His jaw tightened and fingers curled into fists. He wasn’t angry at them. He was angry at himself. Rehashing everything would only remind him of what an asshole he’d been. “I don’t want to talk about her…ever.”
He glanced at both of them to let them know the conversation was over. They remained quiet as he stood up, picked up his bowl of ice cream, and walked to his nieces on the other side of the room. “Hey, girls,” he said, kneeling down in front of them. “Why don’t we go watch a movie?”
“Yeah,” Kay chirped.
“What do you wanna watch?” Mackenzie asked.
Kevin gave it some thought before he responded and his choice was just another way of tormenting himself. “How about…Wreck-it Ralph?”
“Uncle Kevin, you hate Vanelope,” Madison said. “You say she talks too much.”
He let out a shaky sigh and forced another smile. “I might have had a slight change of heart.”
Madison jumped onto his back, he took Mackenzie in one arm and Makayla in the arm that held his bowl of ice cream, and walked out.
He carried them to the living room and switched on the movie. He was still in zombie-mode, not concentrating on anything. His eyes kept darting to his phone on the coffee table and he debated whether he should take his father’s advice and just call her. But what would he say?Hi. Sorry I was a dick! Merry Christmas.
Wreck-it Ralph hadn’t even finished his opening speech at the Bad-Anon meeting when he heard a car pull up. He turned on the sofa to look outside the window. It was parked on the other side of the road, so he didn’t pay much attention at first, but as soon as the driver’s door opened, he froze. It couldn’t be. His mind was playing tricks on him. That couldn’t possibly be Jasmin getting out of the car. She didn’t even know where he lived.
He watched her walk a few feet towards their house and then she disappeared from view. He shifted on the sofa, trying to get a better look, but the angle wasn’t right. His heart was racing at an incredible speed. He stood up and rushed back to the dining room. The window there overlooked the entire front yard and seeing her in full view confirmed that it was Jasmin. She was wearing a thick jacket and a woolen hat covered half of her face, but he knew that small frame all too well.
He watched as she walked up the stairs onto the porch and Kevin hoped that she wouldn’t ring the doorbell. If his familysaw her, there would be more questions than he was willing to answer.
“Fuck!” he whispered, waiting to see what she did next.
What the hell was she doing there anyway? She’d driven four hours from Yellowstone. All by herself. In the fucking snow. What was she thinking?
“What’s wrong, Bink?” Jordan asked.
“Nothing,” he replied irritably. “She’s just bat-shit fucking crazy.”
He kept his eyes on Jasmin. She placed a package in front of the door and without knocking or ringing the bell, she turned and walked back down the stairs. Kevin was even more confused now. She’d found out where he lived and drove four hours on Christmas day to deliver a package to him, the same guy who’d treated her like shit? And then she simply walked away. She was insane. Why would she do that? Why wouldn’t she just forget about him and carry on with her life?
He stormed out of the dining room and pulled on a jacket as he went straight out the front door. “I told you to stay away from me!” he shouted.
She was already halfway down the driveway and didn’t stop walking even when his voice sliced through the winter air. He looked down to his right and saw the package she’d come all this way to deliver. A black box with pink flowers painted on one corner, but one of them was smudged…like it had been yanked out of her hand while painting. On top of the box was a Post-it note that read:
To Kevin
These are all the things we weren’t allowed to talk about.
He sneered, almost afraid to find out what was inside the box. His throat clogged up and he felt a wave of anger andanxiousness run through him. He barreled down the stairs, taking them two at a time to catch up with her.
“Jasmin,” he called out.
Instead of stopping, she quickened her pace. She was trying to avoid the confrontation and get as far away from him as possible.
“Jasmin!”
“I didn’t come here to fight, Kevin,” she said, still powerwalking through the snow to get back to her car. “I promise you’ll never see me again.”
Hearing those words made his heart sink into his stomach, but he ignored it. “What are you doing here?”
She didn’t even glance behind her when she answered. “I just came to drop off the box and get my closure.”
“So you drove all this way…by yourself to getclosure? You have a boyfriend. I think whatever happened between us is prettyclosed, so why are you here?”
She stopped in the middle of the street and turned around. Seeing her face to face again reminded him of everything he’d lost. He was torn at that moment, not knowing whether he should fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness, or tell her that she should just go back to Dalton. Either way, it didn’t matter. She took the choice out of his hands.
