Page 93 of Bad Situation

“What the fuck?” I mumble to no one as I pull up to the only house I’ve ever known as a home.

The Mercedes GLS, parked square center, couldn’t be more out of place. If I showed up to my own funeral in my birthday suit, I’d feel more comfortable than that car right now. Two more cars are parked behind it, blocking the single drive that’s barely a drive since it’s been ignored for decades and the concrete is cracked with dead weeds smushed to the ground from winter settling in.

I knew who it had to be even before I saw her protection detail sitting in the car with his eyes trained on the house.

Don’t worry, buddy. If Jensen Montgomery is really in that house, the only harm that could come to her are the things I’ve kept from her. If I’ve learned anything over the past few weeks, she’s going to be pissed.

That’ll make two of us, because she doesn’t fucking need to be here. She doesn’t belong here.

I park across the street and glare at her detail whose eyes follow me as I jog up to the front door. He shouldn’t have allowed her to leave her condo, let alone the state of Texas.

When I barge through the storm door, everyone comes to a standstill. They freeze. Everyone but my dad that is.

The house is so small, there’s no issue seeing everything from where I stand. Sarah and my mom are standing with two women who I don’t know in the kitchen that’s half-charred and a mess from where I started tearing it out yesterday when I got here. And Jen, fuck me, is sitting across from my father at the table with Simon in her lap. They’re doing the only thing my dad ever does which I can hardly stomach anymore—playing dominoes.

“Is it my turn?” My dad looks across to Jen who’s not paying him any attention because her eyes are boring into me. Fucking cutting through every layer of skin and sinking into my soul, and damn if there aren’t tears in her eyes when she does it.

“It’s our turn, Grandpa,” Simon answers and shifts to look up at Jen. “Is this the right one?”

Jen doesn’t move until Simon loses patience and yanks at the scarf that’s wrapped around her neck a million times, making her hair an even richer color than normal as she sits in this drab house that still reeks of soot from the fire. Her voice is thick when she looks down at Simon. “Let’s count the dots and see.”

I don’t waste another second and I can’t help that my voice is harsh. Right now, I want to yell and throw the moss-colored broken Lazy Boy that’s been sitting here longer than I have memories, through the front window. “What are you doing here?”

“Elijah,” my mother judges my tone with her own. “That’s no way to treat a guest.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if I got a wooden spoon across the back of my head but I ignore her and keep talking to Jen. “You should be at home.”

It doesn’t surprise me yet, at the same time, it does when her voice comes out clear and even. “You should’ve told me about your emergency. I can help.”

“Is it my turn?” my dad asks again, to no one. He could ask that fucking question all damn day.

Everyone ignores him, which cuts through me even more.

“You didn’t tell us you were making friends in Texas, Eli.” I look over and Sarah is standing smug next to the two women I don’t know. They look about as confused as me. “Let’s just say everyone was surprised this afternoon when she showed up.”

I look back to Jen. “I don’t need your help.”

She tips her head and I wonder if this is what people experience in a boardroom with her. Her initial shock of seeing me is gone, her eyes are dry, and she straightens in the old, rickety chair. “Really?” She looks down to Simon, who’s counting dots to eleven and she says to him, “Good job. You can play it next to your grandpa’s.” She looks back to me and her normally warm—no, hot—eyes are nothing but a barren field of dirt, they’re so distant. “Looks like you could use all the help you can get.”

Mom butts in. “Eli, these ladies are from Lake Michigan Nursing Services. Your friend, Jen, made a few calls and, once we get everything put back together, they’re going to come and stay with your dad while I’m at work. They have nurses who specialize in Alzheimer’s. They’ll even work with your dad throughout the day and coordinate with his doctors to update them on his condition.”

I don’t take my eyes off Jen. “You just made some calls and they showed up here on a Sunday.”

It’s either my tone or my demeanor that cuts through her boardroom armor. She shifts Simon in her lap and doesn’t respond.

“Told you I’d be back. Told you I’d explain when I could.”

Her voice drops and I can barely hear her across the small room. “I wasn’t feeling patient. I decided to pick up and come find you.”

I cross my arms. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“Eli!” my mother bursts from the half-burned kitchen we just discovered their insurance is trying to deny coverage for.

“If I wanted her here, I would’ve brought her myself, Mom.”

“You’re such a selfish ass,” Sarah starts in, dumping our dirty laundry on the floor for everyone to see and smell. “Someone’s offering help, something we desperately need on a daily basis, and you’re willing to shit all over that, because why? You’re too proud? Yet you aren’t here to deal with it every day.”

Fucking Sarah.

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