| "Mommy." Jackie said walking downstairs with her teddy bear in hand. "I can't sleep." "Let me tuck you in." Arianna said standing up and leading her daughter upstairs to her room. "Put some music on mommy." "What kind of music?" Arianna asked. Jackie got up and walked toward the CD rack that was placed in her room. The little girl walked right past the usual CD's she asked her mother to play and picked up a dusty blue covered CD. "What 'bout this one?" She asked Arianna. Arianna took the CD from Jackie and looked at it. She couldn't help to smile at the man she once loved. "Look mommy that man has the same kinds of hair I have." She said and giggled. "Well look at that! He does!" She put in the CD and put on number 4 "Take It From Here" and clicked the repeat button. "Goodnight." Arianna said and pecked her daughter on the forehead. "I love you mommy." "I love you too." She said walking out of the room. She walked downstairs to find her "mother-in-law" Lynn Harless who was visiting from Tennessee on the couch reading a People magazine. "So what was the CD tonight?" Lynn asked putting down the magazine. "Justified." She said. "I really think maybe you two should talk sometime, maybe work a couple things out. I mean Jackie needs a fatherly figure in her life." Lynn commented. "She does have fatherly figures. She has all three of her grandfathers, she has....."But she needs to know sometime." Lynn said gently. "What does she need to know?! That her father got her mother pregnant at 16? That her father left her when she was 3 months old? She doesn't need to know now she's 4 years old!" "I'm not saying now, I'm saying someday she's going to ask where her daddy is." "Yeah your right but she doesn't need that man in her life. He'll just ruin her's like her ruined mine." She said. Lynn was breaking up inside. She hadn't talked to her son since her grandaughter Jackie was born 4 years earlier. That night as everyone was silently asleep, the phone rang. Arianna turned over on her side and looked at the clock. "3:00?" She mumbled. She turned back over and fell into an uneasy sleep ignoring the phone. The next morning Arianna rolled over on her side and saw the red light blinking on her answering machine. "You have 3 unplayed messages, press play to play the first unplayed message." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Arianna said pressing the play button. "3:02 AM." "Um, Arianna? It's me.... Justin. It's been a while. Maybe we can talk sometime. Bye." Arianna turned pale and saved the message. She couldn't believed that he called her. Justin Timberlake. The man who left her. Justin Timberlake. She couldn't beleive it and she didn't want to believe it. She didn't know if she should call him back or to ignore it. She walked downstairs where Lynn was making breakfast. "Hi, your up?" "Yeah." "Are you okay? You look a little pale." "I'm fine. Let me go wake Jackie up." She ran upstairs into her daughter's pink-painted room. "Sweetie wake up." She said nudging her. She still couldn't believe how much the little girl looked like her father. "Mommy? Is that you?" "Yeah honey it is." "Okay." She said getting up and walking downstairs with her mother. As Jackie was eating breakfast Arianna couldn't take it anymore, she ran upstairs and dialed Justin's number. The answering machine picked up and Ariannaa said. "Justin it's me Arianna give me a call sometime." As she turned around to walk back downstairs she saw Lynn in the doorway, a tear rolling down her cheek and she was.... smiling. |