Chapter 11
Austin
We pulled through a drive-through on our way back to the house. I’d called ahead, and Mom said she hadn’t planned anything special, and the three of us were all too exhausted to try cooking anything on our own. Fast food it was.
The downside of living on the west coast was that they didn’t have some of my favorite places from my childhood, so I always tried to get it when I was home. Leah groaned when I pulled up to the familiar white and blue building.
“White Castle? Really, Austin?”
“What, we don’t have them in California, and it’s been a year since I’ve gotten my fix.”
My sister rolled her eyes, as we went ahead and ordered a bunch of the mini slider-style burgers, fries, and a few of their other side items to take back to the house. The car smelled absolutely heavenly the entire way, but I was more distracted by the man sitting in the back seat.
Jeremy was so rigid, like he couldn’t relax and just enjoy the trip. Not that I could blame him. Any time he’d let his guard down around Leah during the day, she’d practically bitten his head off. I’d tried my best to keep the peace between them.
It was a fine balance.
We carried everything into the house, dropping food in the kitchen before taking shopping bags upstairs.
I watched as Jeremy carefully maneuvered things in his bag to make space for things.
Maybe he was the person I needed to ask about the proper way to pack things when it was time to leave.
He’d always been so neat and tidy. In the very few times I’d been to his place when we’d been dating, everything had been so organized compared to my chaos.
Then again, I wondered how much of that was because he was getting ready to up and leave.
Jeremy looked over his shoulder and noticed me watching him. His blushes were always so easy to spot because of how pale his skin was, and I sort of liked that after all this time I could still easily get him so flustered. All it took was a simple look.
We went back to the kitchen, where everyone had already started digging into the food.
I grabbed myself a couple of burgers, and sat at the kitchen island.
Jeremy sat next to me, and something felt so completely right about the whole thing.
Would things have been different had he not run away three years ago?
Would I have brought him home to meet my family if things hadn’t ended with so much hostility like they had with Leah?
“What did you kids get up to today?” Mom asked.
“Well, I wanted to go shopping, but getting the boys out of bed was a task—” Leah started.
“Hey now, we got up the second you came and got us.” Now it was my turn to get defensive. It was one thing for Leah to turn her shitty attitude on Jeremy, but she was never like that with me.
Leah only rolled her eyes before continuing her story. “We went for breakfast, and Austin was such a spoilsport. I was having fun getting a few mimosas, and he started acting like a parent.”
That was enough. There was no need for any of it. I grabbed my food and took it upstairs with me to my room. We may have been in our mid-twenties, but I wasn’t above acting like a teen if my sister wanted to.
At least I wasn’t the only one who’d had it with her attitude. Jeremy followed me, but I think part of it was because he didn’t want to be left alone with my sister and parents.
“I’m sorry about that. I know that things are still fresh—”
“Don’t apologize. I’m not used to her acting like that either. We’ve been together for almost three years and living together for the last few months, and if I had known...”
Jeremy and I looked at each other as we sat on the edge of my bed, both looking a little ridiculous with our tiny-ass cheeseburgers in hand and munching away.
It was enough to send both of us into a fit of laughter, the tension from the kitchen removed.
It was so strange that even though I should have been mad at the man, I couldn’t find it in me.
Maybe too many years had passed, or maybe I just understood that he was going through something at the time.
Hopefully, one day he’d be willing to tell me what happened.
“Thank you.”
I looked up at him and blinked in surprise. “What for?”
Jeremy sighed, setting his food down on the wrapper he’d set on my comforter. “For standing up for me today and making it a little more bearable? This was a big ask and...” He trailed off as he stared across the room at something on the wall.
I set my food down as well and thought about how to answer that.
Despite everything, there was still a weird pull toward him.
It shouldn’t have been there because of who he was to my sister when I finally saw him again, but there was that small part that wanted to cling to the hope that we could rekindle what we’d had before.
It was selfish. So fucking selfish because Leah would probably have my head on a platter for it.
“Any decent person would have done the same thing.”
Jeremy snorted before picking back up his food. We continued to eat in silence for a while uncertainty clawed at the back of my mind. What had that snort meant? There was no way I would have ever allowed him to be tossed to the street. Had that happened to him in the past?
Once we were done eating, I gathered all the garbage and took it over to the trashcan in the corner of my room.
Jeremy still seemed pretty despondent, I was willing to do anything to put him in a better mood.
The only thing I could think of was that it was two days before Christmas and he’d only just now finished his shopping.
I still had a few things to wrap, so maybe that would help get him out of his funk.
“I’ll be right back,” I explained as I slipped from the room to get wrapping supplies.
Leah had already shut herself in her room for the night, and Mom and Dad were watching the news.
I grabbed the container with all the rolls of decorative paper, ribbons, and bows and hauled it back up the stairs with me.
Jeremy had slid from the bed and was sitting on the floor staring at the wall when I got back to the room. Nope. We would have none of that. It was Christmas, and I needed to see people in a good mood.
The bin of paper and other goods landed on the carpeted floor with a soft thud.
Jeremy didn’t seem to notice, so I made my way to my bag and pulled out the Bluetooth speaker I’d packed with me.
I pulled up a Christmas playlist on my phone and let the sound filter through the room.
That seemed to get Jeremy’s attention. His head snapped in my direction as I started to dance around the room.
“What are you doing?”
“Just trying to cheer you up is all.”
A slow smile spread across his face, a thrill ran through me to know that my plan was working. My hips wiggled back and forth to the festive beat. I started to sing along to the lyrics. Jeremy only rolled his eyes, but I didn’t relent. I’d get him out of his sour mood if my life depended on it.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
I laughed as I kept dancing around the room. “Am I? You know that you want to get up and join me.”
That got me a small chuckle. I felt ten feet tall. This was winning. It was getting what I wanted and making him happy when all he wanted to do was sit and pout.
Jeremy finally caved, standing from the floor and swaying a little to the song.
It took him a minute to loosen up, but in no time he was bouncing around the room and singing with me.
The look of pure joy on his face had butterflies exploding in my gut, and all I wanted to do was pull him in and kiss him.
But that was a huge no-go. It would ruin the entire moment.
Too far. Too fast.
After two songs, someone knocked on the door. When I answered it, Leah stood there with her arms crossed over her chest. Her hair was a mess, falling out of the messy bun she’d put it in earlier in the day.
“What the hell are you guys doing? Can you keep it down a bit?”
I wanted to laugh, but I needed to be sensitive to her feelings as well. “Sorry. We’ll calm down now. I was just trying to cheer him up a bit.”
Leah huffed. “Like I care if he’s in a good mood.” She said nothing else and marched down the hall back to her room, slamming the door behind her.
I shrugged before turning back to Jeremy. “Forget her. Let’s get some wrapping done.” I turned down the music and shoved the bin toward the middle of the room.