Page 62 of The Heartbreakers
“All right,” JJ said, grabbing Jenny by the arm and taking the chocolate from her hand. “I think that’s enough sugar for one day.”
“Hey!” Jenny complained. When JJ let her go, she dodged around him and snagged a brownie off one of the trays. Then she stuck her tongue out at him and ran out of the kitchen before he could stop her.
“Sorry about that,” JJ said as he set the chocolate back down on the table. “She doesn’t have a filter.”
I grinned. “Must run in the family.”
JJ opened his mouth to respond, but Audrella, who was still clinging to his back like a monkey, tugged on his shirt and pointed down at the candy. “Colate! Colate!” she demanded.
“Okay, but only one piece,” JJ said and picked out a red M&M for his little sister. “Don’t tell Mommy.”
“Jeremiah James!” a woman yelled from the other side of the kitchen. “I better not have just seen what I think I did. You know not to give Audrella candy!”
“Sorry, Mom,” he said as he peeled his sister off his back and set her on the ground.
“Jeremiah?” I snickered.
“Shut it,” he said. “It’s a family name.” I didn’t get a chance to tease him further because the doorbell rang, and JJ shot off down the hall calling, “I’ll get it!”
He returned a minute later, a woman in her late twenties trailing behind him. She had hair so blond it looked white, and her eyes were such a startling shade of gray that I instantly recognized them.
“Vanessa!” Alec shot across the living room like a blur and barreled into the woman. She stumbled back a step, but laughed and returned his hug. I’d never seen him so excited before, and if I hadn’t seen the entire incident myself, I’d never have believed it. “What are you doing here?” he asked when they finally pulled apart. “Are you staying long?”
“Chill, baby bro,” Vanessa said, ruffling his head, and Alec didn’t even flinch as she ruined his always-perfect hair. “One question at a time.”
The largest smile I’d ever seen was plastered across his face. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“Because it was a surprise, silly. Oliver paid for my flight so you wouldn’t be the only one here without family.”
“He did that?” I blurted out. Vanessa turned her ashen eyes on me and I blushed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
She raised an eyebrow, glanced at her brother, and asked, “Stella, right? The photographer?” He nodded his head, and then she offered me a smile. “Alec showed me some of the pictures you took. They’re quite good.”
“Um, thanks.” Who hadn’t Alec shown my pictures to?
“You’re welcome. And to answer your question, yes. Oliver flew me up here so I could spend the weekend with Alec. Speaking of, where is he? I haven’t properly thanked him.”
“Haven’t seen him since we got here,” Alec said.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t either. “I’ll go look for him,” I offered and backed away from the group before I could embarrass myself further.
But there was one more reason I had a sudden urge to find Oliver. Now that I’d met Vanessa, I realized I’d been introduced to every one of the boys’ families. That is, everyone’s except for Oliver’s.
• • •
I’d been looking for near an hour, weaving my way through the crowd in the Morrises’ house, but Oliver was MIA. I checked the entire downstairs before moving outside and searching the yard. The place was so crowded that it was hard to know for sure if I’d missed him, but I was almost positive that Oliver wasn’t anywhere at the party.
So I decided to venture upstairs.
The second floor was one long hallway of doors, each one labeled with one or more of the Morris kids’ names: Audrella and Joanne, Aiden, Jenny and Amy, Jordan, Annasophia. At the end of the hallway I found the door with JJ’s name, which had a yellow-and-black sign that read: DANGER! TOXIC ZONE.
Rolling my eyes, I disregarded the warning and pushed open the door, not knowing where else to look for Oliver. The room was small—a single bed ran the length of the left wall, and a dresser and desk were pushed up against the right. Someone had left the lamp atop the desk on, drawing attention to the bulletin board hanging above it. Tacked to the cork was a collection of photographs.
Although Oliver wasn’t physically in JJ’s room, he was still here, smiling up at me from most of the pictures. There was one of JJ and him when they couldn’t have been more than six, covered in mud and smiling like loons. In another they were dressed up for Halloween as Jedi, JJ wielding a green lightsaber and Oliver a red. As the boys got older, Xander started to appear in more of the pictures: a camping trip, a birthday party, a high-school dance.
The bulletin board was like a chronological snapshot of JJ and Oliver’s childhood, so it was appropriate that the final picture pinned to the bottom right-hand side was one with Alec, a group shot of the band. Using my nail, I dug the tack from the cork and pulled the photo down to get a better look. It was only dated from two years ago, but all four boys looked different, much younger—JJ’s tattoo was missing, Alec was a foot shorter, Xander had braces, and Oliver’s hair was long and floppy.
“Hey.”
