Spiral (Spiral Series) (22 page)

Jackson had come to perch on
the edge of
my couch
, almost too close for comfort
.
I had never seen this possessive side
of him
before, but it was out in full force now.

“No trouble at all,” said Pierce, shaking his head and smiling. “Where do the presents go?” With a start I
saw
that he was holding a small silver package. I wonder
ed
if he had intentionally wrapped it
in paper
the same color as our eyes.

Maxie was batting her eyelashes at him
as if
it was her job. “Over there. I’ll show you.”

When
they
came back
,
Maxie was beaming.

“What are you doing here?” Jackson asked icily.

Pierce raised his eyebrows.
T
here was a trace of amusement on his face
that
he was trying to keep in check.
He didn’t look like h
e was afraid of Jackson at all.

“Maxie invited me. I ran into the ladies out on the lake yesterday and they thought I deserved dinner for my troubles,” said Pierce.

A
t the mention of the lake
,
Jackson subsided a little
. I wondered why he looked a little guilty, but then my attention was taken by Pierce’s eyes, which had
hardened into two silver dots.

“Anyway,
” he said, visibly turning his attention away from Jackson,
“
I
’
m looking forward to tonight.”

Jackson stared at Pierce for another second, everyone else forgotten,
until
Andrew interrupted.
“So, when’s dinner?
” he asked.
“
Where
are
your dad and my mom?”

“Oh,” I said, remembering. “They went out. They decided to leave us alone for the evening, but
D
ad promised to be back by eleven. I don’t think he trusts us home alone for very long.”

Andrew chuckled, running his fingers through his blond hair. “I guess he probably doesn’t.”

“So, what’s for dinner?” Maxie asked, “I’m famished.”

“Nat’s favorite,” said Andrew, still grinning. “Pasta with meatballs. My mom made it
this afternoon
.”

Olivia was an excellent cook.
In fact, a
s far as I could tell
she
was a brown
-
haired
M
artha
S
tewart. I was never going to
be able to
live up to some
one
like that. My husband was seriously going to have to be happy with takeout.

“Well, what are we waiting for
?
Let
’
s eat.”
With that,
Jill pushed herself off the chair
,
and to my surprise
she
laced her arm around Jackson’s waist.
Jackson
was still staring at Pierce
as if
he had never seen anything quit
e
so repellent before. “Come on
,
dear,” Jill said sarcastically. “
E
ntertain me at dinner.”

Jackson looked ready to protest, but I knew for a fact that Jill was stronger than she looked. She wasn’t just steering him with that arm
, s
he was holding him in place
so that h
e had no choice but to follow her. I was relieved that
she
had noticed and taken the situation
in hand
, even if Maxie was
staring dreamily
at Pierce
as if
Christmas
had
come early.

“I hope I won’t be in the way,” said Casey. “If there isn’t enough food I can come back later.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Andrew, clapping his friend on the back. “No big deal.”

“Yeah, we’d hate for you to leave,” said Jill over her shoulder as we all found seats around the table. “We would miss you so.”

“How can he even pretend to be nice after what he did to us?” Maxie sputtered in my ear. “Maybe he just thinks he’s that much cooler.”

I just shrugged. It was clear to me that there was something going on here that was way over my head. Jackson knew something about it. Maybe Pierce did too
. I promised myself I was going to find out . . . after the party was over.

Meanwhile,
Casey gave
Jill
a strange look, unable to tell if she was joking or not. To be fair, no one could ever tell
whether
J
i
ll was joking or not
; i
t was simpl
er just
to assume that everything she said was sarcastic and had at least two if not six or seven different meanings behind it
,
and that she loved watching you sq
u
irm while you tried to figure it out. It drove Maxie, who was nice and just wanted a cute boyfriend, crazy.

Having
all of us around the dinner table was
going to be
a dangerous proposition
, since n
either Pierce nor Jackson could be anywhere near Casey or each other
,
and Andrew didn’t have any idea what was going on.
I managed to
maneuver so that I was
between Pierce and Casey, with Andrew at the head of the table and Maxie and Jill flanking Jackson on the other side. I felt hot and cold all at once. This was going to be the longest meal ever.

I had begun to wonder how I could have feelings for two guys at once. There was something comforting and familiar about Jackson, but somehow I had the same feeling about Pierce. How could someone I had just met feel like someone I had known for years? Obviously there was no truth to my friends’ insane theory that Pierce’s story at the romance slam was true. Was there? Ever since Pierce had shown up at school I had thought of confronting him about it, like I had confronted him about what he had done at the assembly, but I didn’t have the guts.

 “Sooo,” said Maxie, when we had all had time to eat a bit of our food and the silence had dragged on for too long. “What do you all rec
k
on about graduation?”

“I’m pretty excited about it,” said Andrew
.
“
I’m
looking forward to giving my speech.”

“Oh, you’re one of the ones speaking?” Jill asked
, feigning innocence
.

He grinned at her. “Like you didn’t know.”

I smiled at Andrew. I liked that he could hold his own with my sarcastic friend. This whole stepsibling thing was going way better than I
could ever have
expected.

“So, Pierce, you like school?” Maxie asked. I
had known
it wouldn’t take her long to turn her attention to Pierce.

“Yeah,” said Pierce. “It’s fine.”

“Fascinating,” said Maxie. He could have said something about dust particles and Maxie would have said that was fascinating too.

I felt Pierce’s presence next to me like a warm weight. I couldn’t forget he was there
,
and I didn’t have the guts to look at him. Instead, I concentrated on my food
as if
it was my job. Every
time his arm appeared
on the edge
of my vision to grab something from the table I felt a jolt like a physical shock. No one’s presence had ever affected me like that before, not even Jackson’s. My skin felt warm and I wondered what would happen if our arms brushed against each other. I took a deep, steadying breath. Jackson’s eyes were locked on my face and I felt
the
heat rise to my cheeks. He knew me well. Too well.

“And you’ll be leaving
after graduation
?” Jackson asked. He used the same cold tone he had before. I had never heard him
sound
so hostile before. He
had
always
been
placid and relaxed.
Combined with the fact that he had barely been around lately, it was just weird.

Pierce eyed my friend. Jackson had tried to sit next to me but had somehow wound up across from me instead. I
t was so clear that
he couldn’t stand Pierce
sitting
so close to me
that
I almost smiled. For years I had wanted to make Jackson jealous
,
and
now,
when I
would
least
have
expected it
,
I was.

“I don’t know what my plans are,” Pierce
said,
glanc
ing
in my direction. “Depends on how
things go over the next few weeks, I guess
.”

Jackson couldn’t
have looked
angr
ier
. Andrew, finally cottoning on to
the fact that
something
was
wrong, cleared his throat
and tried to clear the air
. “Cake time?”

I glanced at my stepbrother. I had already had two servings of spag
h
etti, breadsticks, and salad. “Bring on the cake!” I said, grinning.

“Present time,” Maxie a
nn
ounced
when we had polished off big slabs of cake
. “Excitement
!
”