Chapter Twenty-Five
The next day Megan stopped the car in the last possible place Emma expected.
“Megan, what are we doing here?”
“I told you—we’re here to see Jake.”
Here?
Emma reached into the car for the box with the cake she’d worked on all night and fell in step next to Megan.
They walked through the cemetery where their stepbrother, Peyton, had been laid to rest. They’d just been there the week prior to leave flowers on his headstone for Peyton’s birthday.
Was that when Jake had first learned about the cemetery?
“Did he ask you where Peyton was buried, or did you tell him?”
Megan shook her head and whispered in the same hushed tones as Emma. “Neither. He already knew.” They walked over to the section of the large cemetery where Peyton was buried, but Megan stopped them a few rows back. “Look.”
Emma gasped.
Right in front of Peyton’s headstone, they saw a picnic blanket laid out, along with a little portable DVD player, two colorful wrapped presents, and a huge spread of food containers, which were all still closed . . . because Jake was sharing a bowl of popcorn with Peyton first.
Hand covering her mouth, Emma edged one more row closer, but then quickly hid behind a tree when she saw Jake return to the picnic blanket.
The fun Disney movie playing on the DVD player was just coming to an end when Jake began critiquing the movie as if Peyton himself were sitting right there.
“So what’d you think, buddy? Thumbs up or thumbs down? For me, I’m split. I don’t know if it’s because you and I have been waiting to watch this since Christmas or what, but I don’t know that it lived up to the hype.”
He leaned over to pop the DVD out, then slid another one in.
“Okay, now it’s my movie pick. This one is that martial arts flick I told you at Christmas might be out in time for our birthdays. Lucky for us they released it just this past weekend, so I scooped it up. Figure this one would be good for us to watch with lunch.” Jake began whistling as he forwarded through the DVD previews and pressed “Play.”
He then proceeded to open up the containers, revealing what looked like every item on the kids’ menu at most diners, explaining proudly that he’d made each one from scratch this year.
“He’s been coming every year,” explained Megan. “Since he got out of juvie, apparently.”
In shock over that news, Emma simply listened to Jake then begin pointing out a few of his favorite and then not-so-favorite scenes. There was an affectionate ease in his voice that made it clear that somewhere along the line in the past fourteen years, her deceased stepbrother had genuinely become one of Jake’s best buds.
“How do you know all this?” whispered Emma.
“I came over here late on Christmas Day last year to leave a poinsettia plant. Remember? We’d come in the morning like we always do, but I’d forgotten the plant. So I came back after you were in the bakery getting ready for all the party pickups the following day.”
The rest of Megan’s details were a blur. All Emma could think about was that Jake had been here doing this for years.
They both ducked back behind the tree more when they saw Jake get up and circle around Peyton’s headstone.
“When I first saw a little toy on top of the headstone,” murmured Megan as they crouched down, “I tracked down the groundskeeper to find out all the info.”
Emma couldn’t believe Megan had kept this staggering discovery to herself this entire time. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?”
Megan shrugged. “I figured it was his secret to keep, not mine to tell.”
Damn the woman with all her logical moral and philosophical thinking.
“Now stop talking and listen,” ordered Megan.
Oh, she’d been listening, all right.
Just the past few minutes alone were leaving Emma a big ol’ weeping mess. Every new thing she heard him say to her little brother threatened to take her knees out from under her, none more than when she heard him officially start the birthday festivities.
“Happy birthday to us, buddy.”
Jake finished his official toast to kick off the celebration and grinned proudly at the birthday spread he’d finally finished laying out in front of Peyton’s headstone. It was definitely bigger than their usual celebration.
And undoubtedly more edible, as well.
“I know, I know. You’re thinking I won the lottery or something, right?” He chuckled. “I guess I went a little overboard this year. But can you believe it? I’ve got jobs and contracts coming out of my ears for once. And even more amazing, I actually learned to cook.”
As he finished opening the last of the Tupperware containers, Jake sat back on his heels and looked at the lavish meal he’d prepared for them this year. “Oh! Almost forgot.”
He pulled out Peyton’s juice box and put the present he’d wrapped for Peyton front and center on the picnic blanket.
“Here you go, buddy. I know how you like the fruit punches. This one’s new. I tried it, and it’s fancier than the stuff we normally drink, but I figured what the hey. We should get to splurge on our birthdays, right?” Smiling at the headstone affectionately, he placed the juice box down and then proceeded to open the present he’d wrapped for Peyton that morning.
This, too, was bigger than what he normally got—he tried not to go overboard with the presents because he didn’t like Kenny the groundskeeper having too much to clean up after the wild joint-birthday party Jake threw for Peyton every year. Since Peyton’s birthday was a week prior to his own, Jake had begun throwing these parties the second year after he got out of juvie. He liked sharing his own big day with the little guy. Sure, his siblings remembered his birthday, but it wasn’t the same as when you were a kid. With the party and the hoopla.
He always made sure to make a big hoopla.
Balling up all the pieces of opened wrapping paper, Jake plopped the big new Transformer on top of the headstone. “I found you a cool Transformer, buddy. I know you have almost all of them already, but this one even I’ve never had. I found it online. Pretty awesome, huh?” He settled back onto the picnic blanket. “You go on and play with that while I sit here and start digging into our breakfast. If you haven’t noticed, it is actually edible this year, thanks to your sister. She’s been giving me cooking lessons, you know.”
At the mention of Emma, Jake felt his heart ache like it always did.
The past week had been rough. Every day, he’d wanted to go see her, but every day he’d stopped himself. She needed time. And space.
Even though giving her both was slowly killing him, he knew it was important.
He took a few bites of the homemade mac and cheese he’d been daring enough to try his hand at that morning. Surprisingly, not bad. He held up his fork to toast Peyton. “This is pretty good. I don’t think I’ll be doing any of that instant stuff for us from now on.”
Of all the things he’d made, the pasta made him think of Emma the most, since it was one of the first things she’d taught him how to not ruin. Sighing, he put the fork down and gazed at his own unopened present. “Peyton, my man. I know it’ll probably shock you to hear this, but your sister and I started dating this year. Crazy, right?” He unwrapped the slim box and showed Peyton what was inside. “That’s right. Airline tickets. Two of ’em. And this one’s got your sister’s name on it. She mentioned how she’d never been out of Kansas, and how she’d always wanted to go to the beach. So I booked us open-ended tickets to California. I know, I know. I probably should’ve sprung for Hawaii or something, but those were crazy expensive. Maybe next year.”
At least he hoped there was a next year.
“Man, I love her. I know you heard me say that a long time ago, back when I first got out of juvie, but this time it’s more. I think she loves me back. Even when I’m driving her crazy.” He chuckled. “And she drives me crazy right back. She’s still stubborn as hell. You remember I’m sure.”
Fiddling with the pasta dish she’d taught him to make in their last cooking lesson, he murmured, more to himself than Peyton, “I love everything about her. I just . . . wish she felt the same way about me, you know?” Exhaling heavily, he caught Peyton up on all that had been going on. “But with all the stuff that happened with the fire—you remember—it’s just complicated. For her, the past is making a future for us impossible. But I’m not giving up. No way, no how. Fair warning, before I head out today, you need to help me think of a way to win her back, okay? I don’t care how crazy the idea is. I’m getting her back, man—”
“And that’s all there is to it?”
Jake froze when he heard the softly spoken statement. Hoping to hell he hadn’t just imagined it, he turned around slowly.
And saw her.
“Emma.”