Jackson
Deveraux House
Jackson returned to Deveraux House, and Theo opened the door with a frown. Frowns from Theo meant anything from broken dishware to Jackson mangling some social nicety, but in December, frowns were hard to take seriously from Theo. Today’s Christmas sweater had reindeer with fuzzy things for noses and tails.
“Everyone is in the drawing room, and I believe Mr. Ames is upset.”
“Max is mad?” asked Jackson. Max was usually laid back. Jackson couldn’t imagine what they were arguing about. He also hadn’t expected Max to be at the house.
“Mr. Deveraux and Miss Dominique are with them, but I think perhaps it would not do to dally.”
Mr. Deveraux, in Theo-speak, was Evan. Dominique had once forced Jackson to watchPride and Prejudice,and Jackson had realized that the eldest sibling got the family name treatment and everyone else was a Mister and Miss with their first names. Jackson also realized that not dallying was Theo-speak forhurry your ass upand put a little extra speed on, hurrying past the tree in the front hall.
When he entered the drawing room, he saw Aiden and Max unexpectedly squaring off. Dominique pushed Max backward while Evan was herding Aiden back toward the couch.
“You don’t get to tell her what to do!” barked Aiden.
“He’s not!” Dominique yelled back.
“OK,” said Jackson, “what’d I miss?”
“He’s trying to boss my sister around!”
“He is not!” Dominique yelled back. “I want to take the train!”
“You’ve never taken the train in your life!”
Jackson stared at his cousins and Max’s frustrated expression. Whatever this was about, it wasn’t about the train. “Evan, why don’t you take Aiden out for a walk around the garden?”
“Yes,” said Evan, pulling Aiden by the arm.
“What? Why am I being sent outside? You saw that, right? You saw what he did.”
“I validate your feelings while suggesting you go the fuck outside,” said Evan.
“That’s not how feeling validation works,” said Aiden while allowing himself to be pushed out of the room.
The cousins left, and Dominique and Max stared at him mutely.
“OK, so,” said Jackson. “Train?”
“I’m taking the train to DC,” said Dominique. “They called in our subpoenas. We have to be there tomorrow. I don’t want to fly with the rest of you. I want to take the train. Max said we were taking the train because he knew you wouldn’t want me riding by myself, and Aiden flipped out.”
“Did I miss some sort of Max and Aiden are fighting memo?” asked Jackson. “I thought everything was fine last whenever it was that we went to the gym.”
“It is,” said Max, tiredly. “It was. I just said I wanted Dominique to take the train, and Aiden went ballistic. I’m not sure what I did.”
“I want to take the train,” said Dominique.
Jackson scrutinized the pair and tried to weigh what he knew about both of them and their current miserable expressions.
“Then, I think you should take the train,” said Jackson. Dominique’s shoulders sagged as if in defeat, but Jackson thought Max looked relieved. “Oh.” It was right there on her face.
“Oh?” Dominique looked confused.
“It’s OK. It’s fine. We’ll do the plane thing next time,” said Jackson trying to mentally reshuffle his travel plans. Now both Dominique and Max both looked confused. “Max, can I go on the train instead of you?”
Max looked at Dominique uncertainly. “I mean, I’m fine with that. I didn’t want to miss my class, but…”
