My chest squeezed tight.
I nearly hit the ceiling when the doorbell rang five times in a row. Carefully, I inched that way, forever on edge. I peered out the drape and the dread that had bottled fizzled in a flash. I worked through the lock, calling, “I think you have a visitor, Juni Bee.”
She was already at my side by the time I got the door open to the little neighbor boy and his dad’s girlfriend, Eden.
You know, the one I’d supposedly gone out with last night.
We’d met them yesterday when they’d been out playing in front of their house. The child’s hand was wrapped up in Eden’s as he anxiously jumped at her side. “Hi, hi, hi! Do you remember me? I live right there.”
In excitement, he pointed at the house directly across the street.
Juni giggled and squirmed, and I was pretty sure she was blushing, too. “’Course, I remembers you! You’re my new best friend Gage, you silly willies. I seens you yesterday with your brand-new red bike.”
The little boy laughed like what she’d said was hysterical, all dimples and brown eyes. “It’s the coolest bike in the whole wide world. I’m gonna ride it to the highest mountain. You wanna try it today? My Miss Murphy said I was allowed to ask you. Right, Miss Murphy, right?”
The words rambled from his mouth in a slew of excitement.
“That’s right, Gage.”
Eden’s smile was adoring as she looked between the two of them, knowing as she glanced at me in small wonder. As if she couldn’t believe she was experiencing it herself. I didn’t really know her, but it was clear she’d taken up a role in the child’s life that had changed everything in hers.
Adoration stark.
Love fierce.
Devotion whole.
Eden was tall and slender and blonde. Wearing a modest floral dress and sandals. Everything about her was soft, gracious, and kind. “I hope we’re not imposing. Gage woke up this morning and the only thing he could talk about was getting over here to ask if Juni could play.”
My chest pressed with hope and twitched with nerves. “You’re not imposing at all.”
Eden smiled, pure affection rolling from her tongue. “Okay, good. We can be a lot to handle.”
“You wanna try it?” Gage asked Juni.
“Yes! Oh, please, yes!”
The second we’d come in after meeting them yesterday, Juni had begged for a bike so she could play with him.
And I was trying…trying so hard to give her everything she deserved.
Which was the precise reason I was out at nine at night in the middle of a storm trying to scrimp something together.
Stupid?
Maybe.
But I couldn’t ask Darius for anything else, couldn’t put another burden on his shoulders, not when he was paying for Mimi’s medications and this house, so I’d slipped out when he’d gone to hang out with the girl he’d been seeing for the last few months and had headed straight to a pawn shop.
A piece of me felt guilty for parting with the last ring I had of hers. But my mom? I had to imagine she would have done the same.
We’d lost her so young, when I’d been four and Darius eight. A heart condition she’d never even known she’d had. Gone in a failed beat.
Since our father had never been in the picture, Mimi had stepped up to raise us.
Gage turned his attention to me, all dimples and cuteness and manners for days. “Miss Salem, is it okay if Juni can come play with me because you know I live just right across the street, and she’s got to be my best friend forever?”
“I think that would be really nice,” I whispered.
Suddenly overcome.
Overwhelmed.
Because Juni and I had never stayed in one place for longer than a couple months.
This was what I dreamed of for her.
Wanted for her.
More than I could say. More than I could express.
A friend.
A safe place where she knew the people would care for her. Look out for her. Love her.
A home she could always go back to.
Emotion gathered at the back of my eyes. The hope blinding and terrifying at the same time. I had to blink the moisture back, to hold myself together so I didn’t crumble.
Eden reached out and gently touched my arm, her voice so soft, held so it was just for me as the two children began to jump around on the stoop. “We’re so glad you’re here.”
“Thank you.” The words wobbled.
She smiled. “And also, I don’t want to be forward, but I’m teaching a beginning ballet class for five and six-year-olds this summer after school ends. It starts next week. Three days a week. It’s free at the school where I work. We’d love to have Juni join us.”
“Ballet? Oh, Mommy, Mommy, please!!!” Of course, Juni had heard it, her little eagle ears in tune, her fingers threaded together in a prayer. “I want the ballet shoes so bad, and maybe I will get to go to Russia and do the dances!”