Page 28 of Steadfast
I wanted to ask more. I was dying to know how Jude had gotten that job in the first place. But now the car was bumping along a dirt road, and we were turning onto a long driveway. Ahead of us I could see a big old farmhouse with lights burning in every window.
Jude pulled up behind a beat-up old truck and killed his engine. Then he reached into the back seat for the pumpkin cake (flashing his abs again!) and got out of the car.
I climbed out too, feeling a bit like Alice when she’s gone down the rabbit hole. The Jude I knew didn’t bring cake to somebody’s family supper. He didn’t do farm work, either. Wordlessly, I followed him up a couple of steps and into the Shipleys’ kitchen door. There were an improbable number of people in the steamy kitchen, and several of them greeted him the moment he entered.
“Jude’s here!” one of the Shipley sisters called. It was the teenaged one—Daphne. “Oh, hey. Sophie, right?” There was curiosity in her eyes.
“Right,” I said, feeling like an intruder.
“Hey, what’s in the box?” her brother Dylan asked. He darted across the room and took the cake from Jude’s hands. “Sure smells good!”
“It’s…” he got out. But then something small crashed into his knees, and he looked down.
“Ow!” came from the floor.
Jude bent over and picked up what turned out to be a toddler. “Easy, Maeve,” he said, holding the little person up to his face. “You okay? Do you remember me?”
“Yood,” the little girl said affirmatively.
“Close enough,” he smiled then, and I could only stare. I hadn’t seen a full-wattage Jude smile in what felt like forever. And I’d never seen him hold a child. She looked small against his broad chest. The sight of her there made my own chest shimmy.
There had been a time when I thought that someday I’d have Jude’s babies. I’d never described this fantasy to him, because we were so young it was laughable. And even in my wildest daydream, I wasn’t bearing this hypothetical child until my career on Broadway was well established.
But I’d wanted to. I’d wanted to be the girl who tamed the wild boy. I pictured his tattooed arm rubbing my pregnant belly, and then holding my child against his bare chest.
My adolescent heart had some pretty crazy flights of fancy.
“Where’s your mama?” he asked the tiny human politely. She pointed one stubby finger in the direction of what could only be the dining room.
Jude beckoned to me and I followed him. We almost made it across the busy kitchen when Mrs. Shipley caught up to us.
“Jude!” She ducked in to kiss him on the cheek. “Happy Thanksgiving. And Sophie Haines! It’s good to see both of you.” She patted me on the arm.
“Ruth,” Jude said. “Sophie was at loose ends tonight, so…”
Ruth held up a hand. “Don’t you start apologizing, sir. We’ve had this conversation before.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She gave my elbow a friendly squeeze. “Lovely to see you, honey. We have the year’s new cider in the dining room. Griffin will pour you a glass, and dinner’s almost ready.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked. I felt pretty sheepish, walking into their kitchen on Thanksgiving.
“We’ve got it down to a science,” she said, waving a hand at her daughters. “Have a drink, or if that’s not your style, there are sodas on the porch keeping cold.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“It’s honestly better if we get out of the way,” Jude said, reaching back to catch my hand in his. The sensation of his fingers closing over mine made me feel even more muddled than I already was.
Jude led me through a doorway and into a spacious dining room. Even before I stepped over the threshold I was surprised by the number of voices rising up in conversation. This was quite the party, and that was a good thing—it made me less of an interloper.
The moment Jude went through the door, more voices called his name. I followed just in time to see May Shipley hug-tackle him. “You’re even on time…” Her gaze slid to me. And then her eyes widened.
The room grew quieter, and I felt eyes on me. Jude put an arm around my shoulder. “I think you know Sophie from church?”
May blinked, and then seemed to recover from her surprise. “Of course. Good to see you, Sophie. It’s been a while since we had to wear those angel wings and a halo in the Christmas pageant.”
“I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t let me near the angel’s wings anymore,” I said. “And forget the halo.”
