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The house is big enough for the six of us to stay in when we visit, and we all get our own rooms. Grayson and I made sure of that when we helped design the house, and it’s usually a fairly relaxing place to visit—minus the family drama, of course.
I think about my three brothers on the drive. It’s been about eleven months since the last gathering where all four of the siblings made it in, and I wonder what’s changed in the last year.
I don’t keep in touch with my brothers the way I should, but we’re all busy.
I’m the first of the Nash brothers to arrive, and guilt starts to creep over me as I think about what my dad would think of my new relationship with Jolene.
Touching her in that break room…it was wrong.
I should’ve resisted temptation. Usually I’m better at that.
I park off to the side for an easy getaway if I need one, though usually just a walk on a path through a dense forest of trees or a canoe ride on the small lake provides the sort of quiet I’m looking for when I visit this place.
It’s tranquil and peaceful but for the occasional bleating of a goat, but usually they’re kept inside a shed. I’ve come to appreciate the sounds of this place over the years, and a small morbid part of me even wonders what’ll happen to it one day when my parents aren’t here to live in this house any longer.
I sit in the driveway for a beat staring up at the house when another car skids to a stop right beside me, too close for me to even get out of the car.
I know it’s Grayson before I even see who’s in the driver’s seat. Spencer would never fuck around with cars, and it’s not Asher’s style.
I shoot him the finger and yell, “Move!”
He just shrugs, cuts the engine, and skips out of the driver’s seat toward the front door.
Meanwhile, I have to climb across the console and out the passenger door to get out of my car.
“You’re such a fucking idiot,” I yell at him just as my mother opens the front door.
She sees how her son parked directly beside me paired with my words, and she just shakes her head with a laugh.
So that’s how this weekend is going to go.
CHAPTER 20: JOLENE
His nose brushing mine.
His fingers digging into my hip.
That fresh bergamot smell.
I looked up what bergamot even is because I didn’t know. It’s basically an orange rind, which sounds gross, but when it’s mixed with apple and birch…
I clutch my sheets at the mere memory.
I’ve been tossing and turning all night, and maybe I just need to give myself a quick treat beneath the sheets, but I don’t want to while I’m thinking of him.
And believe me…over the last couple weeks, he is what I’ve been thinking about pretty much exclusively.
Why would he come at me in the break room the way he did?
I can’t figure it out. It’s like he wants me, but he doesn’t. He must be as confused as me with these conflicting feelings. And then he dropped off the radar completely. Which is a good thing.
It’s the healthy thing.
It’s the smart thing.
But my brain isn’t very smart, especially not first thing on a Friday morning. I need to head into the Complex today since the general manager is going to go over the upcoming schedule with certain members of the media, and I’m dreading the possibility of seeing him there.
Or maybe it’s not dread at all. I’m not really sure what the hell it is, but I do know I need to get Jonah out of bed since the bus will pick him up in about an hour, and I need to jump in the shower before that.
