Page 67 of A Simple Mistake
“Good.”He finished his custard tarts, then got started on making pâté.
They worked in companionable silence, their kitchen roomy enough for two cooks.Gareth would have liked to pull up one of Jack’s esoteric playlists and let Jack’s song choices surprise him, but Daniel jumped at every noise, from Gareth dropping a spoon to the beep of the oven timer.Music wouldn’t be helping.
Gareth couldn’t wait for Jack to come home.He needed his man as a sounding board since he was too worried to put a foot wrong to make sensible decisions.And Jack knew more about trauma than Gareth ever would.
Had his mother been right?Would it be better for Nico and Daniel if they moved house?The thought nagged, ripped through the contentment he’d found while cooking.
“Daniel,” he began, not reassured when the boy jumped.
“Sorry.Off in my head,” Daniel apologised immediately and turned to face Gareth.“I didn’t hear what you said.”
“Tell me how safe you and Nico feel in this house.”
Daniel’s face went blank.Gareth couldn’t tell if he’d shut down or was thinking things over, and the panic spiking through his chest was real.
“We don’t want you to force yourself to stay here if you’re not comfortable,” he hurried to explain before Daniel could totally disappear into his mind.“If you wanted to go to Aidan’s for a few days or to my mum’s, that’s totally an option.You just have to say so.Jack and I, we’ll do what helps you the most.”
He clamped his mouth shut.Judging from Daniel’s non-expression, his enquiry was going nowhere fast.His mother would no doubt take issue with his delivery.But did shereallyexpect him to slice himself open in a cheerful tone and with a smile on his face?Was he naïve to believe that family was better than that?
A thought to be examined later.
Gareth grabbed a knife and turned the diced pork on his chopping board into mince in record time.
Nico hadn’t come with Jack to measure the broken panes in the backdoor, but he sat beside him in the car when Jack headed into town.Jack focussed on driving and didn’t push Nico to talk.He’d done enough of that during the night.Jack had drifted in and out, snatching half a sentence here and an idea there.He remembered Nico talking about the escape route, and Daniel mentioning the security feed.And something about chocolate cake?
The glazier’s shop wasn’t busy, and Jack paid extra for the glass to be ready that evening.The DIY store was their next stop.Nico loved exploring the aisles, picking up items and wondering what they were for, but this time he said next to nothing as he followed Jack around.
When Nico was quiet, Jack paid attention.He bought iced coffees for them both on the way out, and once they’d stowed their purchases, he towed Nico to their usual bench.
“I’m proud of you,” he said, and the memory of Rio saying the same to him hit him like a sledgehammer.Please God Nico wasn’t as clueless as he had been.“You remembered everything we taught you and kept yourself safe.”
“I thought I’d enjoy it, using the escape route for real,” Nico told him, serious as a heart attack.“It didn’t occur to me I’d be so scared.”
For a long, bitter moment, Jack was speechless.“That’s… I think that was a good thing.Fear makes everything harder.If you’d been afraid all this time, you’d have tensed up when you needed to move.”
“Like… the dentist hurting more when you’re already dreading it?”
“Something like that.”Jack wrapped an arm around Nico’s shoulder, beyond all reason pleased when Nico didn’t flinch or pull away.
“What if we hadn’t built the escape routes?”
“That would have made it harder, no question.”Jack refused to dwell on that possibility.Nothing good would come of it.“Now that you have used your route in an emergency, would you change or improve anything?”
Nico slurped the last dregs of his coffee, along with an obscene amount of air.“I think I want boiling oil and poison needles on the stairs after all,” he said.
Jack squeezed him harder.
“And the next time Daniel feels he’s being watched—”
“Hold up—what?Daniel felt watched.When?Where?”
“At Rachel’s deli.It was only once, the day before Gareth’s birthday.Something spooked him and Rachel sent him home in a taxi.Nobody followed.He watched for that.And the next day, Rachel’s husband came to get us to do the shopping and drove us back home, and there was nothing.”
“You didn’t tell Gareth?”
“No.Daniel hadn’t seen anyone and—”
“I wish you’d stop doing that.I really do.”Jack took Nico’s empty cup and tossed it along with his own.“We willneverdoubt you.It doesn’t matter if your dance instructor gives you the creeps, or you feel watched while out in town.You have a very sensitive kind of radar for danger.We’ll never discount that, and you shouldn’t either.”
