Chapter Sixteen #2
protective of Archie. Last, if she liked you, she was friendly and hilarious.
But something about this was off.
Because one thing he didn’t realize until this moment she
was not, was a pest.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“What?” Joany asked back.
Jesus, she was really bad at trying to pretend to be
innocent.
“Is something going on?” he pushed.
“No,” she totally lied.
He knew this was a lie because she was so bad at doing it,
she couldn’t even hold it up on one word.
It was confirmed when Archie demanded, “Joany, talk. Is
something up?”
“Oh my God, did you rope me into some shenanigans?”
Lafayette demanded.
“No, I just…La-La, you have a steady hand with a shaker, why
don’t you do some cocktails for these kind folks while I go out on the fire
escape with Archie for a quick beat?”
Oh shit, Jag thought.
“Oh shit,” Lafayette said.
“Unless you’re sharing something personal to you that
absolutely cannot wait for me to complete hosting a dinner party for my
boyfriend’s parents, I don’t have anything to hide from Jag or his family,”
Archie declared.
Joany looked from Arch, to Jag, to his parents, back to
Arch.
She then spilled.
“Okay, I might be wrong, but I could swear I saw Elijah
casing the store.”
“Casing…?” Archie asked, but the look on her face was
suddenly not right.
“He drove by three times,” Joany shared. “That I saw,” she
concluded.
“You’re joking,” Archie said.
“I could be wrong,” Joany replied.
“If it was three times, and you know what he looks like, and
what he drives, which you do, for both, how could you be wrong?” Archie asked.
“Okay, I’m probably not wrong,” Joany admitted.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Archie demanded.
“I tried!” Joany returned hotly. “I’ve been sending texts
for the last half an hour.”
This was true. Her phone was binging. Archie was ignoring it
because she’d been making salad.
“You weren’t replying,” Joany went on. “I showed to warn
you. Hence,” her head bounced to indicate where she was standing. “I’m here.”
“Arch?” Jag asked leadingly.
She looked to him. “I got three voicemails from Elijah
today.”
“Well, shit,” Jag murmured.
“Um…who’s Elijah?” Keely queried.
Before Jagger could answer, Archie told her, “My brother. We
had a to do. We’re on the outs.”
“You’re still not picking up from him, babe?” Jagger
inquired.
She shook her head to Jag. “No. Not since that scene at Dad
and Haley’s.” She turned back to Joany. “Why would he be driving by? That’s
weird.”
“Maybe working himself up?” Joany asked back.
“For….?” Archie trailed off on that and looked to Jagger
because they probably knew for what.
“Okay, I’ll get drinks for everyone and maybe you should
call him,” Jagger suggested.
Archie got a stubborn set to her face, “He—”
“Call him, baby, and tell him tonight is not the night and
you’ll hook up with him later,” he instructed.
“I don’t want to hook up with him later. He had his chance
to talk things out the other night,” she reminded him.
He made note, as laidback as his girl was, she could hold a
grudge.
“We can talk about this later, for now—”
Jagger didn’t finish that when there was a loud banging at
the door.
He doubted it was one of the tenants, only two of which he’d
met in passing in the hall, but they were even more chill than Archie.
“I’ll handle it,” he said.
“No, you won’t, I’ll handle it,” Archie declared,
stalking his way.
“How about I handle it,” Joany said, and she
sounded more ticked than Archie and Arch sounded pretty ticked.
“How about you girls stand down and I’ll chat with Eli,”
Lafayette suggested.
Everyone was moving to the door but only Jagger got out of
the way after receiving the look Archie was sending.
The pounding came back right before she opened it.
And when she opened it, Jagger didn’t have time to blink
before Elijah was in.
For him to be this, Archie went flying, because he barged
in, shoving open the door and making her do so.
Annnnnnnnd…
Hell no.
Jag started to move and then everyone was moving.
Lafayette and Joany rushed toward Archie.
Keely got close to Jagger.
And Hound had Jag with an arm around the chest from behind
and his voice in his ear.
“Cool it, son.”
“What’d I tell you about this, Arch?” Jag growled, his eyes
locked to Elijah, his body locked so he didn’t move to punch that fuck in the
throat.
Elijah was looking around and not missing fresh flowers,
candles, Ray LaMontagne or the set dining room table.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“What’s going on?” Archie repeated.
And Jagger didn’t have to keep his body locked anymore at
her tone.
It wasn’t incredulous.
It wasn’t wounded.
It wasn’t shocked.
It was a profound mix of all three.
Elijah didn’t miss that either and he went still.
“What’s going on?” She said it again.
“Baby,” Jagger called softly.
Hound let him go.
But Archie didn’t look at Jag.
She only had eyes for her brother.
“Do you care?” she asked.
“Ar—” Elijah started.
“I spent an hour at the grocery store. Hours and hours
straining passionfruit and making meringues and mixing and layering cream and
mascarpone. Chopping veggies. Cleaning my place. All this because my man’s
parents were coming over. I met them all of five minutes ago, four of those
five minutes spent talking about you. Now you have a bee in your bonnet, and
you bust into my home and you ask me what’s going on?”
“I could hardly know this was happening when you don’t pick
up my calls, Archie,” Elijah pointed out.
“And so you’ve decided now is the time to chat, you hammer
on the door and push your way in?” Archie asked.
Elijah looked embarrassed by that and was not making eye
contact with anyone but Archie.
“I’m sorry my timing is off, but that does not negate the
fact we need to have a conversation and we can’t do that if you don’t accept my
calls or return my texts,” Elijah shared.
“So write me a letter, send me an email, don’t barge into my
home when the timing suits you,” Archie shot back.
Lafayette entered the discussion.
“I think now it might be good for a few of us to leave.”
He took Joany’s hand but looked pointedly at Elijah.
Elijah ignored Lafayette. “We need to set up a time to
talk.”
“And I’ll get on that when I’m ready to talk,” Archie
stated. “Not now, when I’m having a dinner party for Jagger’s parents.”
Elijah appeared to be getting angry. “You can’t just leave
me hanging until you’re ready to speak to me.”
Archie shook her head. “I’m not doing this now. I have
something happening. Go. I’ll get in touch.”
“When?” Elijah demanded.
“When I get in touch,” Archie replied.
“I spent all week worried about that scene you instigated at
Dad’s—”
“Eli, really, you can’t miss I’ve got something happening
right—”
“And now you want me to just take off and wait until you
deign to—”
All right, Jag was done.
“Listen, friend,” he began, starting to move closer to
Archie.
Archie looked to him and he didn’t stop moving until he was
at her side, but he shut his mouth.
She turned back to her brother. “Go, Elijah.”
“We’ll have brunch on Sunday,” he decided.
“No, we won’t,” she refuted. “Sundays are my days with
Jagger. I’ll be in touch.”
“Archie—” Elijah tried again.
But finally, she lost it.
“Oh, for God’s sake!” she rapped out loudly.
“Tonight is not about you. That scene at Dad’s was not all about
you. The entirety of everyone’s lives are not all about you.”
She drew in a big breath.
And then she let him have it.
“Mom dying was not all about…YOU!”
Jag put his hand on the small of her back, but other than
that—other than letting her know he was close, and she could call on him—he was
powerless to do anything.
And he didn’t want to, because he wanted his folks to spend
time with his woman, he wanted to eat schnitzel and fruit, meringue and cream.
But she needed to do this.
Elijah looked like he’d been sucker punched. “I can’t
believe you just said that to me.”
“I should have said it ten years ago,” Archie retorted.
“Word on that,” Joany muttered.
Archie shot her a look.
Joany pressed her lips tightly together.
“I lost her too,” Archie said to her brother. “Dad lost
her.”
“He got over her pretty quickly,” Elijah returned sharply.
“No, he didn’t, it took years for him to find and marry
Haley. And Mom’s picture is still in his wallet.”
Oh fuck.
At her deteriorating tone, Jag moved his hand from her back
to curl his fingers around her hip.
“He just moved on with his life,” she continued. “He has a
great capacity to love. He has to give it to somebody. Okay, so you can have
whatever it is you need, Eli, do you honestly want him to have nothing? To be
alone? To grieve and pine for her until he dies? Is that what you
want?”
Elijah said nothing.
“And what am I to you, Elijah?” she pushed. “I was your cook
and your cleaner and your caretaker after she was gone. Now I’m your
administrator and property manager. When do you start being the big brother and
maybe think about what your little sister needs for a change? When do you kick
in with this family, Eli? When does it stop being all of us tiptoeing around
you and your grief? When are you gonna wake up and see we all lost her, we’re
all trying to move on, not because we want to, but because we have no
choice?”
It was torture, not pulling her in his arms.
But Jag held still, close, but not invasive, and let her
have what she needed.
“I don’t have to be okay with my father marrying another
woman, having another family, being with someone that is not my mother,” Elijah
bit.
“Yes you do,” she fired back.
Elijah’s head jerked.
“That’s what love is. That’s what family is,” Archie stated.
“Finding a way to be okay with someone you love being happy. Even if, at first,
it hurts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Haley. She loves Dad like
crazy. She treats him like gold. She cares about us. He didn’t have another
family. He added to ours.”
Elijah stood there, motionless and speechless.
Arch wasn’t the latter.