Chapter Fourteen
Chapter
Fourteen
The House He Built
Jagger
“I don’t think I’d ever even heard of a yurt until
Archie mentioned it.”
“Her trip to Portugal sounded totally rad. I wanna go and stay where she stayed.”
“Archie’s gonna do Archie, but you won’t catch me staying
somewhere that I don’t have my own bathroom and the room isn’t cleaned every
day by maids.”
“You are so boujee.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It kind of is. You’re like, not enlightened at all.”
“Power to the people and especially power to the ones with
vaginas, and my power is going to be making scads of money and then staying at
the Ritz during my bi-annual trips to Paris to go shopping.”
“Ugh, gross.”
“Whatever.”
The comment about the yurt was Haley’s.
The ensuing discussion was between Hellen and Liane, Haley’s
daughters, Archie’s stepsisters.
Hellen was twenty, going to the University of Colorado in
Boulder, studying business. She was the boujee one,
and she didn’t let down that side and dressed for dinner at what was still her
home, considering she was a student, like she was having sushi with some real
housewives somewhere.
Liane was eighteen. She was also at U of C in Boulder, her
major undeclared. She was the granola one and she also represented, wearing a
tee that said A Well-Read Woman Is A Dangerous Creature, dark-wash
jeans that, regardless of the wash, still had a number of splits and tears in
the legs and Birkenstocks.
Jagger really wanted to find their conversation hilarious,
because it was. They’d generally been hilarious since he and Archie arrived.
But Archie and her dad had disappeared into the kitchen with
the last of the dinner dishes, with Andy telling Haley to take a load off, he
and Archie were going to serve dessert.
And since dessert was cupcakes, which didn’t take a lot of
prep, Jag was distracted because they’d been in there a while.
He didn’t get a read from her dad, or Haley, or the girls,
that they didn’t dig him.
There had definitely been a lot of looking him over.
But Archie was chill. He was chill.
And Jag found out straight away he had no worries about any
of them having an issue with bikers.
This was because he’d discovered that fathers of daughters
with dead mothers had long memories.
Jagger had won the guy over years before and Andy wasn’t
effusive about that, but he also didn’t hide it. The rest of them fell in with
that from the moment Jagger walked in the door.
So he wondered what was up with the disappearing act.
He turned his attention to Haley, who was fidgeting with the
napkin in her lap.
Instinct, or more aptly, the vibe of her attitude took his
attention to Hellen, who did not miss her mother’s manner, which seemed
suddenly anxious, and Hellen didn’t like it.
Liane, the baby, didn’t notice it.
Shit.
Archie had told him she’d finally begun to bond with her
stepmom, and she was super happy about it. But she also told him that she’d
always liked Haley.
She wouldn’t want her anxious.
And she probably wouldn’t keep this from her stepmom anyway,
it was just likely that she didn’t want to get into it and drag down what had
been a good meet-the-boyfriend night.
“It’s not my place to say,” Jagger started.
All three women turned their eyes to him.
“But Archie has been having some issues with the way the
building she co-owns with her brother is being handled,” he continued. “She
confronted him with that today and it didn’t go too good. It’s a guess, but I
suspect she’s sharing that with her dad right about—”
“It’s entirely unacceptable!”
Everyone at the table jumped, including Jagger, as they
heard Andy’s thundered words coming from the kitchen.
“No!” he roared. “You absolutely do not treat
your sister like that!” A beat then, “Absolutely not! This is done!
Your stepmother and I will buy your share!”
Okay, well, first, he wasn’t yelling at Archie.
And second, apparently Andy wasn’t hip on what happened with
Elijah that day either.
He also didn’t hesitate to share with Elijah that he wasn’t.
“Think on that!” Andy shouted, the thunder muted, but the
man was still pissed so he was also still loud. “Yes, it would have been your
mother’s. Now it’s yours. And if you don’t get your goddamn head out of your
ass, half of it will be Haley’s because she’s a member of this
goddamn family and even your grandparents treated her like that!”
Fucking hell.
“Uh…” Haley said, hands to the arms of her chair like she
wanted to get up, but she wasn’t getting up.
“Go, Mom,” Hellen encouraged. “It’s your house, your husband
and E being a douche is ruining another one of your dinners. You should know
what’s going on.”
Haley looked to Hellen, Hellen nodded, Haley then said to
Jag, “Sorry, I—”
“Go, me and the girls are good,” he assured.
She looked relieved and then she took off.
“He’s not even here and he’s fucking things up,” Hellen
muttered under her breath.
“H, chill,” Liane replied.
“I’m not gonna chill.” Hellen was no longer mumbling. “I
mean, you just heard Andy. I’m sure E is acting like the world revolves around
him with whatever’s up with him and Archie, because that’s what he does, like, all
the time. Then Andy mentions Mom, E’s got some shit to say, it’s his usual
not-nice shit, and I’m tired of it. She’s not a homewrecker, for God’s sake.
Bryn had been dead for years before Mom entered the picture.”
Liane gave up on Hellen, who was getting worked up, and
turned to Jag.
“Sorry,” she said.
“No apologies necessary,” he replied.
“We’re usually not loud or crazy,” Liane told him.
“No, that is completely wrong,” Hellen enunciated every word
carefully. “We’re always loud and crazy when Elijah rears his head.
Fortunately, he doesn’t do that very often.”
“He’s our brother, H, stop it,” Liane hissed.
“I’m tired of biting my tongue when that asshole fucks shit
up. And he’s not my brother, Liane. Not once has he treated me like he was my
brother, or you like he was yours. He acts like Mom did him some grievous harm
and us like we stole the family silver. I’m sick to death of it.”
Liane’s voice got quiet when she said, “Girl, cool it. Mom
would toe-tah-lee freak if she heard you
cuss like that, especially in front of company.”
Hellen turned to him. “Am I offending you?”
“Nope,” Jagger answered.
Hellen threw a hand his way. “See?”
“How would you offend Jagger?” Haley was back in the mix,
walking into the room.
“No reason!” Liane lied brightly.
“I’m sharing it like it is about Elijah,” Hellen told the
truth.
“Shh,” Liane shushed her sister.
This was because Archie and Andy were also coming into the
room.
Andy looked like he was ready to murder someone, which was
funny as fuck, considering he was also carrying a big tray of cupcakes that had
massive froths of pink icing on top of them.
Archie had a stack of dessert plates.
“All right, so how about we think about cupcakes, and eat
them, and even talk about them, and continue enjoying our night,” Haley said,
seating herself at the foot of the table and sounding kinda
desperate.
“Love you, Mom, but…” Hellen started, she turned toward
Andy, and having heard what she had to say before they joined them in the
dining room, Jag shot his eyes right to Archie and gave her a look.
She bit her lip.
Hellen went for it.
“Andy, you know I love you too. You stepped up. You helped
raise me and Li. All you do is love Mom when Dad has never been anything but a
dick to her, and sometimes us. And Archie.” She looked to Arch. “We’re not
close, but we’re cool, and I like you loads. But this Elijah thing needs to be
out of the kitchen and discussed among the family because Andy is right. He
needs to get his head out of his ass.”
“Hellen Katherine Moynihan, mouth, please,” Haley snapped.
“Mom, seriously?” Hellen shot back. “We’re having dramas and
walking on eggshells and the guy isn’t even here.”
“We’ll discuss it later,” Haley decreed.
“Why, because Jagger’s here?” Hellen asked. “For as long as
I can remember, Archie’s never brought a guy to dinner. And you made me and
Liane drive down from Boulder to meet him the first time he shows for
dinner. So, it’s not lost on me that’s something special and he told us
what’s up so it’s not like he’s not in the know that Elijah can be…” her eyes
slid to Andy and back to her mother before she finished, “difficult.”
Jag looked again to Archie.
She caught his gaze and tipped her head a bit to the side in
unnecessary confirmation he was something special.
He felt his lips twitch.
“Hellen, sweetheart,” Andy murmured.
Well…
Shit.
That did it.
Two words, and Hellen shut up.
Now he needed the story about Haley’s ex because Andy didn’t
strike Jag as an authoritarian.
That was respect, love and possibly gratitude that closed
Hellen’s mouth.
“Maybe we should talk about it, Dad,” Archie suggested.
“Oh boy,” Liane mumbled.
“We don’t have to, Li,” Archie said to her quickly. “And if
it’s making you uncomfortable, we won’t.”
“I’m sorry he’s being a dick to you, but—” Liane began.
“Now you with your mouth, I won’t say it again.” Haley was
coming to the end of her rope.
“I’m sorry he’s not being cool with you,” Liane amended,
aiming this Archie’s way. “But can we have one family night when it’s not all
about Elijah?”
“Too late for that,” Hellen pointed out the obvious.
It took a lot, but when Jagger’s chest started bouncing with
suppressed laughter, he was able to stop it.
Seriously, he liked Arch’s stepsisters, particularly Hellen.
She was the shit.
Then again, he’d always liked a woman who spoke her mind.
Archie gave him another look, that one said, Behave.
“You know…”
Everyone turned to look at Andy who was standing at the head
of the table, still holding a big plate of cupcakes.
“In a perfect world, my son would be sitting at this table
with us,” he went on.
Jag didn’t feel much like laughing anymore.
“He’s not,” Andy continued. “And this is not the first night