Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
WILLOW
The hot pan sizzles as I press down on the grilled cheese.
Out of the three Alder siblings, I am not the one you want to pick to make dinner.
The options of what I can successfully cook without burning are rather minimal, however, my brothers love a good grilled cheese sandwich and that is one thing I’ve mastered over the years.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve managed to keep myself alive for the past few years with my limited cooking abilities and a few new recipes along the way, but take-out will always be my number one.
“Are you making fancy sammies?”
A giggle bubbles in my throat as I throw a glance over my shoulder at Finn. “You know it.”
“Can I have one with pickles and spicy mustard?”
My eyebrows raise as I tap the spatula on the sandwich in the pan that’s turning a nice toasted golden color. “Already got it right here.”
“You’re the best little sister I’ve ever had.”
I purse my lips, cutting my narrowed eyes at my brother as I flip his sandwich from the pan onto an empty plate. “I’m the only sister you have.”
“You know what I mean,” he laughs, shrugging his shoulders as he takes his plate and the one I had already made for Noah. “I’m going to take this out to Noah, if you want to eat at the fire?”
“Sure,” I say, nodding my head as I grab a stack of two buttered slices of bread with cheese and ham in the center and drop it into the pan. “I made tomato soup, too.”
“I’ll come back in for it,” he says as he heads to the door. “Oh, yeah. Can you make an extra? Jace just pulled up.”
My breath hitches and I freeze, although I shouldn’t be surprised. With how close of friends they are, it was only a matter of time before he showed up here. Turning sideways, I look over at my brother pushing on the screen door with his shoulder. “Do you know how he likes his grilled cheese?”
“Probably with ham,” he offers, holding open the door as Noah slips past, carrying his guitar. Noah’s been playing guitar since we were kids and it has become our source of entertainment at the fire. “Jace, how do you like your grilled cheese?” Finn calls out as he steps onto the front porch.
“Can you take the soup out?” I ask Noah as he strides over to the sink. He lifts his ball cap from his head, turning it backwards as he pushes up his sleeves and flips on the faucet. “We can put it in a thermos and pour it into bowls out by the fire.”
“Good idea,” Noah says as he works the soap into a lather before he pushes his hands back under the stream. The smell of a hint of burning toast assaults my nose. I hurriedly flip the sandwich. The edges are almost black, which is exactly how I like it.
“Jace said you know what he likes,” Finn chimes in, ducking his head back through the door before he backs away and lets it slam shut.
My eyes widen slightly and I stare down at the pan in front of me for a beat. “This is the last of the ham and it’s a little burnt around the edge.”
Noah turns off the faucet and grabs a towel to dry his hands. He lifts his shoulders and his eyebrows simultaneously when I look over at him. “Jace isn’t picky. He’d probably eat the whole thing burnt.” Noah reaches into the cabinet to grab a thermos and twists off the lid.
“So, I should just give it to him?” I ask my brother as I remove the grilled cheese from the pan and set it down on another plate.
Noah pours the soup into the container and grabs four small bowls before taking the plate from me. He lifts it to inspect the sandwich. “It looks fine to me.”
“Can you take it out to him?”
“Yep,” Noah says with ease as he slides the stack of bowls beneath the plate in one hand and holds the thermos with his other. I grab two more pieces of bread and spread some butter on one side of each before dropping it onto the pan with a slice of cheese in between.
The hinges on the front screen door groan. “It smells good in here.”
My spine straightens at the sound of his voice.
“Shit, Noah, let me help you.”
Noah chuckles and my head whips to the side. He’s about to lose the plate and the grilled cheese on the floor. “I thought I could get it all.”
“Yeah, of course,” Jace says, taking the plate from him as I flip my sandwich over, noting the perfectly burnt perimeter of the bread.
Jace steps up beside me, his firm shoulder brushing against mine as he leans over the stove.
My stomach tumbles as his warmth seeps through the fabric covering my bicep while he inspects my work. “You still like them like that?”
“Yes,” I say over the groan of the screen door as Noah exits through it. “I didn’t know you were coming, so yours is a little burnt too.”
“I don’t mind,” he says softly as he takes a step back, turning to face me as I turn off the stove and move the pan to a cold burner.
The spatula slides under my grilled cheese with ease and I set it on my plate.
Warmth creeps up my neck and the side of my face from his attention still on me as I find a knife and cut the sandwich diagonally. “Yours doesn’t have any ham on it.”
I turn to look at him. “What?”
“You like ham on your grilled cheese.”
“Oh, yeah,” I say, a soft laugh slipping from me as I shake my head dismissively. He remembers that? “We ran out, but it’s fine.”
Jace looks down at his and a frown tugs his lips downward as he tilts it to the side. He sets his plate down next to mine and grabs the knife. My eyes are on his hands. His tendons flex, the veins protruding through his skin as he cuts through his sandwich.
His gaze meets mine as he takes half and sets it on my plate before he takes half of the plain grilled cheese and sets it on his. “There,” he says, his dimples making an appearance as a slow smile creeps across his lips. “You get half and I get half.”
“Oh, wow,” I chuckle, lifting the plate as I smile back at him. “Look at how far you’ve come. I remember a time where your ‘only child syndrome’ was strong and you refused to share with anyone.”
“That’s not true.” Jace flattens his lips. “I always shared with you.” His expression softens and a warm smile drifts across his lips.
“You’re right,” I say softly, pulling the inside of my cheek between my teeth as I look down at the two halves of the grilled cheese and back to meet his green eyes. “Thanks, Jace.”
“Always,” he says with a wink as he turns away. I wait a second before I grab my own plate and follow him. My footsteps are light and, for a moment, it feels like when we were kids again.
My mother and Jace’s mom always joked about how I was his shadow.
“You know,” he says as he pauses by the back door, taking my plate from me so I can shrug on a light jacket. He hands it back and holds open the door for me as I slide my sock clad feet into a pair of old sneakers. “I should be thanking you for the sacrifice you made.”
My eyebrows tug together as I walk past him, stepping out into the cool night air. I’m greeted by the musky-sweet scent of decaying leaves and the burning logs in the fire.. Falling in step with Jace, we trudge through the grass, the crispy fallen leaves crunchy beneath our feet.
“What sacrifice?” I ask as we approach both of my brothers by the fire.
A smirk lifts his lips. “Grilled ham and cheese is your favorite and you gave it to me instead.”
“Noah, throw one of those logs on the fire,” Finn instructs as he arranges the small bowls on a makeshift tree stump table a few feet away from the fire pit. He twists the lid from the thermos and divides the tomato soup into the four bowls.
Finn hands me and Jace each a bowl of tomato soup. I walk over to one of the Adirondack chairs, lowering myself down as I watch the three of them. Jace stands by the table with Finn, both of them dipping their sandwiches into their soup as Noah dusts his hands on his jeans and sits down next to me.
“Thanks for dinner, Will,” he says, swallowing down a bite of his grilled cheese.
“Please, this is a little kid's dinner.”
Noah shrugs. “It still hits.”
“I’d take your grilled cheese over anything, honestly,” Jace chimes in.
Finn nods. “Comfort food at its finest.”
Heat creeps up my neck, threatening to spread across my cheeks. To conceal it, I duck my head and shove another bite of my sandwich into my mouth. “Well, if there’s one thing I can offer”—I raise up my bowl of soup and sandwich—“this is it.”
A string of laughter spills from the three of them as they all glance at me.
I let myself chuckle just a little. Noah rolls his eyes, lifting his bowl to drink the remainder of his soup.
Finn shakes his head, tossing his crust into the fire, and Jace’s eyes are on mine as he wipes the corner of his mouth with the side of his hand.
“I don’t know, Will,” he says as the flames flicker in his eyes. “You offer a lot more than that, but you do make a damned good grilled cheese.”
Pride swells inside my chest and a slow smile curves my lips. “Well thanks, guys.”
“Okay, enough blowing up her head,” Noah cuts in.
He grabs the poker and steps up to the fire pit.
Then he pushes it in beneath the burning logs and stokes the flames.
“I know you’ve been busy since you got in town, so I’ll save giving you shit for not coming by sooner for another time.
You said you’re in charge of the vet clinic for the next two weeks? ”
Jace’s eyes linger on mine once more as he swallows the last of his food before looking at Noah. “Yeah, they needed someone else to keep an eye on things since their other veterinarian has something going on. They didn’t want to stress Joyce out with it and knew I was back in town.”
“Oh, Joyce. What would we ever do without her?” Noah chuckles and then waves his hand dismissively. “That woman is a saint.”
“Yeah, no shit,” Finn laughs, shaking his head at Noah. Jace grabs a beer from the six pack he brought and twists off the top as he walks over to the chair on the other side of me and lowers himself onto it.
“She saved your ass when we were in high school, in case you don’t remember,” Finn adds.
Jace laughs softly as he kicks his feet out in front of him and crosses his ankles.
“I don’t think anyone in the damn town will forget about that.
” I sneak a glance to my left and my gaze collides with Jace’s as he leans back in his seat.
He lifts the bottle rim to his lips and cracks a smile before taking a sip.
A smirk breaks out across my face. “That poor woman. You’re lucky she was walking into the clinic when you were running down the street.”
“Well, if Wendell Jenkins wasn’t out of his mind chasing after me with a baseball bat, I wouldn’t have needed somewhere to hide.”
Finn arches an eyebrow. “You made out with his girlfriend. I think he’s justified there.”
“No, I didn’t,” Noah retorts, rolling his eyes. “They were broken up at the time.”
“Not according to Wendell Jenkins,” Finn says, lifting both brows.
Jace lifts his beer towards me to share, and I don’t take it until his dimples appear with a nod of his chin.
Our fingers brush, but I pull the bottle to me before I allow myself to pay any attention to the way his skin feels against mine.
His eyes stay on me as I press the rim to my lips and take a long swallow.
I don’t know why he keeps looking at me like that—like he’s studying me, but for what?
“I’m glad to be back,” Jace says, his voice quieter than my brothers as they continue to argue about Wendell Jenkins’ relationship status in high school. The dimples fade and his eyes shimmer beneath the moonlight as the smoke from the fire swirls up over his head.
“I think they’re glad to have you back.” I say, nodding to my brothers.
He tilts his head to the side. “And what about you? Are you glad to be back too?”
Pulling my gaze from his, I turn to look at my brothers.
Noah stands to the side of Finn, his hands lifted in front of him as he talks animatedly.
Finn keeps shaking his head, rolling his eyes as he lets out a laugh between their rebuttals.
The two of them have always been like this and honestly, it’s a comforting thing.
A warm sensation washes over me as contentment wraps itself around my body.
Sugar Hill Hollow has always been my home and I know it always will be.
I’ve missed being here, missed the campfires and stars, the smell of the sugar maples, the familiarity, and most of all, I missed being with my brothers, even when they argue.
Giving my attention back to Jace, I lean forward and hand his beer over to him.
His eyes never leave mine as he lifts the bottle and tips some beer into his mouth.
He huffs out a laugh and I realize I was staring at his throat as he swallowed.
I clear my throat and shake my head, turning back to the fire and remembering his question. “I am.”
I’ve missed being around him.
Without warning, Jace rises to his feet and strides past me. The faint smell of his cologne invades my senses as he passes and I can’t help myself as my eyes follow after him. He twists off the tops of three other beers, handing one to each of my brothers, before coming to stand by me.
He extends his arm, holding the other bottle out to me. Sitting up in my seat, I take it from him. His mouth twitches and the apples of his cheeks lift, but his dimples don’t appear. Switching hands, he holds his drink out to me. “To all of us being back in the Hollow again.”
A slow smile pulls on my lips as I clink the rim of my bottle to his. “To all of us.”
Noah walks over, throwing his arm around the tops of Jace’s shoulders. “Well, some of us never left,” he reminds Jace and me as he taps his beer against mine and then Jace’s.
“Whatever, we’re all together now,” Finn chimes in, coming over to sit on the arm rest of my chair. He follows suit, clinking his bottle to Jace’s, Noah’s, and mine. “Well, at least until Willow leaves us again.”
My stomach rolls as the reminder plucks my nerves. How do I tell them that I’m not sure I want to leave again? How do I tell them that I’m not sure I can deal with rejection again after not making it into vet school the first time?
How the hell do I tell them when they don’t even know the truth?
“None of that matters right now,” Jace says, his eyes slowly searching mine. “Cheers, to all of us. To the present and whatever comes in the future.”
Finn and Noah both nod. “Cheers,” they say in unison, lifting their beers to take a sip.
Jace’s eyes are still on mine. Relief washes over me that he saved me from an uncomfortable moment he didn’t even realize was happening. My shoulders relax and I dip my chin, my gaze still locked with his.
“Cheers.”