Chapter 38: Everyone convinced

Wes wasted no time after stepping out of the church. He blinked into the sun and put his arm around Janet even before her eyes had adjusted to the brightness after being in the dark building.

“You’re gonna get us in trouble,” she chastised.

Chapter 37: The best laid plans

Janet tiptoed down the stairs freshly dressed and ready for church. She went into the kitchen assuming she’d be the only one up so early. She was very mistaken.

“What happened to needing your beauty sleep?” she said to her twin, who didn’t look nearly as wide eyed and awake as Janet did.

“We didn’t finish our discussion last night,” Jasmine said, fighting a yawn.

“Think we did. Go back to bed,” Janet replied as she went about making herself some breakfast.

“Janet, Daddy isn’t…”

Chapter 36: Not in love

“Ah, young love,” Wendy said coming up the porch steps.

Wes and Janet broke apart and gaped at her, both panting.

“Can’t catch a break today, can we?” Janet muttered irritably, slipping off his lap and wondering how she got on there at all.

“Um, hello, Ms. Meadows. How are you tonight?” Wes said, a sheepish grin on his face.

“Oh, I’m fine, better than you anyway. I hear you met Janet’s father,” she said, shaking her head in mock disapproval. “Tsk-tsk-tsk.”

Chapter 35: Foolish heart

“Uh-oh,” Wendy muttered to herself as she watched Jeffery looking utterly morose standing by Wes’ car. She braced herself and parked the minivan in the driveway right next to his truck. “Wonder if we’ll have fireworks tonight.”

No sooner had she unbuckled her seat belt and grabbed her purse than her door was flung open. “Hello, Jeffery, you and Stevie just…”

“Where the hell have you been?” Jeffery growled. “Do you have any idea what trouble the girls are getting into?”

Chapter 34: Meeting her father

Jeffery’s silver pickup pulled into the driveway at the house he liked to call his. That was before he made the biggest blunder of his life, however. He stared at the snazzy sports car parked in front of the house and an ominous feeling came over him.

“Who’s car is that?” he asked, his brow furrowed.

“Don’t know. Never saw it before, but foggy windows makes me think it’s Jasmine in there with Troy,” Stevie said smirking. “They like making out.”

Jeff ground his teeth together.  “Do they do that often?” he asked, albeit calmly.

Chapter 33: Cold and hot

Janet promptly plucked her business cards out of both Alana and Luke’s hands, startling them.

“You obviously don’t need my services,” she said happily. 

“No, we don’t,” Luke agreed, taking Alana's hand and winking at her.

“I can spot true love a mile away, you know,” Janet said.

“Can you really?” Wes asked, smirking.

Chapter 32: Men are so easy

“I’m not really up for a movie tonight, Janet, but thanks. You and Wes go and maybe you can take Cindy with you. I’m sure she won’t be too much trouble,” Donny said, smiling at his daughter who suddenly looked crestfallen.

Janet stared at him for a moment, her eyes narrowed, before deciding how to proceed. Yes, she would go for the big guns.

In a split second her chest started heaving, her lips trembled and her eyes filled with tears. “I make dinner for all of you and you refuse to take me to the movies?” she said as the first tear fell. “It’s cuz you don’t like me.”

Alarmed, Wes stood up and practically ran to her throwing his arms protectively around her. “He didn’t mean it like that, Janet!” he said anxiously.

Chapter 31: The yenta’s work begins

“He really likes her,” Cindy whispered to her dad. “And I do, too. She’s awesome.”

Donny smiled and nodded watching Wes with the very pretty, amusing and rather talented girl, Janet. He had to agree with his daughter. It was quite apparent his son was smitten. He just worried Wes might like her too much; more than she liked him, anyway.

 “I don’t remember the last time we all had a home cooked meal together. Thank you, Janet, this is very special for us,” Donny said.

“You’re welcome,” Janet said.

“I remember,” Wes mumbled, looking down at his plate.

“Me too,” Cindy said, a sad look on her face.

Chapter 30: Butterfly Kisses

Donny Sebastian slumped in the car and stared up at his house. He felt weary, but not just any kind of weary, as from too much work or being over-tired. He felt a bone crushing weariness that came from a life unfulfilled. He sighed and exited the car, still looking up at the house, the house he bought for his Margarita. He looked at the lovely plantings around the house and followed them as if in a trance. He could almost hear Margarita’s laughter coming from the late blooming Monkshoods, asters and mums. They seemed to mock him.

Chapter 29: Wes’ little sister

 Wes’ little sister, Cindy, was their mother in miniature. The only difference from the joyful woman in the portrait downstairs was that Cindy looked as if she had been crying. Janet suspected something had happened today, something bad.

“What are you doing home so early?” Wes said. “Thought you’d be at your friend’s party all day.”

“Uh…I didn’t wanna go,” Cindy said, looking down at her toes which were encased in dark blue socks to match her corduroy skirt.

“What the hell, Cindy! You’ve been talking about nothing but this party for a month and all of a sudden you don’t wanna go?” he said, incredulous.

She shrugged and now looked at her nails. Janet could see they were chewed down to nothing. “It was gonna be boring.”

“So, when did they drop you off?” Wes asked, frowning at her.

She shook her head. “I…I walked home,” she said now chipping away at the bright blue nail polish.

“Dammit, Cin! You were supposed to call me. That’s three miles away,” he shouted. “Some frickin’ friends you have, making you walk home! When did you get here?”

“About ten,” Cindy mumbled, head still down. “I cleaned the house, so it’s not like I wasted my time doing nothing.”

“You cleaned the house? And you’ve been home alone all that time?” he said sounding both mad and worried.

She nodded. “I was in my room listening to music so I didn’t hear you til just now when I went to go to the bathroom.” 

“You should’ve called me. I would’ve picked you up or at least brought you lunch. Don’t you ever think, Cindy?” he said angrily.

Janet saw tears well in Cindy’s eyes even with her head turned away. She grabbed Wes by the arm and shook her head. “Wes, don’t push her, okay?” she whispered so Cindy wouldn’t hear. 

“What?” he said, bewildered.

She just shook her head again and turned back to the young girl. “So, uh, Cindy, you’re probably hungry. Wes said your dad should be coming home soon. Would you like to help me make dinner?”

“Huh?” Cindy said, apparently surprised.

“Janet, you don’t have to do that. I’ll order pizza or something,” Wes said.

“There’s no food in the house and I don’t know how to cook anyway,” Cindy said.

“Well, I do. Come on, it’ll be fun. You’ve got an awesome kitchen,” Janet said brightly.

“May be, but if you want to cook with real food you’ll have to go to somebody else’s kitchen,” Cindy said grumpily.

“I’m sure I’ll find something,” Janet said, undaunted and she grabbed Cindy by the arm and was almost to the door.

“Janet,” Wes said. “We’re not finished.”

"Oh, right!" Janet went to his bed, got her pocketbook and pulling out a sheet of paper. “You can finish the website by yourself. This is my price list. That’s all you said you needed. You add this and it’ll be done. You did the rest so well, I trust you to finish it,” she said smiling.

“He means he’s not done making out with you,” Cindy said smirking.

“Cindy,” Wes warned.

“Can’t believe he's got a girlfriend,” Cindy muttered, leaving the room with Janet right behind her.

 “Janet, wait! If you don’t want pizza I’ll get Chinese,” Wes said earnestly. “But you don’t have to cook. Cindy’s right, the cupboard’s bare.”

“I’ll see for myself before I concede defeat,” Janet said.

 “Janet!” Wes shouted, but she had closed the door and hurried down the stairs catching up with Cindy.

“Gees, don’t you folks ever go shopping?” Janet grumbled as she looked over the freezer, the fridge, the pantry and all the cupboards. She found scant ingredients she could use to make something edible.

“What for? None of us can cook,” Cindy said.

“That’s no excuse,” Janet retorted. Sighing deeply she shrugged. “I promise nothing.” 

She pulled out and placed on the center island rice, an onion, a can of chicken broth, spaghetti sauce, a few frozen hamburger patties, a bag of frozen peas and a bunch of seasonings. Then she took out a large pot and a cutting board and set to work.

“So, what are you making?” Cindy asked, watching with great interest.

“Heck if I know,” Janet replied.

Cindy watched with raised eyebrows as Janet peeled, diced, chopped and tossed everything into the pot. Whatever this stuff was within a few minutes it sure smelled good. 

“So, um…your friends didn’t turn out to be very good friends, huh?” Janet said casually.

“Uh…how’d you know?” Cindy said.

Janet shrugged as she stirred the pot, set the heat to simmer and placed a cover on top. “I’ve had my share of them. You can never tell true friends from real friends until it’s too late, you know?” she said, her mouth twisting ruefully.

Cindy stared at her with large dark eyes. “You have?”

“Sure. Everyone does at some time or other,” Janet said. “You’re in middle school, right?”

Cindy nodded. “Yeah, seventh grade.”

“It’s tough, seventh grade. It’s like…like you were perfectly fine in sixth grade and then they toss you into a den of lions….least that’s what it felt like to me. I wished I was ten years old all over again when I went to seventh grade. Hated it,” Janet said.

“That’s exactly how I feel. Everything’s so…so different now,” she said, biting on her nonexistent nails.

 Janet reached over and pulled her hands away from her mouth. “You’re gonna hurt yourself doing that,” she said. “So, what happened today if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I found out they only wanted me there to make fun of me,” Cindy said in a tiny, hurt voice.

“I’m so sorry, Cindy. Kids can be so mean. Wish I knew why, but I don’t,” Janet said, giving her sympathetic squeeze on her arm.

“It’s cuz I’m not white and blonde and blue-eyed like they are,” Cindy said bitterly.

“Excuse me?” Janet said.

 “I’m Hispanic you know. That’s why they say I’m ugly,” Cindy said shrugging.

Anger rushed through Janet like lightning. “First, you ARE white. You’re Caucasian. Hispanic isn’t a race. It’s a fake term to encompass anyone of Spanish decent. How stupid is that?” Janet said through clenched teeth. “Like Mexicans are the same as Columbians and Spaniards and Puerto Ricans? What the hell’s that about lumping them all together?"

she took a deep breath and continued. “And second, you are not ugly. Far from it. You are the second most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. Wanna know who’s the first? Your mom. You look just like her, so I know you’ll be as beautiful when you grow up. Those kids don’t know what ugly is, but I’m quite willing to show them. So, if they ever say that to you again, you send them to me. I’ll show them real ugly…with my fist.”

Cindy gaped at her. “You really are very different from Jasmine. She told me to straighten my hair and color it light brown so I don’t look so Spanish.”

“Please tell me you’re kidding,” Janet said, her heart sinking.

Cindy shook her head, making her curls bounce around her pretty oval face.

“Yeah, I guess I am different,” Janet said, an uneasy feeling starting in her stomach. She turned away and went to the stove. She slowly stirred the contents of the pot as she tried to rationalize why her own sister could say something so insensitive especially to a girl with obvious insecurities.

“Wow, that smells so good!” Wes said bursting into the kitchen and making the girls jump. 

He laughed. “Sorry!” he said coming up to Janet and placing his hands on her hips before kissing her cheek. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Not scared. You just surprised me,” Janet said, kind of irritated.

He hugged her and whispered, “Sorry I surprised you then.”

“Okay,” she said breathlessly. She was really starting to like his arms around her. It somehow made any bad feelings vanish.

“So what is this?” Wes asked snuggling her closer to him.

“I dunno. A rice thingy,” she replied, her attention only half on the food. “Wanna be my guinea pig?” 

 “Oh, yeah,” he said eagerly.

“Hey, me too!” Cindy said, jumping off the stool and grabbing three spoons. She handed them out with a wide grin on her face and went to the pot, scooping up a spoonful and tentatively blowing on it before tasting it.

“You realize this might kill you,” Janet told them.

“I’m willing to risk it,” Wes said getting his taste in.

“Hmm…this is so good!” Cindy shouted.

 “Wow, haven’t had anything this good since…” he said, staring at Janet as if he’d never truly seen her. “Since Mom was alive. Thank you, Janet.” He leaned down and kissed her softly. 

She gazed up at him with her heart pounding madly. “Needs more garlic,” she whispered, pushing away from him and grabbing the granulated garlic.

“How do you know if you didn’t taste it?” Cindy asked.

“Um...when in doubt add garlic. My mom says that all the time. Seems to work for her,” Janet said, going for casual. “Go set the table, Cindy and Wes, you should call your dad. Tell him to come home. Dinner’s ready.”

 “He’ll want to come home today…with you here, Janet,” Cindy said.

 “She's the best. I wish we could keep her, Wes. I really like her,” Cindy whispered to him so Janet couldn't hear, before going to the cabinet and taking out the dishes.

“Yeah, me too,” he mumbled staring at Janet.

Janet stared back at him, her eyes wide and questioning. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her as he had done up in his room. “I love you,” he whispered and kissed her again.