For Fox Sake

Chapter 10

Jake

“It’s been over a week.” Oliver’s words lash across the phone line like a whip.

“It’s only been a week and a half.”

The menacing silence is almost more frightening than his words.

“I know, I know. I need a little more time. I’m almost done here.”

Am I though?

I haven’t found any big answers yet. And I don’t want to leave. I’m not ready.

“Piper was deep in creation mode last week, but now she’s coming out of it, and she’s upset that you’re gone.”

I stifle a groan, covering my eyes with one hand.

Oliver will literally burn down the entire world if Piper so much as gets a paper cut.

I’m truly fucked now. Time is up.

“I am not okay with her being upset. You told me you left a note.”

Wait, what? “I did leave a note.”

“This note does not exist, according to Finley, who has even contacted Taylor.”

Taylor is out of the country, on vacation in Greece with her boyfriend Atticus. “Just give me a little more time.”

“No. Tell me where you are.”

“I can’t yet.”

More ominous silence fills the line. “I’m going to find you.” His voice is low and threatening.

I snort. “Okay, Liam Neeson.”

A door slams and I lift my gaze to the house across the street. Ari bolts down the driveway. “You should really work on the Irish accent.”

I frown. Why is she running?

She’s heading this way, her blond hair and red cape streaming behind her. “Jake!”

I stand, checking up and down the street for cars.

“Piper is upset,” Oliver says in my ear.

“Yeah, you mentioned that. She’s my sister. I’ve upset her many times. She’ll live. And I know you will find me, eventually, but I’m not telling you shit.” Maybe that will buy me a few more days. “I gotta go, buh-bye now.” I hang up and shove my phone in my pocket, approaching Ari in the middle of the street.

“Hey, is everything okay?”

“Come quick.” She’s already running back toward her house, calling out over her shoulder. “The water is everywhere, and I need to get the toolbox.”

Water everywhere?

I jog to the side of the house, entering the backyard through the gate. The water key—a long metal instrument—rests against the side of the house. I grab it, sticking it down into the pipe to turn the valve off, and then sprint back to the front door, where Ari is lugging a toolbox half her size into the house.

I grab it from her and then follow into the kitchen where Ryan is on her hands and knees, sopping up water. Dish soap and bottles of cleaning liquid are scattered around her.

She looks up at me. “The water’s off?”

“I turned it off.”

Her expression is blank, her pallor tinged with gray.

“Momma, are you okay?” Ari frowns, a crease between her brows.

I crouch down by Ryan. “Hey. What do you need?”

Ryan leans back, the sopping wet towel in her hand flopping onto her knees. “I don’t know. We were going to have pizza. I thought we had one in the freezer, but then I couldn’t find it and then this happened.” She gestures at the water covering the floor.

I clap my hands together. “Do you ladies want to roast some hot dogs out on the firepit?”

Ari’s eyes widen. “We can do that?”

“If it’s okay with your mom.” I raise my eyebrows at Ryan.

She nods slowly.

I crouch down in front of Ari. “Why don’t you run over to my house and grab the package of hot dogs from the fridge? There are buns on the counter too.”

“Yes!” She lifts both arms in the air.

Ryan points at her. “Make sure you look both ways before crossing the street.”

Ari scampers out the front door and I turn back to Ryan. She’s staring under the sink like it might bite.

I crouch down next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey. We can fix this.”

Her eyes meet mine, and then her face crumples and she sags into me.

I wrap an arm around her, holding her against me even though the angle is a bit awkward, me crouched down on the balls of my feet with Ryan leaning into me from her knees.

Her shoulders tremble, but she doesn’t make a sound. My heart breaks.

This is a woman who is shouldering the world by herself and refuses to crumble under pressure. She is so used to standing on her own. She needs someone to lean on. No one should be doing all she does alone.

“Why don’t you go take a breather?”

Her hand grips my knee and she half laughs, half cries against my shoulder. “A breather? Are you kidding me? I don’t even know what that means.”

I shift back and straighten, taking her hand to help her stand.

“Go relax for a minute. Do whatever you need to do. The water is off. Nothing is urgent. The sink can wait until you both have food in your bellies. I’ll feed Ari, and you can join us when you’re ready.”

She bites her lip, hesitant. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking. I’m doing it. I got this. You can let go for a minute. With any luck, maybe ten or twenty.”

She searches my eyes, a clear battle waging across her face.

“It’s so hard to be strong all the time. Sometimes you have to give a little, lean on someone. Getting help doesn’t make you weak. It keeps you strong to fight another day.”

She swallows.

“Ari will be back any second.”

That stiffens her spine. She steps away from me and without another word heads down the hall. The door snicks shut right as Ari’s feet tromp in the entryway.

I clap my hands together. “Let’s go be cavemen.” I thump on my chest. “Roast meat over fire.”

She taps her chin with a finger. “Do cavemen wear capes?”

“It’s literally a requirement. Do you have one for me?”

* * *

“My family owns a camp, and we do this all the time with the kids.”

Ari’s eyes are wide in the firelight, mustard dribbling down her chin while she shoves the hot dog in her mouth.

I turn the fork over the flames. We could only find one with a long enough handle to roast the dogs, so we’re doing them one at a time.

“Can I go to your camp?”

“Maybe someday. It’s a bit of a drive.” Say, three thousand miles, give or take.

“Is it like my camp?”

I rub my chin. “I don’t think so. You go to a day camp, right?”

“Yeah. They take us to the park and to the movies sometimes and we play games.”

“At our camp, the kids stay overnight. Sometimes for a weekend, and sometimes for a week or longer. They sleep in cabins with bunk beds, eat in a mess hall, and do all kinds of things, like ice skating, paintball, hiking, fishing.”

“What’s a mess hall?” She takes a huge bite of her hot dog and ketchup plops on her shirt.

I hand her a napkin. “It’s like a cafeteria.”

She chews before speaking. “They have one of those at my school. I eat lunch there. They don’t have hot dogs, but they have carrots.”

I remove my hot dog from the fire and put it into a bun, then grab the mustard from the table and squirt a healthy dollop on it.

“You don’t like ketchup?” Ari asks, her eyes tracking me as I take a bite.

I swallow my bite and shake my head. “My sister Taylor traumatized me.”

Her eyes widen. “What did she do?”

“She dared me to chug a container of ketchup and it made me a little... sick. Haven’t had much liking for the stuff since.”

Ari laughs. “Where is your sister?”

“She’s back home.”

“At the camp?”

“She lives near there, yeah.”

“Did you make her eat ketchup too?”

“Nah. I found other methods of torturing her.”

She giggles, exposing the dimples in her cheeks.

I launch into stories about the pranks we played on each other, like setting Mindy’s alarm to go off at three a.m. on the weekend, filling a Ziploc bag with red Jell-O and poking holes it in and stuffing it into Taylor’s pillowcase, putting pebbles in each other’s shoes—one time someone put maple syrup in mine.

“Our dad though, he was the ultimate prankster. His pranks went on for months, sometimes years.” I chuckle.

“Where is your dad now?”

“He’s...” What do you say to a kid when someone’s dead? “He’s in heaven.”

Her eyes brighten. “My mommy is there too. Maybe they can play pranks on each other.”

My throat grows hot and tight. I cough.

“I don’t have a dad, but my friend Sophia has a dad. You kind of look like him, with your hair and your face.” She motions to her chin. “Do you want to be a daddy?”

I rub the stubble along my jawline. “I uh, never really thought about it, but yeah. I would love to have kids, eventually.”

It wasn’t until the camp opened that I had much of an opportunity to interact with kids closely. But they’re great. Funny, silly, brutally honest while also somehow managing to be complete liars, often frustrating, but at the end of the day ultimately pretty awesome.

“You need to find yourself a good woman.”

A laugh bursts from my chest. “I guess you’re right. You know where I can find one?”

“Did you save me any hot dogs?” Ryan steps through the back door. The strain that had marked her features a half hour ago is gone. Her hair is pulled back. She’s changed into black leggings and a tank top, exposing the delicate curve of her collarbone and neck.

I swallow hard and avert my eyes, focusing on Ari as she flies up from the chair.

She races over to Ryan, wrapping her arms around her legs. “We have a lot of hot dogs left. Can I cook yours?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way. Best chef I know.” She leans over and kisses the top of her head.

Ari beams up at her. “Jake said we can go to his camp and stay the night and sleep in bunk beds and eat messy.”

“Messy?” Ryan lifts a brow at me.

“In the mess hall,” I clarify.

“Ah.” She eyes me. “Nice cape.”

Ari found a pink bed sheet for me to use, which I tied around my neck.

“You need a cape too, Momma. Cavemen roast meat and wear capes.”

I bite my lip to keep my mouth in a serious line. “It’s sort of the law.”

Ryan chuckles. “Well, then let’s go find me one before I break any laws.”

They disappear inside.

My chest throbs. Not with the normal ache I’ve lived with over the past twelve years, but with something else entirely, something I don’t want to probe too closely because I’m not staying and I’m not being completely honest with Ryan, or myself.

When they return, Ryan has a lavender sheet wrapped around her neck.

I hand Ari the long fork with the hot dog already speared on it so she can roast it for Ryan.

They start chatting about what movie to watch before bedtime. They normally watch Bluey, but Ari wants something less “babyish” now that she’s all of six years old.

I half listen while inside, I’m at war with myself. I have to tell Ryan the truth. I have no idea how I’m going to tell Ryan the truth.

“What about Adventure Time?” Ryan asks.

Ari wrinkles her nose. “I want to watch a person show, not a cartoon.”

I clear my throat. “Have you ladies ever witnessed the gloriousness that is The 10th Kingdom?”