Free Finding Joy (The Joy Series) (Volume 2) by Jenni Moen Page B

Lizzie,” I began. “The only difference was that I had a dad who was around some of the time. But my mom and your mom could be the same person. I know what its like to take care of someone who should be taking care of you. I’ve been where you’re at, and if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here. Okay?”
    Lizzie looked back at me with tears in her eyes. A faint smile slipped out. “Okay,” she said, nodding.
    “And there are lots of other people who care about you, too. You know that right?”
    She sat still for a moment, and I wondered if she was going to open up. “Hey, I love this song,” she said, instead. She reached over and turned the volume back up on the radio.
    I watched her bounce in the seat, singing along to whatever shit she had found for us on the radio. She was going to be a hard to nut to crack, but I had been, too, when I’d been her age and in her position. It wasn’t easy to open up about the unpleasantness of living with a drunk.
    Since ‘the moment’ was over, I steered back onto the road and didn’t pull over again until we were in front of her school. “I’ll see you at 3:30, okay? I’ll be right here,” I said.
    “Yeah,” she said climbing out. Before closing the door, she leaned back in. “Oh, and Adam … thanks for earlier. I feel better now.”
    Ahh, so she had heard me. “Any time,” I said, but she had already slammed the door. I watched her ponytail bounce up the steps of the school. It was then that I noticed what she was wearing. Allie had bought her all of those new clothes on Sunday, but Lizzie was still wearing her worn-out Columbia Law sweatshirt. I made a mental note to swing by the campus bookstore this morning after my only class of the day. I’d add a little something new to her wardrobe as well.
     
     
    Alexis
     
    The morning had been organized chaos. We had stayed up too late watching the movie, and getting Lizzie up this morning had been a challenge. She’d been grouchy and testy. It had given me an inside look at what having a teenager would be like, and it wasn’t pretty.
    I sifted through some papers on my desk. I’d arranged to take Friday off so that Lizzie and I could go to Boston. But, as a result, I needed to get a lot of things off my desk today and tomorrow.
    Ethan swung into my office and leaned against the door. “Hey, it’s Huuuuuuummmmpppp Dayyyyy,” he said. “Want to meet for happy hour? I’ll call Jillian. You can call Adam and Carly.”
    In the past, our happy hours had consisted of a bunch of lawyers from our office in a stuffy bar like the Library. Now our happy hours were much more casual. I found it funny how Ethan had worked his way into Adam’s group of friends. Ethan was a pretty boy. He couldn’t be any more different from Burke and his bandmates than he was. However, he managed to fit right in. Ethan was like that. He could handle any situation.
    I still didn’t know the extent of what had gone on between Adam and Ethan while I had been on my little hiatus from life. But whatever had happened, they had gone from hating each other to being good friends. It was an unlikely combination, but no more unlikely that Adam and me, I guess.
    “I can’t tonight,” I said. “I have Lizzie, remember?”
    “Oh, that’s right … that sucks.”
    “No, it doesn’t. I like having her. But you guys should go out. Call Adam. I’m sure that he’ll want to do something. I feel kind of bad about tossing him out.”
    “Will do,” Ethan said, pushing himself off the door. “I miss you though, wifey. It’s just not the same anymore. We never go out. You work all the time. You come home late, and we don’t talk. I think our marriage is over.”
    I looked for something to throw at him. It seemed like I was always looking for something to throw at him. I settled on a hot pink tape dispenser shaped like a stiletto heel and chucked it at him.
    He caught it easily. “I’m keeping this and holding it hostage. You can have it