Page 114 of Not Part of the Plan
“I hate you,” Niko called out.
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With the pigs cheerfully following Beckett’s trail of potato chips out of the back of Carter’s Jeep, Niko was tasked with unsavory job of rounding up Clementine and leading her back home. She’d been heading toward the stables, and he was hoping she had a similar vice for people food that he could use to his advantage.
He jogged into the stable, noting that nearly every exterior door was open in appreciation of the warm spring day. Voices carried from the indoor riding ring at the far end of the building. Niko headed in that direction, looking left and right for any sign of Clementine.
“It doesn’t make sense that way,” Jax yelled, dropping the rake he’d been using to coax the sawdust into a neat layer inside the ring.
“Of course, it makes sense,” Reva said, teenage annoyance in her tone.
Niko peered over the shoulder-high wall and took in the argument in progress
Jax shook his head. “No way. I’m not comfortable with that. You can’t just catch a ride with a guy.”
Reva looked baffled. “Why not? He lives just down the road. I’m on his way.”
“You might not be aware of this, but I was a teenage guy with a car once, and I know what teenage guys with cars are thinking when they offer a girl a ride to science camp!”
“He’s offering me a ride, not a teenage pregnancy!”
Jax’s growl of frustration echoed off the rafters as he paced away from the wheelbarrow and then back again. “You’re damn right you’re not getting pregnant! You are forbidden to date! Ever.”
Niko stifled his laugh. At least someone else was having a shitty day, too. Joey, amusement written all over her pretty face and Waffles at her heels, bellied up to the wall on the other side of the gate. She stood on tip toe and finding the view lacking, climbed on top of an upside-down bucket. The dog wasn’t about to be left out and scurried over to the gate and sat as if he too were eavesdropping.
Oblivious to the audience, the argument continued. “Jax. I’m seventeen.” Reva sounded like she was talking to a toddler. “And it’s not a date. It’s a ride into town for a week for advanced placement prep.”
“You’re not seeing the danger here!”
Jax wasn’t either, Niko realized when he caught a movement across the ring. A black and brown head poked around the door to the outdoor ring.Clementine.
“You’re overreacting,” Reva argued. You make it sound like I’m asking permission to attend the senior class orgy!”
Niko wondered if Joey could see the goat, if she’d call out a warning. He shot her a look and judged by the amusement on her face, Joey was perfectly content to watch it all unfold.
“Christ!” Jax shoved his hands through his hair. “It’s like arguing with your mother!”
Jax and Reva froze as the weight of the words settled over them. Joey pressed a hand to her mouth.
“You’re not talking about Sheila,” Reva said, finally. She scuffed the toe of her boot into the sawdust.
Jax ran a nervous hand through his hair. “No. I’m not. Shit. I’m sorry. I just got caught up—”
But then Reva was hugging him hard. And the way her shoulders shook, Niko bet it was about a decade of stored up emotion that she was releasing. Carefully, as if he was afraid he might scare her or break her, Jax wrapped his arms around the girl.
It was the intimacy of the moment that had Niko opening his camera app and taking one quick shot. The first moment that she realized she had a family. The first moment that she really let herself believe. It went straight to his gut.
Joey felt the moment, too, Niko could see. The normally stoic smartass pressed her fingers to her lips, eyes glistening with unshed tears. Waffles’tail swished side to side silently over the floor. Niko shifted just a little to add Joey to the frame and clicked again. They were connected,the two adults who chose each other and a girl who’d found her way to them. And if that motley crew belonged together, then he and Emma had a chance. A real one. They both deserved it, if she would just get out of her own way.
And just like that, the anger in him dissipated. Family wasn’t just blood and biology it was a commitment. A hard-headed refusal to accept anything but the best for the ones you chose and the ones you were gifted. He had that here with Emma, whether she liked it or not.
“I’m not trying to be a hard ass here, Reev.” Jax insisted, drawing Niko’s attention back to the action in the ring. “It’s my job to protect you from guys like I used to be. If you stop crying, you can ride with that jackass.”
Reva’s shoulders still shook, but Niko couldn’t tell if it was tears or laughter.
“Sorry, I meanthat guy,” Jax amended. “After Joey and I meet him and Cardona runs a background check on three generations of his family.”
Before Reva could reply, she was interrupted by a psychotic farm animal.
