“Sorry, Gran,” Jack said with a sigh.
“I just meant that she’d have control over you if she didn’t sign the papers. She knows how badly you want out of this marriage, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she pulled a bunch of sh—” I stopped myself, throwing a frown Gran’s way, “stuff just to mess with you.”
Gran nodded. “He’s right, Jack. Chrystle’s been so evil from the very start. What’s to stop her from being difficult now?” she asked, her voice shaky.
“I don’t know,” Jack said with a shrug. “I guess I’m just hoping that she knows this is over, and there’s no point in delaying the inevitable.”
He was thoughtful for a moment, and I hoped he was considering something that I had assumed was obvious this whole time. Chrystle wasn’t a nice person, so why would she be nice about ending their marriage? She was devious and malicious, and I had a strong feeling that she would make this difficult for him just to be a bitch.
When Gramps brought up Cassie, the conversation turned lighter.
“Gramps, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a thing for my girl,” Jack joked.
“Your girl?” Gramps leaned back in mock affront.
Jack dropped his fork to his plate as if saying Game on. “Uh-huh. My girl.”
I laughed, wanting to play this game too. “Maybe I’ll make her my girl. Keep her in the family.”
If looks could kill, Jack would have murdered me. Apparently I’d gone too far. “And I’ll disown you before I kick your—”
Gramps slammed a hand on the table. “Boys, that’s enough.”
I shoved a spoonful of rice into my mouth as I grinned at my brother, mumbling around it, “You’re lucky she’s like a sister to me.”
“Yeah? I’d say you’re the lucky one. ’Cause I’d kill you if you touched her, and you know it.”
“I’m your only brother and this is how you treat me?” I laid a hand over my heart as if he’d hurt me deeply.
Gramps shook his head, holding back a smile. “You’re trying to take the man’s kitten, Dean.”
When Gran laughed, Jack mentioned Melissa, changing the subject and putting the spotlight on me, which wasn’t playing fair and he knew it. He continued to harass me, asking why we weren’t dating yet.
Finally, I exploded.
“I don’t know! She says she doesn’t want a boyfriend, but I think she just doesn’t want me as a boyfriend. Can we talk about something else now?” I begged.
“Who wouldn’t want you as a boyfriend? That’s ridiculous,” our ever-loyal Gran said with a huff.
“Can we please talk about something else? Anything else,” I pleaded, uncomfortable admitting to my entire family that this girl didn’t want me.
Jack moved the conversation back to Cassie and the fact that he’d been basically stalking her online, following her work in New York.
That revelation ignited my temper, probably because I knew how hurt Cassie had been by Jack’s silence since she moved. She would have never admitted it to me, not wanting to put me in the middle, but she told Melissa that she didn’t understand why Jack hadn’t reached out to her since his marriage was over. And, of course, Melissa told me.
Cassie assumed that he would have been fighting to get her back, and frankly, so had I. It pissed me off that Jack hadn’t reached out to her once, and I couldn’t figure out why. I knew he still loved her and wanted to be with her, so why wasn’t he trying to make it right?
When he saw the look on my face, Jack glared at me and said, “After everything Cassie and I have been through, you think my following her work online is psycho?”
“It’s a little weird, don’t you think? You won’t even talk to her in real life, but you’ll follow her online?” I snapped back.
The chair scraped against the floor as Jack shot up, breathing hard.
“Jack, sit down!” Gran said sternly. “You two are acting like little boys.”
He dropped into his chair, breathing deeply to regain control of his emotions.
After he’d calmed down, he said, “I can’t talk to her until I’m not married anymore, okay? So until then, yeah, I’ll follow everything she does online. If that magazine can give me a glimpse into how she’s seeing the world, I’ll take it. Because until I’m back in her life, that’s the only Cassie I get. And if that makes me psycho, then I don’t give a fuck. Sorry, Gran,” he said quickly before she could yell at him.