A nervous laugh falls from her as I hold her small frame tightly.
“You should have called me,” she chastises. “You know that I’d have been here in a heartbeat.”
“Thank you,” I whisper before finally releasing her.
“This place was a dump,” she says, pinning me with a disapproving look. “Although it hasn’t seemed to put the girls off, has it?”
I can’t help but laugh at the thought of her finding Brianna’s knickers twisted up in my bedsheets where I left them.
“Just one girl,” I confess. “And she’s… different.”
I regret the words the second they fall from my lips, because her expression softens and hope seems to enter her eyes.
“Oh no,” I say. “Do not start getting any of those ideas. She’s notthatdifferent.”
An annoyed humph falls from her lips.
“So what have you cooked? It smells amazing,” I say in the hope of distracting her from thoughts of me settling down.
Calli has started giving her hope.
There’s a steak and ale pie in the oven—well, there are three, actually—but I promised Calli, Daemon, and Anthony them.”
“Ant?”
“Sweet boy,” she muses. “Needs all the support he can get right now.”
My lips part to say something, but I soon find I don’t have any words.
“There’s also a fresh batch of cookies in that tin, and a salted caramel cheesecake in your fridge.”
“Shit, I missed you, J.”
“There are some of the green junky drinks you like so much to counteract all the sugar.”
“You’re the best, J. When you’re ready to leave Mum behind, just say the word,” I tease.
“Funny, Calli said the same thing.”
“That’s because you’re the best thing left in that house now, J. She can rot in hell for all we care.”
“Nico,” she sighs. “She’s not that bad. She’s hurting too.” But even as she says the words, I can see the hesitation in Jocelyn’s eyes to defend our selfish cunt of a mother.
“Is she, though? I always thought she loved him. But now I’m not so sure.”
I slide onto one of my bar stools as Jocelyn pushes a can of Coke toward me.
“Love comes in many, many forms, Nico. It’s hard to understand people’s relationships from the outside. They were together almost all their adult lives. That kind of relationship doesn’t last without love, respect, and mutual understanding and goals.”
“I guess.”
“It worked for him, whatever it was.”
“But it’s like she hasn’t even realised that he’s gone.”
“Maybe she hasn’t,” Jocelyn offers softly.“Death, grief. It affects everyone differently. There’s every chance she’s living in denial to put off having to deal with it all.”
“If that’s the case, she needs a good psychiatrist.”