Chapter 15
J ack was a really good buffer when it came to the nothingness that had transpired between me and Scott after the conversation earlier. He was energetic and funny, and we had a blast making the pizzas.
We’d rolled the dough together and I’d chopped up some of his favorite ingredients for our pizza toppings.
While they were cooking I showed him the eight sugar cookies I’d made and iced.
“Oh, man. Those are so cool. Uncle Scott, can you take a photo of them and send it to Mom or Dad? I want to show Beau.”
My heart gave a pang at him referring to Gunner as his dad.
Jack’s biological father was a complete waste of space and there had been many a night over the years where I’d had to talk Scott down from doing something really, really stupid, like kill the shithead with his bare hands.
One time I’d even had to stand in front of his car and refused to move until he’d calmed down and come back inside.
Gunner had been a goner from the moment he’d met Coralie and had been everything she and Jack had deserved and more. The man was a saint. Kind, patient. Present.
He was a good man and we all loved him.
“Sure, kid.” Scott smiled at me as he reached for his phone and the flash went off a couple of times before he showed the screen to Jack.
“Thanks. Can we have one now?”
“Oh, I dunno. Will you let me make a salad to go with the pizza?”
Jack looked at Scott and Scott smirked.
“A salad for a pre-dinner cookie? I’d say it was a good trade-off.”
Jack sighed like he was in pain. “Okay. A side salad for a cookie would be awesome, thank you.”
“Deal,” I said and passed him a napkin when he chose to eat an Avengers emblem.
Scott winked at me, and I gave him a genuine smile. It wasn’t his fault the conversation hadn’t gone as I’d hoped.
Although maybe it had, because really I just wanted to see his reaction and I’d definitely gotten that, hadn’t I?
I told the boys to go sit on the couch and went about fixing a salad that was Jack-friendly. I added grapes and Goji berries to the greens I was preparing, not only to brighten it up, but for sweetness, too, and then I checked the oven.
Everything looked perfect.
I heard the buzz of my phone vibrating on the side and reached for it.
Gabe: I just ate a deconstructed cheesecake
I snorted and swiped to unlock my phone.
Me: Oh yeah? What was it?
Gabe: What did it used to be you mean?
Me: I take it you’re not a fan
Gabe: I must have missed the description because I was just looking forward to a big old slice of Lemon meringue cheesecake and instead I got a pile of cookie crumbs and a swirl of lemon curd
Me: It’s all the rage at the minute
Gabe: Well, this place has nothing on Cupcake.
“Hey, Aunt Jenna?” Jack pulled me from my phone, and I turned to face him. Scott was watching me with curiosity.
“Hmmm?”
“How long till the pizzas are ready?”
I opened my mouth ready to tell him and the oven beeped.
“Right about now,” I said, laying my phone back on the counter and donning the oven mitts.
“Yes!”
Seeing as Jack was staying over, we were trying to make it as chilled out as possible—this was a treat for all of us after all, so we ate on the couch and turned on the movie.
I’d made some chocolate milk for both of them—Scott had been addicted to the stuff since I’d known him—and they were already both on their second glass.
Later, as the credits rolled and the boys talked animatedly about some of the stunts Spiderman had pulled off, Scott suggested instead of going to the museum again tomorrow as planned, we could try and get on a Marvel movie tour that tourists loved so much. Jack was hyped.
“Wanna stay up and watch the highlights?” Scott asked Jack when he noticed the time.
“Yeah. Pleeease let the B’s have lost their game.”
“Right!” Scott agreed, and then as soon as the opening to the highlight show started I knew I had become invisible.
I loved hockey but I could take or leave the highlights if it wasn’t the Wolves, so I got up to tackle the mess in Scott’s kitchen.
Scott pulled on my hand. “Not so fast, cupcake. Me and Jack will do that after. Sit back down and watch the show.”
“Okay, but let me just get some water.”
“I’ll get it for you, Auntie Jenn.” Jack leapt up, chivalrous as ever.
We heard clinking and the tap running and then he padded back across to us.
“Thank you, kind sir,” I said as he gingerly passed me one of the three glasses he had precariously balanced, and then he scooted right in beside me.
Scott threw his arm over the back of the couch and pulled me into him with his other. Then Jack pulled down a comfy throw I assumed was Wren’s and draped it across the three of us.
As I nestled into Scott’s warm body, and Jack nestled into me, I wondered why I’d ever brought up us finding other people in the truck.
Why did I want more? Wasn’t this perfect enough?
I was sitting next to two of my favorite people in the whole world. We’d had fun, and now that we were all cuddled up on the couch, did I need more?
But it hit me all over again.
Someday Jack would be calling someone else his auntie and Scott would be cuddled up with her instead of me.
As soon as Jack was asleep, I grabbed my coat just as Wren walked in through the front door.
She looked absolutely wrecked, and then Scott’s phone chimed.
“Fuck,” he muttered as he raised his head from the screen.
“Are you okay?” I rushed over to her and pulled her into me.
She shook her head “no” then rose to her full height. “But I will be. I just need to go to bed.”
“I was just leaving, but I could stay with you if you wanted me to.”
“No. I know it sounds cliché, but I’d really rather be alone. Maybe we could talk when I’ve had some time to process what the fuck just happened.”
I nodded. “We can do that.”
Scott reached for his coat. “Now you’re here I’m gonna walk Jenna back. Could you listen out for Jack? He’s fast asleep, but just in case.”
“Yeah. No problem. Take your time.”
“Thanks, Wren,” Scott said.
“Night, Wren. See you soon.”
“Night,” she said quietly.
Scott took my hand and led me out of the door and into the hall.
“Did something happen tonight?”
“Yeah, apparently it all blew up again and it looks like she came off worse this round. What the fuck is my brother doing?”
“Why do you look so worried over a fight?”
“He’s”—Scott scrubbed his hand over his face—“he’s drinking and it’s bad. I think...maybe . . .”
My stomach dropped. “You think it’s as bad as his freshman year of college?”
“I think it’s worse.”
“Oh, no.”
The look on Scott’s face told me everything I needed to know. The situation had just gone from serious to cataclysmic and no one knew what the hell to do. Knox and Wren were adults and there was only so much you could do when the work needed to be done on the inside. It was between them, but still.
He stormed past the elevator and took the stairs as I followed down the steps behind him.
“You want to go to him.”
“Yes, I do, but I don’t think I’m the right person this time around. I can’t . . . I can’t watch him throw it all away.”
“I wish he’d just let her talk to him.” I sighed as Scott held the door open for me and we walked out into the cold, dreary night.
“I think that’s the problem, cupcake,” he said as he took my hand again.
“She’s told him the truth and it’s made everything ten times worse.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“I think for once, as much as it goes against my whole being, I need to let him do this on his own. Shit, I sound so callous, don’t I? I should go see if I can talk some sense into him.”
I’d never seen someone look so torn. Scott was a doer. A protector. But he also couldn’t stand it when Knox looked like he was about to press the self-sabotage button.
It had happened once before, and Scott had struggled having to watch his little brother pick up the pieces. If it wasn’t for his family intervening every now and again, Knox would have succeeded in ruining everything good in his life more than once.
“Is he alone?”
“No, Jase is with him.”
“I say get more information out of Jason before you go storming in.”
He nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
In less than five minutes we were at my place, and he was turning the key in the brass lock and ushering me in out of the cold.
He took the stairs two at a time, his hulking body taking up all the space the stairwell had to offer, and turned the light on for me when he reached the top. He grumbled under his breath about me not leaving it on to begin with, but I didn’t say anything—that would just poke the bear.
“Okay, Jack and I will come get you at ten,” he said as I ascended toward him into my apartment.
“Yep.” I nodded.
“See you tomorrow,” he grunted distractedly as he closed the inside door behind me and clomped back down the steps.
I leaned back against the door. Knox and Wren were certainly adding a dose of drama into the otherwise habitual routine we had going on.
I was a little antsy with the way the afternoon had unfolded, even though it was getting late.
Still, my feet carried me to my kitchen where my hands itched to do . . . something.
I unzipped my coat and threw it over the back of the sofa and then I opened the fridge, an idea sparking. I would make up a picnic for our adventure tomorrow and hopefully, it would get late enough that I’d just pass out. My mind was spinning and there were only two things that could silence it. The first had just left via the front door, and the second was creating a feast fit for a superhero.