“Ready for what?”
I smirked. “We’re going to get Jess back.” I was going to have to swallow my pride and prepare for some groveling. But the past two days had been miserable for both Gina and me. And that meant something. We needed Jess in our lives, and I had to fix this.
After taking the quickest shower of my life, I helped Gina change. With the motivation of seeing Jess again, she’d dressed faster than I’d ever seen.
In the time we were together, we spent all of our time at my place. I used the GPS in my car to get to Jess’s apartment. As I pulled up to the apartment building, Gina started rapidly kicking her feet.
“We’re going to see Jess!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, we are,” I said.
She reached next to her for the folded quilt we brought with us. Gina insisted on showing Jess the final product as soon as we could. I agreed, thinking that it might help Jess warm up to me. It was a sneaky move, but I had to pull out all the stops if I wanted her to come back to us. I was willing to do anything to prove how sorry I was for our fight and for firing her.
Gina bounced like a jumping bean all the way to the building and up the stairs. The elevator was out of order, but thankfully Jess wasn’t on one of the higher floors. Though with the amount of energy bursting out of Gina, I doubted she would notice if we had to go up more flights.
At Jess’s door, I hesitated before knocking. I mentally prepared my speech, one that I had made up on the way over.
“Daddy, knock!” Gina demanded.
“Okay, honey.” I took a deep breath and knocked.
After the echo of the sound had faded, we waited.
Gina pressed her ear against the door then backed up and looked at me. “Daddy, try again.”
I knocked again, harder and two extra times. Jess was an early riser. Maybe she had gone out for breakfast? It was my fault she didn’t have a job to get to.
I pulled out my phone and found her number. I pressed it and leaned closer to the door.
The call went straight to voicemail, and I hadn’t heard it ring inside. She had to be out and ignoring my call. Not that I blamed her, but it annoyed me a little.
“I don’t think she’s here,” I said.
“Maybe she went to see Sierra?” Gina asked.
“Where is Sierra?” I asked. Jess previously mentioned her best friend working at a record shop, but I never bothered to ask where.
“Baker’s Brothers Records,” Gina said.
I leaned down and kissed her head. Gina might have just saved my relationship with Jess.
As I searched for street parking next to Baker’s Brothers, I didn’t see Jess’s car. My heart sank, but I held onto a little bit of hope that I could convince Sierra to contact Jess if she wasn’t at the store.
Gina and I briskly walked to the store. I glanced through the window and saw a few people inside. None of them were Jess.
“She might not be here,” I said to Gina, wanting to give her clear expectations of what might happen.
I held the door for Gina, and she burst inside.
I followed her and scanned the room for Jess. My stomach sank when I didn’t see her.
“Hey, Gina,” a young woman said. My attention went to her unnaturally bright red hair, then to the chain of earrings in her ears. She looked as if she belonged in a metal band with her tightly cropped shirt, ripped jeans, and big black boots.
“Sierra!” Gina clung onto Sierra’s leg. It surprised me that Gina was so close to this girl I barely knew. Jess had been right. By working as much as I did, I missed out on a lot. My daughter had made connections with these women and I had broken them by firing Jess. If I needed to feel more like an ass, I did at that moment.
“This is my Daddy,” Gina said. “Where’s Jess?”
“She’s not here.” Sierra looked at me, and her eyes hardened.