Who Needs Enemies?

I kept replaying in my mind Zach telling me that Jordan knew Josh wasn’t married and every time I did, I got angrier. I wanted to call Jordan up at rip his head off; in fact I had stomped to the phone and had it against my ear ready to dial my home number. The only reason I stopped is because Jess came up to me. “Ama, I watch Cars?” He had asked as he stared up at me with his hands folded at his waist, he looked so adorable, how could I say no? I had gone downstairs to put the movie in for him and had planned to go call Jordan but Jesse wanted me to stay and watch with him. About ten minutes into the movie he crawled across the couch and climbed onto my lap with his blanket and Mister Bear. By the time the movie was over, he was sound asleep in my arms.

I returned to the family room after I had moved Jesse into my room and Cassie was sitting on the couch waiting for me. “Cass, I’m not in the mood to argue with you about Josh.” I collapsed on the couch and closed my eyes.

“Aunt Anna, I overheard Jesse say something to Conner that I think you should know about.”

I turned my head towards her, “If it’s something bad, I don’t want to know. It’s been a long emotionally draining week for me Cass.”

She shifted, turning her whole body towards me, her legs drawn up under her. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad.” She shrugged, “I guess it depends on how serious you are about Coach Baker.”

“Cass, I know you don’t like that I’m involved with him but I really like him.” I paused, grabbing her arm. “I mean really like him.”

She laughed, “Well he is a nice guy. And all the single moms at the school have been trying to get with him ever since the beginning of the year.” She shuddered, “Some of them were way too desperate.”

“Oh?” I raised a brow, “So you don’t mind the idea of me with him now?”

“I was thinking that you’d be able to talk to him and talk him into letting me skip taking gym?” She gave me a wishful grin.

“Ummm, no.” I chuckled, “I’m not getting involved with his work life, you don’t want to take gym, you have to figure a way out of it yourself.”

“Fine!” She pouted. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” Cassie glanced around the room and then leaned in closer to me. “Earlier Conner and Jesse were playing with the trucks and Jess said something about being in your car. You know how he always calls you ‘Ama’?” I nodded and she continued. “Well Conner told him that your name was ‘Anna” and made fun of him for not pronouncing it right, saying he couldn’t say it. Jesse told him he could and Conner said he couldn’t.”

I stopped her, “Cass, please tell me there’s a point to this?”

She nodded and smiled, “Well finally Jesse said, ‘I can say An-na’, and he said it slow like that too. Conner asked him why he didn’t call you Anna then if he could say it. Without blinking an eye Jesse replies, ‘I want Ama be my mommy.’” I stared at Cassie in disbelief; she smiled and moved closer to me. “Get it Aunt Anna? He’s pretty much calling you ‘ma’.” She waited for me to say something, but for the life of me I couldn’t think of anything to say. “What to you think Coach Baker would think about that?”

I began to shake my head, “Jesse didn’t say that. He couldn’t, he doesn’t even know me that well.”

Cassie sat back, a little hurt that I didn’t believe her. “He did say it, and he also told Conner that he wanted his dad to marry you so he didn’t have to live with his mom anymore. I wouldn’t lie about this Aunt Anna; just ask Conner if you don’t believe me!”

I stared at my niece, “Cass,” I sighed, “It’s not that I don’t believe you, I just don’t believe that he would say that.”

Cassie rested her head against her hand. “You want kids and he wants a mom that isn’t a bitch.” I gasped when she said that, “Oh come on, I heard Coach Baker talking with dad a few times about things his ex has done. Of course, he never calls her that or anything but I know he’s got to be thinking it.”

I thought about this morning and how Josh handled it. When it was happening, I wanted him to get mad and yell at her, to tell her what he thought about her but looking back on it, I was proud of the way he handled it. I smiled, “Cass I don’t know how things will go with Josh, it’s too early to tell.”

She nodded and stood up, “I hope it works out Aunt Anna.”

Me too, I thought as I watched her leave the room. I sat there for a while, not really doing anything and I started to nod off. Finally I said ‘to hell with it’ and went to join Jesse in my bed.

It seemed like I had just gotten comfortable when my cell rang. “Hello?” I mumbled into the phone.

“Hey beautiful,” Josh’s voice came over the line.

“Mmmm,” I pulled the blankets tighter around me and turned onto my side, smiling. “Hey handsome, how you doing?” Jesse’s sleeping form was a couple inches away from me; he was lying on his stomach facing away from me. I chuckled and thought, how like his dad.

“I’m doing fine; I think I’ll be sore later though.” He sighed, “So what did you just laugh at?”

I took a deep breath, “Mmm. Just turned and looked at the guy in my bed, and had a thought.”

“Guy in your bed? He better be less than three feet tall and be related to me.”

I laughed, “Actually I was just thinking how much like you he is, he even sleeps like you do.”

“You mean, curled up next to you?”

“Yeah, turned away from me, hugging something else.” I joked.

“Hey! I don’t sleep like that.” He sighed, “Maybe I could show you later?”

I smiled, “That sounds good to me. So are you done there? Did you need me to come get you?”

“Yes I need you.”

“That’s not what I asked!”

He laughed, “I know. Umm, unfortunately I’m not done here yet. I just wanted to hear your voice, see how everything was going. But if you and Jesse were sleeping, I should let you get back to it.” He paused, “Give him a kiss for me please Anna?”

I promised I would, we spoke for a couple minutes more before his nephew told him that halftime was over. I hung up the phone still chuckling at that Matt’s comment. Returning my cell to the nightstand, I found the comfy spot in my bed again and fell back to sleep.

Jesse and I slept until Cass came down and woke us for supper. We managed to drag our sleepy bodies up the stairs and sit at the table to eat. After supper I felt like going back to sleep but Jess was wide awake, he wanted to play again and went running off with Conner. I wandered around Zach’s house for a while; spend an hour helping Cassie pick out an outfit and looked in on Jesse a few times. Josh finally called to say he was done and waiting for me, ‘whenever you’re ready honey, don’t rush on my account’ he had said but the second I hung up the phone I called out and told Jesse we had to go get his dad. I thought he would complain that he didn’t want to go because he was having so much fun with Conner but when I told him, he stood up and told Conner that he had to ‘go play with daddy now’.

It didn’t take long for Josh to get ready to leave when I got there, although I could see that he was a little surprised I came right away, ‘missed me did you?’ he had asked when I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.
Two hours after we had left Matt’s house, Josh had just finished putting Jesse to bed and returned to the couch to lie down with me. “Hey sleepyhead,” he whispered as he kissed my forehead.

“Mmmm,” I moved closer to him, pressing my face against his chest, my eyes remained closed; I was starting to fall asleep again. He went to say something but changed his mind, he shifted, pulling me even closer to him, his hand was rubbing my back softly which helped me relax more and drift even further to dreamland. I was teetering on the edge of dreamland when my cell started to ring; I was content to ignore it, knowing it was probably Jordan.

Josh shifted, stretching upwards, grabbing my phone, “Hello?” He listened to whoever was on the line. “No Jordan,” He said in a near whisper, “I don’t think she will be she’s sleeping at the moment.” He paused, “I’m not going to wake her to ask her that, if she wakes up later and decides to go home that’s up to her.” He sighed, “Jordan, come on she was up early, so of course she’s tired.” He listened, his body tensed. “What do you mean, you know?” He sat up quickly, “She what!?!” Up until that moment, I didn’t really care what Jordan was saying, but now I tired to see if I could hear his side of the conversation. Josh climbed off the couch and began to pace the floor, his steps quick. “What do you mean she spent the night in your bed?”

I gasped silently, my eyes sprung open. Jordan what the hell are you trying to prove?