Page 31 of Hold

“I left Central. I didn’t quit teaching. I have a new job starting in the fall, in the city. I will never quit teaching.”

Jake looked up at him.Whoops. Might have been continuing an old conversation with his dad, there—or with himself—instead of focusing on what Jake needed now.

Jake seemed to shy away from the dangerous waters of an adult’s emotions, for which Liam was grateful. “Okay, okay,” he said, his eyes sliding away again. “I’ll get a job.”

“All right.” Liam folded his arms. “I’ll be checking in with your mom to make sure you do.”

The teenage snark reared again; it was fascinating how hard it fought with the general respect Jake had been brought up to show to his elders. “Super,” he said, and booked it up the stairs before Liam could say anything else.

♦

In the living room, Thea said to the others, “You don’t have to tell me. I’m a terrible mother.” She looked at Zahra. “I bet none of the parents at your kids’ school don’t know where their kids are all day.”

Zahra held up her hands. “You’re not a terrible mother, Thea. Of course you’re not. We live in a safe town. You have to trust your kids sooner or later.”

The memory of that cigarette smell was going to choke her. “But if he’s too dumb not to smoke, who knows what else he’s been persuaded to do?”

“I smoke,” Seth said. They all looked at him.

“Yeah.” David sighed heavily. “Dumbass.”

“I’m just saying,” Seth said. “It happens. Doesn’t mean I’m a delinquent.”

“I’ve never seen you smoke,” Chloe accused.

“My brother used to smoke,” Thea said, à propos of nothing. “He just did it to tick off my sister.”

“That’s an even worse reason,” David said.

“Well, he always said that was it. I think a little teenage rebellion and a fat dose of grief had something to do with it.”

Chloe nodded. She was old enough to remember the story in the papers about Thea’s father dying in an explosion at one of his paper mills. It was the defining event of Thea and her siblings’ lives. It had killed her mother as well, only two years later, and the official diagnosis had been breast cancer. If she’d still been alive, there was no way Thea would have let things get so out of hand with Gabriel.

“That’s why Jake’s doing it.”

Liam had come back into the room without her noticing. His deep voice made them all jump. Thank God he was wearing a shirt that actually covered his muscles today; he’d looked too good already when he’d walked in, in that blue shirt that matched his eyes, the beat-up jeans, shoes in the perfect shade of suede, his beard and hair perfectly groomed. She was still pissed at him, but for those first few seconds, she’d completely forgotten why.

Now he seemed to look right through her and her kids with those blue eyes, and she knew he was right, damn him. Jakewasgrieving. He missed Gabe as if he were dead, which to all intents and purposes in the last two years, he had been.

The rush of memory of her own father’s death and her mother’s soon after, when she was only a couple of years older than Jake, pushed against her chest, and tears pricked the back of her eyes. She took a deep breath, afraid that she was going to melt down in front of everyone. Tonight she’d told herself she was not going to ask him for a single thing more. And that included counseling. Once a teacher, always a damn teacher. Well, he wasn’t going to go all sniffer dog on her and her kids.

“Thanks, Dr. Phil.” Sarcasm. Yes. That she could handle.

He scowled at her and folded his arms, his mouth that thin line she’d gotten so used to. “You know I’m right.”

“You always are, aren’t you?”

“You know, it’s getting late,” Zahra said. “Sorry, guys, but if you want a ride, we’ll have to go.”

Thea had killed the mood with her snark. Or Liam had killed it by getting serious. Either way, the awkward was rolling off everyone. Now she felt like shit again.

Zahra, who’d told them she drank only at weddings and funerals, was the designated driver, so Chloe, Seth, and David had been the ones making most of the holes in the drink.

“You need a ride, Liam? I can fit all of you in the minivan,” Zahra said.

“I’m good,” Liam said, not taking his eyes off Thea.

“Yeah, for real,” Seth said, who was definitely looking cross-eyed. “You’ve had, what? One point five beers? You really know how to party, dude.”

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