Breathing

Chapter 4:

Jessa decided she was only going to sleep in Momma's bed tonight as I was trying to convince her she needed to sleep in her own room.

I gave up after a half an hour argument with her. I woke up a thousand times and moved her to get more space. For such a small little thing, she sure took up a lot of it. She punched and kicked me; one time, I even woke up with her feet across my face. She really needed to start sleeping in her own bed so I wouldn't feel like a zombie all the time.

Sore and bruised, I woke up the next day with little blue eyes staring at me as she sat on top of me, bouncing. I groaned as my body ached under the movement.

"Hi, Momma." The little voice said.

"Hi, baby." I reached my arm around her and pulled her to me to kiss her head. She giggled at me when I ran my fingers up and down her arm causing goosebumps to rise.

"No tickle Momma." She said, laughing. Her face turned serious and her demon voice came out when I kept going. "I said no tickle."

I busted out into laughter at the sudden change in her facial expression. She was trying to look so serious. When she did, she looked more like me.

"Do you want some cereal?" I asked her, moving to sit up and stretch. Since I had her, my body was feeling a lot older and it took me a minute to get up. It probably had a lot to do with lack of sleep and the fact I was a punching bag for her while she tossed and turned.

"Marsmellos." She said with a huge smile.

"You know you are supposed to eat the cereal too?" I winked at her and pulled her up off the bed to carry her to the kitchen.

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful. My Mom would be getting home from work soon and would watch Jessa so I could go work my shift at the bar. My Mom wasn't the biggest fan of me working there, but I was pretty good at it and Jules paid me a ridiculous amount of money to manage it.

Jules had bought the bar about a year ago after he and Rachel got married. He asked me to take over as manager so he could focus on growing the business. He recently opened a new location about fifteen miles away and spent most of his time there. Unlike the bar I worked at, the new one had a stage and boasted live local music every weekend.

I pulled my hair in a high messy bun and applied makeup to my face. Jessa sat on my bed, watching me the whole time. She was a little observer, which reminded me of how Ezra used to watch me when he thought I wasn't looking.

"Pretty Momma." Jessa complimented me when I turned around to look at her. She reached her little hand out for the light pink lip gloss. I walked over to her and lightly dabbed some gloss on her lips. She loved it when I let her use my makeup. She jumped off the bed and ran to the mirror to admire her reflection.

"Jessa is very pretty too." I said, smoothing her hair and pulling it into a messy bun that resembled mine. She drove me crazy when she pushed her hair out of her face. It was just another little movement that made my heart flutter because she looked so much like him.

The front door opened and I checked the clock. Mom was running late from work, which meant I would probably be late getting to work. Gone were the days when I got to places when I planned on it.

I grabbed Jessa's hand and walked downstairs for the handoff to my Mom.

Mom grabbed for Jessa immediately and barely acknowledged my existence. Jessa was everything to her.

"I'm going to be late." I grumbled, grabbing my purse and keys.

"I'm sorry, peanut, you know how my boss is."