“Yep, yep.” I bobbed my head, still watching Amelia. Fucking hell, she was so sexy. Those legs begged my hands to caress her from her ankles to her thighs, right on up to her… “You know the best part about that whole situation?” I finally gave my attention to my friends. “I don’t care.”
“Amen to that.” Jude laughed and Austin lifted his beer.
I fired up the grill while the kids played in the grass and my friends laughed and chatted. A year ago, none of this would have been possible. The kids would already have destroyed something, or started fighting, or found a way to misbehave and embarrass me. Tension would have infiltrated the mood and I would’ve been wound too tight to be around people, let alone manage to split my attention between my children and the grill.
I laughed to myself. A year ago? More like a month ago. Amelia had worked a miracle with them. With me. I never would have thought I’d find anything that felt normal again, yet here I was, grill tongs in one hand and a beer in the other—
A crash and a shriek made me jump so hard I nearly dropped a chicken breast into the flames. I looked up to find Amelia crouched over Garrett, who was sprawled on the ground with a Frisbee laying nearby.
“You okay, Gare?” she asked. “Let me take a look at that knee.”
“I’m fine,” he barked.
“Can I please just see—”
“I’m fine! Leave me alone! You’re not my mom!” Garrett leapt to his feet, his face turning red as the conversation in the backyard stuttered to a stop. The song playing over the speakers suddenly seemed ridiculously loud.
Amelia flinched away from the anger emanating from my son. “I know I’m not your mom.”
She frowned, looking hurt.
And sad.
And embarrassed.
Garrett stomped his foot. “Stop trying to act like her because you’re! Not! Her!”
Shit.
So much for all the progress we’d made. I met Amelia’s eyes with an apology, and she brushed away my concern. “It’s fine.”
It wasn’t. She looked rattled as fuck and Garrett knew better than to treat her like that.
I didn’t know what to do. Part of me wanted to yell at my son, the other part just wanted to find out what the hell was going on with him. But I had guests watching and meat on the grill…
“I’ll take care of this for you.” Jude took the tongs from my hands. “You go talk to your boy.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Amelia
After things went sideways at the Cooper-Q yesterday, Jack and I decided to skip the festival at the pier. He wanted to talk to Garrett, and I…
…well…
I thought it best if I gave them all some space. Not that I wanted space. Not at all, especially because Jack and I already had to steal our time together. Nevertheless, Charlie and Connor looked so rattled by the way Garrett acted, I didn’t want to put any more pressure on them than I already had.
“Do you think we’re moving too fast? Me and Jack?” I looked to Evie, who was curled up on my couch, sipping an iced tea and flipping through bridal magazines on a Sunday afternoon. Sunlight bounced through the windows and danced along the floor. On any other day, I’d be in a stellar mood, but I couldn’t stop worrying about what happened yesterday.
She glanced up. “Do you think you’re moving too fast?”
“I love it when you answer questions with a question.” I gave her a scathing roll of my eyes. “Oh, wait. That’s right. I don’t like that at all.”
My response was harsher than usual, but Evie didn’t flinch. Instead, she patted my knee and put down her magazine. “I think you and Jack are really happy together. You’re good for each other, and I think anyone would agree that he’s so much better off with you around…” She made a face. “Well, everyone but Greta—”
I waved away the statement with an angry growl. “I’m so tired of that woman and her gossip. Like, what have I ever done to make her hate me so much? I even brought back her casserole dish the very next day when she gave me the ‘welcome to Wildrose turkey tetrazzini.’ Maybe I didn’t compliment her enough?”
“I can’t imagine what she has against you.” Evie took a drink of her tea, then put it on the coffee table. “You’re nice to everyone.”
“I loved reading all her posts about you and Alex, but it’s time for her to get her nose out of my business.”
“Kinda felt that way for me too.” Evie shrugged. Her private nature had rebelled against Greta posting daily updates on her blossoming relationship with Alex and I’d basically told her she was being ridiculous. Now that I knew how it felt, I wished I’d been more understanding.
“I feel bad about all the times I told you to relax about it. It’s…invasive.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s in the past.” Evie waved off my apology. “Is it the Garrett thing that has you worrying you’re moving too fast with Jack?”
I nodded, replaying the anger hovering around the kid in the week leading up to yesterday’s explosion. Looking back, the signs had been there, growing worse day by day. “Garrett caught us kissing and has been weird ever since. Like really weird. Up ‘til that point, I was making progress with him, but now…”
We’d started moving backwards. Garrett was putting walls up, trying to draw his brother and sister in while I was one hundred percent on the outside.
Evie leaned her head on my shoulder. “I don’t know the first thing about kids, but the Coopers have been through a lot. Garrett probably needs time to adjust to you being more of a girlfriend to Jack and less of a babysitter to them.”
“Yeah.” I let out a long breath as I wrangled with a head full of questions. “You’re probably right.”
She peeked up at me. “That doesn’t sound like the super positive Amelia Brown I know.”
No. But I was starting to sound like the riddled with anxiety Amelia Brown I used to be.
“You know what?” I bobbed my head. “You’re right. I’m gonna stop worrying about this and just let it be. Everything will turn out the way it’s supposed to.”
The smile on my face was forced and the words felt fake, but sometimes that was the only way forward. Maybe I’d make a shirt that said, “Fake it ‘til you make it.”
Later that night, I climbed into bed and folded my legs under the covers, sitting tall with my spine straight. I closed my eyes and focused on my breath, quieting my mind as I reached out to my higher self and spirit guides. As tension eased from my neck and shoulders, I focused on Garrett. On Jack. On Charlie and Connor. “I could use some guidance here,” I said, then let out a long breath and waited for a jolt of clarity that never came.
After twenty minutes I opened my eyes, feeling more relaxed, but no closer to knowing what to do. Chasing away my fears with a litany of positive mantras, I pulled up the covers and snuggled into my pillows.
Maybe everything would be better in the morning.
Nothing was better in the morning. Garrett was in a shit mood when I arrived, and his siblings seemed tense and reserved. Even Jack’s greeting was cooler than usual.