Page 142 of Before You Fell

The doors slide open. We step out together and every unsaid thing trailing close behind.

She unlocks the apartment door and, the second it opens, noise punches through the hallway.

“Welcome home!”

Willow freezes in the doorway.

I peer over her head and find the three idiots standing in her living room as if they have broken in and are throwing a welcome-home party.

Food covers the coffee table. Drinks line the counter. Jett holds a huge, bright bouquet of flowers that looks as though he mugged a florist on his way over. Cruz stands beside him, wearing the expression of a man who absolutely helped but plans to deny it under oath.

A banner hangs crookedly across the wall.

WELCOME HOME, SONGBIRD.

Subtlety has never lasted long around this band.

Jax steps forward first because patience has never lasted long in him. “Don’t stand there looking weird. Come give me a fucking hug, Wills.”

She barely makes it inside when he pulls her against his chest.

Willow laughs and the sound changes the whole fucking room.

“You scared the shit out of us,” he mutters into her hair.

“I know,” she says, muffled against him.

At least, I think that’s what she says. Jax has her so tight in his arms that she could be confessing to murder and none of us would hear it properly.

“Don’t do it again.”

“Jax.”

“Yeah?”

“I can’t breathe.”

“Oh, shit. Sorry.”

He lets her go so fast he almost drops her.

Jett steps forward next and holds out the bouquet. “These are for you.”

Willow takes them. “They’re beautiful.”

He hugs her. Carefully.

That is the difference between the twins. Jax loves at full volume, with all rough edges and bruising grip. Jett, on the other hand, does it quietly, as if caring for someone were something you protect rather than perform.

“Glad you’re home,” he says.

Her eyes close. “Me too.”

He lets her go.

Cruz waits his turn. “Come here, Songbird.”

Willow sets the huge bouquet on the table and goes to him. Cruz folds her into his arms, one hand settling between her shoulder blades as he leans in to whisper in her ear.