TWO YEARS LATER
"Do you have your lunch box?"
"Yes!" Jamie squeals.
"Homework?"
"Yes!"
I turn to Jade and Jessie who are too busy playing on their new phones to pack their bags. "You two," I say. "Are your bags packed?"
"Yes." They reply at the same time, still not looking up.
I suddenly look at Jessie and my eyes squint for a moment. It only just dawns on me that she's wearing a skirt and a low top. "Get dressed," I say to her. "Now."
"But Dad-"
"You're twelve!" I shout. "There's no way on this Earth you're dressing like that."
"Aunt Davina bought it me," she sulks. "All the girls are wearing them."
"I'm not," Jade says quietly.
"That's because you're a nerd."
"Jessie!"
"She is." Jessie says with a shrug.
I suddenly see something on her face and I step closer, observing her closely. "Are you...?" I pick her face up with my hand. "Are you wearing make-up?"
"All the girls are-"
"I don't care what all the other girls are wearing. Wash that off. Now."
She stamps her foot in anger and charges for the staircase.
"Told you." Jade shouts up to her.
Ebony passes Jessie on the staircase and comes rushing down while fixing a loose hoop earring into her lobe. "Right, who am I taking?"
"Take Jamie. I'll take the girls when madam up there has done pretending to be thirty."
She nods, slipping on her boots from the bottom of the staircase. "Come on, Jamie." She wanders over to me for a moment and brings her lips to mine. "See you later."
I kiss her back. "I'll call you when I get to Jaguar."
"Looking forward to it."
She gives me a small wink and then stirs Jamie by his shoulders towards the door. I swing my hand on the staircase railing, staring up at the empty hallway.
"Jessie!" I shout.
"Give me a minute!" she screams back.
"Uh, Jase."
I turn around as Ebony calls me from the door, she holds it wide open and I squint my eyes as a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and a tan face stands in the threshold wearing a flowery red and white dress with bright red sandals. She smiles up at me and her blue eyes twinkle.
No, it can't be.
"Isla?" I gasp.
"Hi, Jason," she says. "Who is this?" she points to Ebony with a scowl.
YOU ARE READING
Convincing You I'm Me
RomanceLily and Jason were destined to meet, to fight for what they want, to balance each other's opposite personalities and to rise against all odds to fall in love. It should have been perfect. They were a family, a team, a once-in-a-lifetime partnership...
