Jackson Stiles, Road to Redemption (17 page)

“Anything wrong, dear?” Ma offers. Green tucks some hair away.

“No, no, I just had an itch.”

“Darn mosquitos,” Ma adds. Which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard today. And that’s is saying a lot.

“It’s November, Ma. There are no mosquitos.” She giggles and waves a hand at me.

“Did you know mosquitos hibernate?” James, the younger of the twins, announces.

“Yeah,” Remus adds. “And they can lay up to three
hundred
eggs!”

Just in case you didn’t notice, yes, they’re named after fictional characters. Mia had a serious obsession with
Harry Potter
when she was pregnant with the twins. They were doomed from the get go.

“Really?” Nick responds to their data dump and leans in. “Well, did you know it’s the females that suck your blood?”

“Nicholas Jason Stiles. No blood talk,” Mia warns him. Probably worried he’s gonna fill their heads with some horror story from the job. He hooks a thumb over toward her, then he whispers to the boys, “Part mosquito.”

You might be wondering why I got the well thought out middle name and my brother got the boring one. Truth is, he’s just lucky. Jason is Greek too. He was the leader of the Argonauts.

I know right?

Moving on.

The rug rats laugh in unison. Green joins them, and I notice it’s one of the few times since I’ve met her that she looks like she doesn’t have her walls up.

It’s kinda cool.

Mia slaps my brother on the arm. My Dad ignores all of us, but Ma, she’s pretty observant. As it is duly noted in the way she’s watching me watch Green.

She’s becoming curious.

“Tell me, Emma, how is it you know our Jackson?”

Nick, who for some reason has decided to stir the pot tonight, decides to fill our mother in. This is where it becomes apparent that now he knows who she is.

“She called Jackie out a couple months ago in an article she wrote.” He chuckles. “What’d she call you, Jack? A—”

“Desperate man in need of feeling applicable in today’s society after being kicked out of the Redemption Police Academy several years ago.” I figure I may as well be the one to say it.

I mean, why the hell not?

At first, Green doesn’t react. Ma looks shocked, and Nick’s shoulders are bouncing at my complete lack of giving a shit.

“That article was a misunderstanding,” Green offers, embarrassed, to my mother and everyone else. She thinks she can blow the whole thing off as sweetly as possible. I’m not in the mood to let it go just yet.

As Ma pretends I didn’t say anything of significance and Dad goes about being a pig, I lean over to tell her quietly, “I wasn’t kicked out by the way. Your sources suck.”

Her eyes widen a tad, and her mouth falls open about as much.

“I didn’t─”

“That’s right.” Dad cuts her off. Of course, now he decides to actually take part in a conversation. Why wouldn’t he? “He quit.”

“You did?”
Now
she wants the real story?

It’s more than that, though. She’s wondering why her source lied.

Welcome to Redemption, Green.

“I did. Now, can we drop it?”

“Four years of college and two at the academy wasted.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Dad. I got that gold star for attendance, remember?”

Nick shakes his head. Ma looks down at her plate and Dad—he’s discussed it enough, I guess.

He points at Green with his butter knife.

“Reminds me of June.” He nudges Ma. I can’t believe he just said that shit. Neither can the rest of the table.

No one makes a peep. Except for Dad.

“Remember June, Karen?” He elbows her.

“Of course, Frank,” Her voice is soft and low. There’s pain behind it. I want to deck his ass.

“Who’s June?” Green asks me as she chooses a drumstick. She’s interested to hear who it is she’s being compared to. I don’t have the balls to tell her, though.

“Mikey’s girl,” Dad answers. He’s the only one eating now. Even Nick has put his fork down. Mia’s smile has diminished, and the boys are curious but oblivious.

Lucky them.

“And Mikey is…” she fishes with a curious grin playing at her lips.

Silence weighs heavy on the room. The only sound is Dad shoving green beans into his mouth.

“Boys, why don’t you go get some more sweet tea for the table.”

“But—”

“Go.” Mia’s mom-voice is damn near as good as Ma’s.

That’s scary.

They get up and go, and I try to swallow down the lump in my throat along with the disgust that follows it. In the end, it’s Nick who finally answers her.

“That’s, um, our little brother, Emma.” He clears the phlegm out of his throat and pushes his plate away.

“Wow,” she looks over at me. “Another one of you? I can’t wait to meet this one. Where is he?”

How is she not getting it yet?

I down the rest of my drink and focus on someone else.

Dad. Who looks like he’s about to engage.

Maybe he realizes what he’s said, maybe not. Either way, the expression on his face as he meets my stare tells me the same thing it has every time he’s looked at me for about ten years now.

“No, you don’t get to see him tonight,” Dad tells her as he shoots daggers into my head.

“Oh. Why? Doesn’t he live in Redemption?”

She’s still clueless, but she’s beginning to see this is a touchy subject at least.

Me? Well, I’ve about had it with playing family for the night. Guest or no guest.

“He’s dead, Green.” I put her curiosity out of its misery and stand. With the pristine, white linen Ma’s used since the dawn of time, I wipe my mouth and toss the napkin onto the table.

I’m outta here. I don’t give a shit if that means I have to walk home.

“Thanks for dinner, Ma.” I turn to the old man. “Happy fucking birthday, Pop. Sorry, I’m alive.” My feet fly for the door. I grab my jacket on the way out.

“Jackson.” Someone’s voice calls after me as I head out the front door.
Probably Ma.
Next thing I know, that someone is at my side, grabbing ahold of my arm in fifty-degree weather with no coat on.

“Stiles, I’m sorry, I didn’t─”

Green?

I push past my confusion of
why is she out here?
And put a cork in the guilt trip she’s beginning to have.

“You wouldn’t know. It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it. Go inside.” I pull the cig out of my pocket and stick it in my mouth.

“No.” She’s stubborn like that. Even though she has absolutely nothing else to say right now, she stands there, waiting for me to… Hell I don’t know what she’s waiting for.

She takes the cigarette out of my mouth as a gust of wind blows through the yard. It shakes some branches on the oak tree. I look up and see the remnants of our old tree house pretty far up there. What’s left of it anyway.

It used to be so damn huge.

I take my cigarette back and house it in my pocket.

Her eyes narrow and her head tilts and I know I’m in trouble because she’s thinking about something. Every time this woman thinks I get into fucking trouble.

“That’s the grave you wanted me to go see.”

Ding ding ding ding! Winner Johnny. Tell her what she’s won.

“I take it you didn’t.”

She shakes her head. “I had a deadline.”

Of course she did.

“How did he die?” she asks, the reporter in her taking over. More trouble.

“Accident,” Nick tells her as he joins us. His voice is soft. An apology, maybe. I don’t fucking know.

“What were you thinking tonight?” I raise my voice, forgetting Green is even there. Nick takes a defensive stance.

“What was
I
thinking?”

“You what, thought this was the night, Nick? The one when everything would magically fucking fix itself? Thought you’d invite my… Green over here and make Dad join in on this oh so happy fucking day because—”

“Jackie—”

“No, screw that, Nick. This?” I make as big a fucking circle as I can with my hands toward the house. “Is never going to get fixed. You think you can get that through your thick ass skull? And that bike?” I point at it, but fuck if I’m gonna look at it again. “Is not gonna bring Mike back.”

I feel it as soon as the words leave my mouth. The sting behind my eyes, the shortness of breath. The twisted knots in my gut. The memory of conversations that I gave zero thought to, which cost me a brother.

I reach across my chest. It fucking burns like hell, the ink underneath my shirt.

“Listen,” Nick says to me after a couple painfully long minutes of silence between the three of us. “I’ll get ya home. Just let me tell Mia, and I’ll grab my—”

“I’ll take him.” Green’s unexpected offer throws me off guard.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.” She looks completely serious right now. Maybe even concerned. Which is freaking me the fuck out. “I’m headed in that direction, anyway.”

How does she know which way is my way?

“How do you—”

“Stay so awesome? It’s hard work.” She smiles, and I have no idea how to react. Is she putting on a show or is she being serious here?

I don’t have to think about it too long.

“If you’re sure. I’ll just go make sure Ma’s okay.” Nick’s already backing away toward the front entry.

Green nods. “Absolutely.”

I breathe. Or try to. “Tell her I’m sorry for…” I wave at the house. Nick nods. He knows what I mean.

“Okay then. Let me get your stuff. We’ll talk, bro. Okay?” He looks to me for some kinda sign that I’m not gonna go home and drink myself to sleep. I can’t give it to him. Instead, I start for Green’s car, ready to get the hell outta Dodge for the night.

Maybe longer.

X X X

“You wanna talk about it?” Green tries to open up the floodgates about ten minutes into our drive. There’s a
No Entrance
sign that’s been up for roughly a decade, though, unfortunately for her.

“No.”

“You wanna talk about something else?”

“No.” What am I, in Lana’s office?

“You probably should talk about it.”

“Leave it alone, Green.”

“But I just─”

“Leave it the fuck alone.”

She skips a beat when I get loud about it.

“Fine,” she concedes. Another ten minutes go by, and she apparently can’t help herself.

“Jackson?”

I blow out some air. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I told you, Green, it’s not your—”

“No.” She cuts me off. “I mean, about the article.”

My connection with the outside world is broken as I turn to face her. Wasn’t expecting that from her, either. She’s all about the surprises tonight.

“I knew you knew about it, of course. I knew you hated me for writing it. But I didn’t know you’d actually read it until you quoted it tonight.”

Gotta say, not used to getting apologies. Not that I need ’em, but when I hear them, I almost don’t even recognize what’s happening.

“Anyway, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you then.”

That’s a laugh.

“You don’t know me now.”

“I know there’s a heart under there somewhere.” She rests her hand against my chest. It’s warm as fuck. “I saw it tonight. I saw it the other day when I found Stix in the back of your car. I know someone like that wouldn’t take advantage of people the way that article suggested you do. So, I’m sorry.”

Her hand finds the steering wheel again.

She’s kinda fucking wigging me out with this sappy shit, to tell you the truth. I don’t know if she’s being sincere or playing me for information. I certainly don’t know how to interact with her on this level.

“Green?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t go soft on me. Comprende?”

I watch her to see if she gets it. When she glances over to read me, she looks like she wants to say something else about it, but in the end, the sides of her mouth turn up in a slight grin. She nods when she goes back to watching the road.

“Comprende.”

“Cool.” I return to watching the world go by, and the car becomes silent again, which I like much better.

Pretty soon, we’re approaching my apartment complex. In the middle of thinking about how Mikey used to follow me every fucking where, and how it used to drive me batshit crazy but I’d kill for him to do it one more time, it hits me that I completely forgot to ask Green how in the hell she knew where I live. Before I can open my mouth to begin the questioning, I see the lights just around the corner. Red and blue flash against the trees that line my apartment building’s property, and all of a sudden, I have a very bad feeling.