10. Harmony
CHAPTER 10
Harmony
G ibs keeps his word.
He wakes up early with me the next day, following me back to the café in his own car.He carries in the pastries from Amanda’s van when she arrives so we can open sooner. Of course I think he has an ulterior motive, which is to earn a free cruller for himself. He knows I’ll give him one if he’s helpful, which I do.
We sit in the kitchen, and he helps me mix cookie dough as he updates me on what’s been going on with Muted Anarchy. I bake the basics like cookies and brownies. The other stuff I buy from Amanda, a local and very talented pastry chef who sells me baked goods. I’m still hopeful she’ll agree to come work for me full time. I’ve even offered her free reign of the SeaSong kitchen to fulfill her personal business orders.
I brew my cousin another extra large cup of coffee with two pumps of caramel, two pumps of vanilla, and one pump of chocolate syrup to take on the road with him.While I miss my parents, I also miss Gibs.
He’s always been such a force in my life. A best friend when making friends at school felt impossible. I learned quickly there were kids, and sometimes even adults, who only wanted to be friendly with me because of my dad’s fame. It was a weird childhood to navigate. But we always looked out for each other, just like we’ve always kept an eye on the younger Rebel kids.
All of this makes saying goodbye to him that much harder. I know he has to get back home, but I’m not at all looking forward to it.
I offer him his Gibsonspresso for the road. He loves his coffee sickeningly sweet like Uncle Sammy. I rarely sweeten mine now. It hides the notes of flavor when it comes to certain blends.
I get a sudden hankering for a cup, but with the nugget growing inside me I’m not supposed to have more than one small cup a day. I’m just surprised I haven’t been getting a major headache from the withdrawal.
“I can’t believe you came all the way up here just to have a burger with me, stay the night, and then leave again in the morning, Gibs. That’s kind of crazy.” I love that he did, though, and he knows it.
Gibson lifts a shoulder as he grabs his black leather jacket from the table he left it on in the café. He holds it over his opposite arm with his drink in his free hand. “I am crazy. You should know that by now. It’s in my genes.” His snarky remark makes me sad. Gibs is not crazy. His bio mom, on the other hand, is a different story. I guess he is right, though—we both have mom issues.
“Gibs…”
He looks at me with a warning in his eyes, one that tells me I don’t know the latest in the back-and-forth saga with his mother. It occurs to me that maybe he came up here for another reason.“We never talked about you. What’s going on? Something up with Becka?”
He looks down at his Vans instead of at me. There is something going on with Becka. My spidey senses tell me something’s up with my cousin, and I want to know what it is.
“She’s Becka.” He shrugs. “Always trying to pop into my life. Trying to make nice with me. I guess since I’m over eighteen she can contact me directly now. And she does. She wants to see me. I don’t want to tell Dad and Mom.” His heavy sigh mirrors the sudden burdened posture he displays, his shoulders tense but slouched as if he has the weight of an entire world on them.
“Part of me wants to hear her out, Mony. Maybe if I give her the chance to explain herself, maybe, just maybe she’ll leave me the fuck alone after she says her piece.” He looks out at the brightening sky as the sun begins to crest the horizon, warming downtown.
“Maybe she’s trying to make amends.” I try to be positive, but I also don’t want to give him false hope. My suspicion is that she’s trying to use Gibson to get to Callum. She’s had a vendetta against him since he testified against her at Gibson’s kidnapping trial—probably longer. But who am I to crush my cousin’s dreams? Maybe he needs a relationship with his real mom. Or maybe what he really needs is closure.
Uncle Cal wouldn’t be happy with my comment about her trying to make up for the past, but if it helps Gibs—and Becka isn’t trying to seek revenge and hurt them—Uncle Cal might be able to come to terms with them repairing their relationship. As long as it’s beneficial for Gibs, that is.
“Or maybe she’s looking to manipulate me like a puppet,” he snaps, the anger he still has for her evident in his tone. “You’ve heard the stories of the shit she pulled both before and after jail.”
I have. She made some questionable decisions, especially when it came to her son.
His jaw tenses and that muscle in his cheek flickers as if it has its own pulse all over again. “Gotta get on the road, Mon. But I’ll expect a text with the name of the song you choose soon.” He gives me a hug then flips my open sign around on his way out the door. “See ya later, Mony.”
I go back to stocking the pastry case of The SeaSong, helping customers when they come in all while this sense of melancholy consumes me. Because I already miss my cousin. More than that, I miss having someone in this town I can turn to, laugh with, and be myself around.
Now, I’m alone all over again.