18. Hazel
EIGHTEEN
Hazel
Wind rushes over my skin, and it’s not the comforting, warm kind that’s been hanging out with Jade and me all afternoon. I’ve been sitting next to her for hours while she reads and I work on my laptop.
But I think our sunny afternoon is coming to an abrupt end.
Overhead, a dark blue cloud drifts quickly across the sky. Its edges are angry curves and crevices, and the sky takes on a green tinge as more of them cover the sun.
“Jade, I think we—” A water droplet lands on my arm. Shit ! “Get inside!”
“Huh?”
I yank her up out of the hammock as I get up, clutching my laptop under my arms as we dash toward the house.
Jade giggles, starting to feel the raindrops now.
“Don’t laugh! This thing can’t get wet! And neither can your book!”
But I’m laughing as I screech, getting us inside the house just as the sky opens up above us with a low rumble of thunder. It’s an official downpour.
We’re laughing like loons as the door remains open, the smell of rain and heat mixing in the air to create that perfect summer storm fragrance.
“What’s so funny?”
Easton’s voice sounds from behind us, and Jade spins around as I close the door. The water is getting inside now.
“Hazel got us inside seconds before we were drenched! We had to sprint across the yard!”
Stepping up toward the patio door, Easton cranes his face up toward the sky, peering out through the glass as the sky gets darker and darker.
It’s going to be a rough one.
“Oh, da—darn.” Easton corrects the swear with a silly face, and I can’t help but smile. “I think I should wrap up work for the day. At this rate, we might even lose power for a little bit.”
Nervous energy clings to me. “Really? Will we be okay?”
“Of course. I have a backup generator.”
Damn, this “boy scout” is always prepared.
“Why don’t we play some board games or something? I can make some popcorn on the stove, and if we need to, we can use the camping lanterns to light the kitchen.”
Jade perks up, hopping in excitement. “Yes, yes, yes! That sounds awesome!”
I have to agree with her. A family game night with snacks and ambiance does sound pretty fantastic.
“Jade, why don’t we pick out a few games while your uncle makes the popcorn?” I hold out my hand, knowing that the board games are stored in a bench seat beneath the window in the living room.
We played Guess Who a few days ago, and Jade was surprisingly good at knowing the types of questions to ask to make the game end quickly.
“Okay!”
She takes my hand, and Jade and I go into the living room to grab a couple of options.
As we dig through the bench seat for games, I’m reminded that Easton has a hell of a selection for being a bachelor. Something tells me that Jade probably brought these from her old home, and my chest pinches.
Living with Easton is new for her, too.
He’s been doing great, though, with both of us. Easton works so hard to make Jade feel welcome and loved, and I’ve never felt safer.
Or as emotionally turned around, if I’m honest.
Jade and I pick a couple of options, including Life and Clue, and we take them to the kitchen table, where Easton sits down with a bowl of popcorn. He smiles at her, rubbing her hair and mussing it up, to which she slaps his hand away, complaining that he is “ruining her do.”
“Sure, sure, it's a ponytail. Whatever you say. All right, what games did you find?”
Jade perks up and holds out the two options we found in the bench seat.
Between the two of them, I can tell Easton is already aiming towards Clue, and I don't mind in the slightest. It's one of my favorites, too.
As long as I can be Ms. Scarlet.
Doling out the pieces and idly munching popcorn as we do, we make small talk about how gloomy and dark it looks outside. The sky is still that strange shade of green, even with the rain pattering against the windows, and it's pretty loud.
“Should we put on some music?” I raise my brows at Jade.
“Oh yes, let's put on music so that we can play and the rain doesn't sound so scary,” Jade says.
It's just a little rain, but alright. Easton rolls his eyes. He walks over to the entertainment center in the living room and puts on low-fi hip-hop, a type of music I have forced him to listen to over the past couple of days.
When he comes back to the table, we have all the pieces set up for Clue, all of us with our little cards accounted for and the envelope full of whoever the murderer might be. We begin the game, and it is just as fun as I remember it.
Probably twice as much fun because we have Jade with us, who manages to find something funny to point out about every single character on the board.
Time flows quickly. We go through several different rounds. Jade wins one. I win one, but Easton doesn't win any.
And then we take a break to go get real food because we've emptied the popcorn bowl and need something more substantial.
It's so strange to be in Easton's company like this. I enjoy it more than I'd like to admit. But there's this tiny voice in the back of my head that says we’re just playing house. The only reason that Easton is doing this is because of Neil's threat.
He wouldn't be here if it weren't for that.
Still, I can't help but wonder if having me in town, if seeing me again, is doing the same thing to him that it is to me.
Would it be a good idea to stay here in Red Lodge, to stay here with him?
Or is he just going to pick up and leave like he did last time, promises of returning to me dashed against the summer breeze?
“All right, we're changing games. We're switching over to Life. I'm not going to sit here and lose two more times to either of you.”
Easton sits down with the new board game at the table, all grins and fake sadness over losing. Jade giggles, and I help Easton set up Life. It's such a weird choice, given everything that we're going through right now.
We are playing at Life. Aren't we?
Pretending like we're this couple, that Jade is our kid, that this is our house, and we're safe here.
I swallow down the thoughts. I don't want to ruin our lovely afternoon by being a mope.
As Life continues, we each get hit with several different bad luck cards, paying taxes or losing our jobs. But it's fun, and we can't help but laugh and tease each other.
It’s also so blissfully normal.
The day goes on like that for several hours. At one point, we order pizza for dinner, and we watch a movie before playing one more game before bed, which ends up being Uno.
I crush everyone at that game, and both Jade and Easton swear that they will never play with me again. I don't believe them for a single second, though.
When I see Jade yawn, I stand up from the couch and open my arms.
“Come on, let's head upstairs. It's time for bed.”
“Aww, man, but we were playing Uno, and it was fun.”
I make a face at Jade, crossing my arms over my chest. “I thought you said you were never going to play with me again?”
She makes a sheepish face. “Okay, okay. I didn't mean it. But do I have to go to bed?”
Easton perks up from the couch and gives her a look. “Yes, you still have to go to bed.”
Jade frowns, but it's all pretend, and I scoop her up into my arms, even though she is nearly the size of me as a ten-year-old, and start up the stairs.
I make it about halfway before I have to put her down.
“Okay, I'm sorry, cutie, you're too heavy.”
She laughs and hurries up the stairs towards her bedroom. It only takes her a few minutes to get her PJs on, and then I shoo her into the bathroom so that she can brush her teeth.
“You had a lot of sugar today. You have to make sure you do a really good job.”
Jade comes out of the bathroom with the toothbrush against her teeth, brushing at top speed.
Chucking, I give her a thumbs up. “Ten out of ten. Excellent job.”
After the two minutes for brushing her teeth and a few extra, because she kept getting distracted by trying to talk, I just grin and then walk her to her room.
The storm is still going strong, and if anything, it's even harder now.
A crack of thunder shakes the entire house, and the lightning that flashes outside lights up Jade's room.
“Ah! Oh, I don't like it. Hazel, can you stay? Stay with me, please?”
She makes that puppy dog face, putting her hands in front of her chest, begging me to stay with her, and I couldn't possibly say no.
“Ah,” I sigh and gesture towards her little bed. “All right, I can stay with you until you fall asleep.”
“Thank you.”
I get in bed alongside her, find a place against the wall, and open up my arms so that she can come lay down. It's a good thing this isn't an actual twin bed but a full one, because there's no way both of us would fit on it if it were.
“Will you read me a story?”
I look at Jade's hopeful face and roll my eyes before gesturing toward her bookshelf. She grabs one of her favorite stories, and I look at her pointedly.
“This is a long one, so we're only doing a few chapters, okay?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “It's not that long, but alright.”
Snuggling into my arms, Jade smiles. I hold up the book so that we can both see the pages, even though it's not a picture book, it's just words.
“Alright, here we go. Chapter One.”
I start reading to her. The sound of my voice is a constant drone against the rain outside that batters the windows. I get through the chapter setting up the story about a land that's full of princesses and dragons.
I start into the second one before I notice that I can barely keep my eyes open as I read the words.
I do my best to struggle forward, but before I know it, the book hits me in the face.
Jade doesn't notice at all. She's already comfortable, the sound of her heavy breathing filling the space where my reading was before.
As I set the book down, Jade snuggles deeper, grabbing one of her favorite stuffed animals, a little cat with gray stripes, and eventually, she is completely asleep.
I’m eased, too, by the feeling of her breathing, her chest going up and down, and before I know it, I fall asleep right next to her.
I wake up sometime later, I'm not sure how long, to the feeling of the bed moving. I crack open an eyelid and see that it's Easton getting into Jade's little full-size bed on her other side.
She's sandwiched between us now, and I cock my head as he settles in.
“Just trying to keep her calm,” he whispers. “I could hear her making noises. Go back to sleep.”
Easton offers me a smile, closing his eyes as he lays his head down next to Jade’s. His cheek comfortably rests on the top of her head.
I smile in the darkness, allowing the tiredness to claim me again.
But it still surprises me that he's in here alongside her. I know that he's just looking to comfort her. And again, I'm impressed by how much he really does care for her.
He may not have been in Jade's life for long, but Easton is making up for lost time by being the best damn uncle he can be.
The sight of him lying next to her, me here on her other side, tugs at my heartstrings.
It really is like we are a little family.
As we lay there, I don't know what to do with the conflicting emotions that swirl through me, except to ignore them for now.
It's late; it's still raining, and it's dark inside Jade's room, so the best thing to do right now is to let Jade and Easton keep sleeping.
I know that our worries will be there for us in the morning, and maybe more, but for right now, I can lay comfortably in this tiny little bed with the two people I care for so much.
In fact, I'm beginning to fall in love with them both in unique ways, so I’ll pretend like we truly are a happy little family.
Still, I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to put on this facade.
When morning does come, and Easton and I finally find the chance to talk to each other about what happened the other day, I don't know how it will go.
How much longer can we continue to convince everyone that we're dating and claim it's fake? When, with each passing moment, it feels more and more real.
I'm terrified of what this could mean, because he's left me once before. And I know that if he said he would stay with me this time, if he promised to be mine and make it official, I'd be happier than I care to admit.