Page 75 of Buckle Up, Buttercup

I shoot her an understanding look.

Laughing, she shoves him toward his date. “Get the hells away from me, you big asshole!”

As he falls into the water, the pixie girl diving on top of him with a whoop, Bluebell looks up at me. “You ready for smores, Mister Helpful? Because I literally cannot take this water for a moment longer.”

Stepping closer, I put a hand in the middle of her naked back, leaning in close. “I’ll feed you whatever you want, Miss Tucker, anything at all.”

Bluebell

“Bluebell, honey, you alright?” Mama bumps my hip as she tosses a handful of chocolate chips into her waffle batter. To her right, the entire griddle is covered in sizzling, snapping bacon. I’m still cold from last night’s dip. Fucking Jasper.

I look over at her with a smile. “Yeah, Mama, just thinking about Jasper’s test tomorrow and all the stuff I’ve got to get done in the meantime. Mead Cute Festival’s a day away, and I’d love to do something to surprise him for when he passes, ya know?”

Mama sucks at her teeth. “Listen, baby, I got to talk to you, alright?”

My blood freezes, and I spin to fully face her, eyes wide. “Are you okay? Is Daddy alright? What’s going on?”

She grips my upper arms and shakes her head. “No, baby girl, nothing like that.”

I breathe out a huge sigh of relief. “At your age, you should know better than to ever utter ‘we need to talk,’ Mama.” Yanking my to-do list out of my back pocket, I wave it in her face. “Look at this shit I need to get done today. Can this convo wait, assuming nobody’s dying?”

She smiles at me. “That to-do list can wait, Bluebell Delia Tucker. Give some of that to your brothers, anyhow. Probably Jace because, if I’m honest, Jack and Jasper are not the ones. Although, I do think they’d rise to the occasion if you were willing to trust them.”

When I lift a brow, she gives me an understanding look. “You might as well be my firstborn with how serious you take things, honey. I know it’s hard for you to let go because you don’t want to fix things when the boys don’t do it your way. But why don’t you start with Jace, okay? I been suggesting you do this for a while but I’m gonna start demanding, honey. I can see you’re stressed.”

“Mkay, sounds goods,” I chirp, knowing there’s no way in hells I’m gonna pass the to-do list off at this point. “Good talk, Mama.”

“I wanted to talk to you about Hadrian,” she says. “And your relationship.”

Sputtering, I throw a hand over my heart, looking around for any sign of the Jays. “Hush your mouth, and what are you talking about?!”

My father traipses into the kitchen with a big smile. “We talking about how you and that boy are in love?”

My mouth drops open as I stare between them in utter shock.

Mom smiles softly at me. “You can’t hide love, Bluebell. It shines from both of you like a light.”

“Stop,” I beg them.

Dad slides an arm around Mama’s waist, grinning at her. “You owe me fifty bucks, Elena.”

She elbows him. “Guess I do, you old coot.”

Lifting both hands, I scowl at my parents. “What in the world are you two talking about right now? There is nothing going on between him and me.”

“Lies,” my dad says. “Your mama and I knew it would come to this one day, honey. Y’all always been so close. Why do you think when we redid the house, we made everything extra tall? None of us have wings, Bluebell. We just knew that boy belonged here.” He takes a sip of his coffee and looks at me over the rim. “You gonna break the news to Jasper one o’ these days? I assume you’ve just been waiting ‘cause you know he’s protective over you. We probably did you a bit of a disservice in that ‘cause we were always tellin’ him to watch out for you.”

I shake my head, dumbfounded at this fricking turn of events. “Yeah, we didn’t want to say it before his test. We didn’t want to give him any reason not to be in a good headspace. And honestly, if he’s gonna protect something, I’d rather it be my time.”

“Smart,” Dad says. “We’re never gonna rush you, sweetheart,” he goes on, “but you should tell him soon because I’m tired of pretending y’all aren’t making googly eyes at one another, and Jace knows. Just a matter of time before the other Jays figure it out, and it would be better to be up front.”

“Noted,” I manage, grabbing a spatula to remove the now burning bacon from the griddle. What the hells am I gonna do with this information?

We fall into an uneasy silence. Well, it’s uneasy for me, but my parents act like they didn’t just drop a bomb on my damn head. Do I need to call Hadrian and warn him? Part of me is just relieved to have the news officially out in the open to someone in my family.

The front door slams open and hits the wall, and my mother rolls her eyes. “If that boy could figure out how to work a door without putting holes in my house, I would dearly fuckin’ appreciate it.”

“Language, Elena!” my dad shouts as Jack and Jasper pile into the kitchen.