Chapter 18 #2
He couldn’t be right. She looked at Alex and raised her eyebrows, but he seemed very intent on the open highway. “Alex?”
“Uh...” His eyes darted her direction, and his hands shifted on the steering wheel. “Ev might be telling the truth in love. And we do love you, Jas.”
She swallowed hard and looked out the passenger window at the rural estates they passed, hills beyond them dry even in June. Lord, what do I do with this information? Are they telling the truth? They just see me as a control freak?
Wasn’t that what Nathan had said, too? He’d used nicer words, blaming himself for being too immature to fit in with her plans back in college.
But, he’d come back, right? He loved her.
She’d been walking on air for the past week between her relationship with him regrounding and the anticipation of today’s road trip.
Rob might have married Bren back in February, but today was at least as important.
It was the day they became a family. Still kind of hard to think of Rob as a married man with two kids and one on the way.
“I hope Dafne has a happy ending like Bren.” Jasmine didn’t care if she was changing the subject. She was done with her brothers discussing her perceived shortcomings in her presence.
Alex shot her a sidelong look. “You think she should raise the baby herself?”
Well, duh. “Uncle Dino and Aunt Betta will help. It’ll be rough, but she can do it. Bren did.”
“There are lots of couples waiting to adopt a newborn,” put in Evan. “She can go to a private agency and even have a say in who the baby’s family will be.”
“Don’t you guys get it?” Of course they didn’t. They were male. “The baby is one of us. A Santoro.”
“A Hamelin.”
Jasmine stilled. She’d pushed the knowledge of Dafne’s former boyfriend out of her mind. Nathan’s half-brother, who’d pushed Daf to get an abortion and abandoned her on the doorstep of the clinic in the dead of winter when she couldn’t go through with it. “Connor relinquished any claim.”
Evan shrugged. “Doesn’t change the DNA.”
“You were telling me about that family at Green Acres Farm who adopted a few kids,” Alex said. “Maybe they’d like another. ”
Jasmine had enjoyed meeting Sierra Rubachuk at the essential oils workshop at the beginning of March.
They’d quickly discovered their shared interest in beekeeping and herbs, talking well into the evening at the main house of the communal farm while Sierra’s husband took the four children home to bed across the yard. They seemed like such a nice family.
Everyone at Green Acres did, actually. Jasmine could see the appeal of the communal lifestyle the families shared, but not when she remembered how busy, loud, and intrusive it was with everyone in each other’s business all the time.
Still, the kids from all six families seemed happy and well-adjusted.
“I could mention it to Dafne,” Jasmine said at last. “Though I’m not sure if Sierra and Gabe are looking to expand their family again. The baby just turned one while I was there, and all four kids are preschoolers.”
“Sierra. She’s Jacob Riehl’s sister, right?” asked Evan.
Jasmine laughed. “Yes. Jacob’s almost as introverted as I am. The thought of communal living didn’t appeal to him, so he moved to Bridgeview instead. But he’s close with his sisters who live at Green Acres.”
Thankfully, her brothers eased up on her as talk drifted between their friends’ lifestyle at the farm in northern Idaho and the farm Rob and Bren had bought near Helena, part of a community supported agriculture box program.
Alex had set up a Skype appointment next week to pick Rob’s brain on ways they could ramp up Bridgeview Backyards.
Her cell phone buzzed in the purse at her feet.
She frowned as she dug it out then caught her breath when Nathan’s name appeared on the screen.
They’d only exchanged a few texts all day and hadn’t even spoken to each other, but did she really want to with her brothers listening in?
Well, she wouldn’t let him go to voicemail.
“Hey, Nathan.”
In the backseat, Evan made kissy sounds like some kind of adolescent rather than a college student. Yeah, that’s why she should keep this conversation short.
“Hey, beautiful. Where are you guys at?”
Her blood thrummed just hearing his voice. “Starting the climb up Lookout Pass east of Coeur d’Alene.” Only another hour or so to go. Would Nathan be waiting for her in the Manor parking lot for a kiss before the day ended? She could hope. “What’s up?”
“Basil.”
She could hear traffic sounds over Nathan’s sigh. Heaviness settled in Jasmine’s gut. “Uh oh. What did he do now?”
“You know he drinks, right?”
“Well, yes...” Wine was a frequent beverage for the Santoros like in many Italian families.
“I mean, a lot.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“He’s at the bar with Dixie, and I can’t talk him into coming home with me.”
Bees buzzed around Jasmine’s head as her hand on the phone grew clammy. “Basil and Dixie ?”
The sound effects from the backseat cut off in mid-smack. Alex’s gaze swung toward Jasmine, but she closed her eyes rather than meet his.
“I know. I couldn’t believe it, either, but it’s still true. I don’t know what to do.”
Jasmine inhaled. Exhaled. Wished she could punch her brother’s face. “There isn’t anything you can do. He’s not your responsibility. He’s a grown man.” A grown man who thought of no one but himself.
“But I can’t just leave him…”
“I don’t think you have a choice.”