Chapter Thirteen #3
“Hey,” he said after a moment. “Good lunch?”
He’d gotten some sun today. Not that that was unusual in LA, but they must’ve sat outside. Jem and whoever he’d met. Jem’s nose was pink, and the tips of his ears. “Yeah,” he said after a moment, then trailed into an awkward laugh. “Yeah, actually? I was kind of expecting a train wreck.”
River held out his hands and drew Jem toward him on the couch. “What do you mean, a train wreck?” If Jem was that nervous, why hadn’t he told River about it?
“Ugh.” Jem flopped down next to him on the couch and rubbed his hands over his face. “It’s a long story.”
River had heard those words before, along with the suggestion that he should guess. He didn’t think this was a guessing kind of scenario. “I’ve got time.”
“It’s like, bad daytime soap drama.”
“Well, now you have to tell me. I love those.” He picked up Jem’s hand again. “Who were you meeting?”
“Andrew Wentworth.”
River raised his eyebrows. Sure, it sounded like a rich-guy name, but beyond that—
Jem sighed. “My half brother.”
River’s fingers went lax around Jem’s. “Your what?”
Jem didn’t seem to notice his surprise. “I mean I didn’t grow up knowing he was my half brother, thanks for that, Mom and Dad.”
“Ah.” River started putting the pieces together. “But you did know him.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jem said easily. “He was my best friend.”
What? River blinked. Jem had said a daytime soap opera, and yet he hadn’t been prepared, despite his own colorful past. “Pardon?”
“It was a small town. We basically grew up together. My mom ran the day care at the golf course his dad—our dad—owned; Dad used to bring him to work. So we were pretty much always together.”
There was an obvious until there. River didn’t know if he should pick at it. He didn’t know if he could help himself. “Okay,” he said instead of what happened.
Jem answered anyway. “Growing up, my mom and I didn’t have a lot. But Andrew’s dad took me along on family vacations, paid for my golfing lessons, taught me how to fish.” His voice held a bitter edge. “It was almost like having a dad.”
River winced. “Wait, was Andrew’s mom—?"
“On all those family vacations too? Oh yeah.” He shook his head. “I found out later the whole thing was part of a deal my parents made. My dad would pay for all the same things for me that Andrew got, as long as Mom never took him to court or told me the truth.”
Now River felt bad for his initial reaction—hurt that Jem had lied to him about not having or knowing his father.
That had been one of the things he’d thought they’d bonded over.
But this… yeah. Jem hadn’t had a better situation than he did.
Not emotionally, at least. “That’s, uh. He sounds like a piece of work. ”
“It gets better.”
River very much doubted it, but he listened as Jem told the rest of the story—coming out to Andrew; Andrew’s sudden distance, imposed by his father; the accident. Jem’s father begging Jem to save his real son’s life.
“That scar is from a kidney donation?” River practically shrieked. “After all that, you still gave him a kidney?”
“I didn’t want him to die,” Jem said. “It wasn’t Andrew’s fault his—our—father sucked.
But I made it clear that, uh, if I did it—Mr. Wentworth was going to keep paying for my golf lessons and my private school tuition and my uniforms and whatever, but he was never going to speak to me again. So. That’s what happened.”
Jesus. “And Andrew?”
“That’s where it gets sticky. Once I knew the truth, looking back, I realized Andrew must have known too, at least for a few months. I felt like such an idiot. People always commented on how much we looked alike. We were always getting mistaken for brothers.”
“So when you found out he’d known for a while….”
Sighing, Jem leaned his head on River’s shoulder.
“Finding out I had a biological brother pretty much destroyed any chance I had of making up with the chosen brother I lost, even though they were the same person. Until now, I guess. My mom gave him my number, and he’s been texting me because he wanted to apologize.
He seems like… good. I think I just want to let the past go, you know?
I don’t have to jump back into being his best friend, but…
I don’t know. Holding on to that bitterness isn’t making my life any better. ”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
It felt like the wrong question. None of this was about River, even if the revelation did leave him off-kilter. Jem didn’t owe him this kind of information about his past, especially if it was painful.
“It’s not the most fun thing to talk about. On either side.” He tilted his head back just far enough for River to look into his eyes. “And, I don’t know. I got in the habit of not telling you things, I guess.”
That stung a bit, but River understood. “Hmm.” He rested his chin against the top of Jem’s head. “Well. Get out of it.”
He could feel the quiet laugh as it went through Jem’s body. “I’m an open book for you,” he said teasingly. “What do you want to know? When I was a kid I dreamed of being an astronaut. I sucked at math, though. I ran for class president in fifth grade but lost to Betty Lewis.”
“She sounds like a bitch,” River said gravely.
This time Jem cackled. “I wasn’t always allergic to shellfish; I used to love crawfish boil—”
As if summoned by the mention of food, one of their stomachs grumbled. They were so close together River couldn’t tell which of them the sound came from.
“Dinner soon?” he said after a moment.
“Absolutely.” Jem’s grin faded into something softer. “One more family-related confession first. Not sure how you were supposed to guess this one.”
“Let me try anyway: You secretly come from a long line of Flat Tires superfans.”
“Close.” He tiled his head up so their eyes met upside-down. “I knocked up my best friend’s wife. With, like, science. I figured I should tell you in case it becomes really obvious in a couple weeks.”
It took River a moment to untangle that, and another few out-of-time heartbeats to try to find the words. “Tori and Ivy’s baby?” he stalled.
“Fifty percent Jem Anderson DNA.” He turned in River’s arms, and his expression suddenly went pensive. “God, I hope they never need a kidney.”
Jesus Christ. “That’s not going to be complicated for you?”
Jem tilted his head and offered a small shrug. “I was going to love the kid to pieces either way. Families are always complicated.”
When he put it like that, River could hardly find anything to argue with.
But the emotions were still surging through him, so he leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on Jem’s nose to let some of it out.
“You’re right about that.” Then he nudged him toward verticality.
“Come on. I can guess silly things about your family and childhood while we dig up something to eat.”