Trapp #3
“Taste it,” she insisted, practically bouncing on her toes as she pushed the mug into his hands.
Trapp took an obliging sip. It was the same vanilla hazelnut latte he had picked up in a giant carafe for the station every week for years.
“It tastes exactly like the coffee shop, doesn’t it? ” Rhonda demanded.
“Wait, it’s not from the coffee shop?”
He had known Rhonda all his life. Her eldest daughter had been older than him, between him and Grayson, the younger falling somewhere between Trapp and the twins, but in all that time, he had never once seen the she-wolf who had worked for his father since Trapp was in diapers throw her head back in what could only be called villainous laughter.
“It’s not! It’s from that machine your brother had delivered!
I found the same brand of syrup the Beanery uses online.
Jack, with the money we’re going to save on coffee, I think we should get one of those tabletop ice machines.
You know, the kind that makes that good crunchy ice. Blinxieburger ice!”
“You do understand that the coffee budget isn’t something that prevents us from buying anything else, right? We don’t even have a budget! And the refrigerator has an ice machine, you know.”
Rhonda scowled. “Jack, I didn’t say we would keep it in here.”
She exited the office to the sound of his father’s laughter. “Send me the link! I’ll buy it right now!”
He motioned for Trapp to close the door once Rhonda had disappeared, still chuckling. As he did so, Trapp could see the commandeered coffee machine out on the counter behind Rhonda’s desk. It was the same model from Grayson’s kitchen.
“He bought her a coffee machine?”
“Oh, he bought us all coffee machines,” Jack confirmed as Trapp retook his seat. “Jackson said his arrived yesterday. Evidently we are all on a strict Black Sheep Beanery boycott.”
Trapp said nothing. Grayson hadn’t said anything to him about the coffee shop.
He was operating under the assumption that no one in the family knew about his little outburst, but he realized how na?ve that was.
Wasn’t that the point? Gossip moved faster than traffic in Cambric Creek.
Tris Tatterswain had probably notified Jack that same afternoon, while Trapp was still stomping down the sidewalk.
“We are not to set foot inside or order delivery until Xavier and Xenna apologize to you.” Jack sat back in his chair, sipping from one of the coffee mugs. “You know how your brother is when he gets a bee in his bonnet about something.”
“They don’t need to apologize. They didn’t do anything to me. They just . . . did what they do.”
He had not said anything to Trapp, but that, too, was an entirely Grayson-like response.
Having a conversation about it would’ve been too close to discussing emotions, and the only emotion his brother was ever comfortable expressing outwardly was disgust. Buying everyone in the family the same pricey, overly complicated coffee machine that sat on his own countertop and forbidding them from giving patronage to the business where the stories about Trapp had begun was a typical Grayson scheme.
He wasn’t sure what his brother was hoping to accomplish, but Trapp knew that this was how Grayson showed his love.
“Why won’t you take the lieutenant test, Trapp?”
He choked on his coffee, burning his tongue and his fingers when he jumped, yelping from the lance of pain in his side. He just needed to stop attempting to drink anything unless he was alone in a locked room.
“That’s what you dragged me in for this morning? Really? After everything else?”
Jack cocked his head, his sharp eyes giving Trapp a penetrating look, but said nothing. Trapp blew out an exasperated breath, recognizing the pause for what it was. The apples all fell straight down in this fucking family.
“I already told the chief. I don’t like paperwork. That’s not why I do this job. And how did you even know about—”
“Because Magruh came to see me,” his father cut him off.
“Thought I could talk some sense into you. He said you should be working up to taking the captain’s test by now.
Said that everyone at the station respects you.
You show leadership and don’t cut corners.
That everyone knows without a doubt that you would lay your own life down to save one of theirs.
You have the time in service and higher certifications than most of the house.
He can’t understand why you’re not willing to—”
“Why do I have to?” Trapp demanded, heat moving up his neck, making his head throb. “What can’t anyone believe that I just want to do my fucking job? I want to help people. If everyone on the crew respects me already, why do I need a rank to hold over them?”
“Who said you had to lord over anyone?” Jack countered, without missing a beat, shrugging after a moment. “I was just asking, Trapp. You don’t need to bite my head off. It sounds like you’ve done quite enough of that lately, all over town.”
Trapp sat back, forcing himself to breathe calmly, not daring to risk another sip of the coffee. “What did you tell him?” He asked after a moment, irritation coloring his voice.
His father shrugged again. “I told him if you wanted to, you would. You’re a grown man. I can’t tell you what to do, nor would I try to. Then I thanked him for his service and told him to close the door on his way out.”
It was safer putting the coffee down, lest he make himself choke again.
He could only imagine the big orc’s reaction to that conversation.
“Everyone acts like I’m not living up to my name,” he blurted out after a moment, unable to hold the thought in.
“Like I’m not doing enough. What more do they want from me?
I’m literally . . . never mind,” he grumbled.
“It doesn’t matter. Can we get on with this?
You hauled me in to lecture me about my attitude.
About saying no to the pancake breakfast. About the coffee shop.
About the fight. My head hurts, Dad. Let’s get the fuck on with it so that I can go back to bed. ”
“Well, you’re not going back to bed. You’re coming over for lunch. And no, that’s not optional. Everyone is in town, and Liam goes back to school in two days. That was really it. I called you in to make sure you were still alive, to be honest. Grayson said he flattened you like a sheet.”
A tiny chime caught his attention as his father’s eyes slid back to the poker game screen before him.
Trapp waited, annoyed, carefully took another sip of the coffee, placing the mug on the desktop with a huff.
“And?” His temple was throbbing. He needed to take some painkillers, should have done so before he’d left the house.
“And what, Trapp? What do you think I’m going to lecture you on? Saying no to getting up in the middle of the night to work a volunteer shift for the pancake breakfast? I’ve never even been to the pancake breakfast. I have pancakes at home, where I can eat them alone, which is what I prefer.”
“You literally have, every single year. Mom makes you.”
“Well, there you go. That’s how memorable it is.”
He huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. It’s called healthy boundaries, Trapp. If he wasn’t being held to account for ducking his volunteer expectations, he was sure it would be something.
“Do you think I’m going to lecture you about your job?
About not living up to your name? Do you think you’re the first Hemming to be made to feel that you weren’t doing your part to live up to expectations?
You’re not even the only Hemming in this room who can say that.
Like I told your chief — if you wanted to, you would.
Expectations belong to the people who hold them, not you.
Don’t let other people’s belongings become your problem. ”
“I understand where Grayson learned his hypocrisy, if nothing else.”
His father glared. “Trapp, I know you were young when your grandfather left office. I’m sure you don’t remember what it was like when I didn’t run to replace him.
I didn’t care then, and I care even less now.
Your brother is in that office because it’s what he chose for himself, not a role I thrust upon him.
Being a Hemming in this town is burden enough. They don’t get to expect more from us.”
Jack paused, peering down at the collection of mugs before him, sniffing two of them before lifting one to take a sip.
“Do you think I’m going to lecture you about the fight you started?
Do you think I wouldn’t have done the same thing or worse if they were talking about your mother?
Do you think I haven’t done worse in the past?
Anyone who calls the woman I love a pack bitch is getting a piece of me, and if there’s one thing your grandfather ensured I could do, it’s take a punch.
I really don’t think I’ve ever lectured you about your life choices the way you like to pretend I’ve done, Trapp. ”
“Is that a joke? When Leelee and I split—”
“I was furious with you,” his father cut in, voice rising a fraction.
“I still am. You got married without telling anyone. Without telling your mother. Without protecting your trust fund. Married to someone who, by your own admission, you didn’t have anything in common with after three years of school.
Someone who could have taken you for half of everything you had to your name and probably would have if your brother hadn’t used intimidation tactics that could’ve gotten him disbarred.
Let’s not pretend it was anything but your own stupidity I was upset with. ”
Trapp said nothing. He knew better. For all of Lowell’s whinging that he didn’t get enough attention, Trapp knew that being the target of his father’s full attention was a far more perilous position to occupy.