Hellen continued in her attempt to lighten the atmosphere,and she did it with a threat to Andy.“But do I have to share with the classwhat happened when you and me watchedMe Before Youtogether?”
“Please, God, don’t,” Andy begged.
Liane giggled.
So did Haley.
“Dad can get the weepies,” Archie confided in a mumble.
“Right,” Jag mumbled back.
Everyone started migrating back to the dining room as Archiepulled her face out of his chest.
“So, as you now know, I can have my not-so-chill times.”
“You losing it in the face of the pain of someone you love,pain that someone else you love is causing, let me go on record as saying isall kinds of hot,” he shared.
“You think everything I do is hot.”
“That’s because, so far, everything you do is hot.”
Her mascara was totally fucked up and her eyes were alreadya bit swollen.
But she made even that hot.
He didn’t share that.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting Hound,” she said.
And shit.
He needed to get on that.
He shifted them so they were still connected but aimed atthe dining room table.
He then started them that way.
“He’s looking forward to that too.”
She gave him a squeeze.
While he was returning it, Andy caught his eye.
And Jag knew, even if fathers of daughters with dead mothersdidn’t have long memories, he was still in with this family.
Because Andy Harmon cried at sad movies, loved and helpedraise two girls who were not his own, adored their mother, and put up with aton of shit from his son because he was his son and he loved him too.
So that was the house he built.
And that was the people he had in it.
And Jagger was now in that house.
So that was the way it always was going to go.
Jag made sure Archie was seated before he took his ownchair.
And as Andy put cupcakes on plates and passed them around,everyone got two.
