Where the Heart is (Interracial with Baby) (BWWM) Read Free

it always hit her how the woman who had raised her and made her who she was today was wasting away right in front of her.
    "Cancer's no joke," the doctor had said when the official diagnosis had been made, and Jamie couldn't agree more.
    But she shook herself and helped her mother pull the blankets back and get to her feet. "What do you want for breakfast, Mama?" she asked, handing her the bathrobe that hung from the bedpost.
    "It's cold this morning. What about grits?"
    Jamie grinned. "With cheese?"
    "You shouldn't even have to ask, girl."
    Her mother's good spirits always managed to make Jamie smile, and she led her mother into the kitchen, getting her situated with a glass of orange juice while she made coffee and got breakfast going.
    As much as it hurt to see her mother needing so much help when she'd once been fiercely independent and proud of it, Jamie couldn't deny that she enjoyed the time they spent together now. The mornings were quiet, and they talked about the nurses and Jamie's job and story ideas.
    They'd spent plenty of time together before, but there had always been things getting in the way, and now they had a time when it was just the two of them.
    Jamie scrambled eggs to go with the grits and pulled out the pills for that day, listening to her mother talk about Christmas dinner and what they should have. They would be limited to whatever Jamie could whip up with her meager cooking skills, although the idea of having a nice meal catered bounced around in her head.
    She had some money put away, and her mother deserved something nice after all she had been through. It was certainly something to think about.
    The two of them sat down to a nice breakfast together, and Adelaide took her pills under the watchful eye of her daughter.
    Jamie hung around long enough to watch her mother's energy drop even after only being awake for a couple of hours and for the afternoon nurse to show up and then headed back to her place to shower and change for work, worry eating at her.
     
    It was bitterly cold outside, and Jamie was grateful for the warmth as she let the door of the diner bang shut behind her. The small space was already packed with people, customers filling almost every table and all the chairs at the counter. It was clearly going to be a busy night, and Jamie was grateful for it, welcoming the distraction of a hectic work shift to keep her mind off of more depressing things.
    "Where've you been, Jamie girl?" called Sal, the 'head chef' as he liked to call himself, as she made her way through the kitchen.
    "Don't even try that, Sal," Jamie called back as she headed to the little office area in the back so she could shed her coat and gloves, put her purse in her locker, and pull on an apron. "I'm not scheduled to start until four, and if you look at the time, it is just barely fifteen til."
    Sal's booming laugh echoed through the kitchen, and Jamie stepped back in just in time to see the new girl almost drop her tray. She shot a dirty look at Sal's back and then headed out to the seating area, balancing a tray filled with cups of soda.
    "You're gonna make Megan quit if you keep that up," Jamie said, leaning against one of the counters and popping a pickle into her mouth.
    "Eh, wouldn't be the worst thing. She takes orders in the worst way."
    Jamie grinned and shook her head. John Salinger, or Sal as he preferred to be called, had known her practically since she was a child. Her mother had brought her here after school when she'd done well on a test or made the honor roll, and Sal would make her a burger as big as her head just about and congratulate her. He'd been calling her 'Jamie girl' since he'd met her, and she smiled with affection every time. The man was well over six feet tall and had more muscle on his wide frame than anyone Jamie had ever seen before. There was a rumor that he used to be a body builder back in his younger years, but no one had been able to find proof of that.
    "How's your mom?" Sal