Chapter Twenty-Two
They got back to Ali’s house late in the afternoon, and JT had vague plans for dinner with her family. They unloaded all the boxes into the living room.
JT looked at the pile. “Kind of demoralizing to fill the space we cleared, huh?”
Ali shrugged. JT thought she looked exhausted. “It’s fine. The bookcases will help with all my books, and having dressers will mean I can empty some other boxes…” She trailed off.
JT rested a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, you should get some rest.”
Ali shook her head. “It’s never going to get done if I take a rest.”
“If you don’t rest, you’re going to exhaust yourself, and then what? There won’t be anyone to tell me where to put all this furniture I’m going to build tomorrow.”
Ali gave her a tired smile. “Thanks. That sounds like the lazy way out, but for tonight I think I’ll take your advice.”
JT wrapped Ali in a hug, her chin resting on Ali’s head. She breathed in. “I really liked spending the day with you.” She looked down. “Thank you.”
Ali shook her head and squeezed JT. “Thank you for helping me with all this and for making me laugh.” She smiled, and it just about cracked JT’s heart in two.
“Promise me you’ll get some sleep?” JT raised her eyebrows, trying to look like a stern teacher. “I can’t have my teammate exhausted for our next event. We’ve got asses to kick.”
Ali nodded and placed a soft kiss on JT’s cheek when they reached the front door. “See you tomorrow, Coxie.”
JT parked her dad’s van in the barn and took Toby for a short walk before grabbing a seltzer from the fridge and sitting on the couch in the family room. Her parents were both reading and her siblings were nowhere to be seen.
“Where is everybody?”
Her dad looked at her over his book. “They took the kids out to run them around. They’re all going out to dinner later and kindly offered to tire the kids out before leaving them with us.”
“How was the shopping?” her mom asked. She set her book in her lap and peered over her glasses at JT. It gave JT the vague sense of being interrogated.
“Good. I brought home a couple trays of frozen cinnamon rolls for everyone. Ali got a lot of stuff for her house. Thanks for letting me use the van. She had a lot she needed.”
Her mom pressed her lips into a line. “I bet that Canterbury boy kept most of their things. He always was a tool.”
“Mom!” JT said, shocked and laughing.
Her mom made a dismissive gesture. “Am I wrong?”
JT shook her head. “Half the time I think you’re not paying attention to something as mundane town gossip but then you give a wicked opinion. You’re a mystery, lady.”
Her mom did not seem to take the sentiment in the spirit JT offered it. “No, the mystery is what Ali saw in that boy in the first place.”
JT had never been so surprised in her life.
Of course her mom knew who Ali was, but she never expected her to have spent more than a moment thinking about Ali, her marriage, or frankly anyone else’s business in their town.
Her mom focused on art, almost to the exclusion of everything else going on. Or so JT had thought.
“What other opinions do you have tucked under there, Mom? You’re holding out on me.”
“Dear god, don’t ask her that,” JT’s dad said. “She’s full of opinions!”
Her mom glared at him but there was a twinkle in her eye. “I have the perfectly correct amount of opinions. I may not always choose to share them with my children.”
JT laughed. “Mom, when have you ever not shared an opinion about me or my siblings? Name one time.”
Her dad stood up. “If you’re going to goad her into sharing her opinions, we’re going to need beer. You want one?” He left and returned with a beer for each of them.
“All I said was that Ali Porter can do better than Kyle Canterbury. He was always full of himself because his dad runs that landscaping business. I always thought she probably wanted more out of her life than a couple kids and a husband who thinks too highly of himself because he drives a pickup truck.”
JT sipped her beer. She tried to decide if her mom was being classist or if this was a personal thing with the Canterburys.
“Don’t misunderstand me, driving a snowplow, mowing people’s lawns and making their gardens look nice is a good way to make a living around here. I just don’t personally think it makes you as special as Kyle and his dad seem to think.”
JT’s dad smirked to himself before taking a sip of his beer. “What she’s not telling you is one time, Kyle senior made a comment about how your mom’s hydrangeas looked bad and she’s never forgiven him.”
“Gordon, that is not true.” Her mom looked indignant. “It was the lilacs, and that fool thought they needed to be trimmed. My bushes cannot be tamed!”
JT snorted beer into her nose, groaning at the pain of the fizz in her sinuses. “Jesus, Mom!”
Her mom’s eyes crinkled when she laughed, and JT was struck by how rare it was to sit with her parents and not feel on edge.
Usually, she felt left out of all the talk about artists and color theory or whatever else they talked about.
This was nice, even if their bonding was over taking shots at Ali’s ex and her mom making cringey bush jokes.
“What your mom is trying to say is we think it’s very nice that you’re helping Ali with her house.”
“Jean Porter is probably too busy scheming to get her back with Kyle to be useful.”
JT shrugged. “Yeah, I get the sense her mom is being a real piece of work. She’ll be all right though. Once we get some shelves built for all her books.”
Her dad smiled. “Nice to hear that young people still read.”
JT stood. “Oh my god, Dad. I read! I just don’t have seven rooms dedicated to books about art.” She sighed, only then realizing her dad and mom were cracking up.
“You’re messing with me? Seriously?” JT’s anger fizzled, but it was replaced with annoyance. Even when they were joking, it all felt the same as the criticism they felt free to share. It hit exactly the same, regardless of the intent.
“Jasmine, we know you do. But it’s so easy to set you off, and we old folks have so few ways to keep amused these days.”
JT narrowed her eyes at her mom. “You’re impossible. Anyway, we all agree Ali deserves better.” JT started walking to the door. “You’re babysitting so Beth and Jonny can have a double date and no one thought to invite me to dinner?” JT didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m calling Tommy. Don’t wait up.”
* * *
Within an hour, JT was sitting at Dolan’s nursing a beer and waiting for Tommy to show up. She found herself feeling nervous to see him. If he asked her about Ali, would he be able to tell that they’d kissed? What would he think? Would he be mad?
There wasn’t really a guidebook for this other than you weren’t really supposed to hook up with your best friend’s sister. Even if the sister was the one who initiated it. She couldn’t imagine saying Don’t be mad, dude your sister kissed me! Yeah, that wasn’t going to fly.
She took a couple large sips from her beer and hoped she could find whatever the right words were when the time came.
A few minutes later, Tommy dropped into the booth across from her. “Sorry, got caught up carrying stuff to the attic for my mom.”
JT clinked her beer to his. “No worries. I know how moms are. Before I left my mom was going off about Ali could do better than Kyle. It was fucking weird.”
Tommy nodded. “She’s right, though. Ali was too good for that dumbass.”
“Ali said your mom wants them back together, though.”
Tommy sighed. “My mom is also a dumbass sometimes.” They both laughed. “You drove her home the other night. Did she seem okay? She seemed fine on Christmas, but it’s not like she was going to have a full breakdown in front of our family.”
JT considered her words. She hated keeping secrets from Tommy.
She hated it so much she hadn’t done it since she was a teenager trying to work up the nerve to tell him she was gay.
She’d made such a big thing out of it in her head, but when she told him he gave her a hug, told her he’d suspected she was gay and then asked her who she thought was hot.
Since then, she’d never kept a secret from him bigger than what she was getting him for his birthday.
And half the time she couldn’t even keep that a secret.
JT took a deep breath. “She seemed fine, honestly.” She picked at the label on her beer. “I’m not sure exactly how to say this but when I drove her home we kissed.”
“I’m sorry, what? You kissed my sister?” His cheeks had a red tinge, and his tone an angry one.
JT held up her hands. “Dude. Your sister made the first move.”
Tommy’s jaw bulged as he clenched his teeth. JT watched as it relaxed back to normal. Tommy sighed. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
Tommy emptied half his beer into his mouth. “My sister can do whatever she wants. But I swear to god, if you take advantage of her or fuck her over I will never forgive you.”
JT blinked. His tone was harsh, but she was surprised by how fast he’d gone from anger to resignation. “You’re serious?”
Tommy shrugged. “My sister is an adult. She can do whatever she wants with her life. She can make her own mistakes.”
“Mistakes? You think kissing me is a mistake?” Now JT was pissed. How fucking dare he talk about her like that?
“Come on, JT. You’re not known for being a long-term, stable relationship kind of girl.”
Anger flared inside JT.
He looked at her. “You know I’m right. All I’m saying is if you and my sister are having a fling or whatever, fine. Just make sure she knows you’re not a serious relationship person. Because I mean it, if you hurt her, I will never forgive you.”
“And if she hurts me?”
Tommy stilled. “JT, she’s my sister. I have every right to be pissed at you for hooking up with her, but I’m not. Of course I don’t want either of you to get hurt, but she’s my sister.”