Mena Jane. They were her godparents; they had this.
Grinning, he looked over at her. “Hey, we should mess with her.”
She looked up. “Why do I feel like that’s a bad idea?”
He scoffed. “What’s the worst she could do?”
“Kill us if we hurt Mena Jane,” she reminded him and he laughed.
“I don’t want to hurt her, weirdo,” he said, getting up and holding Mena close. “I’m saying we should send her pictures of Mena doing things she shouldn’t be doing.”
“See that’s tiptoeing on the line between getting killed and making her laugh. She’s not in her right mind right now. I’m pretty sure Karson went just to make sure she didn’t kill that chick.”
Jordie shrugged. “Right, so we should send her some comic relief.”
Kacey eyed him and then slowly shrugged. “Okay, I’m intrigued.”
“Good, come on.”
And for the next hour, between laughing so hard and then laughing some more, they set Mena up in different scenarios. Mena was eating it up, having a blast, all smiles as they went all over the house doing things that Lacey wouldn’t even think to do. At one point they were in the car, Mena holding on to the steering wheel with a huge toothless grin on her face, while Jordie and Kacey acted as if they were screaming out in horror of her crashing the car. The caption read, “Who let the baby drive?” Then they had her with bras on her head, lace in her mouth, and the caption on the picture was, “Following in her mom’s footsteps.” After stuffing her in a helmet, they sent a picture to Karson that said, “Or maybe daddy’s footsteps?” When they handed her Kacey’s gold medal, she looked at it like it was the Holy Grail—which to Kacey it was—and Jordie quickly snapped the picture since Kacey had started twitching from the medal being out of the box. Sending it to Lacey, he said, “Or maybe her auntie’s?”
It went on like this for quite a while…that was, until Lacey called just as he was stuffing Mena in the fridge.
“Okay, it was all cute until you stuffed her in a pot and said, ‘Baby. It’s what’s for dinner,’” she complained and Jordie laughed as Kacey snickered, holding Mena close, kissing her head.
“It’s supposed to make you laugh,” he said. “No baby was hurt in the process of making Mommy laugh.”
She did laugh then and Jordie’s grin grew. “There’s what we wanted. You okay?”
She let out a long breath. “No, I fired her and we aren’t speaking. My dad came up to the shop, but I called the cops on him. I’m now in the process of hiring a new manager. So we probably won’t be home till Monday since Karson won’t leave me,” she said, saying the last bit louder for him.
“I don’t trust these people. I’d say close the shop, but I know you won’t,” Karson yelled and Jordie grimaced. They both sounded stressed. “Not that I think you should.”
“Yeah, I’m not, and it will be fine, no worries,” she said, but she sounded very worried. “Please don’t stuff my baby anywhere else.”
“Will do, boss lady. She’s actually about to get a bottle and go to bed.”
“Oh good,” she said, sounding relieved.
“Hey, you’re taking your meds, right?”
“Yeah, I am,” she said, and he could tell she was telling the truth.
“You sound frazzled,” he commented and she scoffed.
“I am, but no worries. Promise. Let me let you go though. I need to get some paperwork done. Give Mena kisses for me, and don’t roll your eyes and make fun of me when I text every thirty minutes.”
Jordie smiled as Kacey laughed. “We will try not to.”
They said bye and Jordie laid his phone down, grinning at Mena. “Well, my little rock star model, we are done for today.”
“Yup, bedtime,” Kacey sang, bouncing her around, which had Mena giggling before they headed out of the kitchen. “Bring the bottle, I’m gonna go change her.”
“Be there in a second,” he called to her before turning to make the bottle. As he filled the bottle with water, he couldn’t help but think how easy this was for them. They were going to be good parents. They fed off each other while laughing and having a good time. He still thought of the child they had lost though. Would it have been a boy, born with pads and a stick? Or a little girl, also born with pads and a stick? He didn’t know, but he wanted to have another chance. Soon.