I push the door open slowly.
Jessica is in the middle of her nest, surrounded by blankets and pillows and every soft thing we own. She's wearing my henley again, the grey one she borrowed the night the pipes burst, and she's got her knees pulled up to her chest. Her face is buried in one of Sergio's old hockey jerseys, breathing in his scent like it's oxygen.
She looks up when I enter. Her eyes are red and swollen. Mascara tracks down her cheeks.
"He called me nothing." Her voice is raw. Broken. "In front of everyone. He said I was nothing."
The rage that hits me is so intense I have to grab the doorframe to steady myself.
"He's wrong."
"Is he?" She wipes her face with the sleeve of my henley. "Because right now, sitting in a nest made of stolen clothes, crying over my ex-boyfriend who thinks he owns me, I'm feeling pretty damn close to nothing."
I step into the room and sink down onto the edge of her nest. The blankets are soft under me, worn from washing, smelling like all four of us mixed together. It's intimate in a way that makes my chest tight.
"You know what I think?" I reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I think Callum's terrified."
She blinks at me. "Terrified?"
"Yeah. Terrified. Because for two years, he had you convinced you needed him. That you couldn't survive without him. That you were small and weak and nothing." I let my fingers trail down her jaw. "And then you climbed out a window in a wedding dress and proved him wrong. You survived. You're thriving. And it's killing him."
"I'm not thriving. I'm a disaster."
"You're my favorite disaster." I grin at her, trying to coax even a hint of a smile. "Remember that fire you started at the Miller job site? When you were helping me stain the deck?"
"I don't want to talk about the fire."
"It was barely a fire. More like an enthusiastic flame."
"I knocked over the mineral spirits and they landed on your heat gun."
"Which was entirely my fault for leaving the heat gun on." I bump her shoulder with mine. "But you grabbed the fire extinguisher so fast. Didn't even hesitate. Just put it out like a boss."
"And then I covered Mr. Miller's entire porch in fire extinguisher foam."
"Which he thought was hilarious once we explained you'd just saved his house from burning down." I lean in closer. "You're not nothing, Jess. You're chaos and cookies and the reason I look forward to going to work now. You make everything better. Even the disasters."
She's quiet for a long moment. Then she turns to look at me, and there's something vulnerable in her eyes that makes my breath catch.
"Why are you being so nice to me?"
"Because you're pack." The words come out before I can think better of them.
Her breath hitches. "Carlos..."
"I'm not asking for anything." I pull back, giving her space. "I just need you to know that Callum's full of shit. You're not nothing. You never were."
My phone buzzes. I pull it out and check the screen.
Sergio: Home in 5. Is she okay?
I text back: Shaken but whole. She's in her nest.
Nacho: Good. Keep her there. Callum's been texting me.
That gets my attention. I text back: What's he saying?
Nacho: Nothing good. I'll fill you in at the meeting.
