It was also overwhelming, but I didn’t want to be on the phone all day, and certainly not while at lunch with Alyssa (this was rude) so I’d begun not to take some calls and called them back later.

“Cool your peeps are rallying around you, babe,” Alyssa said as we slid out of the booth.

“It is indeed cool,” I agreed.

She grinned at me as she got close and slid an arm around my waist.

I reciprocated the gesture and we walked through the diner in this fashion, Alyssa stating, “I’m gonna hang at The Circus with you tomorrow night. Check out the dancers, get me some new moves to rock Junior’s world.”

We separated to walk out the door as I looked at her with delight.

“I would love that,” I shared.

“Then you’re on. Meet you there at ten,” she replied as we stopped outside in the chill air.

“Excellent. Ten,” I agreed.

“Now, you need help goin’ through your boxes, you call me. I’d kill to dig through your wardrobe and if you let me try a few pieces on, I’ll put you in my will.”

The boxes from Henry’s pool house had arrived and this was how I told Alyssa I was going to spend my afternoon, sorting through them, officially moving into Lavender House.

Bittersweet.

But it would be less so with Alyssa helping me do it. Therefore, I decided to delay my afternoon’s activities until a time she could help me.

“I’ll take you up on that,” I said. “We’ll plan tomorrow night.”

“Right on,” she agreed.

We did double cheek kisses and she took off with a low wave saying, “Later, babelicious.”

“Later, honey,” I called to her as I turned in the other direction to head down the sidewalk toward my Cayenne.

I was nearly there when my phone in my purse rang and as it was so soon after the last call, I wondered if it was the same caller and they actually needed to speak to me.

So I pulled it out but stopped dead on the sidewalk when I saw the caller’s name on the display.

Quickly, I took the call and put the phone to my ear.

“Arnie, how are you?” I greeted cautiously.

There was a long pause before he replied in a voice that broke my heart, “Been better, Josephine.”

I stepped to the side, tilted my head down to stare at my high-heeled boots and gave him my full attention.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked.

“No, my dear. I’m just phoning to let you know we’re putting Eliza in hospice today.”

Hospice.

Damn.

My heart clenched and I whispered, “So soon?”

His broken heart was in his voice when he replied, “Yes, Josephine.”

I felt my hand shaking so I tightened it around the phone when I queried, “May I come and see her?”

“Of course,” he answered. “She’ll want to see you.”

“I…where will she be?”

He gave me the name of the hospice as I took deep breaths to control the tears stinging my eyes.

“I’ll come tomorrow,” I told him.

“Do it today, Josephine,” he said quietly and my eyes immediately got wet.

“Okay.” I paused. “I’ll, well…I’ll let you go.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“You will, Arnie,” I assured. “Thank you for taking the time to phone. Until then.”

“Good-bye, my dear,” he said and rang off.

When he did, I stood on the sidewalk and stared at my boots, tears gliding down my face.

Jake was right. He was very right.

I shouldn’t have taken that on.

I couldn’t handle it.

On this thought, I heard my name called.

“Josephine?”

I looked up and saw Mickey standing before me. His face was watery but I noted vaguely that he was smiling. However, the instant he caught my tear-stained cheeks, his expression shifted to concern.

“Jesus,” he murmured, “Honey, what’s happening?”

“Eliza Weaver is going into hospice today.”

He said nothing but then again, I didn’t give him a chance. I tilted my head down and covered my face with my hands even with my phone still in one of them.

Then I was in Mickey’s arms. Feeling their strength close around me, his warmth enveloping me, his kindness melting into my skin, my body bucked and I made one of those awful hiccupping noises through my tears.

One of his arms left me and moments later, as he turned us and started us walking, still holding me close, I heard him say, “Jake, buddy, you gotta get to the station. I got Josephine with me and she’s not good. Says some friend of hers is going to hospice today. Think she just found out on the street but I know she lost it.”

I lifted wet eyes to him even as he kept moving us toward the station and said, “I-I’ll be all right.”

Mickey looked down at me but otherwise ignored me and said into the phone at his ear, “Right. Good. See you then. We’ll be in the break room. Later.”

“Jake’s busy,” I told him as he shoved the phone in his back pocket.

“Thinkin’ Jake’s never too busy for you,” he replied.

I was thinking this was very true and more, even in my distress, I was very much liking that thought.

Mickey got me to the fire station, upstairs and on a beaten up leather couch in a room that had a full kitchen, a big table and was surprisingly clean as a pin.

I’d managed to get control of my tears and he’d pulled a chair in front of me and was leaned in with his elbows to his knees, his hands holding mine, listening to me telling him who Eliza and Arnie were (he knew of them, but not them) when Jake got there.

I looked up and watched him walk to me.

So tall. His shoulders so very broad. His bearing so strong.

His eyes locked to me.

Mickey let my hands go and leaned back as I stood, my eyes glued to Jake.

Then I was in his arms and I burst back into tears.

“You…you were…were right,” I stammered into his chest, folding my arms around him and holding on tight.

“Shh, baby, no I wasn’t.”

“It-it’s…all too much.”

“You can handle it,” he declared

The instant he said them, his words drove through me in a profound way. Also in that instant, I knew he was right and he was wrong.

When I got the call from the nursing company to tell me that Gran had died, I was on the beach in Malibu. Henry was shooting a model wearing a ten thousand dollar couture gown that was wet at the hem from standing near the surf.

He would have wanted me to interrupt him when I got the news. In fact, when I told him later, he was cross with me that I didn’t interrupt him but he tried to hide it due to the circumstances.

Now I knew just how much he would have wanted that.

But I didn’t interrupt him.

I moved quietly to the tent set up for hair and makeup, which was thankfully empty, and I spent my emotion alone.

And I’d felt that.

Precisely that.

Alone.

Acutely alone.

With Gran gone, I felt utterly alone.

And lost.

And further, I felt afraid, thinking I’d never really have Henry and with Gran gone, I’d never really have anything again.

Eliza Weaver was not Gran but she was a sweet woman who would make the world poorer for her loss.

I knew it was not just Eliza I was grieving but also the loss that was still fresh that was Gran and the even fresher, albeit different loss of Henry.

But in losing all that, I was no longer alone.

Mickey had found me on the street and he’d taken care of me.

And Jake was right there, tall, broad, strong, holding me close, his big body absorbing my tremors, the physical ones as well as the emotional.

Something I’d never had from anyone, not even really Henry.

No one but Gran.

And now Jake.

So he was wrong, I couldn’t handle it. On my own, I could not do that.

But I was not on my own.

I had him.

So he was also right.

I could handle it.

And I loved that.

But mostly, I knew in that distressing instant that normally would have been a sorrowful memory, that I loved him.

So I would remember standing in Jake Spear’s arms in a fire station, crying for a dying friend, for the loss of my Gran, for the end of what was with Henry.

I’d remember it for the rest the rest of my life.

And I’d treasure it.

* * * * *

“Hey!” I heard called.

I stopped pushing my cart through Wayfarer’s with some urgency and turned to look down the aisle.

What I saw made my back go straight.

It was Sunday morning and I was heading to Jake’s for food, football and family time. The Taylors were coming over. Conner didn’t have to work. And I’d talked Jake into letting me cook.

I was in a hurry because I couldn’t wait to get there.

But I had to pick up food first.

On Friday, Jake had taken me to see Eliza.

Since then, I had not bothered Arnie, but instead phoned Reverend Fletcher on Saturday to discover if the dire event had come to pass.

“Not yet, Josephine, but I would expect sad news very soon,” he’d informed me gently.

I left it at that but asked Reverend Fletcher to let me know if he heard any news.

Thus far, nothing.

Taking my mind off this, Alyssa (who I had called to give her this news after Jake dropped Ethan and me off at Lavender House for we had to go straight to the school from the hospice to pick him up) and I had a marvelous time at Jake’s club the night before.

She talked Sofie into watching her kids and Junior came with her.

With Jake (mostly, sometimes he had business to see to), we all sat at the bar, drank and talked.