Page 54 of The Coffee Bar on Camellia Court

"Absolutely," Roxanne said. "Any time. And maybe next time, we can bake cookies together. Do you like baking?"

Lena's eyes got big and round. "Make cookies? How do you do that? We just buy them."

"I made these," Roxanne said, holding one of her chocolate chip oatmeal cookies up.

"Wow," Lena exclaimed. "I want to learn how to make cookies."

"Well, then we will add that to our list." Roxanne explained to Alex as he rejoined them that Lena had started a list of things she wanted to do with her grandparents while she was here. The list included painting pictures, planting flowers, looking at photo albums, filling the birdfeeders around the yard, going for ice cream at the ice cream shop, and now, making cookies from scratch.

An idea popped into Alex's head. "You up for adding a sleepover to that list, Mom? Me and Lena, both?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" cried an ecstatic Lena. "I had my first sleepover with Daddy last night and we had so much fun."

His mother was nodding emphatically. "You can have a sleepover here any time you like."

"Tonight?" Lena turned beseeching eyes on Alex. "Please, please?"

Alex shrugged and looked at his mother.

"Tonight would be perfect," she said on a happy sigh, and Alex couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his mother looking so pleased. "Lena, would you like to sleep in your daddy's room with him, on the sofa in the living room, or—" Her voice caught for a moment, but she swallowed and went on. "Or would you like to sleep in your Uncle Jason's room?"

"Can Ralphy sleep with me?"

"Of course."

"Then Uncle Jason's room, please. Ralphy and I can have our own sleepover since I don't have my stuffies." Lena suddenly looked concerned, and Alex squeezed her shoulder.

"I'm going to go pick up Juno in a little bit. I'll swing by the apartment and grab some for you, along with your pajamas. You just tell me what you want."

Lena's eyes lit up. "I will make you a list. I like lists."

While Lena headed inside to help Roxanne get the bedrooms ready for them, Dwight turned to Alex. "Son, I want you to know we're proud of you. Stepping up like this for Lena—it's the right thing."

"I'm terrified I'll mess it up," Alex admitted. "I don't know the first thing about being a father."

"None of us do, at first," Dwight said, his expression serious. "We learn as we go. But you've got good instincts, and you've got us to help."

His parents' show of support meant the world to him, and hopefully, after this evening with Juno, he could count on her support, too. He had no doubt that Ward and Penny and the rest of his circle of friends would rally around him, but out of everyone in Autumn Lake, his parents and Juno were the top three people that he wanted on his team.

Dwight and Alex moved inside out of the heat and watched some television while Roxanne and Lena decided now was the perfect time to try their hands at making a batch of cookies. "We're making sugar cookies with sprinkles Daddy!" Lena declared as Roxanne strapped her into a smock apron and doubled the strings around her tiny waist. "Can you believe it?"

An hour later, as Alex was preparing to leave to pick up Juno, his mother and daughter were sitting together in a hammock outside, one they'd made his father drag out of the garage. They'd had a hammock hanging on the porch his whole childhood, but it had been a long time since he'd seen it set up, and it made him happy to see the two of them out there, reading books together. As he watched, his mother's eyes drifted closed, and he thought she must be exhausted trying to keep up with the ball of energy that was Lena, but then he realized that she was just sighing in utter contentment when she put her arms around the child and squeezed her so hard it made Lena giggle.

They'd all missed out on so much. But no more. Maybe they couldn't go back and undo things or start over, but they could start here and now. Today was the first day of their brand new start.

"Hey Mom," he called out the kitchen window. "I'm picking up Juno now and we'll swing by for overnight stuff." He glanced down at the piece of paper in his hand. In her crooked handwriting, his daughter had listed the names of her stuffed animals, not their descriptions, but he'd video chat from his apartment if he had to, and they'd sort it out.

"Sounds good," Roxanne called back, not even lifting her head to look at him. "Lena and I will have your picnic basket ready and waiting."

"Ready and waiting for you love birds," Lena chirped, then broke into a shriek of giggles at her goofy taunt.

"Bye, you goons," he called out, and turned to go just as two arms shot up out of the hammock and waved him off.

Alex climbed in The Beast and shot a text off to Juno to let her know he was on his way. Then he reached over and switched on the radio, pulling up his favorite rock station. He cranked it up, loud, feeling more excited about his future than he had in a very long time.

23

Juno

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