Hindsight is 20/20

I arrived at Harriet and John’s house a little late on Friday afternoon. I had hoped to be there and gone by three so I would be at the school in enough time to make sure that everything was ready for the day’s practice but I wasn’t able to get out of work early. When I walked into their house, they didn’t have Jenna ready to go.

“I thought that Jenna would stay with me while you are at the school,” Harriet informed me. “With all that’s going on, I’m sure you don’t have the time to watch her and the other kids as well.”

“Harriet,” I wanted to laugh and tell her that the ‘other kids’ were teenagers and didn’t need watching but I didn’t. “I know Jenna would love to stay here with you but we are supposed to meet up with Jordy afterwards at the realtor’s office; Wanda called him today with a couple more houses for us to look at.”

“Oh but that would be so boring for Jenna,” she tried to argue.

“Maybe, but Jordan wants to spend as much time with Jenna was possible – he hates that he’s at work all day, missing out on what she’s doing.”

“We had the best day,” Harriet said as she turned her attention to the little girl who was trying to climb up my leg. “Didn’t we Jenna?” She grabbed Jenna and picked her up to give her kisses but Jenna didn’t seem too happy with that. “Oh what’s wrong my little muffin? Are you sleepy weepy? Do you want to go beddy byes?”

Jenna screwed up her tiny face as she turned to me as if to say, ‘I think Nana’s gone crazy’.

“Damnit woman!” John came into the room just as Harriet started the baby talk. “Don’t talk that nonsense to the girl, she don’t like it.”

I raised a brow but I remained quiet as Harriet told John to shush. “I’ll talk any which way I please to my granddaughter.”

“You know Jordan wouldn’t like it if he knew you were talking gibberish to Jenna.”

Harriet just blew John’s comments off. “Daddy wouldn’t mind at all, would he muffin?” She went on to say something about Jenna being a ‘wittle, wittle muffin’ who ‘wuvs her nana bunches’.

“Damn loony if you ask me,” John mumbled.

“Oh,” Harriet batted at him. “Go on, would ya? Anna please take that miserable old man away so I can relax and enjoy the quiet.”

“Come on Jenna; let’s get your jacket and boots on.” I held out my hands for Jenna and Jenna leaned forward as if to come with me but Harriet didn’t want to let go.

“You’re making Anna late,” John snapped at her.

“Oh hush,” Harriet snapped back as she reluctantly let Jenna fall forward into my arms. “You don’t have to rush off just yet, do you Anna?”

“Well,” I gave her an apologetic look. “I am running late.”

“Oh,” she looked so upset. “I was hoping we could sit and talk for a couple minutes – we hardly see Jordan or you lately.”

“We’ve just been so busy.” Even as I was saying it, I felt bad that we hadn’t made time to go see his parents, brothers or my family.

“Now Harriet,” John came back into the room, dressed for outside, with Jenna’s jacket and boots in his hands. “You’ll see them on Sunday when Mom and Dad are here.”

“Your parents are coming to visit?” It was the first I had heard about it.

John nodded as he attempted to slip Jenna’s boots on her feet. “Mom and Dad called yesterday and asked if we could have dinner together Sunday – they thought it would be a good time since Jordan has Jenna and they haven’t seen her that much on previous visits.” He paused to position Jenna’s jacket so he could help her with it when he told me that I already knew his parents were coming to visit. “I called Jordan last night; he said that he would tell you when you got home.”

Harriet, who had been listening, frowned. “It was almost 10 when you called Jordan last night,” she stated as she turned to me. “Where were you at that hour?”

“I had some stuff I had to take care of,” I told her.

“What stuff?” She asked.

I didn’t get a chance to reply - John cut it with, “I wasn’t sure if I was going with you or if I was driving myself,” - not that I was really going to tell Harriet what I had to do the night before.

“Would you mind driving yourself John?” I went on to explain how Jordan and I were going to look at more houses after I was done at the school.

“Not at all,” he replied as he motioned towards the front entrance. “We should get going, don’t want to keep the kids waiting.”

As John and I walked towards the front door, Harriet followed. When he stopped to pick up a yellow tool box, Harriet leaned in to give Jenna a kiss and told me that we would have to have a little chat later.

****

“ANNA!” I barely stepped through the side doors of the theatre when a small blur latched onto my leg.

Wide eyed, I stared down at the small dark haired little boy who clung to me with all his might. “Jesse?”

He giggled. “Yes Jesse.” He let go and held out his arms to me. “I get up?”

“Jess,” Josh appeared out of the darkness and scooped Jesse into his arms. “Give Anna a chance to get in before you attack her.”

“I no attack Anna, Daddy.” Jesse said, still giggling as Josh tickled his side. “I say ‘hi’!”

“You did?” Josh raised a brow. “Funny, I just heard you yell Anna’s name.”

“That’s ‘hi’,” Jess explained to him.

Josh laughed, “Well I’m going to just say ‘hi’…” he turned to me with a big grin on his face. “Hello Anna.”

“Hello Josh.” I leaned closer and smiled at Jess. “Hello to you too Jess; it’s been a long time.”

“I stay at my Daddy’s house,” he told me and then his smile disappeared as he looked at Jenna. “What Baby doing Anna?”

“Ahnaanaa,” Jenna piped up as her little arms tightened their grip on me.

“No,” Jess piped up. “Hers name’s An-na.”

“Ahnaanaa!” Jenna replied with a giggle.

Jess was in the middle of telling Jenna my name again when John appeared in the doorway, “Where do you want me to set up?”

As the smile disappeared from his daddy’s face, Jess asked me who the man was.

I introduced John to Josh and Jesse, adding, for Jesse, “John is Jenna’s Papa – Jordan’s daddy.”

When I said ‘Jordan’s Daddy’, John raised a brow. “Well you are,” I told him before walking towards the stage with Jenna and John. “I think it would be best if you set up your stuff in the back corner of the stage.” I went on to tell him that I wanted to talk to him before the kids showed up. “But,” I glanced towards Josh, who had followed us. “Is your dad coming?”

“He’s already here,” Josh informed me.

“Papa is there,” Jesse pointed back to the corner of the stage I had told John to set up in. “Papa!” He called out as he wiggled to get down from Josh’s arms. He took of running to the back corner as he called out, “Anna is here Papa!”

I have to say, I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing Frank that afternoon. To tell the truth, I had been avoiding running into either him or Josh’s mom since Josh and I broke up. I didn’t want to see the disappointment in either of their eyes or the dislike. I didn’t want to feel like I should feel guilty that Josh and I didn’t work out.

When Frank poked his head out and said hello to me, I thought that I had been worrying over nothing. He seemed ok with me. But then he wandered over to where we were, I introduced him to John and that’s when I realized that maybe this wouldn’t be such a good idea.

“Nice to meet you,” John said as he held out his hand to Frank.

“Nice to meet you too,” Frank said as he shook John’s hand. “I’ve always wanted to meet the man who raised his son to ruin other’s happiness.” Dropping John’s hand, Frank told him he did a fine job. “Your son did a great job sabotaging Anna’s relationship with Josh.”

As I stood there shocked, with my mouth hanging open, Josh told his father that it wasn’t like that at all. But it was John’s reply that I remember.

“Jordan did what was right; I’m very proud of him.”

****

“This was a bad idea,” Josh groaned as we watched his father and John argue, once again, about the plans the kids had for the stage set. “Why didn’t I listen to you?”

I shrugged. “You wanted to be a pain in the ass?”

Shaking his head, he laughed. “Fine, I did but what are we going to do about this? They aren’t going to get anything done if they keep this up.” Glancing at me, he asked if it was too late to unask one of them for help.

I sighed. “Yes.”

“Can we fire one of them?” He gave me a hopeful look.

“No,” I shook my head. “Do you think you could fire your own dad?”

“Without him killing me?”

“Yeah.”

“No.” He asked if I could fire John.

“Not on your life,” I exclaimed. “John had been looking forward to this since the moment I mentioned it to him. It means a lot to him and Jordan that I asked. Plus, I think Harriet would kill me.” I told him how she couldn’t wait for me to get him out of her hair.

He chuckled. “Mom pretty much said the same thing to me when she dropped Dad off.”

“So…” We turned back to watch them again. “What are we going to do?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Josh smirk, “Muzzle them?”

“Josh!” I laughed and then seriously thought about it. “Could we?”

He was in the middle of telling me we probably shouldn’t when we heard Jesse exclaim, “Daddy! Papa’s not being nice!”

Trying his hardest not to laugh, Josh glanced at me. “Guess we should go deal with this.”

In the end, we had to divide the group up into two, giving each of them a list of things we wanted from them by the end of the day. Taking John aside, I told him that I really needed him to be the bigger man and stop this childish behaviour. “These kids are here to learn and have fun, please don’t make this about my relationship with Jordan.”

“I’m not the one you should be talking too,” John told me. “I’m trying to work and he’s the one trying to put Jordan down. I won’t stand for that, no way.”

After I told John I would deal with Frank and any comments he had about my boyfriend, John gathered his small group of kids together and got down to work.

Making my way over to the other group of kids, I tried to get their attention off of Frank and Josh and back onto the project. “So tell me, what is it that you guys want to do for the show?”

Five minutes and a whole page of suggestions later, Josh tapped me on the shoulder and motioned towards his father. “Dad will take over now,” he said as he pulled the paper from my hands and passed it to his father.

As we walked out of earshot of his dad and the kids, Josh sighed. “I told him that we talked about our relationship and what happened. I told him that we agreed that things are better this way but I don’t think he believes me.”

I glanced back and caught Frank watching us, looking hopeful. Sighing, I turned back to Josh. “Maybe it’s time you start dating again. Maybe he’ll see that….” I trailed off because Josh looked guilty. “What?”

With a nervous chuckle, he told me that it was funny that I mentioned it. Running his hand through his hair nervously, Josh told me that he had a date later that evening. “Jesse’s all excited,” he said as quickly as he could, as if he didn’t really want me to know the first part and thought telling me fast would make me forget. “He’s all excited about having Mom and Dad spending the night over at his house; he thinks it is one great big sleepover.”