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“That’s going to bring everything back for her, right?” I asked.
Piper and Jewel exchanged a meaningful glance. “I suspect it’s a whole lot messier than that,” Jewel said.
Piper leaned forward. “Years ago, Taylor admitted she had a crush on him.” Her voice was barely audible with the party going on around us.
“On Alex?” I tried to wrap my head around that when both of my friends nodded.
Alex Worth was a jock, outgoing, good-looking, popular. Taylor’s brother’s best friend. Taylor was a certified genius, shy, and quiet. She seemed like the type who’d choose brains over looks every day. Not to say Alex wasn’t smart, but no one was smart on Taylor’s level.
“Do you think she’s still crushing?” I asked.
“No idea,” Piper said. “I mean, Alex is a hero—that’s absolutely not in question—but her brother… How do you even process something like that? I’m still trying to accept that Vance is gone and he’s only my cousin.”
Jewel was leaning forward too as we all tried to imagine how Alex’s return would affect their cousin.
“You guys can stop talking about me now.” Taylor leaned her head between Piper and Jewel from behind the sectional, startling all three of us.
“We’re just worried about you,” Piper said.
“I’ll be fine.” Taylor flashed another attempt at a smile. “But I’m going to go home now. This has been fun. Thank you for inviting me, Quincy.”
“Of course. I’m so glad you made it.” I stood to hug her and held on a couple of extra seconds, knowing she must be going through so much. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.”
Jewel and Piper both hugged her as well and made sure she didn’t want company. She assured them she didn’t.
We’d barely sat down again when a familiar voice rang out from the door.
“Hey, Seth,” my brother Ryan said as he came inside. “Cash.”
I stood again, grinning.
“I’m going out for some fresh air,” Jewel said. Something about her tone caught my attention. It wasn’t friendly.
I glanced at Piper, who shrugged. “Too many people?”
“Maybe that’s it.” I doubted that was it. Jewel was medium extroverted and worked in crowds of people every weekend. I glanced over my shoulder toward the door to the deck just as she reached it. She shot a look toward the kitchen, toward my brother, that I couldn’t quite read. It wasn’t friendly.
I tried to think back to whether there’d been tension between them before, but I couldn’t even remember the last time they’d seen each other. It’d been years, as far as I knew. Weird. Maybe I was imagining it.
Instead of puzzling over it for another second, I went to greet my brother, who was shaking Knox’s hand.
“Quincy,” Ryan said as I came up beside him, tripping over my own feet and laughing at myself. “Have you been over-served at your own party?”
I laughed and threw my arms around him. “Not even close. Thank you for coming.”
Now that he was here, my evening was complete. All the people we cared about most had shown up: Knox’s dad and Faye, Knox’s half-siblings and their significant others, my closest friends, a couple of the single dads from Knox’s group, everyone in my family.
I didn’t know how the night could get any better.
* * *
KNOX
Quincy was everything I could ever want.
Not only was she the best mother a child could have, but it turned out she could host a heck of a party. I’d never been much of a party-throwing type, but with her in my life, I suspected I’d want to live differently, be more social, celebrate the little things more often. And the big things.
