mateo gets a playhouse pt. 2
Three days later, there was a strong knock on Jane’s front door.
As much as she’d wanted to rip the tree fort to shreds, she and Rafael had both been much too tired to do anything of the sort. He’d continued to need to work and been too tired afterwards to help her, and after being gone for so long on her book tour, she was exhausted. And yet still the fort loomed in the back of her mind.
She had, of course, forbidden Mateo going out and playing on it. That said, she didn’t expect him to listen to her, and so made sure to spend most of her time in the living room, where she could make sure that he wasn’t going outside onto the death fort.
Now, however, it was the weekend. The weekend meant that Rafael had tomorrow off. Rafael having tomorrow off meant that he would finally be able to help her tear the fort down. And by now she had rested enough to get back her strength. She was sure she’d be able to rip it apart with her bare hands.
Okay, maybe not with her bare hands. Splinters. She would need gloves.
Petra, of course, had not called her back. And she had not called her. She was still made. Extremely mad.
The knock came again, louder this time, and much more insistent.
“I’m coming!” Jane yelled, and she made it to the door, opening it to see none other than the woman of her nightmares – Rose Solano.
Alver.
Fuck it, she didn’t care if Rose was married to Luisa or not, she was still a Solano and she was going to refer to her that way.
Rafael wouldn’t like that.
Fine, Rose Alver, then.
Her teeth gritted together, and she stared at Rose. “Get off my property.”
Rose shifted a cardboard box against one hip. She still looked just as tired as she had the last time Jane had seen her, although the bags under her eyes were gone. More importantly, she wasn’t in sweatpants anymore. She was still in a ratty old black t-shirt, but she at least had jeans this time. And shoes. Rose pushed a hand across her forehead, brushing a few strands of red hair that had pulled out of the bright blue bandana she was wearing, and sighed. “What, you didn’t like the present I built for you?”
Jane’s eyes narrowed. “Go away, or I’m calling the police.”
“Get a restraining order, see how much Mateo loves you then.”
“Rose.” Luisa popped her head up over the redhead’s shoulder, and she offered Jane one of those grins she had that always looked so awkward and out of place. It’d been the same one she wore when she told Jane she’d accidentally artificially inseminated her. She met Jane’s eyes, and the smile softened into something that seemed more genuine. “Can we talk?”
“That’s what you’re doing now, isn’t it?” Jane glared at her. “What are you doing here?”
Luisa sighed. “Petra called. She said you were upset. I thought I should come over to explain.”
Jane crossed her arms. “And bring her with you?”
Rose rolled her eyes. “I brought more stuff for the kid. I told him I would,” she continued, holding one hand out, “and you can go through it first and make sure it’s not dangerous or whatever it is you want to do with it.” She sighed and forced the cardboard box into Jane’s arms. Its contents gave a quiet little thunk.
Jane didn’t take the box.
“I brought Mia with me,” Luisa said, and as she moved in front of Rose, who was still glaring at Jane for not taking the box, Jane could see the baby in a wrap that held her up against Luisa’s chest. “I thought you would like to see her, at least.”
Jane took a deep breath and nodded. “Fine. You can come in. But she has to stay outside.”
Rose stared at her. “Jane, it’s a hundred degrees outside. I will burn in that car.”
“Then burn.”
Luisa turned just enough to look at Rose and then patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. You can turn the air conditioning on. You’ll be fine.” Their eyes met, and for a moment, it looked like Rose would say something to try and change her mind, but instead, she took a deep breath, nodded once, and then stole the keys out of Luisa’s back pocket and went back to the car.
Jane watched her as she went and didn’t move from the doorway until she saw the door shut behind her. Then she moved. “Alright,” she said. “You can come in.” She didn’t particularly feel better around Luisa, but she didn’t feel afraid of her. And, of course, there was the baby to consider. She did like babies. Besides, for the most part, Luisa was pretty nonthreatening.
…the reclaiming of the Marbella and kicking Rafael out so long ago notwithstanding.
Luisa strode into the living room and then plopped down on the sofa facing the tree fort. Jane didn’t want to sit next to her, which meant that she had to sit on the other sofa, facing Luisa, with her back to the backyard. She didn’t feel particularly comfortable with that, but what could she do? Luisa was her guest. With a baby. She wasn’t going to make her move.
Wait. This was her house. Of course, she was going to make her—
“I’m sorry for barging in like this,” Luisa said before Jane could say anything. “I know how frustrating it is for us to show up without saying anything, but I thought if we called ahead you would just call the police, and then we – I – wouldn’t get to explain anything at all. I thought you deserved an explanation.” She sighed. “I thought I deserved to be able to explain it to you.”
Jane didn’t think that at all. She leaned back on the sofa and crossed her arms again. “Fine,” she said. “Explain it to me.”