“Uh, no. I’ll be at the recital, like everyone else.”
“The night is long. Nobody you’re hanging out with later?”
I frown so hard it hurts, and scratch at my temple, squinting. “Nope. Can’t think of anyone.”
“Really? Not a single person? Wow.” Jaxon’s drawl is as irritating as his smirk, and I flip him the bird when Carter glances down at his phone. “Hey, Beckett. I heard your sister is close with her dance partner. They a thing?”
“Ha.” Carter sticks his hand in his box of Oreo O’s. “Jennie wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole.”
“It’s inevitable they’d give it a go at least once, no? Dancing’s so intimate, and they’ve been together for years.
There’s a twitch in my left eye, and my pulse thunders in my neck.
Carter crushes his cereal in his fist before shoveling it in his mouth. “Abso-fucking-lutely not. I’d let her date you before I’d let her date him.”
“You don’t get to pick who she dates,” Adam reminds him. “Jennie’s an adult.”
“Wouldn’t the main thing be her happiness?” I add as casually as I can manage. “No matter who she’s with? Even if it’s Simon.” Simon’s face is gonna meet my fist if he ever tries to touch her without her consent again.
Carter looks out the window. “She’s not interested in a relationship, so this conversation is pointless.”
My nape prickles. “What?”
“She’s not ready.” His eyes meet mine, conveying without words what he’s referring to. But I also think he’s wrong.
“Maybe she is now.”
“She’s not.”
“Did she say that?” Emmett asks. “Or are you assuming? Sometimes sisters prefer to not tell their excessively overprotective brothers about their sex lives.”
“I’m not assuming anything. She said it just a couple days ago when we were at Hank’s. He asked her when she was going to be ready to let someone in, and she said she didn’t feel like committing to anything or anyone right now. Didn’t want to be tied down, and didn’t see a reason to make any changes when she’s happy as is. We don’t lie to each other.”
The heat of Adam and Jaxon’s stares burn into my face. Both hold sympathy, but I don’t need it. I’m right about Jennie.
That’s what I tell myself for the next four hours, but each mile we fly closer to Vancouver has me more uncertain than the last, and I hate that I’ve gone from confident to second-guessing in the same morning. We lose Wi-Fi halfway through the flight, so even if Jennie wasn’t busy with Simon, I still wouldn’t be able to get a response.
Adam claps my shoulder as I walk through the parking lot, head down, waiting for service to return as I bury my face in my phone.
“Don’t let what Carter said back there bother you. Just talk to her. I’m sure you’re both on the same page.”
“Right.” I nod. “Yeah, I’m sure we are.”
Cranking both the ignition and heat, I wait for my phone to connect to my car, fingers tapping on the heated steering wheel. When it finally connects, it buzzes and dings, over and over, and a knot clenches between my shoulders at the notifications waiting for me.
Eight missed calls and twelve texts. All from my sisters.
I hit the most recent call, Gabby’s soft sniffles quickly filling my car, the fear in her voice thick and shaky, making me want to jump right back on a plane.
“Garrett,” she whimpers. “I’m scared. I want you to come home.”
“What’s wrong, Gabs?”
“Mom and Dad got in a fight.”
“A fight? Is everyone okay?”
“They were screaming and Alexa made me and Stephie come into her room.”
“Is everyone okay?” I repeat.
“I don’t know, Garrett!” Her sobs pierce the air and my heart squeezes in my chest.
“Where’s Alexa? Let me talk to her.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose while I wait. My parents fought a lot when I was a kid, but the source was always my dad’s drinking. Since the girls have come along and my dad’s been sober, things are different. I can’t pretend to know all that happens from across the country, but every time I’m home, they’re a happy family, and I feel a little bit left on the outside.
“Garrett?”
“Lex. What’s going on?”
“Can you come home? Please?”
“I can’t come home. Not right now. You know that.”
“Hockey’s always more important to you than we are!” Alexa’s voice trembles with each ragged breath, her telltale sign she’s trying not to cry, barely hanging on.
“Alexa,” I coax gently. “You’re upset and overwhelmed right now; I can hear that. I’m tied to a contract with my job. That means I can’t jump on a plane and fly home whenever I want to. That doesn’t mean I don’t love you, or that you aren’t important to me. I do love you, and you guys are the most important things in my life.”
“That’s not true. If it was, you wouldn’t always leave us.”
“Lex—”
“No! You’re never here when we need you! I…I…” The dam breaks, and through Alexa’s sobs, I still hear the way she chokes out her next words before she hangs up on me. “I hate you!”
“For fuck’s sake.” I scrub my hand over my face, then my chest, right where it fucking hurts. I tap on my mom’s contact, and the call connects on the first ring. “Mom? What’s going on? The girls are upset, and they said you and Dad had a fight.”
“Garrett,” Mom cries softly. “He left.”
“Left? What do you mean he left?”
“We had a fight, and he just…he…walked out.”
My mind races to process her words, but before I truly can, she adds on a whisper, “He took a bottle of whiskey with him.”
As I pace my living room, I try my dad’s number over and over, each time hoping for a different outcome. It’s always the same: straight to voice mail. I leave one each time, until it tells me his mailbox is full.
I try the only other person I want to talk to. She’s always been the one that’s needed me, but right now, I think I need her. To talk me down, to tell me my dad won’t relapse, that he’s stronger than that, that he’s not going to put my sisters through the same thing he put me through, that he isn’t going to drag my mom—and himself—through this all over again.
Except she can’t make those promises. None of those choices are hers to make, and the only person who gets to decide how this plays out is my dad.
I just need her here, need her hand in mine to remember that good things happen, that it doesn’t always need to be so fucking rainy when you’ve got a sun that shines so bright.
But Jennie’s phone goes straight to voice mail too.
CHAPTER 31
STAY
JENNIE
“Fuck yes!”
Simon claps both hands to mine, and I can’t stop grinning, euphoria coasting through me.
“That felt fucking awesome,” he rasps out, hands on his waist as he catches his breath.
“We fucking nailed it!” I feel so good about it, I can’t help tossing my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He lifts me in the air, spinning me.
“I feel the love,” Mikhail exclaims, hands clasped beneath his chin. “It’s breathtaking and awe inspiring and you two are going to be the hit of the show.”
God, I hope so. I’m beyond exhausted, teetering on the edge of delirium. Every inch of my body aches from nonstop rehearsals, my brain demolished from lack of sleep. I’m eager for tomorrow, ready to give it my all on stage and then leave it right there for a little while, take a well-deserved break before we plow full steam ahead into choreography for our year-end performance.
“We’re always the hit of the show,” Simon says. “Think it’s impossible not to be when I’ve got this beautiful woman up there with me.” He winks, poking my waist. “I’m lucky to be your partner.”