? I thought Mom was doing that?” Jess ran her hand through her hair and rubbed her neck.
“Isn’t that okay? Don’t you trust me to?” Lena whispered the last question.
“Oh, no, not at all. It’s just… Mom is family, and she offered, but I feel bad for foisting this babysitting job on you.” Jess opened a couple of buttons on the top of her shirt. She was warm but still not short of breath.
“You didn’t foist anything on me. I only help Maggie. She loves taking care of Ella, but I think she prefers the spoiling part, and I don’t mind changing diapers.”
Jess stared at Lena. Did she really mean it? “Thank you.” What else was there to say?
When they reached the entrance to the park, Jess stopped Lena with a hand on her arm. “I don’t think my shoes are up to it. Sorry, I had an office day and needed to dress the part.” She pointed to the muddy path that was strewn with red and brown leaves.
Lena’s eyes twinkled. “I noticed. Very impressive, Doctor Riley.”
Jess groaned. “You’ll never let me forget that, right?”
When Lena laughed, Jess nudged her with an elbow. “Can I push the stroller for a while? I kind of missed this the last couple of weeks.”
They switched sides and walked on in silence. Lena broke it first. “I miss my sister.”
“You’ve never really told me about her. How old is she now?”
“Twelve. She was born when I was a senior in high school.”
“Oh, that’s a big age difference. Was she a surprise?”
“No, my mother… Actually, my mother was really, really young when she had me, so when she had Tammy, she was in her early thirties.” Lena shrugged as if it wasn’t important, but she kept her gaze on the ground.
That explained a lot. “Is that why you lived with your grandma for so long?”
“Yeah.”
When it was clear nothing more was coming, Jess looked at Lena. Her head hung down, and she walked more mechanically, all the earlier enthusiasm drained from her. Maybe talking about her sister would bring a smile back to her face. The love in her voice was unmistakable, even if it was tinged with pain.
“And you helped take care of Tammy?”
Lena snorted. “You could say so. About a month before Tammy was born, my mother asked me to move in with her. At first, I only took care of Tammy in the evenings when my mother was sleeping, but later I skipped school a lot to be there for her. Some days it felt as if I was raising her on my own. My mother…she didn’t really cope very well with noise and demands. She got migraines and…” Lena kicked at a stone on the sidewalk. “I don’t need to sugarcoat it anymore.” Her voice hardened like ice. “My mother wasn’t fit to raise a child. She let Tammy cry in her room for hours, closed the door, and turned up the TV. She drank a lot and took pills. I think painkillers, but I’m not sure. Tammy’s dad was in the military and was away for most of the first year. When he came back and realized what was going on, he tried to help her, get her in rehab, but in the end, he gave up. He divorced my mother and took Tammy away. He severed all contact. I tried to reach out later, but he wouldn’t budge. I haven’t heard from Tammy in nearly ten years.”
“That’s terrible. I’m so sorry.” Jess stopped walking and reached for Lena’s arm, but she shook it off.
“Nothing to be sorry about. What’s done is done.” Lena smiled, but it was as if she’d slipped on a mask. “He was a nice enough guy. I’m sure Tammy is better off with him.”
“Didn’t he want to take you with them?” Jess wasn’t sure she understood the family dynamic.
“He wasn’t my father. He…we didn’t really have a relationship.” Lena’s voice held no bitterness or frustration. “I met him for the first time when my mother was eight months pregnant and I moved in with them, just before he was deployed. They’d been married for a couple of years without him even knowing about my existence. I’m not blaming him.”
Jess admired her for that. “I don’t know if I would be as forgiving. I’m sorry I brought up these memories for you.”
“No, it’s okay. They’ve been close to the surface lately because of Ella.” Lena’s mask slipped as she glanced
