Page 109 of Love You Like This

Amber’s probably salivating at the thought of cutting me from her life. Not that I blame her. She didn’t know us before, not like Steph and Shan. Definitely not like Hazel knows us together now.

“Jade’s not going to be swayed by her friends’ opinions,” Dad says with a certainty I don’t feel.

“You don’t know that. I don’t even know what her frame of mind is right now.”

“She’s okay,” he says again. “At least she was when I saw her yesterday.”

My head snaps to the side. “Is she staying with you?” I never even thought to check and see if she had gone to him. It wouldn’t be weird at all for her to go there.

“No.” He hesitates then sighs. “She was laying on the couch at Suzette’s when I—” he shoots me an apprehensive glance, “got up.”

Wait.

When he got up?

“You got up there? As in you slept there?” I ask.

He gives me a single nod of his head. “Yes. Suzette and I have been reminiscing.”

“Is reminiscing a euphemism for fucking?” Stone asks with a shit-eating grin.

Dad gives him an exasperated sideways look in response.

“Nice. Like father, like son.” He tips his glass of tea in salute to us both. “Maybe a dual wedding in the future.” He wiggles his eyebrows, and Tobias chuckles.

I wad up the beer label I stripped from the bottle earlier and toss it at him. “Fuck off.”

He dodges it with a laugh. We all needed the moment of levity. The air feels just a bit lighter now, the tension lifted a little from my shoulders.

“Did you stay long enough to get a good read on her?” I ask Dad.

“Not really.”

“Walk of shame in front of your former stepdaughter had to be awkward,” Tobias smirks.

“She’s seen worse,” Stone says.

“Facts,” Tobias agrees.

“Anyway,” I take a sip of my beer, “I’m not losing her. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to stay together. It took years to get here; I’m not going back to life without her. I’ll quit the band if I have to.”

Four pairs of eyes shoot to me, each startled by the declaration. I’ve thought it through, though, and I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I have enough money saved and invested to last the rest of my life and any kids we might have. Neither of us would have to work. Not to mention the hundreds of millions I’ll inherit from my dad eventually.

“I get it,” Stone says, surprising me. “If it came down to the band or Hazel, it’s her every single time. I love you guys, but she’s my soul.”

“I don’t get it,” Tobias says quietly, his eyes shuttering until no emotion bleeds through. “But I respect it.”

“Jade thinks that her job defines her. She’s worked so hard her whole life to not let romantic relationships run her life like her they do her mother’s.” I shoot a look at Dad. “No offense.”

“None taken,” he waves me off. “She’s watched Suzette jump from relationship to relationship chasing an everlasting dopamine high. She saw that and decided to move in the complete opposite direction.”

Darren pulls out a cigarette, his second since we’ve been out here. It’s a dead giveaway that we’re stressing him the fuck out. He lights it and takes a drag. “Fuck you both,” he says, blowing the smoke away from us. “Neither one of you is quitting. I don’t care if I have to hog tie you and carry both your asses over my shoulder. No one’s fucking quitting.”

“Kinky.” Stone settles into the role of jokester for the evening.

One of the reasons we’ve been so successful through all the shit we’ve experienced is that we know each other so well we can slip into whatever role is needed. The clown. The protector. The asshole. The charmer. A united front against adversity.

“So what do we do if she tries to resign?” Tobias asks. “Just tell her no? How would that even work?”