Page 33 of Return By Fire

I open my mouth and before I can speak, he holds up his hand. “Just don’t say Jennings. For the love of all that’s holy.”

“What if it’s true?”

“That’s messed up on so many levels.”

I outright laugh at the green tinge to Dean’s skin. Then I tell him about the guys—how we started, how they’ve fucked up their lives.

Everything.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Present Day

Rainey points her finger at Maris. “I’ve known you your whole life.”

“Just about,” Maris agrees.

“Your brother too.”

“Yes.”

“There is no way Jed didn’t get even with Dean for reading his journal,” Rainey concludes.

Maris stands and, without a word, mimics a penguin with her ass cheeks squeezed together.

I fall to the side, howling. My hand slaps the chair cushion over and over as tears leak down my face. “Stop. I gave birth three months ago. I’ll have to pee again.”

Maris immediately flops down next to me before admitting, “Yes, Rainey. Jed got even.”

“How?” Meadow wonders.

I push myself back into a sitting position and do a quick listen for the baby before I launch into another part of Jed and Dean’s—frankly, all of ours—entangled past. Not hearing anything emerge from the baby monitor, I announce, “He forced Dean to wear a pair of his infamous flamingo shorts the next day.”

“In public?” Rainey clarifies.

“Yes.”

“All day?” Meadow clarifies.

“All day,” Maris confirms.

We’re laughing so loudly that if my son isn’t up now, he soon will be, I think amusedly. Oh, well. There are worse reasons to be stripped from your air of tranquility.

I, of all people, know that.

Meadow sputters, “S-so, when you say all day...”

“Let’s just say Jed demanded his proper tour of the firehouse—not the half-assed one Dean gave him before,” Maris sighs, proud of her brother for his Machiavellian mind.

I chime in, “Dean didn’t realize that his torment wasn’t over after he came home.”

“No?” This time Maris adds her voice to the sisters.

“He had to face me wearing Jed’s clothes—as if I wouldn’t remember those shorts.” My words hang in the air much like a guillotine blade.

Maris breathes, “You never told me that part—just that you and Dean had it out soon after that.”

“I thought I had.”

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