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“That would have been surprising,” Moonlight jokes as she makes her morning juice. “A Cambridge male doing something the calm way would make the news.”
“Speaking of news, Rowe owns the local newspaper now. Our boy is a CEO.”
I grab the stuff of the pancakes and whistle low. “Is he majoring in journalism or something?”
Whit shakes his head. “Nowhere close.”
I put a bowl on the counter and tilt my head at my brother. “Then why did he want to buy it?”
“Oh, lord,” Moonlight grumbles and tries to back out of the kitchen.
Whit points at her without looking. “Don’t move, Beam.” He doesn’t break eye contact with me as he orders her to stay put. “After Moonlight told a reporter that she was sure I killed you, they ran the story. He bought it to fire the people involved.”
I nod. “I’m damn proud of him.” I look at an embarrassed Moonlight. “I’m sorry. I must have been a terrible boyfriend for you to even think that was possible.”
She takes a sip and shrugs as Everie appears. “You didn’t tell me as much as you could’ve about your life, but it’s water under the bridge.” She throws Whit a side eye. “ALL of it.”
They slip into one of their couple tiffs as I greet my woman with a kiss. “Good morning. You’re just in time for pancakes.”
She smiles but rolls her eyes because she’s remembering when I promised these pancakes.
“Okay. Get to it.”
“I don’t work for you,” I tell her as I lean in. “If you want to pay me, I’ll-”
“Walt!” Whit interrupts me with a laugh. He knew I was about to say something dirty.
I shrug and move back to the pancakes. I assemble items, working off my limited memory, but the batter isn’t acting right. Just in case I put a pancake on the griddle, but it doesn’t taste how I think it should. I throw it all away and try again with the same result.
Frustrated, I line up the ingredients on the counter and stare at them. Something is missing. I say them out loud.
“Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and… and…”
I close my eyes, trying to remember what’s missing, but it’s not coming to me. Instead, I get a flash of being hit on my yacht. My eyes pop open and my breathing is becoming shallow. I feel the rage building, but I work to remember the last thing I need before I lose my shit. Pancakes are the one thing I’m supposed to be good at and I can’t fucking do it.
“Fuck!” I swipe the bowl onto the ground. The crash wasn’t good enough for me. I bang on the counter with my hand with another curse.
This is so damn infuriating. I’d do anything just to remember everything. I pull at my hair to fight the urge to bang my head on something hoping it’ll work. Moonlight immediately cleans it. I’m about to yell at her to leave it, but Whit sings the beginning of One More Try. I’m caught off guard enough to focus my attention on him. I have a feeling this is something we did. He sings the song like it’s speaking to his soul, then Rowe comes from the other side, picking up where Whit left off by singing the chorus.
I mouth the words as my heart rate slows to a respectable rhythm. They take turns tackling the second verse and Moonlight grabs my hand with a gentle smile. She places a container in it. I read the label on the little glass bottle. Fucking lemon extract. I nod my gratitude as she helps me make the pancakes.
I pick up the chorus after they finish the second verse because I remember I love this song and all the emotion towards the end was my favorite part. I work with Moonlight as I sing the rest of the song. She and I work so well in sync that I realize that this may have been something we did as a couple.
I let her put the pancakes on the griddle as I tackle the end of the song, singing with all the feelings George Michael would want me to have. The last note makes me feel better. I pull Moonlight into a hug when she drops the last pancake on the plate.
“Thank you,” I mouth to Rowe and Whit over her head. They nod with mirroring, smiles letting me know it’s okay.
All of them pulled me back to a calmer place, and we didn’t have to call Tucker. Releasing Moonlight, I turn to look at Everie because I’d love to see one of her smiles, but her chair is empty.
“Where is Everest?”
“Her eyes got big when you got upset, then she backed out and left with Coco. Mayhem followed her,” Rowe informs me.
“Shit, that’s why I do my best to not have these episodes. I don’t want to scare any of you.”
Everie has a lot going on. I don’t want to scare her with my tantrums; it makes me feel bad that I created an environment where she had to flee. Whit has one of his thoughtful looks before he speaks.
“We love you and know you have a lot of adjusting. You will not scare us. For what it’s worth, she looked more overwhelmed than scared.”
Just like that, Whit gives me the same feeling I had last night. Everie isn’t sharing something with me. I know we’re still new and she doesn’t have to bare her soul, but I’d like to think she’d tell me if something was bothering her and allow me to help.
“Okay, let’s eat, then I’ll make sure she gets her breakfast.”
Everie will see me again today; we need to have another talk about communication.
