6. Hope
6
HOPE
S o I stayed for supper at Archer House.
Since all ten of us couldn’t fit around the dinner table, they found an extra card table to drag in, where the Happys and the Bashfuls sat together. I made sure I got a seat next to Alec, which ended up being directly across from my charming ex -chauffeur.
Parker had refilled his highball and was taking a gulp as he waited for a dish to pass by. I glanced around at the others, thinking this felt strangely cozy and intimate, like a family’s Thanksgiving. They all seemed so comfortable with each other, and it was as if they’d momentarily forgotten that the dreaded Hope was in their midst.
Conversation lulled as we dug in, trying out the salad Hudson had whipped up along with his Brisket Surprise.
I swear, I was the only one who seemed even remotely surprised when I took my first tentative bite.
“Oh my God,” I yelped, covering my mouth with two fingers before snarfing down another mouthful. “This is really good.” I swiveled my gaze toward Hudson, who sat catty-corner across from me, next to Parker. “Wow, Sleepy.”
He shrugged humbly. “The ladies did most of the work. I just tweaked it a little.”
“Tweaked it, my ass,” Faith snorted from his right, where she was stationed at the far end. “We slaughtered this meal. You brought it back from the dead, baby.” Setting her hand on his arm, she turned to me. “Hudson’s such a good cook that the head chef and the sous chef in this fancy new restaurant in town asked for him personally to join their kitchen brigade. And he still has another year left of college.” Sitting back, she lifted her eyebrows. “I mean, if that’s not the sign of a damn fine chef, then I don’t know what is.”
I smiled, impressed by her dedication and pride in Hudson’s accomplishments. That was the ideal other half, right there.
But a second later, I straightened. “New restaurant? Oh!” I glanced over at Parker. “Is that the place we passed on the way here?”
His gaze drifted lazily my way, and I could tell from the glaze in his eyes, he was definitely feeling the buzz of all the liquor he’d drunk. I wasn’t even sure if he was going to answer me, so it was a good thing Faith spoke up, saying, “It’s called V-Eleven.”
“Yes.” I pointed at her, remembering the sign, only to swivel my gaze back to Parker with a confused frown. “Why the hell didn’t you mention that Sleepy worked there?”
He sniffed out a bored sound, only to sarcastically drawl, “Oops.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering what the hell his problem was. He was even crabbier than usual.
“It’s only been open four months,” Faith was gushing. “And it’s already more popular than Gusanos, where Hudson was employed before. In fact—the two chefs I just mentioned? Two of Hudson’s favorite mentors, by the way—the owner somehow snagged them from Gusanos to be the two main chefs at V-Eleven.”
When Parker flinched, only to cover it with a drink, I squinted curiously at him before glancing toward the Sleepys. “Yeah, Dopey told me about Gusanos,” I said. “ And about its owner’s daughter.”
Hudson shuddered in revulsion before performing the sign of the cross. “May she rot in jail forever.”
I smiled. “She’s still behind bars, then?”
“Oh, yeah,” he assured. “She got five years for attempted murder.”
“Sweet.” I nodded, glad he’d found some justice for getting run over by Miss Gusano with her car, only to return my gaze to Grumpy. He was refusing to look up as if he were trying to hide something, and an idea started to brew in my head.
“You know…” I murmured, watching him carefully. “When we drove by V-Eleven, I thought the sign actually said seven in Roman numerals.”
“Hey, yeah,” Alec answered, lifting his eyebrows in surprise. “It really does look like a Roman numeral seven, doesn’t it?”
When Parker looked up and narrowed his eyes at me, almost as if in warning, I answered, “It sure does. And it was quite a coincidence that your two favorite chefs from the other place ended up there.” Turning my attention to Sleepy, I added, “Don’t you think?”
Hudson only shrugged. “I guess. Why?”
“No reason.” I took another bite of my meal, only to add, “What’d you say the owner’s name was again? Of V-Eleven?”
Shut up , Parker mouthed, clearly warning me to drop the subject.
“I actually don’t know,” Hudson answered. “He’s some kind of silent partner or something. Wants to remain anonymous, I guess. But I met the manager. Decent lady. She used to volunteer at the grief center, in fact.”
“ Did she?” I nodded, still watching Parker. “How interesting.”
“What the hell are you getting at?” Keene finally demanded, not a fan of my evasive hinting.
But I just kept being vague as I shrugged. “Nothing. I just think it’s incredibly handy that a new restaurant opened up right when Sleepy needed a new job, plus its mysterious unknown owner was able to snag Hudson’s very favorite chefs from his nemesis’s restaurant so he could return to working under them again. Then there’s the fact that the number seven is hidden in the very title of the place and a former grief center volunteer runs everything. All such a strange and interesting coincidence. Huh, Grumpy ?”
Ignoring me, Parker tipped his glass back and drained it dry.
Hudson’s mouth dropped open for a full two seconds as he glanced between me and Parker, adding everything together in his head.
At the card table, I heard Happy whisper, “Holy shit,” as the pieces fell together for him as well.
Suddenly, Hudson slapped his fork down and spun to Parker. “You bought me a damn restaurant?”
Parker refused to acknowledge him as he set his empty glass on the table gently. Then, he sent me a condemning glare. “You really don’t know when to shut up, do you?”
I lifted one shoulder, unconcerned by his anger. “You shouldn’t have been so obvious if you didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Obvious?” Hudson cried. Lifting his hands, he glanced around at the others. “Did anyone else know about this?”
As a load of no’s murmured their way from the card table, and Alec shook his head insistently, while Keene swore, “Fuck, no,” Hudson relaxed a little more. “Well, at least I wasn’t the only clueless dumbass.” But he slumped lower in his chair when he asked, “So, you, what— forced them to hire me?”
“What? No ,” Parker insisted. “I didn’t even mention your name. I only suggested that they could look for candidates still in culinary school, if they wanted. And you were the first person they mentioned.”
Hudson blew out a long breath and shook his head as if having a hard time believing that. “You swear?”
Parker lifted both hands. “I swear. They wanted you in their kitchen.”
“Jesus,” Hudson breathed, closing his eyes briefly. “You interfering son of a bitch. Come here.” Swinging an arm around Parker’s shoulders, he hauled Parker against him for a side hug and then pressed his temple against Parker’s. “Thank you,” he rasped before releasing him. “But gah, we really need to find something worthwhile for you to spend all your money on.”
“Amen,” Faith agreed.
Only for Oaklynn to speak up from the other table, “And for God’s sake, Ohrley, score us a reservation there, won’t you? Damien and I have been on a waiting list for three weeks just to get in.”
Chuckling out a small smile, Parker nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Ooh, Alec and I want to eat there as well,” I spoke up, hooking my arm through my brother’s and pulling him close. “Get us a reservation too, won’t you?”
But Grumpy only sent me a sharp scowl. “ You’ll be lucky to survive the night. Blabbermouth.”
I’m not sure why that little bit of exclusion cut as deeply as it did. I mean, I’d never really been part of the group. I only pretended to butt my way into their inner circle to annoy everyone so they’d appreciate Alec’s sweetness more. Plus, I had just majorly outed Parker.
Of course, he wasn’t happy with me.
But still…
Ouch.
I sank deeper into my chair, mutely unable to think up a good rebuttal. Not like I usually could. I guess death jokes just weren’t as funny to me these days.
What was worse, the kitchen fell uncomfortably quiet afterward, as if everyone had felt the sting of my rejection just as harshly as I had.
Alec patted my hand in comfort and leaned over to whisper, “I’ll get us in.”
As I sent him a small, grateful smile, Raina cleared her throat from the other table.
“So,” she claimed loudly, being obvious in her efforts to lighten the mood. “If Foster is Happy…” She numbered the seven off on her fingers, “Alec is Dopey, Keene is Sneezy, Hudson is Sleepy, Damien is Bashful, and Parker is Grumpy, then that would make Thane?—”
“Doc,” Oaklynn supplied with an approving nod before. “That makes total sense since he’s kind of the unofficial leader of the group.”
“And because he has a terrible sense of direction,” I added with a nod.
“Does he really?” Faith wondered, shaking her head as if amazed by that fact.
“Totally,” I confirmed. “He got lost driving me home from school one time.”
Alec snorted. “Only because he’d never been to your place before and you gave him the wrong directions.”
“Hey, at the time, you thought it was as funny as I did.” I bumped my shoulder over into his and sent him a mischievous grin before glancing around. “Where is good ol’ Doc, anyway?” He was the only member of the group missing.
“Probably staying away because he knew you were here,” Parker snarked.
“ Or he’s with his girlfriend,” Alec added quickly, lifting his voice as if that would wipe away the vile that Grumpy had just spewed. “We still haven’t gotten to meet her yet.”
But I shook my head. “No,” I countered. “I bet Grumpy’s right.” Making eye contact with Faith, the only other girl at this table, I added, “Thane hates me most of all, I think. Even more than Sneezy here.”
When I prodded Keene in the arm with my elbow where he sat at the opposite end of the table as Faith and directly to my right, he hissed at me and drew his limb away, claiming, “Not possible. And one fucking sneeze should not instigate a lifelong nickname.”
At the other table, Oaklynn was claiming, “I can’t picture Thane hating anyone.”
“What makes you think he hates you?” Raina wondered.
“Probably because of the horrible way I treated Alec when I first met him,” I explained as I glanced at my brother and sent him an apologetic wince before gripping his arm to let him know how sorry I still was about our childhood.
“Nah. He doesn’t hate you for that,” he tried to assure me as he bumped his shoulder over into mine encouragingly.
“Well, he still holds it against me, that’s for sure,” I countered.
Keene glanced over at me with a big, fake smile. “I definitely still hold it against you.”
“Aww.” I reached out and pinched his cheek, jostling it a little before letting go. “And it looks just adorable on you too.”
He pulled his head back with a hiss, even though I’d already released him, and he narrowed his eyes before mumbling something I didn’t catch.
While at the other table, Raina said, “I’m so confused. What do you mean, when you first met Alec? You’re brother and sister, right?”
“Half-siblings,” I answered. “We have different mothers and didn’t actually know each other existed until the day our dad died.”
“Oh my God,” Oaklynn murmured in surprise before glancing at Damien in censure, as if she couldn’t believe he hadn’t already told her that little fact. “What happened?”
I shrugged, glossing over the details. “My parents took me to this carnival once, where some boy I’d never met before came racing up to my father, calling him dad. And when the shit hit the fan, dear old dad freaked himself into a heart attack. Died on the spot.”
“Holy shit,” Faith breathed.
“I was this close to being number eight of the seven,” I added, holding up my fingers an inch apart. “I joined the boys’ grief group for, like, thirty seconds before Grumpy chased me off in tears.”
“Parker!” Raina scolded, sending him a condemning look.
He merely shrugged.
“No, seriously,” I spoke up. “I deserved it.”
Which made Parker lift his gaze in surprise. I met his stare briefly before turning to Alec with an apologetic cringe. Alec covered my hand and squeezed in support.
Exhaling, I faced the others. “I was not in a good place back then. And I took it out on poor Alec. But then he saved my life, and we became besties, so...”
It was all water under the bridge now.
Leaning my face over to hug Alec’s arm to my side, I announced, “Now he’s my favorite person in the whole world.”
“Oh, hey.” Faith perked to attention. “He gave you some of his liver, right?” Glancing over at Hudson, she pointed. “I remember you mentioning that just a few weeks ago.”
“Say what ?” Raina shrieked, only to scowl at Foster for having not already told her.
As he lifted his hands in apology, I explained, “Yeah, I had cirrhosis of the liver from some genetic disorder that probably grew into hepatitis and inflamed the organ after I got sick once when I was little. And it never healed properly because by the time I was fourteen, I needed a transplant, or I was going to die. So I went begging, and… Alec agreed to give me a portion of his .”
“Holy shit, Alec,” Oaklynn breathed in awe. “You saved her life.”
“Well, I mean…” He shrugged bashfully and lifted a hand as if to say there’d been no other alternative.
But there had been. He could’ve told me to fuck off. I’d been nothing but mean to him up to that point, and he’d still willingly gone through a terrifying surgery for me. Even his mother had been against the idea at the time.
He had never wavered from wanting to help me, though. My brother had the purest soul ever, I swear.
“He was only thirteen years old,” I said, looking at him with all the affection in my heart. “And people are technically supposed to be at least eighteen before they can donate anything, but in some extreme cases, they allow it. It’s only happened a dozen times in the United States, so he became number fourteen in the list of child donors.”
“Wow,” Faith uttered, blinking at Alec in shock as if she were seeing him for the first time. “I had no idea.”
“We ended up in the same recovery room afterward,” I went on. “Where we finally got to know each other.” When I glanced over at my Dopey to share a private smile with him, he grinned back.
“We bonded over our mutual disgust for hospital food, and I introduced her to The Goonies .” Shaking his head sadly, he teased, “I still can’t believe you hadn’t seen that movie before. It’s a freaking classic .”
I laughed. All my love for him seemed to bubble to the surface, and I hugged his arm again before leaning over to slap a grateful kiss on his cheek. “I’m so happy to be home,” I announced, feeling my joy seep from my pores. “I missed you, Dopey.”
“Missed you too,” he answered with a flattered chuckle as he leaned against me.
Still smiling from his radiant presence, I unintentionally swung my gaze across the table, and some of that joy cooled with an ugly dose of reality. Parker narrowed his eyes at me, and for some reason, his glower reminded me of all the lies and secrets I was keeping from Alec.
My sweet, innocent brother would probably never forgive me if he knew what I was hiding. But I had to protect him. I couldn’t just tell him everything. Not yet.
Bowing my face shamefully, I swallowed thickly and picked up my fork to concentrate on my meal as supper continued around me.