Family Ties (23 page)

“I know, Parker.” He caresses my arms as he always does when reassuring me. “I know how close you two are. I’ve seen the hand squeezes and little touches. But I know Hunter and I know you. I trust you.”

“Think you could tell Riss that?”

“Definitely.” He presses his warm lips to my forehead.

I should be happy, but my mother’s threat and the fight with Arissa are under my skin. I need to process this. “I’ll be back,” I say, climbing off Jason’s lap.

“You okay?” Jason asks.

I squeeze his shoulder. “Yeah. I just need to do something.” 

I step inside and everyone is still buzzing around the kitchen. I go straight to my room, picking up the phone on my nightstand.

“Sam Close,” she answers. 

“Sam, it’s Sara.” 

“Hi, Sara. How is the trial going?” she asks.

“It’s over.”

“I thought it just started yesterday.”

“It did. She attacked me yesterday and today during the lunch recess she changed her plea to guilty.”

“That’s great, Sara!”

“It is. Do you have an opening this week at all? I really want to come in and talk to you.” 

“I had a cancellation for tomorrow. Two o’clock is open.”

“Great. I’ll be there.” 

“I’ll see you then.”

Andrew and Mike are in their seats and Jason mans the grill. They laugh with abandon as if every day of our lives is this moment.

Jason arches a questioning brow at me.

“Can you take me to Sam’s tomorrow at two?” I ask him.

“Sure, Parker.” 

“Everything all right, sweetheart?” Andrew asks.

“Yeah. I just want to process through the last couple of days with her.” 

I know with my parents serving time I am safe. Victoria would have to actively seek me out to harm me if she wanted to. Yet, the fear is the rip current waiting to snag me; always changing direction to make me adjust my escape, exhausting me.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

“I know it’s over, but it just doesn’t feel that way. Her threat really got under my skin,” I tell Sam after detailing the trial and my mother’s attack. 

“Is this something you should be worrying about today?”

“Probably not.”

“And the Jerichos’ lawyer already filed a restraining order on Victoria, right?” 

“Yes, but the fear is still there, Sam.”

“The fear will always be there, Sara,” she reminds me. “Hopefully to a lesser degree as the years pass, but you already know how to manage it so you can live without it taking over. I feel like there is something else bothering you.” 

“What do I do now?”

“What do you mean?” 

“I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life.” I spent my life trying to make it from one day to the next without being beaten to death. I’ve never thought about a future. I never thought I’d have one. 

“You don’t have to figure it out now. Or even tomorrow. Go to college or don’t go. There is no rule that states if you do go, you have to go right after high school.” 

I drop my back against the chair.

“What about this fight with Arissa?” she asks.

We haven’t talked since the fight yesterday. Her accusation still stings. “She’s reading too much into what she sees.”

“Is she?”

I bristle at the question. “How can you ask me that?”

“I’m asking because I want you to be one hundred percent honest with yourself. Is there really nothing going on between you and Hunter?”

I shake my head. “No. Not a thing. He’s a good friend. That’s all.”

She nods. “I believe you. I wanted to make sure you believed yourself.” She sets her pen down. “Do you want to keep seeing me every week until Manny’s trial before we taper off sessions?”

“No, I think we can start tapering. I just needed to hear what you said today.” 

“One month from today, then?”

“Okay.”

Sam flips through the planner in her lap. “Hmmm. School will be back in session by then. Three o’clock?” 

“Sounds good.” 

She writes the appointment on a card for me, then walks me to the door. Jason stands as I enter the waiting room and holds out his hand. I slip my hand into his and we head to the stairwell.

“A month?”

“Yeah.” I smile. “Tapering off sessions.” 

“That’s good news.” 

“Mhm.”

“How about a movie and then dinner?” 

“I’ll need to borrow your phone to call Rose.” 

He fishes the phone out of the pocket of his cargo shorts and hands it to me. I take it with my free hand and scroll through his contacts with my thumb until I reach my number. I give Rose a brief replay of the session, then ask to go out with Jason. She tells me to have fun and we say our goodbyes.

I hand the phone back to Jason. “Good to go.” 

“Awesome. I get you to myself for a while.” He grins.

After the movie, we end up at a small, casual Italian restaurant, tearing up bread and dipping it in olive oil.

“Have you thought about what you want to do after high school?” I ask.

“Accounting.” 

“Seriously? Accounting?”

“I’m good at math,” he states. “What about you?”

“I don’t know. I was only focused on each day in front of me.” 

“What do you like to do?”

I shrug. “I was either doing chores or homework when I was with my parents. After Andrew and Rose took me in there was therapy, you, Arissa, and Damian. Maybe books?”

“What about classes in school?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m good or really love any of them. I do the work and that’s it.” 

“Well, good thing you don’t have to figure it out today. Or even in one day,” he says, sitting back.

“That’s what Sam said.”

Our server arrives with our food. I dig into my pomodoro and Jason does the same with his lasagna.

“What are you going to do about college? Were you planning on going to community college to stay home with your dad?” I ask.

“I think it depends on how he’s doing. They both want me to go away and have a life. UCLA has a good business school and decent basketball team.” 

I stare into my plate.

“What is it?” he asks.

“I never really thought about you going away.”

“It’s still a year away and I would have to apply and get accepted first.”

I take another bite of pasta.

“You could always come with me, you know.”

I choke and start coughing, trying not to spit food out. I grab my water and take a long pull. Jason moves into the booth with me, running his hand in soothing circles over my back. I manage to swallow my food after the coughing dies down.

“That came out of left field,” I say.

He moves back to his side of the booth. “Was it really? You know how much I love you and I want to spend as much time with you as I can.” 

I open my mouth with the intention to explain how it would never work.

He presses his finger to my lips. “It was a suggestion. If you don’t want to do it, I don’t want you to do it. Simple as that. But think about it.”

“We’re still kids, J.”

“Kids who grew up fast. You said so yourself. We both know what we want.” 

“You’re not supposed to use what I say against me,” I say, exasperated.

“But it’s true.” 

“Yes, but I also have no idea what I want outside of you. That’s my problem. You at least know where you want to go to school and what career you want. I’m clueless.”

“Like I said, it was a suggestion. It would be nice to be able to keep seeing you every day instead of only some weekends and breaks.” He slips his fingers between mine. “You’re always telling me not to worry. Don’t worry about this.”

I pause. “You mentioned the basketball team. Do you think you’ll play college ball?” 

“I’ve wanted to, but with my dad, I just don’t know. I still have some time to decide,” he says, changing his tone from somber to hopeful in his last sentence. “If I get an athletic scholarship, I planned on saving all the money my parents put aside for college.” 

“Your parents saved money for you to go to school?”

“Yeah.” 

I gaze at my plate again. “Just another reminder at how much my parents sucked at being parents.” 

“Hey, you’ve got Andrew and Rose now.” 

“And they weren’t planning on sending two kids to college, J.” 

“You’re worrying again already, Parker. They wouldn’t have asked to adopt you if they weren’t ready for that. It’s not like being a high school senior in a few weeks is any surprise. You know them. They’ve thought all this through.” He kisses the back of my hand. “Let’s can all the future talk for now. For the rest of the night nothing can be discussed but right now and the immediate future.” 

“Deal.”

“What do you want to do tomorrow?”

“Anything, as long as it’s outside.” 

“Park?”

“Picnic?”

He nods. “And a walk. Or we could get up really early and go fishing.” 

“I didn’t know you fish.”

“Dad and I used to go a lot on the weekends.”

“Let’s go fishing, then. You can teach me how.” I enjoy new experiences with Jason. My world opens up and I feel less like the abused, isolated girl I once was.

I feel normal.

Arissa is sitting in the living room flipping through a magazine when Jason drops me off. She tosses it aside as soon as I lock the door. We stare at each other in silence.

I have no idea what to say to her. I can’t keep explaining the same thing to her over and over. I might as well talk to a brick wall if I do. I turn to go upstairs.

“I’m sorry,” she says.

I glance over. “I don’t think I heard you right.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, louder. “Okay? I was a bitch to you.”

I face her, leaning on the banister. “Yeah, a big one.”

“I know you’re not lying and I shouldn’t have used your past against you. Or accused you of cheating on Jason.”

“That’s awfully big of you, Riss.”

“Come on. I’m trying to apologize here.”

“You hurt me.” My voice quivers with the rising tears. I choke them down. I can’t cry right now. “You’re my best friend and up until yesterday, I thought you would always be on my side.”

She stands, taking slow steps towards me. “I
am
on your side. I always will be. I just…I don’t know.” She stops in front of me, but casts her gaze at the door. “I guess I’m still used to it being the four of us, even if he’s been coming around since we went to his place for the party. I saw you two looking like…” she weaves her fingers together and fiddles with her thumbs, “…like a couple and I had to say something.”

“Then talk to me. Don’t confront me about things that you made up in your head. What if you went to Jason with it first and he believed you?”

“That’s why I came to you.”

I blow out a breath in frustration. “I just don’t get it. Why, after two months, is it such a big deal?”

“Because everyone was here yesterday and they all saw.”

“Right, I’m going to cheat on Jason in front of
everyone
. That’s real smart of me, isn’t it?”

She sighs. “Sara—”

“What?” I ask, cutting her off.

“This isn’t how I thought this would go down.”

“Did you think I would just accept your apology and everything would be a-okay?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Maybe you’ll remember this the next time you want to accuse me of something.”

“I will.”

She wants off the hook and I want to let her off, but I want her to understand that “sorry” doesn’t make it automatically better. “I accept your apology, but I’m still hurt.” I run up the stairs, not giving her a chance to respond.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

Jason arrives to pick me up at five in the morning. He looks like he just unwrapped the Christmas present at the top of his wish list.

In contrast, I am bleary-eyed, straight-faced, and holding a cooler of food Rose made for us.

He pecks my cheek and takes the cooler from me. “Between my mom and Rose, we won’t go hungry or thirsty at all.” He slips his other hand into mine and leads me to the car. “You sure you’re up for this?”

I yawn and nod.

He laughs. “You can take a nap on the drive.” 

“Good, because I don’t think you could stop me from taking one.”

“Is that a challenge, Parker?” he asks mirthful, brows rising.

“No challenge,” I answer once we’re both in the car. “Just let me sleep or I’ll be useless.” I close my eyes and recline the seat.

“You’re no fun.” 

“Jason, it’s five a.m.
No one
is fun at five a.m.” 

“I am!” 

I place an index finger to my lips to quiet him.

“Killjoy.” 

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” he says, kissing my forehead.

“Is that really how the King’s son kissed Briar-Rose to wake her from her one hundred years of slumber?” I ask with my eyes still closed.

His mouth molds to mine and teases it open; a hand trails down my face. He tastes of coffee, bold and bright like him. He breaks away too soon and my eyes open to his gaze.

“That will do,” I murmur, my lips forming into a sleepy smile. I receive a bright smile rivaling the California sun in return.

The sky is clear gray and the world is waiting on the sun to awaken. We’re the only car in the lot. I stretch as Jason gets the coolers out of the backseat. 

It takes two trips to get everything to the dock, but Jason doesn’t let me help with the second trip. I drag the cooler from Alana in front of me. She packed sandwiches and an assortment of cut fruit and vegetables. There are two red cups in the cooler, but no drinks.

Jason said we wouldn’t go thirsty, but there isn’t anything to drink in the cooler. I check the cooler from Rose and pull out a thermos of ice tea.

Jason returns with the cooler for the fish and a drink cooler.

I laugh. “I was wondering why your mom packed us cups but no drinks.”

“Yeah, we always bring a cooler of ice water.” He grins. “Let’s get the lines in the water, then we can eat.”

He shows me how to tie the hook on the line, then bait it. I watch him work his own line with deft and reverent hands. He guides me in handling the rod and casting with his arms around me. We set the rods in the holders on the dock and sit down to eat.

We eat breakfast in silence, then clean up. He tugs me into his lap before I can sit after packing up the cooler, and pulls me backwards into his chest. He circles his arms around my waist and rests his head against my back. 

“Is it always this quiet?” I ask, settling into him.

“Only on the weekdays. It’s crowded on the weekends.” 

“I wish we could have brought him.” I lean my head on his shoulder.

“Me too. It’s been a long time since we’ve been out here. There’s a handicap accessible dock on the other side of the lake. He just doesn’t have enough energy for it.” He gives me a slight squeeze. “I’m glad you agreed to come out here.” 

“I wanted to do something you love for once.” 

“Parker, I love doing anything as long as I’m with you.”

“There is
nothing
to love about spending time in court.”

“I was with you. That’s all I cared about.” His arms cinch around me. “What’s going on with you and Arissa?”

“She apologized when I got home last night.”

“I knew she’d come around.”

“Yeah, well, she thought she could say she was sorry and that would be the end.”

“You accepted her apology though, right?”

I shift sideways on his lap and drape an arm over his shoulder. “After I told her how she hurt me and made her think about how she could’ve ruined our relationship.”

“You didn’t let her off easy.”

“No. Not after what she did and how she did it. She used something I had to do for self-preservation against me and accused me of cheating on you. Even after I thought you were back with Becky, I couldn’t think about other boys. I might’ve let you go in my mind, but I never really moved on. Hunter just helped keep me from completely falling apart.”

“I know. I’m glad you had someone there for you when I couldn’t be. You went through enough alone before.”

“I can’t change it, J. I can’t change how we interact with each other. It’s part of our friendship.”

“Parker, I’m okay with it. No one thinks twice when you and Arissa have your arms around each other. It’s unfair for anyone to jump to conclusions when it’s a boy and girl.” His lips skim my jaw. “You two will work it out.”

Five hours pass without a bite and we decide to eat lunch. Another hour goes by and Jason decides it’s time to pack up.

“Sorry it wasn’t more exciting,” he apologizes, driving us out of the park.

“I’ve had a lot of other excitement lately. Peaceful was what I needed.”

“But you didn’t catch anything.”

“Neither did you.”

“Don’t rub it in.” He gives me puppy dog eyes for a brief moment at a stoplight. “Are you up for something tonight? I was thinking we could go to the Fair.”

“Sounds fun. I need a nap though. That early morning wake-up call wasn’t fun.”

“I guess I can suffer through you taking a nap,” he jokes, “since I got to fish today for the first time in a long time.” 

Jason drops me off at home and I find Rose in the TV room with Arissa and Damian watching a movie. “Is it okay if I go to the Fair with Jason tonight?” 

“Sure.”

“Mind if we tag along?” Damian asks.

I roll my eyes and set a hand on my hip. “I don’t know, Damian. We can’t take you anywhere, you know.” 

“Har har.”

I head up to my room and Arissa follows. I collapse on my bed, weary from the day, while she sits on the edge.

“I was totally wrong. I’m sorry, Sara. I shouldn’t have accused you the way I did. Best friends don’t do that to each other, but I did it to you. You deserve better than that from me.”

I roll on my side. Knowing her, she’ll never say what I suspect. It’s not in her nature to admit her faults, even if she’s apologizing again. “Are you jealous of Hunter? That I have a friend outside of you, Jason, and Damian?”

She looks away for a moment before turning back. “Yes. But because he got to be with you when we weren’t allowed to see or talk to you. It’s like he has a piece of you that we don’t.”

I curl my hand around hers. “We’re going to be sisters soon. You’re going to get a piece of me no one else gets. I have so few friends, there is more than enough of me to share.”

She throws herself on me. “I love you, Sara.”

I wrap my arms around her. “I love you too, Riss.”

We get fresh lemonade as soon as we enter the fairgrounds and walk around the exhibits. The boys get bored and decide they need to play carnival games. They spend some time dragging me and Arissa through the game section, winning us some small stuffed animals. We head for the rides next.

“Sara,” a female voice calls out from behind.

I turn around, letting go of Jason’s hand. “Becky.”

She stands with her arms folded, weight on one leg. Four friends are with her. “I heard about your parents. And foster homes. It’s too bad,” she says, her tone mocking.

Heat rushes through my body like churning whitewater rapids. I ball my fists and my jaw tightens. “You want to walk away right now, Becky. Especially if you want to avoid what your sister didn’t,” I say, calm and even to suppress the rage building within.

Jason moves forward and I flatten my hand on his chest while keeping my eyes on Becky. He stops. Damian moves next, but Jason stops him in the same manner. I know how to fight back now and Jason understands that.

“What are you going to do, Sara? Take me to the ground like Nicole did? Hit me like your dad did? Pin me against a table?”

I tilt my head at her last question. The pieces finally snap into place and the raging river quells. Answers are more important. “Who is Blake to you?”

“My half-brother.”

“I hope he’s ready for trouble.”

She drops her arms to her side. “What are you talking about?”

“I wondered for months why he brought your name up, but now I get it. I find it sad that you and your sister can’t let go. I can’t help that Jason loves me more than you. I can’t help that you can’t keep a boyfriend because you smother them.”

“You fucking cunt!” She lunges at me but her friends pull her back.

“I told Blake this. You should hear it too. There is
nothing
you can say or do to me worse than what my parents did. Nicole tried and failed.” 

She glowers at me.

I twine my fingers with Jason’s. “Let’s go.” The four of us turn towards the rides and head for the Ferris Wheel.

“I can’t believe she’s still mad about that,” Jason says.

“Seriously? After what Nicole did at Hunter’s party?” I ask.

“I blocked that out.”

“Did you know they had a brother?”

“I knew they had an older half-brother, but I never met him and they never really talked about him.”

“Can I borrow your phone?”

He pulls it out of his pocket and hands it to me. Andrew answers and I tell him about Becky revealing her relationship to Blake and him giving her information about me. Andrew promises to file a privacy violation against him when we hang up.

Jason draws me to him in the seat with his arm around my shoulder. “You were back there, Parker. I’m sorry, though.”

“What are you sorry for?” I ask, peering up at him.

“For dating her.”

“We had an impossible situation and you tried to move on with your life because I kept telling you to.” 

“But-“

“Not your fault. End of story.” I look back out over the city as we rise and fall with the turning of the wheel. The pinpoints of lights mark their spot in this world, saying, “Here I am.” Jason is my light, outshining them all.