Finding Joy (The Joy Series) by Moen Jenni

Author:Moen, Jenni [Moen, Jenni]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2013-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

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“Thank you so much for inviting us, Jacqueline.”

“It’s our pleasure,” she said warmly. “We love to entertain. Besides, Tony thinks the world of Adam.”

Jacqueline had turned out to be quite the hostess. I’d come to Queens for dinner any day of the week. She had served up an authentic TexMex dinner complete with brisket nachos and cheese enchiladas. For years, I’d been searching for edible Mexican food in Manhattan, but I’d yet to find it. Oh, there were a few Mexican restaurants. I had tried them all, but nothing had lived up to the food I becameaccustomed to while growing up in Texas. But Jacqueline had nailed it. The smell had assaulted me as soon as I had entered the Torino house, and I’d been foaming at the mouth by the time we sat down to eat.

She was a quintessential homemaker, and her house was just as warm and inviting as the aromas coming from her kitchen. The furnishings were not new, but still had a lot of life left in them. Everything ... including the broken-in recliner that was obviously Tony’s throne ... practically screamed at me to take a seat, get comfortable, and stay for a while. Pictures of family members hung on every available wall, and the kitchen refrigerator was covered with layers and layers of drawings and school papers. Her home was lovingly lived in and a far cry from the museum in which I’d been raised.

Supposedly, tonight was a quiet night since the two oldest kids were out for the night. But even with only the three smaller children buzzing around our feet, it had felt pretty crazy to me.

Being an only child, the activity and noise created by Jacqueline and Tony’s three small beings took me by surprise. Someone always needed something ... a drink, a snack, a diaper change. Their mom met every reasonable demand and easily rebuffed the others.

After dinner, the little kids had disappeared upstairs to watch TV, and Tony and Adam had gone outside to poke around on each other’s cars. No doubt they were comparing horsepower, carburetors, drive shafts, and a whole lot of other things I didn’t understand. Having had our fill of the subject at dinner, Jacqueline and I had opted to stay inside. The baby needed a bottle, and I had the masochistic desire to watch her feed and rock him to sleep. Now she cradled a sleeping Jaden with one arm while topping off my glass of wine with the other. I had a lot of respect for multitaskers.

“I find them downstairs hanging out a lot. I think, since coming to Manhattan, Adam has lacked friends that appreciate listening to him talk about his car for hours on end.”

“It gets real old, doesn’t it?” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah well, I kind of like listening to him talk about it. It’s one of the two things he’s truly passionate about. Cars and movies.”

“From what Tony tells me, he’s pretty passionate about you, too,” she said. “Tony says he’s fiercely protective of you, which I find incredibly endearing.

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