Arms Length

Chapter 40: ACL & goodbye

**Jade**

I shut my laptop and look at the clock on the wall, then set my glasses on the bar rubbing my eyes. I've been working since Billie left my house and honestly, that was hours ago. I sigh and slide off the barstool.

"Honey what are you still doing up?" Aunt Sherri asks walking into the kitchen.

"Just checking some work emails and looking over the list of things for tomorrow." I say rubbing the kink out of the back of my neck.

"What time did Billie leave?"

"A little after 10, I think?"

Aunt Sherri looks at the clock again, then at me. "Sweetie, go to bed, it's nearly 2 in the morning. What time do you need to be at the park?"

"Uh, I'm meeting Hannah at Moody at 8:30." I say yawning and pulling my hair into a ponytail.

"Go to bed."

"I'm going." I say walking upstairs.

7 am is too early for someone who only got about 4 hours of decent sleep. I push the covers off and sit up slowly and hit the "Off" button as my alarm goes off for the second time. I push myself out of bed as I hear Chase start to whine on the video monitor and make my way into his room.

"Good morning baby shark." I say walking into his room. He's already standing in his crib with a side smile on his face as he extends his arms for me to pick him up out of the crib, our usual morning routine. "Oh okay." I say picking him up so I can change his diaper.

"Morning sweetie." Aunt Sherri says as she sets out two coffee cups on the counter. "Did you sleep ok?"

"I slept okay, I guess?" I say smoothing Chase's bedhead down, kissing his cheek as I set him in his highchair so I can get his baby cereal and bananas. "I wish I could take him with me today." I'm starting to think I'm having separation anxiety from Chase and he's not even my actual child.

"Maybe we'll go to the zoo, huh?" Aunt Sherri says as she pours herself a cup of coffee.

"He'd like that." I say putting his bowl of cereal and bananas in front of him. "Just avoid the reptile house, lizards or anything that looks like a dinosaur scares him."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but he likes fish and sharks."

"I recall you dragging me to see the sharks at the aquarium when you around 2 or 3 years old." Aunt Sherri says with a wink.

"I still haven fulfilled my dream of swimming with sharks." I say picking up his stuffed shark and set it on the bar next to his highchair. "Maybe one day."

"Go get ready, honey I'll watch him."

"Thank you, Aunt Sherri."

"For what baby?"

"For everything, for you know being here for me and helping me move and helping with Chase."

"You're family, sweetie, it's what this family does." She says pulling me into a hug, rubbing my back.

**Billie**

"Have you talked to Jade since Thursday night?" Claudia asks me as she takes a sip of the shitty hotel coffee making a face.

"No, but he's been busy with ACL and the adoption with Chase went through." I say shrugging, as I pick through the bowl of fruit.

"Maybe after your performance you'll be able to talk to her." Fin says rubbing Claudia's shoulder.