A couple of days went by before Josie was able to swing by in the afternoon to pick Shannon up and take the teen to the animal shelter with her. She hadn’t even been able to get together with Declan in that time.
But now she was able to do both.
When it came to Shannon, Josie was very proud of the fact that the teen was managing to get the newest additions so well adapted to their surroundings.
Shannon, Josie thought, had developed into a very remarkable human being. Josie was both proud and honored that she’d had some small part in helping the girl become the thoughtful and caring young woman she was always meant to be.
As for Declan, once things had settled down, he had come over to her apartment several times. They had spent wonderful evenings together, each one more fantastic than the last. However, in the last couple of days, she had dedicated herself to helping Rebekah with the twins. Lily was teething and Lucas had colic. Both twins were up for two days straight, registering their acute unhappiness loudly. Josie felt it only right to help her sister-in-law since that was the main reason she had come out from Florida in the first place.
When Lily’s tooth finally broke through the surface and Lucas’s colic had subsided, Josie tried to go back to life as she knew it. Stopping by Declan’s house to pick up his niece, she was surprised to find that everyone was home and that there was more than a little tension in the air.
Her first thought was to pitch in and try to help with whatever was going on, because something clearly was.
The shell-shocked expressions on Declan’s and Ruth’s faces were definitely hard to miss. Out of all three people, it surprised Josie to see that Shannon looked to be the calmest one there.
“Is something wrong?” she wanted to know, looking from Declan to Ruth and then at Shannon. No one said anything at first.
And then Declan spoke up. “You might say that.”
Josie usually allowed people to answer her at their own pace, but she could sense that whatever this was, it was just too important to drag out. The sooner she knew, the sooner she could help.
“Well, what is it?” She noticed that Ruth appeared to be completely devastated. The older woman was also avoiding making any eye contact with her.
“Ruth? What’s wrong?” she questioned. Declan’s mother was still avoiding looking at her. “How can I help?” Josie wanted to know.
Again, it was Declan who answered her. He didn’t look very happy about what he had to say.
“It seems that my sister decided to check herself out of rehab earlier than she was supposed to,” Declan told her.
Josie knew that checking out early usually wasn’t looked upon as a good thing, but there was no law against it. At least, not as far as she knew.
Checking out early usually just raised problems for the family, she thought, glancing at Shannon.
The teenager, she noticed again, appeared totally unfazed by this turn of events. On the other hand, there were unshed tears shining in Ruth’s eyes.
“That’s too bad, but she can do that, right?” Josie asked, looking to Declan for confirmation.
“Normally, yes,” Declan said. “But not when a stint in rehab is being offered in place of a prison sentence. Then it’s definitely not allowed.”
“So now what happens?” Josie asked Declan. “Are you going to try to talk your sister into going back to rehab?” From where she stood, it seemed like the logical thing to do.
“Can’t,” Declan answered flatly. “It doesn’t work that way. Besides,” he continued, doing what he could to hold on to his temper, “it’s too late for that.”
Josie wasn’t sure she was following him. “Why is it too late?”
“Because Peggy was arrested shortly after she walked out of the facility,” he told her. “Apparently someone there alerted the police and now she’s going to prison for the next eighteen months.”
When he said that, his mother made a small whimpering sound, like her heart was breaking.
Josie was quick to sit down next to Ruth and put her arm around the woman in an attempt to comfort her.
“It’ll be all right,” she told Ruth gently. “Maybe this is what Peggy needs to make her realize this isn’t just a game. That taking off like that has serious consequences.”
Devastated, Ruth began sobbing quietly. “Where did I fail my daughter?” she cried, upbraiding herself.
“You didn’t fail her, Ruth,” Josie told her. “Peggy failed herself,” Josie maintained. Putting her hand on Ruth’s shoulder, she raised the woman’s head to get her to look at her. “You can’t live your children’s lives for them, you can just give them the right tools to deal with things and hope for the best,” she told the softly sobbing woman.
Still keeping her arm around Ruth’s shoulders, Josie looked over at Shannon. “And how are you doing?” she asked sympathetically. This had to affect the girl since it was her mother.
Shannon just raised and lowered her shoulders in an indifferent motion.
“I’m okay.” And then the teenager looked toward her uncle. “Looks like I’m going to have to stay here longer than anyone thought, huh?”
“Longer?” Josie asked, still keeping her arm around Declan’s mother.
Shannon nodded. “Well, yeah,” she asserted. “I was only supposed to be here for the ninety days of the rehab program, but now my mother’s sentence is at least eighteen months.” She looked at Josie who, she judged, needed to have this clarified. “The sentence could be lengthened for bad behavior and Mom’s got a bad temper when she gets mad,” Shannon said without emotion. “So maybe she’ll have to be there even longer.”
“Don’t say that, Shannon,” Declan said shortly, then collected himself and added in a calmer voice, “Maybe this will put the fear of God into her and she’ll finally act like a responsible adult.”
Shannon shrugged again. “I wouldn’t hold my breath, Uncle D.”
“Things still may turn out for the better,” Josie told the teenager.
“Josie, could I see you in the kitchen for a moment?” Declan asked.
“Sure,” Josie agreed. “Shannon, why don’t you take my place over here—” she nodded at the sofa “—and see if you can make your grandmother feel a little better?”
Shannon sat down in the space that Josie vacated and put her arm around her grandmother’s thin shoulders. “Everything’s going to be all right, Grandma. At least you’ll know where Mom is every night for the next year and a half.”
“That’s little consolation,” Declan murmured under his breath as he led the way into the kitchen.
“Hey, people find comfort where they can,” Josie told him.
It was a philosophy she had come to embrace when she had dealt with an overwhelming depression that had all but threatened to swallow her up whole. That was just after her ex-husband had left her.
It occurred to Josie that that was possibly what lay at the root of why she hadn’t wanted to get involved with anyone, most especially with Declan. With any man, she would be afraid that if she took her barriers down and allowed herself to fall for him, he would eventually lose interest in her and seek out someone younger than she was. With Declan, the fear was even greater since someone younger might actually be closer to his own age.
All these thoughts were burrowing through her brain as she followed Declan into the kitchen.
But when he turned around to look at her, his was not the expression of a man focusing on the age difference between them. He didn’t seem to be focusing on them at all.
He appeared to be miles away.
She didn’t have long to wait to find out why he had called her aside.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Josie,” the breeder confessed.
She wasn’t sure just what Declan was referring to. There was a lot on the table to choose from right now. Was he referring to unscrambling the mess his sister had made of her life, or was it something else?
Instead of asking him outright, Josie attempted to approach the situation diplomatically. “I’m thoroughly convinced that you can do anything, including fly like Peter Pan, if you wanted to, but what are you talking about—specifically?” she emphasized.
Sighing, Declan dragged his hand through his hair, as if that could somehow set this new dilemma straight. “I don’t know if I have it in me to be a full-time parent for so long, Josie.”
That seemed reasonable enough, she thought. “Nobody knows if they’re up to the challenge when they first start out, especially when they’re starting out with a kid who’s already fourteen years old instead of a newborn. That is pretty scary, but at least you won’t have to deal with changing diapers or getting up for feedings every three hours,” she noted.
Declan frowned, shaking his head. “That’s not funny,” he told her.
“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Josie clarified. “I was trying to get you to look on the positive side.” He really did look worried, she thought. She did what she could to reassure him. “I’ve spent time with Shannon. Once she shed that tough exterior she had wrapped around herself to keep from being hurt, there was this lovely, caring human being underneath all that,” Josie emphasized. “If anything, she’s probably more scared about this new situation between the two of you than you are.
“Don’t forget,” Josie reminded him, “she has been dealing with being abandoned by her mother over and over again for a lot of years now. The best thing you can do is make her feel that her ‘Uncle D’ is going to make her feel safe,” she told him. “Get her grandmother on board, too—once she stops crying,” Josie added.
Declan let out a long, loud sigh of relief as he nodded his head. He was well aware that everything that Josie was saying made sense.
Gathering himself together and trying to view the situation as calmly as possible, Declan looked at her. “How come you always seem to know what to say?” he wanted to know.
Josie allowed a smile to curve her mouth. “Years of experience and practice,” she quipped. “My daughter might be away at school, but I still text and call Hannah as often as I can. Besides,” she added, her smile widening even more, “if I keep talking enough, eventually something I say is going to make sense to you. It’s the law of averages,” she told Declan. “And I, in case you don’t know, am very law abiding.”
His eyes washed over her, warming them both. “Among other things,” Declan told her.
Framing her face with his hands, Declan brought his face close to hers. He was just about to kiss her when Shannon walked in.
Seeing what she had almost managed to interrupt, the teen looked up at the two people in the kitchen. She innocently asked them, “Did I almost just walk in on something?”
Josie’s mind went into overdrive to come up with an acceptable excuse. “Your uncle had just paid me a compliment and was in the middle of giving me a pep talk,” Josie explained. “But all that can wait. Did you come in to tell us something?” she asked the girl.
“Yeah. Two things actually,” Shannon told them.
“And they are?” Declan prodded, wanting the girl to get to the point.
“Well, first of all, you don’t have to worry about me,” her words were directed more toward Josie than to her uncle. “I’ve been through this kind of thing with my mother before. When she used to take off, I’d feel like she was dumping me. I don’t feel like that anymore,” Shannon said with emphasis. “I know that this doesn’t have anything to do with me, it’s just my mother’s juvenile behavior. She’s the one I feel sorry for, but like you said, this might be the best thing to have happened to her. Who knows, she might even wind up growing up,” Shannon added philosophically.
“And the second thing you wanted to tell us?” Josie asked encouragingly.
“I think one of you should talk to Grandma and tell her that it’s going to be all right. She needs to hear that, and I don’t think she’s going to believe me if I’m the one telling her.”
Josie nodded. The girl was right that her grandmother wouldn’t take her reassurances seriously, but she didn’t want to be the one to hurt Shannon’s feelings by making it seem like her words wouldn’t count. So, instead, she found a different way to tell the teen.
She began with a compliment. “That’s very sharp of you, picking up on that. As for your grandmother, she feels the way she does because she believes that she’s supposed to be the one comforting you, not the other way around.”
“But I don’t need any comforting,” Shannon said, protesting the idea.
“We know that,” Josie told her, glancing in Declan’s direction. “But maybe, just for now, you should pretend that you do. It might make your grandmother feel better if she thinks she’s helping you cope with this situation,” she told Shannon. “Rising to the occasion sometimes has the by-product of making that person feel a lot better about everything else that is going on in her life. It’s worth a try,” Josie urged.
Shannon shrugged. It didn’t seem logical to her, but then people weren’t always logical. And anyway, she tried not to look indifferent to the suggestion because she liked Josie. “I guess that makes sense—sort of,” she conceded.
“Go,” Josie encouraged, putting her hands on the teenager’s back. “Tell your grandmother how safe she makes you feel, that you know you’re going to be okay as long as she’s there for you and you can talk to her if the need arises.”
Shannon still looked rather dubious. “I’ll do it, but I don’t know if Grandma’s going to believe me.”
“With that innocent face?” Josie said, taking the teenager’s chin in her hand and turning it one way and then the other as if she was evaluating it. “Of course she will,” she assured Shannon wholeheartedly. “Now go back in there. Be your grandmother’s sweet angel. Go save the day,” Josie added with feeling.
Shannon took the pep talk to heart. She left the kitchen and went back to her grandmother to do as Josie had told her.
Declan made no comment until they were alone again. And then he shook his head as he smiled. “You really are a rather incredible woman, Josie Whitaker. You know that, don’t you?”
“I’m just capitalizing on what people already believe in their hearts is true,” she told him. “Your mother needs to feel that she can make a difference, that she can help her granddaughter get through this. And believing that is what is going to help her get through the situation,” she added.
“You know what’ll help me get all through this?” he asked Josie.
She began to feel her blood rushing through her veins, but she still managed to ask, “What?” innocently.
“Getting a beautiful woman to spend the evening with me,” he told her.
“Well, if I come across one, I’ll just pass that on to her,” Josie told him with a smile.
Declan laughed, his heart warming as he took her into his arms. “Idiot, you’re the only beautiful woman I want,” he told her.
Then, glancing toward the doorway between the kitchen and the living room to make sure that Shannon wasn’t about to come in on them again, Declan quickly stole a life-affirming kiss from Josie.
Leaving the promise of more in his wake.
And soon.