Love Today (53 page)

“I’m sure Jared would be more than happy to make Barbie a Minnie Mouse pancake,” I replied honestly. I quickly braided her hair into a single braid down her back and secured it with a band
. “Purple or yellow?” I asked, holding out two ribbons that both matched her clothes.

“Um…purple,” she decided, even though I was already tying it to the bottom of her hair.

“Okay,
kiddo
. Time to go downstairs.”

“Is Jared’s mom nice?” she asked, and I almost wished she hadn’t. She stood up with her Barbie and faced me, waiting for an answer. 

“Um, I don’t know. Let’s go find out.”

I didn’t feel like that was a lie because I was hoping
Jocelyn
would at least be nice to a child. She could be rude to me all she wanted, but I wasn’t going to allow her to be rude to Maggie. I knew Jared wouldn’t
allow it
either, but even though Maggie was sometimes cautious about meeting new people, she couldn’t possibly be as worried as I was because of what I already knew.

I could smell the food cooking as we headed downstairs, and because Maggie was ahead of me on the
stairs,
she saw Jared first and ran to him.

“There she is!” he exclaimed, scooping her up and hugging her to his chest.

I glanced around for
Jocelyn
but didn’t see her, and I honestly hoped that she had already left. But she came around the corner from the bedroom and looked over her son holding a chatty five-year-old. Maggie didn’t see her right away and continued to update Jared on her toys.

“
Rapunzel
and Tinker Bell wouldn’t let Barbie play with them so we had to have a talk,” she told him seriously.

That made Jared laugh and he asked, “Oh yeah? And what did you tell them?”

“First they had to clean Barbie’s room for her. Just to be nice and say sorry. And then they had to let her play with them.”

“So were they nice after that?”

“Yep. But then Tinker Bell had to go home so
Rapunzel
and Barbie played soccer.”

“Ah, I see. So now Barbie gets to have pancakes with us?”

“Yep, ‘cause she made
Rapunzel’s
bed.”

“Oh, gotcha.”

Maggie took a breather as Jared flipped the two pancakes that were on the griddle, and that’s when she noticed
Jocelyn
. There was an awkward little pause as Jared decided how to introduce Maggie to his mom, but surprisingly,
Jocelyn
was the first to speak.

“Hello, you must be Maggie,” she said with a smile. She had a
beautiful
smile, but I wished it were real.

“Hi,” was all Maggie said
.

“Maggie, this is my mom,” Jared told her. “She’s going to have breakfast with us and—”

“Actually I need to get going,”
Jocelyn
smiled again. “I have to hurry
hurry
hurry
to my friend’s house,” she said, tugging on Maggie’s braid. It was said so chipper, just to delight a five-year-old girl, and Maggie smiled. “It’s her birthday
and we’re going to go shopping,
”
Jocelyn
added.

I had no idea if that was the truth or not but Maggie asked, “What
are you
gonna
shop for?”

Jocelyn
seemed surprised by the conversation, so after Maggie wriggled for Jared to put her down, she sat at the counter by me and waited for an answer.

“Oh, well…clothes most likely,”
Jocelyn
answered. “Heather likes clothes.”

“I like clothes!” Maggie agreed. She moved to her knees on the stool and leaned on the counter when she added, “I got new clothes yesterday ‘cause I got too big.”

“Oh?”
Jocelyn
replied. She glanced at Jared and I could tell what she assumed. I didn’t care for the implication at all, and even though Maggie’s “yesterday” was actually “last week,” I didn’t bother correcting her.

“And I got new shoes,” Maggie added, lifting a leg to show her. She put her foot on the counter until I silently removed it.

“Do you go shopping a lot?”
Jocelyn
asked her sweetly.

Maggie paused, and I was sure she had to think
about it, but Jared asked, “
Mag
s
, you want Mickey Mouse or a flower?”

She
watched
as
he was about to pour batter onto the griddle. “Minnie!”

“
Minnie
Mouse? How am I supposed to do
Minnie
Mouse? Does she have to have a dress?” he teased.

“No!” she giggled. “A bow!”

“Oh, a
bow
… Gotcha.”

He began forming the head and ears as Maggie watched from the counter eagerly. It was almost a normal morning for the three of us had there not been an extra set of eyes watching everyone carefully. I felt like
Jocelyn
was going to write up a case assessment about us
,
or something.

I did invite her to stay and eat with us, especially since Jared already had a few pancakes ready to eat. She declined, which didn’t hurt my feelings too much, but I really did want to
become
friends with her. I figured it was a lost cause, but I could still
wish
.

She left a few minutes later, even telling Maggie goodbye specifically as she ate her Minnie Mouse pancake.
Jocelyn
was very sweet to us outwardly, but I hoped it would one day become genuine.

“Your
mom is really pretty,” Maggie
told Jared
once
she was gone.

It
made us smile because Maggie was so
sincere
.

“She’s
very
pretty,” I added. “
Now
I know where Jared gets his smile.”

Maggie looked at him for a second but shrugged it off. I didn’t figure she would get it.
But Jared seemed to take a deep breath, almost like a gigantic crisis was averted. He offered us more juice and then began cleaning up the kitchen. But I jumped up to
do
it instead since he made us breakfast.

“Nah, I need to keep busy for a few minutes,” he told me quietly.

“I’m sorry, Jared—”

“No, don’t be sorry. This is just my normal routine when it comes to my mom. Just be glad I’m not out on the deck smoking a pack.” I was surprised for a second until he
smiled
. “I’m kidding, I’ve never smoked in my life.
”

“I know,” I
chuckled
. “I was just wondering if she’d ever cause you to start.”

It was his turn to laugh and he replied, “True,
I’ve considered it.
But no, I’ve got you and Maggie.
There isn’t anything better than that. There’s no way my mom could ever get in the way of that.” He smiled and kissed me. “I love you.”

“I love you too. But Jared, seriously, things with your mom…”

“Things with my mom are fine, Taryn. She doesn’t agree with anything I do if it’s not for her benefit, so all I can do is just…accept that and continue to be me. There’s nothing else I can do about it. I’m happy, and maybe someday she can be happy
for
me.”

I sighed quietly as he went back to rinsing dishes in the sink. I wasn’t sure what I could do to help the situation, but I got the feeling in wasn’t in my hands. I would play nice with
Jocelyn
Miller, but the ball was in her court.

After watching an hour of cartoons, Maggie was pretty content playing in her new room for the rest of the morning. Jared and I played with her for a little while, but to be honest, I was so tired by the time eleven a.m. hit that I almost fell asleep on her bed. Jared actually did send me to bed, even though I felt guilty about it. Normally I could function on just a few hours of sleep, but for some reason I just couldn’t that day.

By then Maggie was dying to watch a movie on her very own television, so Jared put one in for her and let her know that he was just going to be taking a nap with me if she needed him. We both knew she’d be fine on her own until the movie was over, so neither of us felt too guilty about it. Maggie was pretty independent that way.

“She’s so cute,”
Jared
said when he entered his room. I’d only been lying on the bed for a few minutes by then and I watched him shut the door behind him. “She’s got about a dozen stuffed animals surrounding her on the bed to watch
‘
The
Lorax
.
’
”

I only smiled as he
climbed onto the bed with me and playfully pinned me down. I’d been tired seconds before then but his smile was
invigorating
.

“You do know that we’ve got about ninety minutes, right?” he asked as he kissed me.

“Mm, ninety minute nap. That sounds
wonderful
.”

With a chuckle he nodded his head and dropped next to me on
to
his back. “Yeah
,
that does sound nice…”

“Tease,” I said, and I moved so I was straddling his waist.
“You know what I was thinking?” I asked casually. I was going to brin
g up the conversation we’d prev
iously had about which cities of his tour Maggie and I were going
to
attend, only I wanted to add one
more.

“That we shouldn’t wait until August to get married?” he asked.

I paused, just to switch gears.

“Don’t you think August is a long time?” he added. “I mean if that’s how long you need to, you know, prepare for it and all it’s fine, but…”

“No, I don’t need that long. We just decided that because you’d be done touring.”

He took a moment to think about it and then said, “What if we got married before we head to Europe? We’ve got two weeks in between the U.S. tour and the European tour…”

“The end of June.
”

“Yeah. But I guess that doesn’t really leave
much
time for a honeymoon or anything, so maybe that’s—”

“I don’t need a honeymoon.
I’ll be all over the world with you soon enough.”

He sm
iled and nodded his agreement—a
t lea
st I thought it was agreement—b
ut said, “Nah,
I
need a honeymoon. I want that vacation time with you—just the two of us—and we can go somewhere I
don’t
tour, somewhere special. The wedding is still going to be in our new house, right? Is there any other reason we can’t change
the date
?”

“Well…no, I don’t think so. Except that we were going to do it outside in August. June could be just fine, but I guess I don’t really care if it’s in or out. We could plan for either. I say…let’s do it in June. I
definitely
have no objection to marrying you sooner than later, and we can just do a short honeymoon—a few days, somewhere simple—and if you want to add to that later on… I’m all yours, baby.”

He smiled, and I could tell he was pleased with the change. I was too, and I was amazed that I could go from extremely happy to
tremendously
happy.

I could not wait for
the next few months of my life.

Chapter Forty

“Maggie, I’m not going to ask you again. Please clean up your mess at the table.”

She gave me that look again, like I was asking her to do something she wasn’t capable of. But she sassily marched over to the table and picked up her plate, clanking the silverware onto it as she carried it to the sink. She just set it in there and turned to leave.

“Rinse it, please. It only takes a few seconds.”

She pretty much groaned at me but she stood on her step stool to turn the water on.

I took a deep breath as I put away the makings of lunch. My mom had assured me that Maggie was just at that age where testing my limits was going to happen more often. I didn’t disagree with that, but my assessment was that she got this way when she wasn’t around Jared or hadn’t seen him for a while. I understood her frustration so I wasn’t going to hold it against her, but I hoped her behavior was not going to worsen. She’d never been one to sass much, but lately I wondered if it was really true that sweet
babies and toddlers
turned out to be rotten teenagers.

I let her return to the family room to watch cartoons while I cleaned up the rest of the kitchen. I was looking forward to my brother staying the weekend with us like he had been for the past two week
end
s. It was such an empty house otherwise, and
Braden
loved that we had a guestroom tailored just for him. He actually called it his “wing” of the house since it consisted of the bedroom upstairs and the loft that he basically used as a video game room. He loved it, and if my parents would let him, he’d move in with us in a heartbeat.