Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
As the days passed and Myles spent more and more time with Steven, it got harder and harder to figure out how he felt about how easily the man flipped the script on him.
He’d never let anyone else get away with it before.
In fact, he’d fought Ozzy, often and bitterly, over just that.
But he couldn’t seem to stop Steven doing it.
He didn’t want to fight him on it, either, and that was weird.
Maybe it was because Shelly adored him, and Steven had a way of getting through to her that Myles had yet to figure out. It was hard not to admire the way he so easily dealt with the precocious six-year-old.
“You going over there again today?” Jet asked him as Myles was searching through his wardrobe for a shirt, smiling to himself over the way he knew Steven would smirk at him—again—for layering.
“Is that a problem?”
Jet tossed a leg over the arm of the sofa at the other end of the room. “We have a cooking class today.”
“I’ll be here.”
“What about Shelly?”
“She can come to the shop with me.”
“You think she likes hanging out in a bookstore all day?”
“It’s not all day. I’m just helping Steven with more of his inventory. It goes faster with two people.”
“Doesn’t he have a sister?”
“Jet.” Myles stopped rooting around for something to wear over his T-shirt and turned to his nephew. “Is there a problem?”
“Just that you’re spending a lot of time there.”
“This is a change of tune, suddenly. You practically pushed me out the door the first time.”
Jet made a sound in his throat that didn’t, in any way, explain his change of attitude.
It could be because he hadn’t slept well last night, or because he’d had a fight with a so-called friend back home, or because he was genuinely upset about Myles seeing so much of Steven.
And if it was that, was it because he was worried for Myles, or resentful he wasn’t spending the time with them?
“If I want to see him, I have to go there,” Myles said, fishing. “You know this about him.”
“And how is that going to work when we get back to Calgary?” The edge to Jet’s voice was not lost on Myles. The question was a fair one that he didn’t have an answer for.
So he said nothing.
“What I thought,” Jet said.
Myles closed the wardrobe and went to sit next to Jet. “Maybe that’s something we need to talk about.”
“What?” Jet had his phone in his hand, and he glared at it, though he had stopped scrolling.
“Calgary.”
“Home, you mean.”
“I noticed in the weeks before we left that you spent very little time at the house.”
Jet scowled.
“I understand, you know.”
“You don’t know shit.”
Myles clenched his teeth, counted to ten, then let out a long breath. “I’m trying to have a conversation here. Maybe the least you can do is try looking at me.”
Jet clicked his phone off with aggression as he twisted around to half face Myles. “What?”
“I miss your mother as much as you do.”
“I doubt that. You hardly knew her.”
“I grew up with her.”
“A million years ago.” He wasn’t wrong.
“We drifted apart for a while. I can’t deny that. But she saved my life, I think.”
“You think?”
“I know. She was there for me when she didn’t have to be.
She put up with a lot of crap. I know that.
You saw it, so I know you know it too. I’m not trying to pretend I’m perfect here, or that my relationship with Nat was perfect, either.
I’m a human being. I made a lot of mistakes.
Your mother was there for me in spite of all that. ”
“What’s your point?”
“That I owed her so much.”
“That why you’re putting up with us? Because you owe her?”
“I’m putting up with you because, despite what you think—and how you sometimes behave—I care about you both.
Have I been doing the best job of showing it?
Probably not. Have I been doing the best job of helping you through all of this?
I doubt it. I’m struggling too. And yes, I brought us all here because this is where my friends are. ”
“Not mine.”
“I doubt you’re ready to really talk about your friends. If that’s what they are.”
Jet frowned but didn’t argue the point.
“And we both know that Shelly was deeply unhappy in that school. Right now, you have to see that she’s doing better.”
Jet bit his lip but nodded. “Yeah.” If there could be any more resentment packed into that one little word, Myles didn’t see how.
“The truth is, Shelly and Steven get along really very well. He’s excellent with her.”
“You can’t pawn her off on him just because it’s easier.”
“I’m not. But I am watching how he handles her. Trying to learn something. It might surprise you to know that parenting doesn’t come with a manual.”
“You’re not our parent.”
Ouch. And yet again, he wasn’t wrong. He was so close to not needing a parent. Close, but not there yet. And Shelly, obviously, was nowhere near that.
“Like it or not, Jet, I’m going to be her parent for more of her childhood than her mother got to be. And I want to do that right. I wasn’t doing it at all well back in Calgary with no one to support me.”
Jet had sunk back into the couch at an angle that Myles could no longer see his face. He could, however, see his jaw work.
“It wouldn’t have been fair of me to keep leaning on you like I was.”
“I can handle her.” He picked with a thumbnail at the edge of his phone case. “I know how to deal with her.”
Something in Jet’s voice caused Myles to push back further into the couch, root himself better, plant his feet harder in the moment.
“I know. You’re awesome with her. She loves you to pieces, and I know you love her.
I appreciate everything you do for her, but you’re her brother.
Her wellbeing isn’t down to just you, and that’s as it should be.
I signed on for this. Literally. You didn’t.
While I appreciate your help, you still have your own path to worry about too, and I want you to do that. ”
Jet’s throat worked. He jabbed the heel of one hand into his eye.
Myles recognized the gesture. Natalie, as compassionate as she was, never liked to show weakness.
She almost never cried in front of Myles.
Not when they had been kids, barely at all when their mother had died, and not ever when she’d been sick.
She’d passed that stoicism on to her eldest child, and Myles had no better idea how to break through it with Jet than he’d ever had with Nat.
“She isn’t Steven’s problem, either,” Jet snapped.
“No. But he has experience neither of us do. It can’t hurt to pay attention to that, can it?”
“She’s our kid!” Jet pushed himself upright, but kept his back to Myles.
“Jet.” Myles spread one hand over Jet’s taut back.
That Jet didn’t pull away or shrug him off told Myles more than anything Jet might have said out loud. “She’s your sister, not your kid.”
“You know what I mean.”
Myles was afraid he did know, and he didn’t like the implication for Jet. “You do know that no matter what, you and Shelly are my top priority, right?”
“Sure.” But he didn’t sound much like he believed it. Not really.
“Steven’s been helping me figure her out, that’s all.”
“No. You like him.”
“Well, yes. But not more than I like you and Shelly.”
Jet snorted. “Whatever. Don’t worry about it. Shells always has me. Always. I’ll never abandon her.”
“Like I abandoned your mother.”
Jet ignored that statement, clinging to his point like a barbed barnacle. “She needs me.”
“Yes. She does. But you also need to take time to figure out your own life. That’s why I think taking some of Steven’s advice is good for all of us.”
“What advice?”
“His idea of giving us both some free time from her is a good one.”
He did remove himself, ever so slightly, from Myles’s touch at that. “How you plan to do that?”
“On Monday, why don’t you come with me to check out the YMCA? They have a summer day camp I think we can enroll her in. You can check out the programs too. You never know. You might find something that looks interesting.”
Jet swung around to stare at him. “Do I look like a jock to you?”
Myles grinned. “You look like a stiff breeze might blow you over.”
“Shut up.” At least it got a slight smile out of him, though. And if the rims of his eyes were a bit red, Myles did them both a favour and didn’t mention it.
“Look, just come with me. I think she might be more open to the idea if you’re there to help her pick what classes she wants to do. And there’s no pressure for you to do anything you don’t want to. But you won’t know what your options are if you don’t check it out, right?”
Jet settled back to his slouched position. “You said we were coming here for six weeks.”
“I did.”
“It’s been four.”
“Yes.”
“We’re not going home in two weeks, are we?”
“If I ask what you want, will you be honest with me?”
“Shell seems pretty happy here still.”
“She does, but you’re hedging.”
“And there’s Steven.”
“There is.” Because he’d asked for honesty, he figured Jet deserved it in return. “It’s early days with him. I’m not going to base a decision for our whole family on what he means to me, because honestly, I don’t even know that yet. But I’m not going to discount it, either.”
“Right.” Jet flipped his phone over and over, then finally grunted. “Fair. But then, there’s the cooking lessons. You can almost do eggs now.”
Myles snorted.
“Can I tell you something?” Jet asked, his voice so low Myles almost leaned over to hear him better.
“You can tell me anything.”
“I know you brought us here to get me away from Brady and the gang.”
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased at that consequence of the trip.”
“It was a mistake to get involved with them.”
“Okay.” Myles wasn’t going to jump for joy at hearing Jet’s admission, as much as he sort of wanted to.
“If we stay longer, they just might forget about me by the time we get back.”
“And that would save you some trouble?”
“Probably save you some trouble, too.”