"I'm not scheduled at The Fix today," Reece said. "So I thought I might take Jenna to the Botanical Gardens. A long walk and then a coffee." He took her hand and squeezed. "A little romance in the morning. Who knows where it might lead in the afternoon?"
"That sounds amazing," she said. "And unfortunately impossible. I told Brent I'd babysit all day," she added, in response to his questioning look. "I figured I could carve out some time on my laptop and work on all my projects for The Fix. And get my resume out there into the wild," she added, her mouth scrunching up with annoyance. She hated looking for a job, especially when the nibbles were few and far between.
"I talked with Brent and Tyree about that at the park," Reece said. "We can't pay a lot, but it's ridiculous for you to be volunteering your time when the three of us are on payroll. We're all partners, after all."
"Reece, no. We need the funds to finance--"
"You need to eat. And we need a viable business, not one that's so tight that key jobs have to be handled by volunteers. Take the job, Jenna. Otherwise, we're going to hire someone else."
She lifted a brow. "Like you said, I'm a partner, too. Don't I get to decide about hiring someone else?"
"You are. And no. We're three-to-one, which means the men win. Like I said, crappy pay. But a job. And it's yours."
She considered protesting a bit more for form, but the truth was that he was right. The job she was doing filled a position that needed to exist at The Fix anyway. And, from a more pragmatic point of view, she'd pretty much run out of money. It was either accept the job or dive into the lucrative world of bank robbery. Probably not a great option.
"You're all idiots," she said. "But I accept."
"Excellent. And my ulterior motive is that now you don't have to spend hours sending out resumes. We can do something today."
"I told you. I'm watching Faith."
"Something like the Austin Zoo."
"Yeah?" She hadn't been to the local zoo in years, and the last time she went with Faith, the little girl had been in a stroller.
"We see the animals, we ride the train, then we come home, curl up on the couch, and watch The Aristocats. And when Faith falls asleep, we turn off the television. Or we watch something with a different kind of romance..."
"Ooooh," Edie said. "Sugar, you need to take the boy up on that."
"Absolutely," Jenna said. "I'm no fool."
The zoo was even more fun with a little girl who could travel under her own power, though Jenna had to admit she was exhausted keeping up with the kid, who ran from pen to pen trying to decide which of the zoo's rescued animals was the cutest.
The ultimate verdict was a genet, an animal that Jenna had never heard of before, but had to admit was adorable with its catlike features. Since there was no stuffed genet in the store, however, Faith ended up going home with a stuffed lemur she named Cracker Jack, for reasons that weren't clear to either Jenna or Reece.
"I'm exhausted," Jenna confessed as they snuggled on the couch, now comfortable in T-shirts and sweatpants, the little girl between them.
"Welcome to parenthood," Reece said, and she laughed. But she couldn't help wondering if they'd ever be parents. And what would their child's name be if they didn't ever get married?
The unwelcome thoughts pushed Jenna to her feet. "I'm going to make some coffee. Want one?"
He gave her a thumbs-up, then relented to Faith's orders to sing along.
With the two of them belting out Everybody Wants To Be A Cat, she disappeared into the kitchen and started measuring grounds into the filter basket.
She'd just pushed the button to start the coffee maker when her phone rang, and she pulled it out of her back pocket, then hurried to answer when she saw the Caller ID.
"Mom!"
"Hi, sweetie."
"Are you in town?" Her mom had mentioned possibly coming back to Texas with Doug, her husband, in the spring for a romantic weekend in the Hill Country.
"Not until summer," she said. "Doug's work schedule is a mess. But I'll give you plenty of notice. We're both looking forward to seeing you. I miss my baby girl."
"Is that why you called?"
"Isn't that reason enough?"