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Her smile is sad. “That’s to be expected.” She gives my arm a squeeze. “But those two months will be over before you know it.”
I grunt, because that’s a load of shit, and from the look on her face, she knows it too. I appreciate her trying to make me feel better. The problem is, I won’t feel better until Ally is back home. My world isn’t right when Ally’s not around.
“What else do you need brought to the front?” she asks, stepping around me.
I pick the cases of beer back up. “Nothing. I got it.”
She comes up and grabs the top one. “Then I’ll just grab this one then.” She grins and spins away before I can protest.
“Where’s Sirena and Mika?” I ask her retreating back.
“Mika’s staying the night with Becca,” she tosses over her shoulder. “They have a trip planned at the Cleveland Zoo tomorrow with her parents.”
Mika is my thirteen-year-old sister. Mac isn’t my biological father. It wasn’t until I was fifteen that dad told me the truth about my biological father, Shady, and what he did to him and Mia. By then I already knew my mom was a shitty piece of work. When Mac and Mia were teenagers, Tessa, my mother, and Shady—who it wasn’t discovered until later was dad’s step-brother—devised a plan to drug Mac with Rohypnol, so Tessa could rape him to try and trap him with a child. Because of the drugs in his system, Mac couldn’t remember the incident. For years, Mia thought Mac had cheated on her and refused to have anything to do with him. The truth finally came out when I was ten, when once again, Tessa and Shady tried the same tactic as before. Thank fuck Uncle Jaxon and Nick made it in time before any lasting damage was done. Tessa went to prison, but got out after only four years. I haven’t seen her since. Shady was in prison for three years before he was killed in a prison fight.
“Sirena is at the movies with Asa and Mason,” Mia says, pulling me back to the present.
I drop the boxes on top of the bar and start unloading them. Mia goes around to the other side and sits beside Dad, who drapes his arm across the back of her stool. Nick and Chris are now sitting on the other side of Andrew. Chris is sitting closest to Andrew, and she has her head bent close to him, probably trying to coax the bottle out of his hands.
Like myself, for years Ally didn’t know that her father wasn’t her biological father. Her situation is a lot different than mine though. Andrew met and befriended Becky and Brent, who lived a couple of towns away, in his teens when he saved Becky from being attacked. Over the years, the three became close. Eventually, Becky and Brent asked Andrew to donate his sperm to help Becky get pregnant. For a long time, Ally only knew Andrew as Uncle Andy. He kept this secret from his friends until he was forced to tell the truth when Ally was struggling with leukemia, and he donated bone marrow. Neither Becky or Brent had family who lived close to them, so a year after Ally’s leukemia came back when she was nine, they decided, seeing the love and affection Andrew’s family and friends had for them and Ally, to move to Jaded Hollow to be closer. Unfortunately, Becky and Brent died when Ally was sixteen from a boating accident. After the accident, Ally moved in with Andrew and Jase.
We had already formed a connection before Ally and her parents moved to Jaded Hollow, but that connection strengthened once they did. We’ve been close ever since. We started out as friends first, then our relationship went a different route when she was in high school. I feel like I’ve loved her my whole life.
“T.” I turn and find Andrew leaning on the bar. “You’re married to her,” he states the obvious. “Have you noticed Ally acting strange lately?”
I stiffen, unaware anyone else had noticed Ally’s odd behavior. “You noticed too?”
“Yes.” His eyes slide to Jase. “Jase thinks I’m seeing things that aren’t there.”
“That’s because you are,” Jase argues. “You’re seeing shit because you’re upset that Ally is gone. You’ve had a week to stew on that. In fact, it’s been you who’s been off lately.”
“I’m telling you, something ain’t right. I know my girl, and she’s not acting like my Ally.”
“Baby,” Jase calls. Some of the anger leaves Andrew’s features as he looks at him. “Just give it a few days. You’ll see I’m right.”
“Stop fucking looking at me like that.” Andrew’s expression turns into a glower.
Jase laughs. “Like, what?”
“That fucking puppy dog look you always give me when you’re trying to distract me. That shit ain’t fair, and you know it.”
Chris giggles, listening to their conversation.
“I gotta use what I’ve got. When you set your mind to something, you’re a stubborn son of a bitch.”
Andrew smirks. “You weren’t complaining about my stubborn ass the first time we fucked.”
Jase rolls his eyes, unphased by Andrew’s bluntness.
“Or the second time,” Andrew continues.
Jase squirms in his seat. The rest of us are quiet, letting Andrew do his thing. He’s always been very outspoken, uncaring who’s around to listen to his antics.
“Or that time I did that thing with my—”
“All right, that’s enough,” Mia cuts him off, leaning around Dad to glare at Andrew. “Ugh. It’s like listening to a horny teenager.”
Andrew leans forward and flashes her a grin. “He also didn’t mind my role-playing being a horny teenage boy a few months ago.”
