AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As soon as one person has their food and steps away, another takes their place. We bustle around trying to keep up. After a few minutes, we all hear wailing and glance down at baby Amari, sitting in her glider crying her beautiful eyes out.
“Uh-oh. Sounds like it’s feeding time,” Chris says, laughing.
Bailey drops the tongs she is holding, walks over to Amari, and reaches in to grab her. “I swear this child eats more than Jaxon,” she says with a sigh. You can see the love shining out of Bailey’s eyes every time she looks at Amari. After losing so many babies because of her ass-hat of an ex-husband, Bailey and Jaxon both dote on Amari like she’s the Queen of England. Of course, the kid is gorgeous and a sweetie, so I can see why they do.
Just then, Jaxon walks up behind Bailey and wraps his arms around her, kissing her neck. Bailey tilts her head back and Jaxon places another kiss on her lips. A pang of jealousy rears its ugly head. I am utterly happy for them. They both deserve the happiness they so obviously share. I just wish I could have had my own happiness as well. Once upon a time, I thought I did.
“Hey, angel, you take Mari and feed her, and I’ll help out the girls here, okay? You look like you need to get off your feet for a few minutes.” From the beginning, Jaxon has called Amari Mari. He’sthe only one who calls her that. He claims it’s closer to the word ‘miracle,’ which he believes Mari is.
The look Jaxon gives her causes my own gaze to soften. It’s amazing how much these two love each other.
Bailey turns in Jaxon’s arms with the baby still in hers, and rolls to her tiptoes to give him a kiss. When she pulls back, she has adoration written all over her face.
“Thank you, honey. My feet are killing me. But when I get back, it’s Mia and Chris’s turn for a break. They’ve been working just as hard as me.”
“Deal,” he says, with a smile.
After giving him another soft kiss, Bailey grabs the diaper bag and walks off toward Town Hall, where she can sit and feed Amari. Jaxon’s eyes don’t leave her until she disappears behind a door. When he turns back around, he claps and rubs his hands together.
“Alright, ladies, put me to work.”
After ten minutes of working side by side, we finally get a lull in the crowd. Jaxon steps up beside me and plants a kiss on the side of my head.
“How’s my sister doing?” he asks.
Jaxon’s always been very close to both Anna and me, but since Anna’s death, he seems even more determined to hold on to and strengthen that bond. I can’t blame him. Family is everything, and when you lose someone you love, it makes you want to cling to the those who you still have left.
I lean my head against his shoulder when I answer, “I’m great. How have things been?”
“They’ve been good. Getting into the routine of having Mari. Fuck, Mia, that little girl and her mama have me wrapped around their fingers, and they both know it.”
I laugh because he’s right. He would do anything for either of them. He’s so goddamn whipped it’s almost pathetic. But he’s happy and I’m glad.
Out the corner of my eye, I see Nick walking over to one of the booths.
“How’s Nick?” I ask Jaxon. “I haven’t seen much of him lately.”
Nick was the one who was affected the most by Anna’s death. Nick and Anna had been together for several years and were completely and irrevocably in love. They were true soul mates, and anyone who saw them together knew it. Yes, she was my and Jaxon’s sister and my mother’s daughter, but the connection that Nick and Anna shared was unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed.
When Anna died, it broke him, almost beyond repair. He turned in on himself and never let anyone in. Nick never spoke of her death, and growled at anyone who mentioned it. I know people grieve in their own way, but the way he was dealing with it was unhealthy. He was definitely not the same man he was before. When Anna was alive, Nick was one of the most easygoing, happy, and carefree men I knew. Now he’s quiet, grouchy, and outright mean sometimes. It’s hard to fault him for it though, so we just all ignore it when he’s like that.
“He could be better. It’s been close to two years and Bailey’s worried about him. I think she still feels guilt over it. I’ve told her over and over that she shouldn’t, but I think she still does. It hurts that she feels that way.”
Chris walks up beside us and grabs a soda out of the cooler. “She’ll get there, Jaxon. She just needs more time and so does Nick.” The last was said with her eyes lingering on Nick’s back.
“I know. It’s just hard to watch when she pulls inside herself. She has no reason to feel guilty. Everyone knows what she did for Anna, what she put herself through,” he says.
I reach over and put my arm around his waist and give it a squeeze. He looks down at me.
“All you can do, Jaxon, is be there for her when she needs you. She’ll be okay.”
He nods slightly before he drops another kiss on my head. “I love you, Mia.”
“Love you too, Jax,” I return with a smile.
Bailey walks up a few minutes later with a sleeping Amari in her arms. As soon as she reaches us, Jaxon takes Amari and rubshis nose along the baby’s cheek. It’s a sweet move he adopted right after she was born.
“You wake that baby up, Jaxon, and you’re putting her back to sleep,” Bailey warns.
