A Daddy for Jacoby(26)

“Yeah, my bed’s still missing a mattress.”

“But you had a bed at your apartment.”

Justin stilled, his gaze locked with hers, the chocolate brown of his eyes deepening.

Was he thinking about that night? How she’d tried to make him lie down after she’d followed him upstairs? How he’d insisted if she was going to stick around she should be the one to get some sleep? She’d been afraid he’d had a concussion, but when he’d taken the only chair, she’d had nowhere else to sit but on the rumpled bed. Eventually, she’d crawled beneath the covers to get warm and had indeed fallen asleep.

“I got rid of that bed when I moved here.”

She didn’t know what that meant, if it meant anything at all, but she refused to ask him to explain.

Moving toward the small hallway, she stopped in front of the only closed door. The other two, at opposite ends of the hall, stood open, leading to Jacoby’s and Justin’s bedrooms.

She knocked gently. “Jacoby? It’s Gina. Are you okay?”

No reply. She tried again. “Hey, I heard you wanted to see me. Well, here I am. Can you come out?”

Still nothing. Gina looked over her shoulder at Justin, standing with his shoulder braced against the doorjamb. Then a click sounded and the door slowly opened. Jacoby stood inside, his bear at his side.

She dropped to her knees to meet his eyes. “Hey, there.”

“Hey.”

“So, what’s going on?”

Jacoby looked over her shoulder at Justin. “He wants me to go to bed.”

“It’s late. Everyone should be in bed by now,” Justin said.

“Aren’t you tired?” Gina asked, drawing the boy’s attention back to her. She dropped her purse to the floor and slipped out of her jacket. “I’m not…tired.”

“It looks like you two did a lot of work around here this weekend. I bet you were a big help. Can you show me what you two did?”

Jacoby nodded and stepped forward, but stopped when Justin straightened from the doorway. She handed her stuff to him. “Can you take these for me? And you know what I’d love right now? A cup of hot chocolate. Why don’t you make some for all of us?”

Understanding dawned in his eyes as Justin took her things. “Sure. Three hot chocolates coming up.”

After Justin headed back into the kitchen, Gina held out her hand. “Come on, Jacoby. It’s okay.”

His small fingers clamped on to hers. She rose and followed his lead into the living room. He showed her the bookshelves, and she listened as he explained about the shed outside the kitchen door where the tools were now locked up.

“Wow, you two worked hard today.” The light from the fireplace danced off the still-unadorned, but freshly washed window panes that filled the two walls of the living room. “You even washed the windows.”

“Yep.” Jacoby smiled. “I did the ones on the bottom and Justin did the tops. We did every window out here and the ones in the bedrooms, too.”

“Sounds like you made a good team.”

“I even got to use his tools,” Jacoby continued. “He showed me how to use a philly-head screwdriver.”

“Phillips head,” Justin said, joining them with a tray of steaming mugs that he placed on the counter separating the kitchen from the living room. “The hot chocolate needs to cool.”

“So what did you use the screwdriver on?” Gina asked.

“We fixed some loose handles in the kitchen,” Jacoby said. “And we put beds together, his and mine.”

“Oh, I heard you were getting a bed, can I see it?”

Jacoby didn’t do anything for a long moment, then he nodded and led Gina to the darkened room at one end of the hallway. A night-light shone in one corner.

“You can see better with the light on.” Justin’s arm brushed hers as he reached inside and flipped the switch.

An overhead light shone down on a twin-size bed made up with sheets, a pillow and one of the quilts Gina recognized from the living room. A small table sat next to the bed and a three-drawer dresser stood against one wall across from a closet.

“Wow, nice room. Nice bed, too.” Gina entered. “Can I sit on it? Will it hold me, you think?”

Jacoby giggled and followed her. “Of course it will.”

Gina sat and bounced a few times. “Looks like you did a good job, Jacoby. I think this bed could even hold your dad. If he could fit in it.”