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Janessa turned her frown on Jay. “What do you mean?”
“You seem unhappy that Will is coming here for supper.”
She shrugged. “I just didn’t know that we were having guests.”
“Is that a problem?” Jay asked. “We can go eat at my place like we’d planned.”
Charli laid a hand on his arm. “It’s fine.”
Jay wasn’t sure that it was. He wasn’t ignorant of the fact that he’d done damage to his relationships with his siblings over the past few weeks. However, Janessa seemed to be the one struggling the most to get over her anger toward him. With Cole a close second.
Gareth and Aria arrived and apparently, they picked up on the tension right away.
“What’s going on?” Gareth asked, stepping into his role as the oldest brother.
Jay kept his mouth shut, knowing that anything he said was likely to make Janessa defensive and angry. Gareth’s gaze moved to each of them, clearly waiting forsomeoneto explain what had happened.
“C’mon, Nessa,” Aria said, going to her friend and putting her arm around her. “Let’s go upstairs for a few minutes.”
Janessa allowed herself to be led away without looking back. Jay watched her go, her anger at him feeling like a stab in his heart. For their whole lives, he’d been there to protect her and stand beside her.
And now she probably felt like he’d abandoned her or didn’t trust her because he didn’t share what he’d been dealing with.
“Anyone going to give me a clue here?” Gareth asked.
Charli sighed as she shook her heard. “Do you really need a clue?”
Gareth dragged his hand down his face. “I understand that she’s still upset about Jay leaving town without a word, but there are bigger issues to deal with at the moment.”
“I get why she’s upset with me,” Jay said. “But she seems to be mad at Will, too.”
“He wouldn’t give her the information she wanted,” Charli said. “That made her angry.”
Gareth put his hands on his hips. “I think she’s more hurt than angry.”
“Yeah. Janessa’s hurt often manifests as anger,” Charli agreed. “She won’t stay angry for long. It always blows over.”
Jay hoped that was the case, but this was the longest she’d ever been angry with him. He’d apologized to her for what he’d done, but that apparently hadn’t been enough. He wasn’t sure what else to do to make things right with her.
Though Jay wanted to talk about it more, he also wanted to check on Peyton. “Can we talk about this later? I’d like to see Peyton before we eat.”
“He’s in the basement with Layla. I left them doing some painting, so hopefully there isn’t paint all over the place.”
“You like to live dangerously,” Jay said as he headed for the stairs that led to the basement.
“That’s me alright,” Charli called after him. “Living on the edge Charli.”
Jay jogged down the stairs to the basement. Before he even got down there, he could hear the kids talking with the television playing in the background.
“Hey guys,” Jay said as he stepped into the basement.
“Uncle Jay!” Layla put her paintbrush in the cup of water on the table, then hurried over to him.
He swung her up into his arms and gave her a hug before walking over to the small table where the two had been painting. Peyton watched them approach, his expression blank.
Jay didn’t like that he’d figured out how to hide his emotions from Jay. The only emotion he saw from the boy most days was anger.
He set Layla back down next to her chair, then he went down on a knee beside the table. “Hey, Peyton.”
