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“And just like you said, that’s not what I’m trying to do. Your plan has some complications too.”
“Well, shit.”
Noah had to agree. “Exactly.”
“Listen, um…there is something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
His tone was slightly ominous, and all he could do was brace himself for whatever Jax was going to say next.
“Dad called me again,” Jax said gruffly. “He…he said…he needs…”
“He needs money,” Noah finished for him and didn’t bother hiding his disgust. “You didn’t send him anything, did you? Because you know it’s just going to…”
“I didn’t, okay? But…he said if I didn’t, he’d reach out to Simon and…” Muttering a curse, he stood and paced for a moment. “You know how he is with all of us, but he’s worse with Simon. I don’t want Dad messing with him while he’s on tour.”
“So then you’re going to send him money,” Noah said wearily. “Dammit, Jax!”
“What am I supposed to do, huh? At least if I do this, everyone will play nice and then I won’t hear from him for another year and he’ll leave everyone else alone.”
Swallowing hard, he hated the kick in the gut he felt just knowing that even after all these years, he was the son his father never reached out to.
Not that he wanted him to, but it was a rejection nonetheless.
The old man always went to Jax because he was the son he was most proud of, and for whatever reason, Jax was the only one who could deal with him. Growing up, their father treated Simon with disdain because he thought he was weak because he loved to sing. Now, whenever he dared to get in touch with Simon, he’d say all kinds of vile things to get a rise out of him—mostly hoping to get some money so he’d go away.
But he never reached out to Noah.
Never.
“How much this time?” he asked.
“Twenty-five,” Jax murmured. “He asked for twenty and I offered the extra so he’d leave Simon alone.”
“Shit.”
“Yup.” Jax sat back down with a long breath. Turning his head, he looked over at Noah. “Aren’t you glad I came to visit?”
There was little humor in his laugh, but basically…yeah. He was glad his brother was here with him.
They sat in companionable silence for a minute before Jax turned to him. “Okay, enough about Dad. Clearly, we have enough shit we’re both trying to deal with.” Then he laughed softly. “Maybe we should call Simon and see if his life is running smooth or if he’s spiraling like we are.”
“We’re not spiraling,” Noah argued lightly. “It’s more like we’re at a crossroads and trying to figure things out.”
“Still doesn’t determine if we call Simon or not.”
“I have no idea what his tour schedule is…”
“Only one way to find out,” Jax said as he reached for his phone.
“Wait…do we really want to call him? You know he’s always like…the glass is more than half-full in his world. We’re both in shitty moods right now. Why would we want to bring him down?”
That made Jax laugh. “I don’t think it’s possible to bring Simon down. Like you said, he’s perpetually optimistic. Maybe we need him to snap us out of our moods.”
It was on the tip of Noah’s tongue to remind his brother that his mood was just fine before he got here, but kept that to himself.
“How about we wait on that and just finish these brownies and relax before calling it a night? I know we had talked a while ago about going out clubbing or something, but…”
“No, I get it. I’m not up for that either. I have a feeling I’m going to end up doing all that crap while I’m up in New York. I’d rather take this time to just chill. But maybe tomorrow, if you get out of work early enough, we can go do something fun.”
