A/N: Hello again. Fancy meeting you here. How might you be this fine day? Forgive my eloquence. I'm watching a show that's set in the 40s. Oh, the class! Anyway, welcome back for chapter 2. Onward!
Disclaimer: Would it be weird if I got a kilt, even though I'm a girl?
At the end of the day, Ezra followed Priestly out of the grill and the two walked together toward Priestly's home. "It's really great to have you here, Zig," said Priestly, clapping a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "It's been too long."
"I know," agreed Ezra. "Sometimes, letters just don't cut it." He sighed heavily, his thoughts weighing on him.
"So why did you really come back?" Priestly asked seriously. "Not that I'm not happy you're here; I'm ecstatic, man. But in all the years you've been doing mission work, you've never left early." The men stopped walking, and Priestly got even more concerned when his cousin wouldn't meet his eye. "What's going on, Zig?"
Ezra breathed a deep sigh. He still wouldn't face Priestly. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this before. As I said, sometimes letters just don't cut it."
"You know you can still tell me anything, though," said Priestly. "We're best friends, dude."
"I know," Ezra interjected. "I know we're best friends. And that's exactly why I couldn't just tell you in a letter."
"Tell me what?" The more Ezra stalled, the more worried Priestly became. "Please, Ezra, you're scaring me. Just tell me, man."
Hearing the use of his real name made Ezra wince. Ever since he first came back from Jamaica with dreadlocks, Priestly had called him Ziggy. He had wanted to nickname him Bob after Bob Marley, but Ezra had protested, saying that there was only one Bob Marley. Instead, they'd settled for Ziggy after Ziggy Marley. Since then, Priestly had only ever called Ezra by his given name when he was worried or concerned. And that was the last thing Ezra wanted.
"There's this village out near the eastern coast of Jamaica," Ezra began softly. "Not a heavily populated area. There's a girl there that lives outside of that village. She's 16 and lives alone. Her parents are dead, and she doesn't have any other family."
Confusion came over Priestly. "What about her?" he asked. "Are you going to bring her here or something?"
"She's pregnant, Bo," Ezra continued. "She has no job, no family, no one in her life to help her, and she's mentally unstable." The taller man had to pause and reign in his emotions before he could keep going. He was thankful his cousin had stayed quiet so he could gather his thoughts. "She has severe depression and anxiety, and sometimes she can't tell what's real or not. I'm part of the team of people that's been taking care of her during her pregnancy." Ezra took another deep breath. "In one of her more lucid moments, she asked me to take care of her baby once it's born."
"Whoa, as in she made you her baby's guardian?" asked Priestly. His eyes were wide and expressive, and Ezra could see fear, a fear of losing his cousin.
"As in," answered Ezra nervously, "she asked me to adopt her baby." Priestly's jaw dropped and his worry quickly evaporated into excitement. "I'm gonna be a daddy, Bo."
"Dude, that's so awesome," Priestly laughed and pulled Ezra in for a tight hug. Another thought occurred to Priestly, and he let go of his cousin. "But what are you doing here?" he asked. "Shouldn't you be there with the girl and her kid, help take care of her?"
"I came here because I need to set up a home," said Ezra. "I can't exactly be dragging a baby all over the place. The kid's going to need a stable home, at least until it's old enough to process environmental changes. And what better place to set up than with my best friend? I mean, the kid has to get to know his or her Uncle Bo, right?"
Priestly's smile lip up once again. "Uncle Bo? I love it, man. So when's the baby due?"
"Aaliyah said the last time she was with someone was about four months ago, so we're thinking the baby should be here sometime around mid-July," said Ezra. "Of course, it's not an exact science, so Squirt could get here anytime around there."
"So what do you need to do to get ready for Squirt?" asked Priestly, adopting his cousin's name for the baby. "House, job, health insurance? Et cetera?"
"Pretty much," Ezra sighed. "I have to establish a stable home for him and prove that I can provide for him or her."
"Well, the job's taken care of," said Priestly. "I can talk to Trucker and see if he can give you a job at the grill. I know Piper's wanting to take some more time off, with school and Noah and Julia. Plus she's looking into an internship at some art place. I wasn't really listening when she was telling us about it."
"Not surprising," Ezra shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, if you can get me a job at the grill, that would take a huge load off of my plate. After that, I really just need to find a place to live. Hopefully, I'll be settled and have a nice amount saved up before he's born."
"I'm glad you're bringing him back here," said Priestly. "It's already bad enough that I only get to see you every few years, but if you had a kid and I never got to see my niece or nephew? No way."
"Hey, you're going to be helping me raise him," Ezra snorted. "I can't do all this by myself. Not even gonna try."
"Alright then, Daddy." Priestly clapped his cousin on the shoulder. "Come back to the grill tomorrow, and we'll talk to Trucker about getting you hired. Ezra gave his cousin a grateful smile, and the two continued to catch up until they got to Priestly's apartment.
The next day went as smoothly as Priestly predicted it would. As soon as the words Ezra and job left Priestly's lips, Ezra was hired and behind the counter, learning the ropes from Priestly. Things were slow most of the day, for which Ezra was pretty thankful. He didn't think it would be very easy to learn the job when everybody was too busy to teach him.
Shortly after the lunch rush (if you could even call it that) was gone, a girl with strawberry blonde hair entered the shop. Without looking up from the phone in her hand, she walked behind the counter and rummaged for an apron. She was grumbling lowly about business men and cheapskates. "That's the last time I try to sell a painting to a stock manager," she growled, throwing her phone into her bag and stashing it under the counter. When she finally looked up, the girl's eyes landed on Ezra and she nearly did a double take. "What are you doing back here?" the young woman asked warily.
Ezra looked around the shop for his cousin, but didn't see the colorful older man anywhere. "I'm Priestly's cousin," he said slowly, feeling a little awkward. "I just started working here."
"Oh, okay then," the girl said, now with a pleasant smile on her face. "I'm Piper. I work here, too." She held her hand out to shake.
"Yeah, Priestly's talked about you," said Ezra, returning the handshake. "He said you're an artist?"
"Yep. I actually painted that wall." Piper gestured toward the beach mural on the back wall depicting Trucker and Zo's commitment ceremony.
"That's awesome," Ezra gasped, turning to appraise the mural again, this time in a new light. "It's really great."
"Well, I didn't do all of it by myself," Piper said with a bashful smile. "My stepdaughter Julia helped some. A lot of the brushstrokes in the water are hers."
"She's really good, too," Ezra complimented.
"Thanks," Piper beamed. "Well, welcome to Beach City Grill. I know you're going to like working here, especially with Priestly."
"Because I make everything better," Priestly sang out as he stepped out of the back room. "I see you've met Piper," he said to his cousin.
"Why didn't you tell us about him?" Piper asked. "If you have a cousin with dreadlocks, you're supposed to share that with your friends. I told you guys pretty much everything when I moved here."
"You didn't ask if I had a cousin with dreadlocks," answered Priestly, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Actually, you've never told us anything about your family," Piper realized. "Why don't you?"
"I don't like talking about my family," Priestly said shortly. Piper couldn't see it, but Ezra could tell his cousin was getting uncomfortable. He knew Priestly didn't like discussing his less-than-stellar family with people he wasn't close with. Ezra knew for a fact that he was the only person Priestly had ever confided in about anything personal. It was why they were so close.
"Hey, Bo, didn't you mention something about apartment hunting today or tomorrow?" he asked, steering the topic of conversation away from his uncomfortable cousin and their not-so-great family. He said it in a way that sounded as though it had just occurred to him.
"Oh yeah," said Priestly, recognizing his cousin's deflection for what it was. "Trucker said you can take off after half a day. I still have to work the rest of the day, but Jen's off. Maybe she can take you."
Ezra tried not to let it show, but his heart skipped a tiny beat at the mention of Jen's name. "Does-does she have experience in house hunting?" he stuttered awkwardly, trying to hide his sudden shyness.
"Not that I know of," Priestly answered, "but she's really smart and sensible. She'll help you get a good deal."
"Okay, cool," Ezra said haltingly. He internally cursed himself for acting like a love-sick schoolboy. He was 26, for crying out loud! He was a missionary to Jamaica and adopting a baby as soon as it was born. Why was he getting so twisted up over a girl he just met?
Little did Ezra know, Priestly bad seen every one of the emotions that just played across his face and in his eyes. 'Ziggy's got a crush on our Jen,' he thought with glee. 'Wait till Tish hears about this.' Casting a surreptitious glance at his cousin, Priestly said, "I'll give Jen a call and see if she'll mind going with you. I'm sure she'll be glad to." He giggled to himself as he stepped into the back and took his phone out of his pocket.
Just as Priestly suspected, Jen agreed to go house hunting with Ezra. And, just as Priestly also suspected, she was a bit shy about it. It wasn't her usual shyness, though, which had nearly gone away after her good relationship with Jeff Kenline, her online friend who went by Fuzzzy22. No, this was her pre-relationship shyness, with the cute little blush that colored her cheeks and the tiny little smile that lit up her eyes when she thought about the guy she liked. Needless to say, Priestly had high hopes for his cousin and his friend.
Trucker let Ezra off at 3:00, which was the time they had decided to start their search. Prompt as ever, Jen entered the shop at 3:00 on the dot. "Hey, guys," she greeted sweetly.
"Hey," Ezra returned. He untied his apron and stashed it under the counter. "Thanks for doing this with me, Jen. Don't know why Bo couldn't just go with me tomorrow," he shot his cousin an amused glare, "but I appreciate it."
"It's no trouble," Jen assured him with a smile. "Consider it my welcome to Santa Cruz."
"Alright then." Ezra returned her smile. "Catch'a later, Bo."
"Have fun, you two," Priestly called out behind them, waving and smiling cheekily.
"So, why couldn't you just take Ezra house hunting tomorrow?" Trucker asked once the younger pair was gone. "You don't have to work tomorrow."
"Because Zig's got the hots for Jen," the younger man whispered conspiratorially.
"Seriously!?" both Trucker and Piper gasped. "No way," whispered Piper.
"And I think Jen likes Ziggy, too," said Priestly. "When I called her about going with Ziggy, she acted just like she did with Fuzzy. And you guys saw them together just now."
"I can't wait to tell Tish," Piper squealed.
"Hey, I get to tell her first," argued Priestly. "I'm the one that noticed it in the first place. And he's my cousin, so I get to tell her first."
"How about you both tell me at the same time," a voice spoke out as Tish entered the shop. "What are you guys telling me?"
A/N: There's some sparks a-sparking between Jen and Ezra! Don't forget to review! Thanks!