Free Turn My World Upside Down: Jo's Story by Maureen Child Page B

won’t be,” Jo said, and wasn’t really sure if she was promising Stevie . . . or herself.
    The Marconi kitchen was bright and warm and smelled as if Italian angels had been at work. Papa’s big golden retriever, Bear, snored under the table, his wide head resting on the toe of Jack’s shoe in a comforting weight.
    Jack swung his hair out of his eyes, then reached for a cold glass of milk sitting in front of him on the kitchen table. While he took a long drink, he let his gaze slide to the old lady walking around the room. She stopped at the stove and stirred a big pot of something that sent steam and really good smells into the air.
    His
grandmother
.
    He’d never had a grandma before. Or a grandpa, either.
    So far, he kind of liked it.
    After school, he’d gone to his sister Sam’s house like always. But then instead of staying to play video games with his niece Emma—which he still thought was pretty weird, that he could be an uncle and only be ten years old—Emma’s dad had brought them both here.
    To meet Nana Coletti.
    He’d been a little worried about it. But since his mom died, he’d been a little worried about everything. Chandler was nice and everything, but it was all so new and stuff, and he still missed his best friend, Dennis Ferris, a lot.
    Jack broke his cookie in half and watched the melted chocolate stretch out.
    Everything was different now and he didn’t want it to be different anymore. Oh, he had sisters now, and mostly, Jo was okay, and there was Emma to play with, and sometimes Jonas Candellano came over, but most of the time he just wished he could go back to the way it used to be.
    Just his mom and him, living in their house in San Francisco. He used to like it when his dad came to visit. But living here was hard. He still didn’t feel like this was his place. Like he belonged here.
    His heart ached at the thought and he frowned as he bit into another warm cookie. The chocolate chips got all gooey, which was really cool, and he licked the strings of chocolate off his fingers and Nana didn’t even yell at him, so that was okay, too.
    She was nice.
    She was also
really
old.
    And, she kept looking at him a little funny. Like she was trying to see inside him, and Jack wondered if old people could really do that. Maybe when you got old, you got superpowers—and wouldn’t that be cool?
    “My mommy’s having a brother for me, he’s in her tummy and she says he’ll be really, really nice and love me a lot.” Emma Hendricks took a bite of her hot chocolate chip cookie, and while she chewed she kept talking, as her sneaker-clad feet beat against the rungs of her chair. “And I told Mommy that I wanted a sister but she says I’ll like a brother too and I like Jack”—she shrugged—“so maybe I will.”
    Jack sighed with the patience of a ten-year-old for a
much
younger nine-year-old. Emma was okay mostly,but she was always talking about the baby. He didn’t care about babies. He wanted to talk about baseball or about how Cash had taught him how to throw. And how maybe now the kids at school would let him play on the team and then maybe things wouldn’t be so hard here anymore.
    “Jack,” Nana said, stroking one hand along the back of his head. “You want some more cookies?”
    He liked the feel of Nana petting him. It was nice. As nice as warm cookies.
    “I can have more?” he asked, lifting his gaze to hers.
    She smiled, and her eyes smiled too as she clucked her tongue and pushed his hair out of his eyes. “Growing boys need cookies. Issa good for you.” She shook her head. “Also haircuts issa good.”
    “Aunt Mike says haircuts can make you stupid.” Emma nodded solemnly.
    Jack snorted a laugh. “That’s dumb.”
    “Yeah, I think she was kidding.” Emma shrugged and grabbed another cookie. “Are you gonna stay here for a long time, Nana?”
    Jack stiffened and under the table Bear snorted. He wasn’t sure what kind of answer he wanted Nana to give. Before, it