The seats were all torn up, so we had to lay blankets across them, which, of course, I didn’t mind at all being the blanket hooker that I am and all. We hit the road, downgrading Kai into the backseat once more. He didn’t complain.
“Can you text Frankie for me?” I asked Ezra.
“Sure. What do you want to say?”
“Don’t tell her the phone was stolen. Just say that I lost it. She’ll believe it. Tell her I’ll call her later.”
Ezra texted Frankie at the stoplight right before the entrance to the highway. The phone buzzed before we’d even had time to access the on-ramp. Ezra brought the phone up to his face.
“It’s her.”
“What did she say?”
In a deadpan tone, “I don’t believe you. You’ve kidnapped her. Don’t even bother. She’s not worth anything. Drop her off at the nearest corner. Unless you own a circus. In which case she might prove useful. She can grow a beard with the best of them. Stick her on the trapeze.”
“Shut up,” Kai said, laughing. “She did not say that.”
“Here,” Ezra said, “read it.”
I sighed. “That’s exactly what Frankie wrote,” I confirmed without even looking at it.
“Only four hours until home.” Kai sighed. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to be in Chicago as badly as I do right now.”
“Miss your mommy?” Ezra teased.
Without skipping a beat, Kai said, “As a matter fact, I do.” He looked at me and smiled. “I’m a mama’s boy.”
“No,” I jabbed.
“Make fun all you want, but you’re going to love her as much as I do.” He stared at me hard, making me a little nervous. “But she’s mine, you hear me? Mine!”
“Fine, Kai’s mama is his alone,” I stated for his benefit.
“Do you miss your mom?” I asked Ezra.
He shifted in his seat. So that’s a yes then. He tossed his long side-swept hair to the other side of his head. Huh. He looks a little like Jesse Rutherford without the tats. Never noticed that before. The shaved part of his hair needs a little trim, though, I thought. Then my thoughts went somewhere else entirely. No! Bad, Jupiter.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I really love my mom.”
My hands flew up trying to find something to steady myself on because I was dangerously teetering on the precipice of Swoonville. Ezra looked at me like I was nuts, which brought me back down to earth. Ope! Moment gone.
The rest of the drive to Chicago was fairly uneventful. Kai was in pain from the Ruby fiasco (whom I was right about!), and Ezra was still mopey about the fatal waterfall mistake with me, which was a real boost to my ego, let me tell ya.
I’d thought more on what Kai had told me and wondered if I really should give Ezra some time. I knew his history. I knew he’d had some life-altering crap barrel down at him at the speed of light flushed from an airplane called My Girlfriend is a Cheating Wench. He would never play lacrosse at the college level because of it. He could barely drive a few hours without his legs aching. Lean and muscular though they were, it made no difference. From what I understood, it was a bone-deep thing. Many things went bone deep for Ezra. I was beyond confused.
Thanks to our little waterfall adventure, we were late to arrive to Chicago, and almost as soon as we passed the city line, Kai’s phone rang. He glanced down then brought it to his ear.
“Hello, Mama.”
I heard a woman’s muffled voice on the other line. I turned to look at Kai’s happy face.
“Around half an hour.” More indistinct chatter. “Okay, love you too,” he said, then hung up.
“What’s your mom’s name?” I asked him.
“Rosie.” He smiled.
“Aww, that’s such a great name.”
“It is. It suits her.”
I turned to Ezra, realizing something. “What’s your mom’s name?”
A crooked smile spread across his lips and it made me smile. “Holly.”
I turned to look out the window, satisfied with our exchange. “Do you love your mom?” Ezra asked me.
“Like the dickens,” I told him, and he smiled at me again.
Half an hour later we pulled onto Lake Shore Drive and my stomach dropped. Though the water was so different from what I was used to in the Keys, it didn’t matter. I was so happy to be near it. It was a bolster to my heart. I stuck my face out the window to feel the humid air against my skin.
I breathed in deeply. “I missed the water.”
Kai laughed. “Not exactly Florida, though.”
I grinned. “It doesn’t matter. I never realized how much I needed to be near it.”
“Makes you a little homesick, no?” Ezra asked.
“Maybe a very little.”
We pulled into some sort of underground garage and parked next to a line of incredible classic cars.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“This is my uncle’s garage. He restores cars here,” Ezra explained.
“You live in this high-rise?” I asked Kai, remembering the sheer number of floors that kept climbing up and and up into the sky of the building.
“Not this one,” Kai absently remarked.
“But you live in a high-rise?”
“I live in a vintage building a little south of here.”
“I would have gone there but thought it’d be better to take the car here first since Kai’s dad has a mechanic who could fix the damage Ruby did in time for us to head out next Monday.”
We all piled out of the little GTO that could. I stood and stretched my whole body. I felt pretty relaxed up until I noticed Ezra eyeing my body like I was something to eat. My face got hot, so I bent back into the car to hide my face and to get my boots since I’d taken them off for the ride. I rested a hand on the top of the car as I slipped on each boot, trying so hard not to look Ezra’s direction because I felt his stare and it was heavy enough to speed up my breathing.
I heard Kai and Ezra mumbling something to each other then heard the trunk pop open. I stood when I felt like my face was no longer the color of the forbidden apple. I dared to glance a peek at Ezra. And that would be one forbidden apple, let me tell ya.
“We’re walking,” Ezra told me. “Are you cool with that?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” I took in our collective luggage. Ezra’s and Kai’s bags had rollers on them. Mine didn’t because it was made in 1973 or something stupid like that. “Uh, how far is it?” I asked.
“About three blocks from here,” Kai answered, lifting up the handle of his case.
I studied my heavy case, resolved to my fate. “Okay, that shouldn’t be too bad,” I told them with an overenthusiastic smile, which Ezra for some reason found hilarious.
He walked to the far wall on the opposite side of the cars and pulled two bungee cords off a latticed metal grate bolted to the wall. He walked back to us and laid his own bag flat, rested my case on top of his, and fastened it tightly.
“Swell, baby,” I said without thinking. My face burned that bright red again and I had no way to hide it. “Not that you’re my baby or anything,” I tried to cover. His face looked so hurt it made my chest ache. “Uh, well, not that you wouldn’t be a great baby, you know, to someone. Someone else that’s not me. I mean, I know you’re not my baby… Back. Ribs. I want my baby back, baby back, baby back.” Kai looked at me as if I’d sprouted horns. I started to hyperventilate and covered my face with my hands. “Oh God, make it stop.”
“Stop saying the word baby, you freak,” Kai said, wrapping his arm around my neck and playfully driving his knuckle into the top of my head. I shook him off.
Ezra pushed the rolling case out with his foot and started to roll it up the steep incline to reach street level. I started to go after him to help, but Kai reined me back, wrapping his arm around my neck, his hand around my mouth. “Let me spare you from yourself. Just chill.”
I nodded my head, and he released his hand. “You’re hot, but you’re a dork. Follow me.”
Kai walked up the hill and caught up with Ezra. I followed at least ten feet behind, mortified, and not feeling comfortable at all knowing I was about to meet Ezra’s aunt. My feet felt heavy as I followed both boys. It was too awkward for me to walk with them. It was also too awkward for me to walk behind them. The ultimate catch-22. Screw it, I thought. Just own it. Look at the buildings or something. I’d started to but was struck at the resemblance between Ezra and Kai, besides their hair color, and watched them instead. They had the same gait, same build, same height, even the same laugh. The only difference was the slightest hitch in Ezra’s walk when he’d hit pavement with his left foot. It wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone else, really, but it was to me. I suddenly hated Jessica West for giving that to him, despite how indirect the blame was. I felt a little more in tune to Ezra’s struggles watching him walk with his cousin. I felt something unfamiliar deep in my gut. I didn’t know if I liked it.
He slowed and came to a complete stop, his gaze never leaving the sidewalk below him, though. Kai kept walking. I sort of galloped a bit like some My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic doll, then remembered myself. When I stepped next to him, he continued. We didn’t talk, but we didn’t need to.
Kai’s “house”—and I use that term loosely—was nestled in a vintage 1920s apartment building on Scott surrounded by other equally imposing high-rises.
“Damn, Gina,” I said under my breath.
Kai hugged the brick. “Matilda!”
I didn’t ask.
The lobby was all posh marble, and the elevator was true to the age of the building with those sliding metal accordion door things. We all piled in before Kai pushed the top-floor button.
“Ground floor: perfumery, stationery, and leather goods, wigs, and haberdashery, kitchenware, and food...going up!” I sang in my best Are You Being Served impression.
I looked at Ezra, the corner of his mouth turned up in a crooked smile. “Are you free, Miss Brahms?” he asked, shocking the hell out of me.
I gulped, my eyes going wide. “I-I’m free.” I tried to play it cool but couldn’t succeed. Frankly, I was stunned he got the reference. It was obscure. And not really cool obscure either.
I turned toward the doors of the elevator, afraid to look at him anymore, and clenched my teeth, afraid I’d call him “baby” again or something. I lost even the smallest amount of mojo I possessed when he was around me. When the elevator dinged, the door slid open, and Ezra leaned across from me, the sleeves of his hoodie brushing against my stomach, leaving goosebumps behind as he opened the accordion grate. I stepped out onto more marble and looked up and down the hall. There were only two doors and they were on opposite sides of the hall. Kai led us to the door on the far left and with every click of my heel on the floor, I was very aware of my wrinkled clothes, my shorts, still a little damp, and my unmanaged hair. My only comfort was that both boys were in as bad of shape as I was. Poor Kai had a knot on the side of his head that was turning a little blue.
“We look like we all got into a fist fight right before we got here,” I told them.
Kai sighed. “I know. Mom is going to freak.”
I swallowed my nerves and they settled like a rock in my stomach. “Is she, like, particular about clothing and stuff?” I asked, taking a mental inventory of my thrift store clothing I packed.
Ezra laughed. “Nah, Rosie is salt of the earth. She will, though, instantly worry that we got mugged on the way up here.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as Kai stuck his key in the door, but before he could even turn it, it whipped open.
“Oh my God! I thought you would never get here!” a boisterous, short, plump woman with shoulder-length black hair exclaimed. Her smile faded from ecstatic to concerned as she tugged Kai’s head to her level. “What in the Sam Hill happened to you, Kai Brandon?” she yelled, a thick southern accent coming to the forefront.
So this is Rosie. She was unbelievably beautiful, eyes bright blue. Her cheeks matched her name with two deep dimples in each one. She exuded wonderful from every inch of her short frame.
“Sorry, Mama. I didn’t want to tell you until we got here, didn’t want you to worry.”
She let go of his face and placed her hands on her hips. “With you I’m always worryin’, boy. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Tell you the details later.”
Her mouth screwed into something incredulous. She shook her head and sighed a sigh of exasperation, then looked around Kai and noticed Ezra. She gasped and jumped up and down like a cheerleader. “Ezra! Baby boy! Get over here!” she yelled and reached for him then hugged him fiercely.
Everything she did was loud and full of energy, but it was so charming. She was the type of person whom everyone was drawn to, the type whose heart was always open and always ready to give. I knew it the second she opened her door. It was no wonder Kai loved her so much.
Ezra stood from their hug and placed his warm hand on my lower back, sending a thrill of butterflies. His fingers bit into my skin making me shiver all over. They slid up to the curve of my side and fit every arc, every bend there, but they were tense, like he was fighting an urge he didn’t want to fight. Neither did I. My breaths came a little faster and I memorized the intensity of those fingers as he brought me forward. His hand left the skin there, leaving it cool and starved for his touch again.
I was shot out of my thoughts when Rosie leaned for me, wrapping me in a generous hug.
“And you must be Jupiter!” she told me, leaning back, keeping my hands in hers and spreading them wide so she could get a good look at me. She shook her head. “Girl, you are just a devastating little thing! Mike, get in here!” she yelled over her shoulder. “Come look at this girl that somehow survived a road trip from Florida with these hoodlum boys!”
My face bloomed bright red.
“Rosie!” Ezra exclaimed, looking a little embarrassed.
She narrowed her eyes at Ezra then down at me and something changed in her face, like she was seeing something she hadn’t noticed before, trying to determine what we were to each other. Join the club. We got ourselves a little sitch-i-ation. Maybe without all the hair gel, though.
“What’s all the hubbub about?” a man asked, rounding a corner into the entryway. Hubbub. I love old people.
He looked so much like Ezra and Kai, maybe just a little shorter, and of course older. He smiled at me then turned toward his son. His hand went to his head as it shook in disbelief.
“Kai. Kai. Kai. You’ve been wrestling with pigs again?” he asked.
“Had a little incident,” Kai divulged. “I’ll tell you all about it later.”
Kai’s dad hugged and slapped him on the back and did the same with Ezra. Two more ridiculously tall boys spilled into the entryway, curious as to what was going on. The one right behind Kai’s dad looked about thirteen, maybe fourteen, and was a spitting image of Kai, save for a little lighter hair. He peeked around his dad’s shoulder with the sweetest smile I’d ever seen. Another boy stood behind him. He looked around my age and could have been Kai’s twin. He had hazel eyes, though, instead of Kai’s blue and his nose was a little longer.
All six pairs of eyes were looking at me at once. I felt my heart speed up. “Uh, hi, I’m Jupiter,” I said, tossing up a hand in hello.
They didn’t say anything and I started to get nervous, biting my bottom lip, trying to fight the burn rising up my neck. Then all at once they were talking.
“So nice to meet you, Jupiter. I’m Mike,” Kai’s dad greeted with a smile, his hand out. I shook it and then he introduced Kai’s brothers.
“This is Van,” Mike said, pushing the younger one forward. He offered his hand and I took it. “But we call him Bear. And this is Milo,” he said, introducing Kai’s middle brother.
Milo stuck out his hand and I shook it. “Nice to meet you,” he said, smiling at me with that charming smile all the Brandon boys possessed.
I giggled. “Nice to meet you too,” I told him.
It got quiet again, so I began to examine the ceiling.
“Well, no sense standing here. Let’s get in the kitchen!” Rosie broke the silence. We all pushed forward through the hall at once. I got swept up in the crowd of giant boys. I looked over my shoulder at Ezra and he smiled at me from the rear of the group.
The house was incredible. There was a main hall that emptied into several rooms with giant glass doors that were spread wide open. I caught sight of a library, some sort of gigantic living room lined with floor-to-ceiling windows that peered out onto the buildings all around. There was some sort of study and then at the end of the hall, through an elaborate arched doorway, was the kitchen. On the floor was a black-and-white checkered pattern and on the walls, large marble subway tile. It was a sea of marble, copper, and high-end appliances. For lack of a better phrase, it was really, really, really pretty. I want!
Through speakers in the plaster ceiling spilled Harry Belanfonte’s “Jump in the Line.” I burst with laughter when Rosie began to shimmy to the stove, a hand touching the opposite elbow of a raised hand, back and forth, back and forth, with a little rumba step.
“I made jambalaya, darlins! With a sweet potato pie to finish,” she shouted over the music and stirred a pot on the stove. “Go on and sit!”
A few boys, I don’t know which ones, it was too hard to tell at that point, rushed me over to the table and settled me in the center of a long bench. They all filled in around me. I was literally surrounded by boy. I looked left and up to take in a very friendly Milo then turned to my right and up to take in a tired-looking Kai. Bear sat at the end of the table as did Mike on the opposite side. And Ezra was directly across from me. He watched me closely. It made my heart flip-flop. Luckily, Rosie came to the table with a giant, steaming pot and distracted me. She set it dead center on an iron trivet. I had to lean up to see Ezra, and even then I could only see his eyes. They crinkled as if he was genuinely smiling. I fought the urge to push the pot aside so I could actually witness it.
Rosie tucked in beside Ezra next to her husband. “Pass your plates!” she said cheerfully, and they happily obeyed.
Milo took mine before I even had a chance to catch up with them and handed it to his mom.
“My mom is an excellent cook,” Milo’s deep voice told me.
I glanced at him then at Rosie. “If it’s half as good as it smells, Rosie, it’ll knock my socks off, I’m sure.”
Rosie blushed prettily and I wished I could wrap her up and put her in my pocket. She passed a heaping plate of food to me, causing my eyes to bug. She laughed.
“Sorry, used to serving teen boys,” she offered in explanation. “Eat what you can, doll.”
The table was loud as everyone served themselves a buttered roll that smelled like heaven itself and poured their drinks.
“Boys,” Mike said, and the whole table died down, their heads bowed. I copied them as Mike began to thank God for the food on their table. When he was done, the table erupted once again. I sat there a little shell shocked by the noise made by this gigantic man family. I looked across the top of Rosie’s pot at Ezra. His eyes were crinkled and his shoulders were shaking. God! His punk ass is laughing and I’m missing it!
“So you’re headin’ to school with Ezra, are you?” Rosie asked, taking a bite.
My fork still sat in my hand. I hadn’t made a single move since I sat down. The table got quiet again as they waited for my answer.
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered.
To be honest, I was intimidated by the boys around me, which was a new one for me.
“That’s a mighty good school. You must have been an excellent student then.”
I smiled. “I try, I guess.”
“What luck you two decided to go to the same school,” she said, fishing for information.
“It was a cool luck of the draw, for sure,” I told her. “I didn’t have a ride up there. My parents aren’t the most conventional sort, and I would have had to get creative if it hadn’t been for Ezra.”
“Are you and Ezra dating?” Milo came out and asked.
“Oh no, we’re definitely not together,” I told him, trying hard to control the blush stretching across my face and the hurt of that knowledge from penetrating any deeper into my heart.
I looked over the pot at Ezra and his eyes bored into mine then he looked at Milo. “No, I’m just giving her a ride is all,” he told his cousin.
I was disappointed in him. He had to have known how badly that would hurt me. Kai looked at Ezra and shook his head lightly. He looked at me then patted my knee tenderly under the table to comfort me. I picked up my fork and took a bite.
“Oh my God, this is amazing!” I said without thinking.
Rosie sat up a little and smiled, bolstered by my compliment.
“How old are you?” Milo asked me.
I swallowed.
“Eighteen,” I answered.
“Interesting. I’m fourteen,” Bear told the table. He smiled at me. “Four-year age gaps mean nothing anymore, you know.”
Kai snorted and choked on his food. I hit his back to help a literal brother out. “Yep,” I answered, not sure what else to say.
“Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher had a sixteen-year age difference,” Kai’s youngest brother told me, wagging his brows up and down.
It was my turn to choke. “Aren’t they divorced?” I asked him between gasps of breath.
“Still,” he responded. “I heard it was good while it lasted.”
Mike laughed into his plate, mumbling hormones.
“Bear, you need a cold shower or somethin’?” Rosie asked him. She looked dumbfounded.
“Mom!” he gritted, his face turning bright red.
“I’m seventeen,” Milo told me.
I turned his direction. “Cool. Senior this year?”
“Yeah,” he said, throwing his hair out of his face and grinning at me.
I looked over at Kai. “I know,” he explained.
“They’re all yours,” Rosie told Mike.