Chapter 16 Shattering
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SHATTERING
Lennon
“Did you know that penguin poop is basically laughing gas?” Harold sits in a faded recliner holding his iced tea in one hand and the other resting on his belly.
Felicity doesn’t look up from where she’s knitting. “It’s true. We learned it on NatGeo.”
I’m squished in the middle of Felicity and Jett on their floral sofa. This isn’t unlike any other night that I’ve had dinner here other than the addition of Jett and a heart-healthy meal.
Dinner around a table and an evening of wholesome TV. It’s as American as apple pie and chicken fried steak—which we had none of tonight. Still, this is the life of Harold and Felicity Fahnestock, and when you’re invited to their home, you do what they do.
Again ... normalcy. I’ve been in Winslet for a while, but I crave this new weekly ritual like it’s been engrained in me for a lifetime.
I barely remember my mother, and my father sure didn’t eat dinner with me, let alone at the same table. And there was nothing wholesome about what was on our television.
We’re not watching NatGeo tonight. Harold turned on the Smithsonian Channel. We’re watching a show on cruise ships in Antarctica. We already finished one show and are well into the second. The camera panned by a penguin, so of course Harold started talking about their poop.
Jett stretches an arm behind me on the sofa and rests his ankle on his other knee. “Laughing gas, huh?”
Felicity starts another complicated line of knots. “Yep. Their food makes the gas. When there are a whole bunch of them—” Felicity pauses what she’s doing and looks over at her husband, “—what do you call a bunch of penguins, dear?”
Harold doesn’t miss a beat. “A waddle. Unless they’re in water, then it’s a raft.”
“Right!” Felicity exclaims. “When they’re in a waddle, and their poo hits the soil—boom. Laughing gas.”
Harold proves once again that he’s a human encyclopedia. “Nitrous oxide. If the waddle is big enough, it’ll affect the researchers.”
I do everything to concentrate on penguin poop rather than the way Jett’s warm body is pressed to mine or the way he’s playing with my hair. “Maybe that’s why penguins always look so happy.”
Felicity turns back to her latest project to creates more knots. “It’s not the ha-ha kind of nitrous oxide. It makes them dizzy and get headaches. If memory serves, it’s not bad for Mother Earth. Just for researchers, apparently.”
“Who would’ve thought,” Jett says as he focuses on the TV, but he doesn’t do it in a sarcastic way. It’s genuine.
After the last few days, I’m not sure there was anything that could make me like him more.
No.
Not like.
He makes me weak in the knees, my nipples hard, and wet between my legs. Penguin poop sure shouldn’t make me feel any of those things.
It’s not just that. It’s the way he’s present and doesn’t act like being here for his welcome-to-Winslet dinner with the Fahnestocks is a chore. Throughout dinner, he asked Harold about his antique truck, answered every question about his new kidney, and talked to Felicity about her summer garden.
The topics of conversation were multiple and varied. I shouldn’t have been worried about Jett. I’ve become so attached to the people in town that I know if I have to leave, it will be just one more knife to the gut.
I thought Jett would want to leave the moment dinner was done. But he followed the Fahnestocks lead, just like I did the first time I was a guest.
Eat, clean the kitchen, and watch wholesome TV that is never fiction. You always learn something, and the highest level of drama is the food chain in the wild. The antelope. No matter how fast they are, it’s always the poor antelope that seems to be dinner for so many predators.
It doesn’t matter how good I slept last night in Jett’s bed, the stress from telling him about my past, worrying about him being bored to death at dinner, and just being with him has gotten to me.
It’s crazy that I survived the last six years and am running from someone like Andrei and still stressed about everything Jett.
I do my best to bite back a yawn, sink into his side, and look over at Felicity.
Her dark curly hair is pinned back into a huge banana clip.
She’s wearing a leopard-print velour track suit and paisley house slippers.
She has her feet perched on a small ottoman upholstered in needlepoint.
Felicity never just sits and watches the shows.
She simply listens since her hands are always busy.
“That’s new. What are you working on?”
Her fingers don’t stop moving. “Booties. I may do a baby cap after this.”
“Who’s it for?”
Felicity shrugs. “I haven’t decided yet. People have babies all the time. We’ll see who gets this set. I’ve never made booties before, but I thought I may as well give it a go.”
I look at the soft colors she’s knotting. Her yarn is a mix of off-white to the palest of greens. There’s no pink or blue in sight and it looks out of place in her home where color is king. “It’s pretty.”
She smiles as she looks down at her project. “It needs more color, but it’s not bad.”
Harold picks up the remote and flips off the television. “Welp, kiddos, that’s it for tonight.”
It must be nine o’clock. Harold and Felicity are creatures of habit and early to bedders.
I stand and turn to Felicity. “Thank you for dinner and the company. It’s the best day of the week, just like always.”
She shifts her gaze between Jett and me.
“It was a wonderful evening and always a wonderful time with you. And now we know Jett Cross. What a story you have. Winslet agrees with the two of you.” She looks back to the man at my side and claps her hands three times.
“Ope, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to make your puppy and kitty some homemade treats. ”
Before we got here, we swung by Carl and Winnie’s house so I could meet Panther and Smoke.
I’ve never had a pet, but then again, Jett hadn’t either before these two furry creatures showed up on his doorstep.
Panther wouldn’t have anything to do with me, but Smoke was friendly to a fault.
I’ve never been around Carl and Winnie outside of the Combover.
Winnie went on and on about how it’s going to break her heart when Jett takes his pets back, and she didn’t care what Carl said, she was getting a dog of her own when their time there is up.
Then she forced us to take home an entire apple-cherry pie. Jett didn’t even try to explain his diet. He said thank you, took the pie, and said he’d be back in a day or two.
“You don’t have to do that, but they’ll eat anything. Who knows how long they were strays before they found me. They have their quirks, but they don’t pass up food.”
“I’ll add it to my list of to dos. And next time, bring them with you when you come for dinner. Harold pretends he doesn’t like pets, but he does.”
“I don’t!” Harold yells from the kitchen. He comes back into the family room with a half-eaten cookie and talks with his mouth full. “Don’t listen to her. I don’t like pets.”
Felicity waves him off. “He doesn’t mean that. Bring your fur babies. It’ll make dinner more interesting.”
Harold sighs and tosses the rest of the cookie in his mouth. “See y’all next week. I’m headed to bed.”
Jett takes my hand and pulls me to the front door. “Thanks again for dinner.”
I grab my purse off the front table after putting on my jacket. “And thank you for doing it today. I don’t know what I would’ve done had I missed a weekly dinner. We’ll see you Monday!”
Felicity stands in the doorway and waves one more time as we get in Jett’s truck. “Careful going home!”
He climbs in and shuts his door. “Home. That’s an odd concept for us.”
I don’t waste any time and turn to him before he has the chance to back out of the driveway. I grip his arm and demand his attention. “Thank you for tonight.”
He turns to me. “Why are you thanking me?”
“I’ve never known anyone like Harold and Felicity. Not in my entire life. They’re important to me. I get that they’re not everyone’s thing, so the fact you came tonight and acted happy means a lot to me.”
He tips his head. “Baby, I didn’t act happy. I am. And it’s been a long fucking time since I’ve danced anywhere near the realm of happy, let alone be it.”
Emotions bubble within me. “I feel the same way. Or I did before Andrei found me.”
“One more day and he’ll be taken care of.” The way Jett says that it’s like a promise. One I’m not sure anyone can make.
My voice drops to a whisper. “I’m tired of running. I want to stay in Winslet.”
He shifts in his seat to lean in close. His fingers dip into my hair and he pulls me in for a deep kiss. There’s a different passion behind this one. I feel his desperation mingle with mine.
I sink into his touch. If we weren’t sitting in Felicity’s driveway, I might think about climbing over the console to get closer to him.
Jett has become an obsession I have no desire to break.
When he finally ends the kiss, he blows my mind in another way.
“I’ve been so focused on you, I haven’t been completely open about me.
I’ll do that tonight. I owe you that after demanding that you trust me with everything.
Harlow wants me to give Winslet a try. I was doing a half-ass job of that just to appease her.
I don’t give a shit where I live—or I never have before. ”
I pull back a little. “What haven’t you told me about you?”
He leans in and presses his lips to mine once more. “It’s not nearly as exciting as your life. Let me get you home, and I’ll tell you everything.”
I settle back in and reach for my seatbelt. “I’m jealous.”
He does the same and backs out of the drive.
“No one’s stalking me or tossing my shit to look for the stolen treasure.
It’s not a big deal, but I do need to decide on where I’m going to settle.
I gave up my rental when I left Iowa to come here for the transplant. I owed it to Harlow to give it a try.”