And Again

Chapter sixteen

One weekend in January, Allie was sitting in the living room with Grace, watching Jenna play with Clover.

"How were you not insanely stressed before your wedding?" Grace asked. She and Alex had gotten engaged a few months before.

"Nicky" Allie said.

"Eww" Grace said. "I don't need to hear about that, your husband is my brother"

Allie laughed. "That's not what I meant. Although, if I'm gonna be really honest, that helps too"

Grace grimaced.

"Up" Jenna said and put her head in Grace's lap.

"How am I supposed to say no to this face" Grace chuckled and lifted Jenna onto her lap.

"It's impossible" Allie said.

Just then Jenna reached up and grabbed one of graces processors.

"Oh, no. Let's not touch those"  Grace said and as soon as she took the processor out of Jenna's hand, she started crying. "Oh, no. I made her cry"

"It's ok" Allie said. She took Jenna from Grace and she put her head down on her chest. "We're still learning that we can't just grab things, and someone doesn't always like that"

"No" Jenna shook her head. Allie laughed. Jenna wasn't responding to what Allie said, 'no' had just become her favorite word. To say, that is. To hear...not so much. "No no no" Jenna reached for Allie necklace that said 'mama'.

"You just wanna touch everything you shouldn't, don't you?" Allie kissed the top of Jenna's head before putting her down. "I swear she's only interested in things she shouldn't have. My earrings, my wedding ring, necklaces, the wires behind the tv, anything made of glass, literally anything she shouldn't touch"

"Aren't all babies like that?"

"I don't know, she's my first one"

A little while later, Nicky walked into the apartment.

"Dada!" Jenna squealed. She took 4 steps towards Nicky before falling and then crawling the rest of the way to him.

"Hi, Jenny bean!" Nicky said as he picked Jenna up and kissed her cheek. He went to the couch and kissed Allie quickly. "Hi"

"Hi" Allie said.

"Hi Grace" Nicky said as he sat down.

"That" Jenna pointed to Buddy who was sitting near Nicky.

"Yeah, that's Buddy" Nicky said and put Jenna down. "You can go pet him. Grace, how's wedding planning?"

"I hate everything about it" Grace said. "I don't actually, but it's more stressful than I thought it would be. You know, flights, and hotels, and who can sit next to who, it's just stressful"

——

One Friday night in February, Nicky and Allie found themselves driving to Hartford to have dinner with Rory, Logan, and Kate.

"Mama" Jenna said from behind Nicky.

"Please don't start crying" Allie muttered under her breath. It was one thing for Jenna to be upset and crying, and another for her to be upset and crying in the car.

"Mama!" Jenna shouted.

"Hey" Allie reached back so that Jenna could reach her hand. "Jenna, where are we going?" She asked in hopes of distracting Jenna from whatever she was upset about.

"Ama!" Jenna said. She couldn't quite say 'grandma' but she was getting there.

"Who else are we going to see?"