But Archie and her dad had disappeared into the kitchen with the last of the dinner dishes, with Andy telling Haley to take a load off, he and Archie were going to serve dessert.
And since dessert was cupcakes, which didn’t take a lot of prep, Jag was distracted because they’d been in there a while.
He didn’t get a read from her dad, or Haley, or the girls, that they didn’t dig him.
There had definitely been a lot of looking him over.
But Archie was chill. He was chill.
And Jag found out straight away he had no worries about any of them having an issue with bikers.
This was because he’d discovered that fathers of daughters with dead mothers had long memories.
Jagger had won the guy over years before and Andy wasn’t effusive about that, but he also didn’t hide it. The rest of them fell in with that from the moment Jagger walked in the door.
So he wondered what was up with the disappearing act.
He turned his attention to Haley, who was fidgeting with the napkin in her lap.
Instinct, or more aptly, the vibe of her attitude took his attention to Hellen, who did not miss her mother’s manner, which seemed suddenly anxious, and Hellen didn’t like it.
Liane, the baby, didn’t notice it.
Shit.
Archie had told him she’d finally begun to bond with her stepmom, and she was super happy about it. But she also told him that she’d always liked Haley.
She wouldn’t want her anxious.
And she probably wouldn’t keep this from her stepmom anyway, it was just likely that she didn’t want to get into it and drag down what had been a good meet-the-boyfriend night.
“It’s not my place to say,” Jagger started.
All three women turned their eyes to him.
“But Archie has been having some issues with the way the building she co-owns with her brother is being handled,” he continued. “She confronted him with that today and it didn’t go too good. It’s a guess, but I suspect she’s sharing that with her dad right about—”
“It’s entirely unacceptable!”
Everyone at the table jumped, including Jagger, as they heard Andy’s thundered words coming from the kitchen.
“No!” he roared. “You absolutely do not treat your sister like that!” A beat then, “Absolutely not! This is done! Your stepmother and I will buy your share!”
Okay, well, first, he wasn’t yelling at Archie.
And second, apparently Andy wasn’t hip on what happened with Elijah that day either.
He also didn’t hesitate to share with Elijah that he wasn’t.
“Think on that!” Andy shouted, the thunder muted, but the man was still pissed so he was also still loud. “Yes, it would have been your mother’s. Now it’s yours. And if you don’t get your goddamn head out of your ass, half of it will be Haley’s because she’s a member of this goddamn family and even your grandparents treated her like that!”
Fucking hell.
“Uh…” Haley said, hands to the arms of her chair like she wanted to get up, but she wasn’t getting up.
“Go, Mom,” Hellen encouraged. “It’s your house, your husband and E being a douche is ruining another one of your dinners. You should know what’s going on.”
Haley looked to Hellen, Hellen nodded, Haley then said to Jag, “Sorry, I—”
“Go, me and the girls are good,” he assured.
She looked relieved and then she took off.
“He’s not even here and he’s fucking things up,” Hellen muttered under her breath.
“H, chill,” Liane replied.
“I’m not gonna chill.” Hellen was no longer mumbling. “I mean, you just heard Andy. I’m sure E is acting like the world revolves around him with whatever’s up with him and Archie, because that’s what he does, like, all the time. Then Andy mentions Mom, E’s got some shit to say, it’s his usual not-nice shit, and I’m tired of it. She’s not a homewrecker, for God’s sake. Bryn had been dead for years before Mom entered the picture.”
Liane gave up on Hellen, who was getting worked up, and turned to Jag.
“Sorry,” she said.
“No apologies necessary,” he replied.
“We’re usually not loud or crazy,” Liane told him.
“No, that is completely wrong,” Hellen enunciated every word carefully. “We’re always loud and crazy when Elijah rears his head. Fortunately, he doesn’t do that very often.”
“He’s our brother, H, stop it,” Liane hissed.
“I’m tired of biting my tongue when that asshole fucks shit up. And he’s not my brother, Liane. Not once has he treated me like he was my brother, or you like he was yours. He acts like Mom did him some grievous harm and us like we stole the family silver. I’m sick to death of it.”
Liane’s voice got quiet when she said, “Girl, cool it. Mom would toe-tah-lee freak if she heard you cuss like that, especially in front of company.”
Hellen turned to him. “Am I offending you?”
“Nope,” Jagger answered.
Hellen threw a hand his way. “See?”
“How would you offend Jagger?” Haley was back in the mix, walking into the room.
“No reason!” Liane lied brightly.
“I’m sharing it like it is about Elijah,” Hellen told the truth.
“Shh,” Liane shushed her sister.
This was because Archie and Andy were also coming into the room.
Andy looked like he was ready to murder someone, which was funny as fuck, considering he was also carrying a big tray of cupcakes that had massive froths of pink icing on top of them.
Archie had a stack of dessert plates.
“All right, so how about we think about cupcakes, and eat them, and even talk about them, and continue enjoying our night,” Haley said, seating herself at the foot of the table and sounding kinda desperate.
“Love you, Mom, but…” Hellen started, she turned toward Andy, and having heard what she had to say before they joined them in the dining room, Jag shot his eyes right to Archie and gave her a look.
She bit her lip.
Hellen went for it.
“Andy, you know I love you too. You stepped up. You helped raise me and Li. All you do is love Mom when Dad has never been anything but a dick to her, and sometimes us. And Archie.” She looked to Arch. “We’re not close, but we’re cool, and I like you loads. But this Elijah thing needs to be out of the kitchen and discussed among the family because Andy is right. He needs to get his head out of his ass.”
“Hellen Katherine Moynihan, mouth, please,” Haley snapped.
“Mom, seriously?” Hellen shot back. “We’re having dramas and walking on eggshells and the guy isn’t even here.”
“We’ll discuss it later,” Haley decreed.
“Why, because Jagger’s here?” Hellen asked. “For as long as I can remember, Archie’s never brought a guy to dinner. And you made me and Liane drive down from Boulder to meet him the first time he shows for dinner. So, it’s not lost on me that’s something special and he told us what’s up so it’s not like he’s not in the know that Elijah can be…” her eyes slid to Andy and back to her mother before she finished, “difficult.”