Chapter 56 Jayden
JAYDEN
Lex turns his laptop toward him while he and Dad keep talking through the action plan. Dad’s PI came through with something—just not what we expected.
“Make it make sense,” Finley says, staring at the documents on the kitchen island. “My father would never represent Ryker. For obvious reasons.”
She gives Eli a pointed look, not wanting to say what we all know. Her father wouldn’t represent a gay man. Which makes this even more baffling. But also…
“What’s in it for him?” I ask at the same time Eli says, “Yeah, it’s weird, but so is everything Ryker’s doing.”
He lifts the PI’s timeline and scans it like the answer’s right there if we’d just focus. Except we are focused.
“He’s a fucking criminal doing criminal things.” My voice is dry and my mouth even drier, because this prick is a conundrum that keeps on baffling. “It’s not weird… It's a repeated pattern of behavior. Something super common in criminal land.”
Finley gives me a small, tender smile. I know this is as hard for her as it is for Eli. It’s all seedy and twisted.
“Asshole’s also really fucking stupid to get three DUIs in twelve months,” I add, lighter, trying to bleed some pressure out of the room.
“I don’t understand why it would be on my father’s radar. He’s a corporate lawyer…” Finley looks at me with a heavy sigh. “What does Ryker have that my father wants?”
“The photos from that night,” Eli says, dropping the papers on the dining table. “It’s why the images from the article were cropped.”
“What does he have to gain from that article?” My musing trails off while Eli sends a text and then stares at his phone, bleak.
I lean in and see his thread with his mom. The message he just sent sits with a Not Delivered note beneath it. The last one from her is a long diatribe that ends in a warning to return to the light.
I know that his relationship with his parents is turbulent, but they’re still his parents. Even if they are shitty, I know that deep down Eli has feelings about them. Not all terrible feelings that look like they’re running amok right now.
“Hey,” I call his focus to me, pressing the button to lock his phone before I take it out of his hand and ask, “What’s on your mind?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs with a quick glance at Fin.
Their silent exchange has her slumping in her seat. “They’re fighting,” she whispers, gripping his arm in solidarity.
“One man’s fall is another’s rise,” he sighs, sounding as deflated as she appears. It takes him a moment to gather himself. “Anyway, if my mom’s blocked me, what’s happening back there isn’t my problem.”
“Eli…”
“Fin, we can’t worry about them. Whatever they’re quarreling about has nothing to do with us. Besides, I’m not sure I actually care as opposed to feeling like I’ve brought trouble to their door.”
“Which you haven’t,” I say as emphatically as I can.
No way I’m letting him feel guilty for anything going on in that backward hellhole. Not after everything they’ve put him through.
“I’m sure your grandmother has it all handled, and this is just my father trying to get the upper hand. You know what he’s like…” Fin moves to the kitchen, putting the kettle on—small rituals to tame big feelings.
Eli stacks the papers and slides them back into Lex’s envelope.
“Caleb Tomes isn’t silly or reckless. Everything he does has a purpose,” he says quietly to me, gaze softening on Fin while she patters around the kitchen.
“He wants her back, and he’s going to do everything he can to weaken her resolve out here. ”
“Joke’s on him, right? Because she’s ours, and she’s not going anywhere.” Certainty anchors my words, but an ugly wrench still twists in my gut. “Do you think he’s dangerous?”
Eli groans, thumbs drumming on the dark wood as though he’s trying to sync thoughts to heartbeat. “I think Fin is worth more to him in one physical piece. Mind games are more his thing. He makes the shadow of a molehill as big as a mountain.”
“So you think he’s stirring up trouble to intimidate her?”
“No, I think he’s stirring up trouble to convince her she doesn’t belong out here. With me or you… with us.” He pauses, finds my hand, and gives it a slow, grounding sweep. “He doesn’t understand that none of it matters, because she’s never belonged in Havenview.”
His certainty is unshakable. He tugs me up and saunters to the kitchen with me in tow. Fin sets out platters of crudités, antipasto, and cheeses.
With Lex’s sudden visit, we didn’t get to go have our picnic. Something we’re going to fix because this bullshit with Ryker isn’t going to ruin our celebration. Today is a big day for her, and she deserves to be showered with our pride.
“You guys must be starving,” she says, placing the glass teacups Bibi sent us as a moving-in-together gift on the kitchen island while I grab the matching teapot of saffron tea and fill all four cups.
Eli perches on the counter, watching the two of us intently before he says, “I think it’s time we really do this Lex’s way.”
“What?” I sputter, almost choking on the grape Fin feeds me. “No, we said we wouldn’t—”
“I know, Baby,” he says with a softness that has his endearment warming through me with a disarming squeeze of my chest. “Here’s the thing, though. I think if we show people more of us, maybe it’ll calm all of this down. They’ll know we’re in this for good and—”
“They’ll stop trying to find a weak link in our chain,” I finish.
Given the conversation we just had, it makes sense. We double down and make sure Finley’s father—the whole fucking world—knows we’re unbreakable. There’s nothing he can do to tear us apart.
“Won’t that just make the press more intrusive?” Fin asks, trepidation husking her voice. “I don’t want them to stalk me everywhere. What happens if a client gets upset? Summer could decide this is too much.”
“Sweet girl,” Eli coos partway through a mouthful of celery and dip, drawing our girl into him. “More than most people, maybe anyone, Parker and Summer understand what it’s like to have this kind of mania around you.”
“Eli’s right, Lucky.”
“You should see some of the stories about them online.” I look at him in surprise because I can’t picture Mr. Grumpypants searching for dirt on anyone.
He shrugs. “I wasn’t going to take Parker up on his offer without doing some research on him, and I had to know our girl was in good hands with Summer. I like to do my research.”
“Christina’s totally right about you hockey heartthrobs. You’re like teenage girls beneath all the brawn.” Finley’s laugh cuts off when he lifts her onto his lap and nips her shoulder hard enough to make her yelp.
“So what’s the plan? What’re we doing?” I ask around a hunk of cheddar.
“What plan?” Lex drops onto the other side of the island and nicks a cup of tea and a mini artichoke-and-meat skewer. “I don’t want you to take matters into your hands again.”
He gives me a pointed look because, after the altercation with Ryker at the training facility, he warned us not to play into his bullshit. Then Eli told him about Parker helping us under the radar, and he looked ready to have an aneurysm. Dad wasn’t happy, either, but he’s Dad.
“I think we need to try navigating this your way,” Eli tells him.
“My way was to let Brian and me handle everything. We do the dirty work so your image and reputation aren’t damaged, but the two of you keep flying off the handle and making impulsive moves—” Lex drags in a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose as though he’s one sentence away from a migraine.
“I meant about us.” Eli slips off the counter, still holding Finley, when he spins to face Lex. “Maybe we do need to give the press our own narrative to roll with.”
“To roll with?” Lex chuckles at Eli’s casual remark. “I assume you mean that you would finally like to cooperate with your publicity team.”
“Yeah. That.”
“But without going overboard,” Finley adds. “We already have photographers following us and hanging out outside the building, my work…”
“The press are starving babies right now, and until you feed them, they’re not going to leave you alone. They don’t care what you give them, as long as you give them something.”
“Like what?” Fin picks at a charred pepper on the antipasto platter.
Lex looks at each of us with a cluck of his tongue. “You set the boundaries, and the publicists and I will do the rest. Unless you guide them, the press will always set the narrative that sells more for them. If you’re defensive, they’ll always assume you have something to hide.”
“We’re not hiding,” I say. “They got photos of us at the New Year’s party, and the team’s socials had a few photos of us at the Christmas party…”
“Share little bits of yourselves. Your interests, your hobbies… Passions… Snippets of your time together. It doesn’t have to be overly personal. It just has to be—”
“Something,” Eli sighs, looking at me and then at Fin.
“Your socials are great, Jayden,” Lex tells me.
“But?” The look he’s giving me is loaded with a big, fat, annoying but. I hate buts unless they’re Finley’s and Eli’s.
“There’s none of this.” He gestures around us, at our home, before his eyes settle on where my hand is resting beside Eli’s on the counter, and while Finley’s still in his arms, her hand is on my forearm.
“That’s what people want to see. How it’s possible for the three of you to be in one relationship.
What being in that relationship is like.
Not all the curiosity is about your sexualities, or even about the physical dynamics. A lot of it is as simple as that.”
Taking his phone out of his pocket, he snaps a photo. When he shows it to us, he has a warm smile on his face.
It’s a harmless picture of the platters on the counter and our hands in the background. But when he crops it so that only half the platters are showing and our hands are the focal point, it looks intimate.
“You don’t have to overshare or show more than you’re comfortable with.” He glances at Eli, giving him a reassuring nod when he asks, “Are you okay with your PR sharing that on your socials?”
“Fin?” Eli checks in with our girl, and when she gives her approval, he looks for mine.
“Yeah, I’m good with that,” I say, and when Lex sends it to his team, I ask him, “Can they tag me? Maybe as a collaborator?”
He gives me an approving grin. “Yeah, we can do that.”