Salina certainly didn’t have to worry about Vanessa waking her up the next morning because she didn’t sleep all night. She was too worried about JC’s call the next day. She had gone over the pros and cons of the situation in her head a million times and while her heart was telling her to go with the feelings that she hadn’t felt for a man in over two years, her head was warning her against it.
The next morning she heard Vanessa jabbering from her crib at the early hour of 7 o’clock and decided that she might as well get up and start her day seeing as how she wasn’t getting any sleep anyway. She sauntered into Vanessa’s room to see the little girl standing up in her crib and talking to Tebby.
“Hola, mi hija. Comó estás?” She said speaking to the girl in her native tongue. She had pledged to herself when Vanessa was born that she would teach her Spanish and it would be spoken regularly in their home.
“Bien? Me too…I think.” Salina took Vanessa into the kitchen and put her in her high chair. After setting a handful of cheerios on the tray in front of Vanessa she busied herself with cleaning the kitchen. After she was finished with that she vacuumed the apartment, folded the clothes she had washed two days before and dusted the entire apartment. Once she was finished she looked over to the clock and realized that it was only 11 o’clock. She looked over to Vanessa who was standing on the couch looking out the window and plopped down next to her.
“What’s up, mi hija?”
“Out.” Vanessa pointed sadly.
“We can’t go outside, mi hija, we have to wait for JC to call.”
“C?”
“Yeah.” She said and pushed Vanessa’s curls out of her face. “Nessa, do you like JC?”
“Bye bye?”
Salina pulled Vanessa onto her lap. “Yeah, do you like him? Huh?”
Of course Vanessa didn’t answer, but suddenly took an interest with her toes.
“Yeah…you like him.” Salina had made up her mind. She was going to give this thing with JC, whatever it was, a chance. When he called she was going to pick up the phone and tell him to come over. It startled her when the phone rang and she hesitantly lifted it to look at the caller id. She wasn’t surprised to see JC’s number appear and she took a breath before she answered.
“Hello?”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh my God, you answered.” He smiled though she couldn’t see it.
“Yeah, I did.”
“I’m sorry, I called so early. I just couldn’t help it…I was too anxious and nervous and I guess a little bit excited. Um…now that you answered, I want to ask you and Vanessa on a date tonight.” He said beating Salina to the invite she was going to give.
“Um…both of us?” She wasn’t expecting that at all.
“Well, kinda. It’s dinner at my house and after we put Vanessa to sleep it’ll be just the two of us.” He said in an incredibly sexy voice.
“That sounds great. What time?”
“How about 7?”
“Okay, we’ll be there.” She giggled. “Uh…I need directions to your house.”
“Oh…duh! I forgot.”
After JC gave Salina the directions they hung up and
Salina spent the rest of the day playing with her daughter while JC went to shop for dinner. At around 5:30, Salina decided that it was time to get herself and Vanessa ready to go. She set Vanessa on her bed with a Teletubbies video playing while she took a shower, dressed and put on her makeup. She let her hair naturally dry so it was wavy and then she walked into the bedroom to grab Vanessa to get her ready.
“Okay, mi hija, do you want to wear your yellow sundress thing?” She asked as she walked into Vanessa’s room. She looked at Vanessa who just reached out for her Tebby when she saw him. “Okay, I guess I get to pick the outfit.”
By 6:30 Vanessa and Salina were ready on and their way out the door when the phone rang. Salina thought about not answering when she saw that it was her mother but decided against it.
“Hello?” She answered.
“Hey, mi hija. Como estás?”
“Bien, mama. And you?” She said as she lifted Nessa into her arms.
“Muy bien, gracias. Y donde está mi nieta?”
“She’s right here, but we are on our way out, mama, can we call you back?”
“Donde están que va?”
“Just, you know, out to eat.”
“No se olvide una chaqueta para Nessa”
“Jacket for the baby, got it. We gotta go now mama, okay? Say hello to dad and the boys for me. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Ciao.” She said before hanging up and walking out the door with Nessa.
Twenty minutes later they pulled up to JC’s large home and Salina stared in awe. “What did I get us into, mi hija?” She asked her daughter. After collecting her daughter and the diaper bag she walked up to the front door and rang the bell.
She gasped when JC opened the door grinning sexily in his oversized sweater and black sacks. “Hey.” He said leaning in to give her a kiss. “I’ve been waiting to do that all day.”
She smiled. “It was definitely a nice way to begin the evening. But can I get past the threshold?”
“Oh, yeah. Come on in.” He said opening the door and stepping aside.
“C!” Vanessa laughed as she bounced up and down in her mother’s arms. Salina set her down and Vanessa immediately went and wrapped her arms around JC’s legs.
JC laughed. “Hey there, cutie.” He said as he lifted his legs with her still wrapped around the left one and led Salina further into the house.
Salina looked around and let out a quiet laugh.
JC stopped and turned to her, smirking. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s just that your house is so….bachelorish.”
JC nodded slightly embarrassed before picking up the two glasses of wine and handed her one. “Yeah, well, I’m not here much.” Just as he said this is an overweight 10-year old cocker spaniel walked into the room. Vanessa immediately tightened her arms around his leg and began to whine for him to pick her up. “It’s okay Nessa. Millie’s old and lazy…she won’t hurt you.” He knelt down and the little girl clung to his neck tightly. He put his arm around her and motioned for the dog to come to him. “Come here, Millie-girl.”
The dog sauntered lazily over to him and licked his hand before smelling Vanessa’s shoe. “No-no!” Nessa said shaking her finger at the dog making JC laugh. Nessa hesitantly reached out and pet the dog on his ears before letting go of JC entirely and hugging the dog tightly.
“Nessa, not so tight.” Salina said.
“She’s fine.” JC said. “Millie’s used to kids. My cousins come and play with her while I’m gone.” JC took her hand and pulled her to him looking down and making sure that Nessa was still busy with the dog. “I’m really glad you called.” He said smiling.
“Me too.” She said before leaning up to peck him on the cheek. “What’s for dinner?”
“I got this pasta thing that I can’t pronounce, but it’s really good.” He said walking around the island to the oven.
Salina sat on the stool after looking back to check on Vanessa. “You got take out?” she asked smiling.
JC blushed. “Yeah. Trust me, you don’t want to eat my cooking.”
“You’re that bad?”
“Well, I could probably make you a bowl of cereal, but I figured you might want something a little more elegant.” JC explained as he dished out the meal for the three of them.
“I see.” Salina was about to say something else, but was interrupted by Vanessa.
“Mama, mine?” She asked Salina putting her arms up indicating that she wanted to be picked up.
“What?” She asked as she watched JC walk into the dining room.
“Mine.” Vanessa said as she pointed at the dog.
“No.” Salina shook her head.
“Yeah.”
”No. You’re too young for a dog.”
“Yeah.” She said before leaning back against her mother.
“Okay, guys, dinner is ready.” JC said leading them into the dining room where he had their plates set up and even a high chair for Vanessa.
“Please tell me you didn’t buy a high chair, Josh.” Salina said as she walked over to it and strapped Vanessa in.
“It’s here in case Joey or Lance need me to baby-sit.” He said pulling out her chair and kissing her before sitting down himself.
“Do you baby-sit for them often?” She asked as she took a bite of her food. “It’s really good.” She commented before he could respond.
”Thanks, I’ll tell the chef.” JC chuckled. “Uh…out of the guys I probably baby-sit the most. Because Justin is always gone and I really don’t think they trust Chris enough to leave their kids with him. Not that he would let them get hurt, he would just wreck their houses and let them eat chocolate all day. So I get to baby-sit, but there’s still probably a long list of people that they’d call before they’d call me.”
The two talked and laughed quietly together as they finished their meal. Salina smiled as she watched JC feed Vanessa as he ate his own food. He caught her staring and smiled back. “What?”
“You’re just…perfect with her.”
He smiled and stood to clear their plates. Salina took that opportunity to grab Vanessa and wipe her off. She then walked back into the kitchen where JC was standing talking on the phone. He held up a finger to signal that it would just be one minute. Salina nodded and walked out of the room into his living room and looked around. She stopped in front of pictures of JC with various people and Vanessa reached out to point at one.
“Who?”
“That’s JC.”
“No.”
”Yeah. When he was younger…see, that’s him too.” She said although her throat tightened at the sight of his arms wrapped around a beautiful woman. She had no right to be jealous, they weren’t really anything serious yet and she didn’t even know who the person was.
“Who?” Vanessa asked pointing to the woman.
Salina cleared her throat. “I…uh…I don’t know, sweetie.” She said turning around and seeing JC standing there watching her.
“That’s my sister, Heather.” He said trying to read her face.
Salina let out a sigh of relief. “Oh…it’s his sister, sweetie.” She said to Vanessa who just laid her head on Salina’s shoulder and yawned. “I think she’s tired.” She said as she glanced at the clock on the wall.
“Here.” JC reaching for her. “We can lay her down upstairs.” Leading Salina to one of the guest rooms upstairs.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Story Tags: boyfriendjc jc justin hospital tabloids joey chris lance solojc
