Wild Wind: A Chaos Novella (Chaos #6.6)(76)

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.

“Now, honestly, if you cannot get your head out of your ass, Eli, I have to tell you, in front of company, two of those company I do not know but I very much want them to like me, but I have to say this anyway…we have an official problem,” she declared. “Because I’m not playing this game for you anymore. You either figure it out, and I’ll help you, or we co-own a building and that’s it. And if you have some issue with how I manage it, you’ll have to put it in writing, and I’ll decide how I feel about your concerns. If you don’t like my decision, you can let me buy you out, or you can sue me.”

Elijah’s eyes widened. “Are you honestly standing there reducing us to that over Haley?”

“No,” she whispered, and Jagger’s gut clenched at the pain in that one syllable. “I’m reducing us to that because I’m sick and tired of you treating me like shit.”

Hearing these words, Elijah’s entire upper body jerked.

“I don’t treat you like shit, Arch,” he said quietly.

“It’s me having the feeling, Eli, and I can assure you, it feels like you treat me like shit. You break Dad’s heart, over and over again, I’m powerless to do anything but watch, and it hurts witnessing it. You act like I’m your personal assistant, and I’m not. I have a life and a business and I’m falling in love.”

Well.

Damn.

Keely made a noise.

Hound sounded like he’d swallowed a grunt.

There was some tittering in the area Lafayette and Joany were occupying.

And Jagger got even closer to his girl.

But Archie was focused.

“And do you know why all that hurts so bad?”

Elijah didn’t say anything.

But Archie did.

“It hurts so bad because Mom would hate how you’re behaving.”

Elijah looked away.

Oh yeah.

There it was.

He knew that was the truth.

“And you know it,” she finished.

Elijah turned back. “Maybe we should discuss this another time.”

“Yes,” Archie agreed. “Maybe we should.”

Elijah shifted his attention Joany and Lafayette’s way. “Good to see you guys.”

Lafayette’s eyes narrowed in annoyance and Joany’s widened in fury.

“Are you for real?” Joany asked.

Lafayette murmured, “Quiet, baby girl.”

Joany shut up.

Elijah looked at Jagger and said, “One day, we’ll spend time and there won’t be a drama.”

“I fucking hope so,” Jagger replied.

Elijah’s jaw clenched.

He then turned to Keely and Hound.

“I’m sorry to intrude.”

Neither said anything.

Finally, back to Archie. “We’ll work this out.”

But she wasn’t backing down.

“Yes, we will, if you do the work.”

His jaw jumped again before he dipped his chin, turned and walked out the door.

“Swear. To. God. If you don’t get me a goddamn cocktail, right…freaking…now, I will scream,” Joany declared in Lafayette’s direction the minute the door latched.

Jagger pulled Archie around and into his arms, calling, “Hey,” since she was looking at Joany.