CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
(part two)

Scooter hopped back onto the bed next to Katy. Jill ruffled his ears then crept from the room. She leaned against her closed bedroom door and took three breaths. She hadn’t realized how much this week had gotten under her skin. From her mother’s horrible story to all of this bullshit with Sandy’s terrible father and horrid mother…. Jill shook her head at her own dark thoughts.

She heard soft jazz wafting from under Katy’s door. Sticking her head in the room, she saw Val asleep on Katy’s bed. Mike’s head jerked toward her. He smiled then returned to his drawing. He’d filled the walls with a lush flower garden. He was now drawing in fairies. Jill smiled at his progress then left the room.

The last room was empty. Jacob wanted it to be a new bedroom for new children. They hadn’t gotten to new children yet. Heather’s baby was due in a month or so. Sandy was due in June and Val was due in September. It seemed like every woman she knew was pregnant.

Jill wasn’t pregnant.

Sighing, she wandered across the open loft to their sitting area. She turned on the gas fireplace and settled in on the couch. Cleo settled on her lap. In quiet solace, Cleo and Jill watched the night. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been there when she heard a sound. Looking up, she saw Mike extend a mug of hot chocolate in her direction.

“Thanks,” she said. Using her index finger, she took some whipped cream from the top. “This is exactly what I wanted.”

Nodding, Mike sat down next to her with his own mug of hot chocolate.

“You okay?” Mike asked.

“Not really. You?”

“I’ve been worse,” Mike shrugged.

They sat in silence drinking their hot chocolate.

“Worried about you,” Mike said.

“Why?”

“It’s just too much for one person. Our family crap. Mama’s stuff. Steve and Candy. Now Sandy…” Mike shook his head. “Did her mother really disown her?”

“Sandy betrayed her mother because her father raped her when she was two years old,” Jill spit out the venomous words. “I…”

Jill broke down. In Mike’s strong silent presence, Jill cried for her friend. She cried for the state of the world where a good man would be in jail and an evil one tucked away in a motel somewhere.

After a while, she cried for herself.

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow….