Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
A ce stepped into his mother’s house, mood as rotten as the smell of the mash from their latest batch of gin. It was family dinner night. An experience he normally enjoyed, but these past few days he’d found little enjoyment in anything. How could the world hold any joy for him after what happened?
“Baba!”
The high-pitched baby squeal made him turn his head to see Tilly. Mop of red hair, wide one-toothed grin with slobber dripping out, reaching her tiny hands out to him as she sat in Penny’s arms.
“Ace, you’re here.” Penny smiled. “Finally, she’d been asking for her ‘baba’ all day.”
A warm spark lit his chest. He opened his arms for the baby. She let out a squeal of delight, slapping her wet hands on his cheeks like she always did. Tilly was a smart girl. She never confused Ace and BJ like some babies did with twins. Then again, he’d bet his brother’s beard helped. Something about him looking like her dad without facial hair tickled the little girl. And her delighted smile at seeing him always brought him joy, even in this, the darkest of moments.
“Everyone is already in the dining room,” Penny said, turning and heading that way.
Ace followed her, clutching Tilly securely in his arms as she wiggled and giggled. It was a bit more difficult with his cast. He couldn’t wait to get the damn thing off.
As he made his way into the dining room, he saw Luc, Del, and BJ setting the last of the meal on the table while Charlie, Cassie, and his mother sat chatting. Once he entered the room all eyes fell on him. Some happy, some concerned, some—Charlie—downright pissed. He knew his siblings weren’t happy with him keeping the theft from them.
“Ace, sweetie, so glad you could make it.” His mother rose from her seat and came to his side.
“Nana!” Tilly squealed.
His mother lit up like the fourth of July whenever her grandbaby said her name. She held out her hands and Tilly practically leapt from his arms into his mother’s.
“Yes, sweet baby, it’s Nana. Nana loves you. Who’s my precious angel?”
He chuckled as his mother took Tilly over to the highchair by her and Penny’s seat and buckled the little one in. That baby girl had everyone in this family wrapped around her finger.
“I thought I was your precious angel?” Del said, taking his seat.
“You’re all my precious angels,” she responded, gaze coming back to Ace. “And I love you all even when you do bonehead things like keeping important information about the business from each other.”
He sighed, taking his seat at the opposite end of the table from his mother, feeling very much like he was about to be interrogated.
“Okay, which one of you squealed to mom?”
Charlie grinned. “Me.”
Of course it was his sister.
“It’s fine, Mom. The problem is solved, and Jacks is fine.”
His mother frowned. “But are you fine? What’s going on with that sweet girl with the blue hair…what was her name?”
“Millie,” Del offered.
He glared at his baby brother who shrugged and suddenly became very interested in passing the mashed potatoes to Cassie.
“Millie, yes!” His mother frowned. “I saw her this morning working at the coffee shop. BJ said you two had some kind of fight and she quit?”
He stabbed a breast of chicken and put it on his plate, focusing on cutting the meat instead of clobbering his nosy siblings who couldn’t keep their mouths shut.
“We had a…disagreement and she decided that she no longer wanted to work at Jacks.”
“Because you were being an ass about the theft thing,” Charlie muttered.
“Charlie Jackson! Language,” their mother admonished. “You need to stop swearing around Tilly or she’s going to pick it up.”
“Aaaaaaaaaasss,” Tilly squealed, not quite making out the word. It was more of a baby mimic.
His sister had the decency to wince and glance at BJ and Penny.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
“Good gracious,” his mother sighed, before glancing back over at him. “Now Alfa, tell me what in the world is going on with you.”
Since everyone knew his business anyway, he finished the bite in his mouth and put down his fork, leaning back against the hardwood chair.
“It’s not a big deal, mom. I found out someone was stealing from Jacks, then one of our employees also found out. She agreed to help me look for the thief, but when she discovered who it was, she didn’t tell me like we agreed upon. We had an argument. Some things were said and she quit.”
The bare bones of what happened, but it wasn’t like he wanted to go into detail about his and Millie’s relationship with his mother.
She was quiet for a moment. Then she leaned forward and asked, “Did you have an intimate relationship with this employee?”
A chorus of groans filled the room as each of the Jackson siblings recoiled at their mother’s question.
“Mom, you can’t ask stuff like that,” Del protested.
“Don’t say ‘intimate relationship.’” Charlie shuddered. “It’s weird.”
BJ simply shook his head and groaned.
Yeah, no one wanted to talk to their mom about their sex life. No matter how politely she phrased the question.
“Oh quiet, all of you.” She frowned at her children. “As if I’m not familiar with sex. How do you think you all came about?”
Another round of groans and protests, joined by Tilly’s delighted giggles. The baby might not know what was being said, but everyone’s animated attitudes clearly amused the little girl.
“Yes, Mom,” he said, never being able to lie to his mother. “We had a relationship, but it’s over now.”
“Because you argued?”
“Because she betrayed me.”
Silence fell over the table. After a full minute, his mother spoke.
“Alfa, I know you’ve always felt the need to be the protector of the family since your father died.”
“Mom, I don’t—”
“Let me finish,” she interrupted him, glancing around the table at his siblings. “Your father’s death affected all of us in different ways. And it’s taken a long time for us all to heal. We’ll never fully recover, because you never get over the death of someone who was so important in your life. But your brothers and sister are grown now, Ace.”
He looked around the table at Del, Charlie, and BJ. Each had their struggles over the years, each one finding joy and happiness with the person sitting next to them. Someone who loved them for who they were, flaws and all. He’d thought he might have had that with Millie, but he’d been wrong. How could she love him if she didn’t trust him?
“You don’t need to keep sacrificing your happiness to protect the family,” his mother continued. “You deserve happiness too.”
He paused at her words. Had that been what he’d been doing his whole life? Putting his happiness aside for the sake of protecting his family?
“I don’t…”
“You do,” BJ said.
“Yeah,” Del agreed.
Even Charlie nodded.
The truth started seeping through the cracks his family had been poking at. The ones started by Millie.
“I…just want you all to be happy and safe.”
“We are, Jackasson,” Charlie smiled, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “And we only want the same for you in return.”
“Aaaaaaaasssss!” Tilly squealed, slapping her hands on her highchair tray.
A soft rumble of chuckles went around the table.
“There’s four more gray hairs,” his mother muttered, shaking her head at Charlie who shrugged.
“You should talk to Millie,” Del suggested.
He frowned. She’d texted him this morning, asking to talk. He didn’t know what to say. A part of him was still angry, while a bigger part was ashamed by what he’d said to her in his anger. There was no excuse for acting like that, for saying those things. What if they couldn’t get past them?
“You’ll never know what can happen if you don’t try, son.”
His father’s advice rang in his memory. The words he’d said to Ace in his childhood when he’d been scared to ride his bike without training wheels. When he’d gone down his first water slide. Whenever he did something new and scary his father had been there encouraging him, supporting him.
Fuck, he missed his dad.
And he realized he hadn’t wanted his siblings to feel the yawing pain he did, so he’d taken on that role of protector, but it wasn’t his job. He couldn’t protect them from the pain in life. Life was pain. A fact. What made it worth going through was the people by your side. The ones supporting you, holding you when it hurts too much to go on. He had it all wrong. He was supposed to support them, not decide for them.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly, glancing up at each of his siblings. “I should have told you all the second I found out about the theft. I promise in the future to not keep things like that from you. We’re a team and I need to remember that.”
BJ stood, moving over to Ace’s chair and pulling him up into a fierce hug.
“I love you, brother.”
“Love you too.” He blinked away tears, allowing himself to accept the love and support of his twin.
“Aww, group hug,” Del’s chair scraped against the floor and soon his arms surrounded Ace too. “Love ya, you stubborn knucklehead.”
He chuckled at his baby brother’s words, moving one arm to drag Del into the hug.
“Charlie,” Del said, calling to their sister.
“I don’t do group hugs,” she shook her head, arms crossed as she stayed firmly in her seat.
“Come on, sis,” BJ pleaded.
“No.”
Feeling playful now that a decades long weight had been lifted off his shoulder, Ace shook his head and affected an exaggerated frown.
“Why? Don’t you love me?”
She rolled her eyes, pushing up from the table and shuffling over to them. “Ugh! You’re so dramatic, you big baby.”
“Bebe!” Tilly shouted, slapping her hands on her chest.
Everyone laughed as Charlie joined the circle.
“Fine, I love you, you stubborn punk. And you deserve every bit of happiness we have so talk to Millie and make up. And ask her what hair dye she uses because I’m thinking of switching this brown up.”
He laughed, pulling all his siblings in tight as they hugged. The sound of clicking and a bright flash had him glancing over to see his mom, tears in her eyes, smiling at them as she held her phone up, taking pictures.
“Best family dinner we’ve ever had,” she said.
He agreed. And he hoped the future ones would be even better. With one additional person.
As they all resumed their seats and began eating again, he shot off a response to Millie to name the time and place and he’d be there. Within a minute she replied with tomorrow noon at her studio. He texted back a thumbs up and slipped his phone back in his pocket with a smile.
They had a lot to talk about, a lot to apologize for, but for the first time in the past few days the gloom of misery had a slice of hopeful sunlight peeking in.