I laughed, hugging him. “Don’t give in to your delinquent side. Keep the faith, brother.”
He tipped his head back. “Excuse me?”
“I’m pretending to be an SBC-er. Chill. Zen it out of you and proceed. You want to torch the ornament?”
He snorted, laughing, but then got serious. “Yes. From early on, you were my sparkler, bringing a whole new life to me, and I want to singe the bottom of this ornament. It’ll go up on this tree to commemorate the first of another new chapter in our lives.” He stared at me, and then dropped his gaze to my stomach and back.
Oh. OH!
I was back to fighting back the tears because my whole body was melting.
I nodded, tears streaming down my face. “I got it. I love you.”
His own eyes got a little wet, but he stood, touched the sparkler to the bottom of the ornament until it had darkened. He handed the sparkler off to Nate, who dumped it in a bucket of water and set that aside.
“Dad! Are there fish in there?”
We heard Quincey replying in a hushed tone, but Logan went to the tree and hung it up. He turned, addressing everyone. “I love each one of you guys. Adore some of you more than others.” He winked at Maddy, who was now all smiles and laughing. “But you all are my family. Each of you, and I know I went around the family tradition with you know, but it truly means the world to me to have everyone here together. I know life is going to keep going. Who the f—knows what will happen with James and Analise, but it’ll happen. Promotions. Jobs will change. I’m sure more babies will come, but we’re here. All of us. Together. I’ve had you guys all my life, and we just keep adding on. I love you all and Merry Christmas! #KadeChristmas”
There was laughter. Cheers.
The hugs started.
Logan was being hugged.
I was being hugged.
Natty jumped on Matty to get to me, so Matty had to get up. I was able to stand up for the hugs after that.
Logan found his way back to my side, one of the twins clinging to his back, and he pulled me to his side when we heard the front door open.
“We’re here! Late, but here.” Malinda led the way, coming down the front entryway and rounding to a stop at the living room opening. David stepped in behind her. Two more came next, Mark and Cass, who were holding hands.
That’s when Malinda sniffed the air. “Why am I smelling fire?”
A beat of silence.
Then from Maddy, “THE TREE IS ON FIRE!”
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Acknowledgments
I feel like I need to acknowledge Logan himself here because if he hadn’t randomly popped into my head one Saturday morning, and be a pest, this novella might not have been written. I had no plans on this novella, but yep. It happened exactly as I said, and all the Fallen Crest gang were eager to join as well. Then the Crew crew started talking, and well, you see what came of it all.
Good old Tate and James, right?
I’m not usually big on writing time jumps, but this was how the novella was coming to me and so I decided to go with it. Blame Logan, if you’d like!
Also, a big huge thank you to the readers who have loved Fallen Crest and now Crew over the years and to the new ones who are discovering them. When you send me a message, email, or do a post in the reader group, you guys are keeping them alive. Not that they aren’t, or… You know what I mean.
Thank you to the team that helps me on a daily too!
And lastly, thanks to my Bailey. He’s always happy to give me a cuddle after a long day of writing. Love you, B.
Kess
One more step would mean certain death.
The words were scribbled on a piece of paper, taped to a bathroom stall, and I was about out of patience. I ripped it off, balled it up, and tossed it into the garbage. I knew why they put the note up, because this was the druggie stall.
Asshats.
There were three other stalls open, which wasn’t normal, but we were in the end run of the school year. Graduation was in two days. It was our last official day of school, though most seniors stopped coming a long time ago. Not me. I was here because of detention.
Detention.
I growled under my breath.
I was about to head inside the stall, find the drugs I knew were stashed somewhere, and I was going to mess with them. I was going to hide them somewhere else in the bathroom, but just as I hit the door to open, the main door to the bathroom swung wide.
In walked Tasmin Shaw.
“Hey, Kess.”
I paused, trying to stomp down some of my irritation. It wasn’t her fault I was here for detention, but it was her brother’s and his whole group’s fault. There was a situation they brought about that ended with me getting detention. It was a whole round-about thing, and it didn’t really matter in the long run. But, I couldn’t be mean to Tasmin Shaw, or Taz as she was called by her friends. There were a few different reasons why I wanted to, but none really had to do with Taz as a person.
One, Taz was nice. Like actually nice.
Two, she was connected. Taz was not only popular, but she was well connected with the toughest crew still going strong in our school. We have a system, or had a system. There used to be a whole chain of groups that weren’t gangs, but we weren’t all friends either. We were in the medium between those extremes, and tended to look down on those who weren’t in a crew. That meant you weren’t loyal, and if you were crew, loyalty was like blood to us.
You needed it to be crew, or you were simply ‘less than.’
Or I used to think so.
And three, there was a respect issue here because Taz’s brother’s woman was now the only female in a crew. There’d been one other girl, but no more, and I can say that because it was me. I used to be in a crew. We weren’t big or even tough, but we were a crew and I loved my crew.
Now we were nothing.
“Hey, Taz.”
She stopped before going into her own stall, noted where I was standing, and raised her eyebrows. “You okay?”
I’d forgotten what I was going to do.
“Yeah. I’m good.”
Taz gave me another smile and went into her stall.
I moved inside mine, and a second later, her voice came through the room. “Do you have any plans for the weekend?”
The weekend. Shit. I usually did, but that was before my crew broke up.
Now, “Not really. You?”
Her toilet flushed—when had she even pissed? A beat later, her door opened, and she went out to the sink. Me, I was still standing just inside my door. I hadn’t even closed it behind me, so here we go I guess. I nudged it back open, edging farther out as she washed her hands. Her eyes found mine in the mirror.
An emotion flickered in them, and oh no.
I was already readying myself, because whatever that was, I didn’t like it. My gut was tightening up.
“You know, I heard that Zeke Allen from Fallen Crest Academy is probably going to throw a rager. They party almost every night over there.”
I wanted to snort in disgust, or at least disdain. I didn’t.