“Matthew always said that babies are pure, not yet corrupted by the hate in today’s society. For Jasper, that’s too much responsibility. He’s afraid, in his words, to ‘fuck it up.’”
“That sounds like Jasper,” I say before chuckling at the sight of him throwing a kid over his shoulder and running around in victory. “It sounds like Matthew and Jasper had quite the connection.”
“It was uncanny, really. Matthew saw a lot of himself in Jasper. Like how they handled their emotions. I could see right away why Matthew was so drawn to him.”
“The three of you are a lot closer than I realized. Does it bother you that Jasper hid your part in his life from us?”
Jacob raises an eyebrow.
“Oh my God. Don’t answer that. I didn’t mean anything by… It’s really none of my business.”Open mouth, insert foot. This is not the way to woo the parents of the boy you’re crushing on or… dating? I don’t know.
Jacob chuckles, picking up another vanilla cupcake. “It shows you care.” He peels back the paper wrapper. “But no. It doesn’t bother me or Marcus because we’ve never lost Jasper. Just because we’re unknown to you doesn’t mean you’re unknown to us.”
“But these friends he’s been hanging around. How could you let him?”
“Because he was grieving along with the rest of us.”
Fuck me and my mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m really not making a good impression.”
“You care about him?” Jacob asks as he separates the bottom of the cupcake from the top. I nod my head, feeling foolish.
“Jasper needed to make his own decisions and come to his own conclusions. We had to teach him we weren’t going anywhere by simply not going anywhere. We couldn’t tell him that. He needed to see it. We made a promise to Matthew that we’d let Jasper navigate his adult life on his own, without us stepping in.” Jacob laughs. “Even in the end, he was always right. We were never meant to be Jasper’s parents. When he came to us, he had already lived in the system for so long and it was his life we were stepping into, not the other way around.”
He must not take too much offense to my look of horror during this sweet and tender moment because he just laughs as he takes the bottom of the cupcake and puts it on top of the frosting, creating a cupcake sandwich.
How can a man say something so profound one minute, then turn around and murder a cupcake?
“I blameMarcus. He says it’s the only way to eat a cupcake. And these are delicious, by the way. Matthew would have eaten a whole sheet of them.”
“It’s an honor that you asked me to be a part of today, knowing that it means so much to you and Marcus. I, umm, noticed the bracelet on Jasper’s wrist the other day. The one that has Matthew’s name on it, about the carnival.”
Marcus comes over from where he was talking with Jaxon at the Ink Me Booth and gives Jacob a kiss on the cheek. “God, I remember the day we gave that to him. It was the morning of the very first carnival. We were so proud of Matthew. We knew he was sick, but we hadn’t told Jasper yet. We didn’t want to ruin the day for either of them.” Marcus looks down at Jacob with so much love and pain it’s heartbreaking. “We wanted to get him something, so Matthew knew we saw him, the kind of person he was. It was only fitting that when Matthew passed, the bracelet went to Jasper. It was his carnival, after all.”
“Wait. What? What do you mean,his carnival? I thought the carnival was a Matthew thing?”
“Oh, don’t get us wrong, it is, but the reason Matthew even started the yearly event was because he learned Jasper had never been to a carnival. He was bound and determined to give him this before he died. Matthew did this for him.” Marcus waves his hand around.
I look out at the park full of kids, laughing and having a blast. I lock eyes with Jasper. He grins from ear to ear, every bone in his body radiating happiness as he walks toward us.
“Excuse me for a moment,” I say as I step out of the booth, not breaking eye contact, then walk straight up to Jasper and kiss him with every ounceof my existence. My hand rakes through his hair as I swallow down his shocked gasp.
“I thought making you chant my name twice this morning would have you down for the rest of the day,” he says breathlessly. “But maybe I shouldn’t make assumptions.”
“Never make assumptions, baby.”
“So you’re saying I should not be making any assumptions as I watch Dom walking, no… striding toward Beckett, who looks to be… is that flirting? With a man I don’t recognize?”
I whip my head around so fast.
Oh, we’ve all noticed this little cat-and-mouse game they’ve got going on. And by the looks of it, a dangling piece of cheese has attracted averyangry mouse.
“Umm, they’re heading for the cupcakes. We should probably…”
“Yep, good idea.”
We quickly make our way back to the booth.
“Hey Beckett, how’s it going?” I ask, side-eyeing the stranger.
