That was two people she had failed to communicate with as she intended.
“I totally forgot to text you. I’m the worst! I’m sorry. I have no good excuse, other than the craziness of travel and talking to Rachel and starting the job today.”
“How is Rachel? How’s the house? How’s Eleanor? I have all the questions.”
“Rachel seems stressed. Her kids are a handful. Whitaker House is every bit as beautiful as the pictures and Eleanor is as delightful as she seemed in her correspondence.”
“You get all the best clients, while I’m dealing with people who haven’t cleaned out their refrigerator since 1970.”
“As soon as I get a chance, I’m going to send you some pictures we took this afternoon of some vintage clothing. I think it could have value but as usual, I need your take on it.”
“Sure thing.”
“How’s your job?”
“One word. Hoarder. How is it that you get the beautiful estate on the California coast and I get to deal with a hoarder in the middle of a Texas heat wave.”
“I’m so sorry. Want to trade?”
“I’m good. I’m just messing with you. Not about the hoarder. That’s a hundred percent genuine. But I wouldn’t trade with you. You’re right where God wants you to be.”
Jess wasn’t as certain as Yvette that there was some grand celestial design for her life. She certainly hadn’t seen evidence of that yet.
“You said Rachel seems stressed?” Yvette asked. “How are those cute kids?”
Her friend seemed to know more about Jess’s sister than she did. Though the two women had never met in person, they had an odd phone friendship. Also, Yvette followed Rachel on social media with an interest that bordered on obsession.
“I’ve only seen them all briefly for a few minutes yesterday but they seemed fine.”
It wasn’t strictly true. Rachel had seemed on the verge of a breakdown but Jess didn’t feel right about sharing that with Yvette.
They talked mostly about business from that point on and the schedule of jobs each had coming up.
“I had better go,” Yvette finally said after they had covered all the necessary topics. “I’m two hours later than you here and you know I need my beauty sleep.”
“I hope your hoarder appreciates having someone who looks like she stepped off a magazine cover cleaning out her stacks of newspapers and dusty old tissue boxes.”
“She better,” Yvette said with a laugh. “Love you, baby. You be good to yourself, now.”
“Same goes,” Jess said as she ended the call, feeling much better about life than she had when she returned from the beach with Nate.
No, she might not have a man in her life right now and her relationship with her sister, her only remaining family, was strained at best.
But she had a job she loved, a business partner she loved even more and gorgeous sunsets to bring her joy. That was enough for now.
9
Rachel
“Dinner is in the oven. I made taco casserole. It should be done in about twenty minutes. When the timer goes off, take it out, add the chopped onions, tomatoes and corn chips and extra cheese and throw it back in for about a minute. Got that?”
Cody made a face. “I don’t know. Maybe we should go through it again. You’ve only told me three times and written it down on that big yellow note card next to the oven.”
She couldn’t help it if she tended to overprepare. Cody didn’t always pay attention when she told him things. The last time he had stayed with the kids while she attended a church women’s meeting, he had gotten so busy building a fort out of blankets for them in the living room that he forgot to feed them dinner.
“The girls both need to wash their hair tonight. I need them for a product shoot tomorrow and I want to curl it in the morning, plus Ava got peanut butter in hers earlier when we were baking dog treats for Freckles.”
Cody, holding Silas on his lap, nodded. “Rach. I’ve got this. We’ll be fine. Go and have a good time with your sister.”
She wanted to roll her eyes at that. She wasn’t going to have a good time with Jess. Cody knew how messy their relationship could be. She had cried about it to him often enough.
Her heart was an open book when it came to her sister. She was like Freckles, following Jess around with her tongue hanging out, just waiting for a little affection.
She felt like she was always the one who reached out, who invited Jess for the holidays, who FaceTimed whenever the kids had a milestone.
Jess kept so much of herself closed off.
She hadn’t always been that way. They had been so close once, sharing clothes and toys and secrets.
Her sister had become a polite stranger over the years since they had lived together. Rachel sometimes wondered why she even bothered pushing for them to stay connected.
What would they talk about during dinner? Their difficult history seemed to be off-limits and Jess never seemed to want to talk about her own personal life. Rachel didn’t even know if she was seeing anybody.
She would probably end up babbling on for two hours about the kids and Cody while Jess sat across from her, trying not to yawn.
Was it too late to cancel?
“Don’t forget Silas’s antibiotic for his ear infection before bed and the drops after his bath. And you know he insists he has to have you read him the story about the purple dinosaur.”
Cody smiled but she could sense his annoyance. “You wrote everything down. We’ll be fine. I can call you if we have any problems. And it’s not like you’ll be in another time zone. You’re only ten minutes away. Where are you eating?”
“The Fishwife.”
“Always a good choice. Don’t worry about us,” he said again. “Go have a good time.”
She wanted to cancel the whole thing. She couldn’t feel good about leaving him with the kids, especially with the horrendous day she had just survived. Silas had been on a nonstop tantrum.
Nothing was right for him. The tags on his clothing bothered him until she cut them off, he ripped the pages out of a library book she had foolishly left within his reach, he didn’t like the way she made his eggs so he threw them on the floor, to Freckles’s delight.
The day had started out hard and had only grown worse. Now he seemed to be done with his difficult mood, content to sit on Cody’s lap and play with his favorite fidget toy.
She couldn’t help but resent the way Cody could just waltz in and calm things down, even though Rachel was the one dealing with Silas through most of the day.