“You be safe out there,” Hound said.
“Yeah, thanks, later,” Jagger called as they walked out.
“How’d he sound?”Archie asked in the hall as they movedswiftly down it.
“Like he was holding it together but was about to lose it.”
“Shit,” she bit out.
And they both broke into a jog when they hit the stairs.
ChapterSeventeen
Every Kind of Love
Jagger
“You cold?”
“Nah.”
“It’s cold out here,bruh.”
“I’m fine.”
Even if Mal said that, Jag shrugged off his leather cut andput it over Mal’s back.
And Mal didn’t hesitate to settle into it.
They were out on Mal’s front stoop.Arch was inside with hismom, Shanta, and a couple of Shanta’s friends.Shanta was nursing a glass ofwine and a phone conversation with her sister, Arch and Shanta’s girls weremaking calls and to-do lists.
Mal’s aunt lived in Phoenix, and she was going to head up.
They’d been to the hospital and obviously had come back.
Earlier, when they first got to Mal’s, Shanta had beenunderstandably out of it.But she got it together, and that was when Archkicked in and got the friends involved.
Mal’s grandmother had been battling cancer.It wasn’tlooking good, but she was in treatment.However, she’d been battling that shitso long, her heart was weakened and it just…gave out.
So her life being shortened wasn’t the surprise, it beingthat short was.
It was getting late.It was definitely cold.
They should probably leave, but he wasn’t sure where Mal wasat, and he didn’t feel good leaving him unless he knew the kid was good beingleft.
And Mal was being his usual quiet, so Jag wasn’t figuringthat out.
“It’s why I was acting like a dick,” Mal suddenly said.
“Sorry?”Jag asked.
“At S.I.L., to Archie.When I got kicked out of group.Itwasn’t the bullying or just acting out.It was Grams.I didn’t…” He cleared histhroat.“I wasn’t…I guess I just wanted to be seen.”
“That tracks,” Jag said quietly.
Jag felt Mal’s gaze, so he looked at the kid when Mal kepttalking.
“This is why the Harris brothers don’t matter.Their damage,it’s stupid.It doesn’t mean anything.Mom is…uh,wasreal tight withGrams.We were…we were all, uh,real tight.And this hurt her.Watching Grams go through this.It hurt her and I didn’t…I didn’t…”
