Page 139 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
I was sitting at the table, filling little jack-o-lantern baggies full of homemade Chex mix for Rowen’s first-grade Halloween party tomorrow.
“Hey!” she said.
“Hi!” Standing from the table, I reached out for Coby. She handed him over and I proceeded to tickle and kiss him until he squirmed and protested so much I had to set him down. Maisy and I followed him into the living room as he waddled his way over to the stack of toddler toys in the corner, plopping down on his bum to play.
“Where’s Benny?” Maisy asked me as she sagged into the couch.
“He’s out with Jess and Roe in the garage. He was making a huge Chex mix mess so I took him out there and told Jess he had to watch him for at least an hour. But I’ll run out and grab him so he can play with Coby,” I said, darting outside to get my son.
Benjamin Coppersmith Cleary had been born exactly nine months after Jess and I had gotten married.
I’d stopped my birth control a week before our wedding since Jess and I had decided we didn’t want to wait too long to have a baby. Neither of us wanted Rowen to be too much older than her future siblings. When I quit taking my pills, I figured we had at least six months until it worked its way out of my system. But by my calculation, it had only taken six days.
“Jess?” I called into the garage.
“Up here!” he yelled.
Jess had gotten antsy this summer without any sort of construction project. Our addition had been finished right before Ben was born, and after six months of nothing for him to work on, he’d declared he was building himself an office space above the garage. The staircase against the back wall was done and now he was finishing the room that extended off the end of the building so that the garage was still pretty, per my only design request.
Walking up the stairs, I heard Rowen bossing Ben.
“No, Benny! That’s Daddy’s socket wrench. You can’t have it. Here, you can have this one from your own toolbox,” she said.
“Maisy’s here, honey, so I’m going to take Benny into the house so he can play with Coby.”
“Okay, I want to finish hanging this sheet of drywall, then I’ll come in,” he said.
Bending down to pick up baby Ben, I hefted him up on my hip. He was the perfect mix of me and Jess. He had my hair, which was currently streaked with drywall dust, and my freckles. But he had gotten his dad’s ice-blue eyes and he was going to be big like Jess. Not quite one year old, and he already weighed enough that I couldn’t carry him around for too long.
“Rowen, do you want to come in?” I asked.
“Can I stay with Daddy?” Not only did she have drywall dust in her hair but it was also covering her arms and face.
“Sure, baby girl,” I said and blew her a kiss.
Rowen had become a daddy’s girl. Wherever Jess went, Rowen was not far behind. And shortly after we’d gotten married, he had legally adopted her. For weeks, she had insisted on us calling her by her full name, Rowen Grace Cleary.
Walking back to the house, I took advantage of my minute alone with Ben and relentlessly kissed his chubby cheeks. Once we got inside, he would immediately lose interest in his mother in favor of toys and his little friend.
Maisy and Coby were over for dinner, something we tried to do at least one Sunday every month. It gave the boys, who were only four months apart, a chance to play together and Maisy and me a chance to gossip.
Maisy had had a rough time those first few months after the hospital incident, but her parents had urged her to start seeing a therapist and that seemed to help her deal with not only Everett’s kidnapping, but also the fact that she had killed him.
One night, right before Jess and I were married, she had come to the farmhouse to talk. It was the first time we’d been face-to-face since the night at the hospital.
She had asked me if I thought there was anything else she could have done, some other way to incapacitate Everett, a way to change the outcome. I had answered her honestly. Everett was crazy. He never would have stopped until he had succeeded in killing us. I was sure of it.
Our friendship had grown since that night, and though I had made a lot of new friends in the short time we had been living in Prescott, Maisy was my closest. My best friend and confidant. She was also the maid of honor at my wedding.
Jess and I had gotten married shortly after the incident at the hospital. We had a simple ceremony at church and then catered a dinner for family and friends at the farmhouse.
Felicity had come back to Prescott for the wedding, and with both of her children close, Noelle was the happiest I had ever seen her. Silas had been Jess’s best man, both wearing simple black suits. Rowen and Maisy had stood next to me in lavender chiffon dresses.
My gown had been simple white with a bit of a Grecian flair. I’d worn Jess’s diamonds and my hair had been pulled back in a bunch of intricate knots and twists.
Our wedding was simple, but perfect. Rowen and I walked hand in hand down the aisle to Jess where we said our vows.
My favorite picture of our wedding day was framed and hanging on the wall between the living room and dining room. Rowen was in profile, kissing Jess’s cheek. I was looking up at them and laughing. And Jess, with one arm around my shoulders, was looking at the camera with a huge smile on his face. Whenever I looked at that picture, which was a lot, a warm wave of happy washed through me.
