“I don’t know,” Janelle said, taking a deep breath and shaking her head. She looked at her sister and sighed. “I kissed him.” Nya smiled without responding. “Nya, you don’t understand. I mean I really kissed him,” Janelle reiterated.
“Yes, I do understand. You’re my sister. Yeah, maybe not by blood, but with us, that doesn’t really matter. I know you, and deep down in your heart you still have feelings for Tyson, and I know that he has some pretty strong feelings for you, too.” Janelle shook her head as Nya nodded. “You’re gonna have to relent, Janelle. You two had the romance of the century, and fine, things fell apart at the end, but you and I both know that wasn’t the end—not really. My advice—grab all the love and happiness you can and, in this case, it’s with Tyson.”
“Since when did you become a romance guru?”
“Apparently since now,” Nya said, smiling.
“It’s not that easy, Nya. I wish it was. He’s leaving again.”
Nya reached across the table to hold her sister’s hand. She squeezed gently. “Actually, sis, it is that easy. Love is the easiest thing in the world. Just follow your heart.”
“Okay, now you’re starting to scare me.”
“If I learned nothing else from watching Mia and Stephen come together, it’s that love will always find a way. So, tell me, how did he look?” Nya asked.
“He was still as handsome as ever. The instant he looked up at me, I swear my heart skipped a beat. It was as if time had stood still and the past two and a half years of my life had evaporated. I told myself that I was over him. I was wrong.”
Nya giggled and smiled. “I love the sound of romance in the afternoon.”
The two went on talking about men, jobs, family, vacations, the holidays and then back to men. Two hours later they were still laughing and talking.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here. I can’t stand looking at that old college sweatshirt any longer. You and I have some serious shopping to do.”
Janelle stood, following her sister. They thanked Brad and his kitchen crew, left a very generous tip and then continued outside. Nya put on her dark sunglasses. “I think we need Bergdorf.”
“Newsflash—there’s no Bergdorf Goodman near here,” she said.
“Sure there is. There’s one on Fifth Avenue.”
Janelle chuckled. “Fifth Avenue, as in New York City? No way. We’re not going all the way to New York to shop for clothes,” she insisted as her cell phone rang.
“Sure we are. I have my dad’s private plane sitting on the runway right now. We can fly there, shop and get you back here by midnight, one at the latest. Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Can’t, sorry. I’m meeting with a friend at Johns Hopkins in a few minutes. Hold on,” Janelle said, answering her cell. “Hello?”
“Hello, Janelle, this is Mrs. Ivers. I need your help.”
“Sure, Mrs. Ivers. What’s wrong?”
“My son was in a car accident. I need to go to him. Tyson is in D.C. and I can’t take Aneka with me. Would you come by and stay with her for a few hours? You’re the only other person she knows and I know Tyson won’t mind.”
“Um, sure,” she said tentatively, “okay. I’ll be right there.” She ended the call and looked at Nya. “I gotta go.”
“What’s wrong? Is it Ben?”
“No, that was my neighbor. She stays with Tyson’s daughter. She needs someone to stay with Aneka. Looks like a rain check on shopping and my meeting,” Janelle said, holding her arms out to her sister. They hugged one another tightly. When they finally let go, they smiled at each other. “You take care and have a safe trip back to New York. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Okay, but I’m still going shopping for you,” Nya said.
Janelle hugged Nya again then waved and headed to her car. She called her friend Meg and postponed their meeting until the next day, then drove off. When she got to her house, Mrs. Ivers was standing out front with Aneka. “Hi,” Janelle said. “Any word about your son?”
Mrs. Ivers shook her head. “He’s still in the emergency room being examined.”
“Is there anything I can do? Anyone I can call?”
“No, but thank you. I’m going to get over there and see what’s going on. Aneka, you remember Ms. Truman from last night?” The little girl nodded and looked at Janelle suspiciously. “Good. Now, I have to leave, but Ms. Truman is going to stay here with you until your father gets home, all right?” Aneka stared at Janelle then nodded slowly. “Ms. Truman is going to give you your snack and then you can take your nap and be a very good little girl the rest of the day, okay.”
Janelle smiled. “Go. Take care of your son. Don’t worry about us. We’ll be just fine. Any food allergies?”
“No allergies, but she is asthmatic. Her inhaler’s in the kitchen, but she hasn’t had an attack in some time. Thank you so much for coming. I knew you were the perfect person to call,” Mrs. Ivers said, then hurried to her car.
Janelle and Aneka waved and watched as she drove off. When the car turned the corner, Janelle looked down at the little girl, who was still looking up at her, frowning. “Well, I guess it’s just the two of us for the rest of the afternoon. What would you like to do?”
Aneka shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her shoes without answering.
“Okay, well, I guess we can color or paint or maybe I can read you a story or we can watch one of your animated movies.”
Aneka shrugged again, still avoiding Janelle’s gaze.
“Why don’t we get inside out of the cold first?” Janelle said as she held her hand down for Aneka to take. The girl did so, reluctantly. They went back into the house. Janelle looked around. The place was as neat as a pin. She headed to the kitchen and found a cut-up apple on the counter. Aneka followed silently and stopped in the doorway. “Okay, I guess this is your snack.” Aneka nodded, then turned away.
Janelle smiled. “Okay, I have an idea. While you eat your snack, I’ll look around to see if I can find the ingredients to make my special Christmas cookies.”
Aneka’s eyes instantly brightened. “Cookies?”
Janelle nodded. “Yes, a special Christmas cookie. One I learned to make from a friend of mine who lives very far away in a place called Africa. But you’ll have to eat your snack first and hopefully I can find the ingredients.”
Aneka quickly sat at the kitchen table, grabbed the sliced apple and began eating. Janelle started looking in the cabinets. “What is ingredients?” Aneka asked, repeating the word slowly.
“What are ingredients,” Janelle corrected. “Ingredients are different things that all go together to make up a finished product,” Janelle said, continuing her search. “And ingredients—” she paused and sighed heavily “—are what we don’t have.” She turned around to Aneka sitting quietly eating her apple. She hated to disappoint Aneka after promising her special cookies, but she didn’t have a choice—or maybe she did. She turned to Aneka and smiled. “How about we go on a field trip first?”
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