JAY JAY POV
I noticed the seat next to me was empty. Mia had been gone way too long just to "take a call." Given the chaotic energy in the house, I wanted to make sure she hadn't been cornered by a stray Section E member or, worse, one of my overly intense brothers.
I slipped out toward the gardens, and of course, Keifer was right on my heels like a shadow.
"Where are you going, Mutya?" he asked, catching my hand.
"Mia's missing. I'm just checking on her," I whispered.
As we approached the pond, the air was still, but then I heard it—the distinct thwack of wood hitting fabric and a very familiar groan.
"Mia... please, no," a deep voice pleaded.
I froze. Jare?
Keifer stepped forward, his hand moving toward his waist as if he were expecting a fight. "What—?"
"Shhh!" I hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him behind a large flowering bush. I pointed toward the edge of the pond.
We both peered through the leaves. My eyes nearly fell out of my head. Mia was standing there and Jare was actually backing away, rubbing his shin and looking genuinely worried.
Whack!
"That's for every time you walked past me in the hallway and didn't even say hello!" Mia yelled.
I felt Keifer vibrate beside me. I looked over and saw him biting his lip, his shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress a massive laugh. Seeing Jare—the man who once threatened to bury Keifer in the backyard—getting disciplined with a stick by Mia was clearly the highlight of his year
"Is she... is she beating him with a branch?" Keifer whispered, his eyes watering from the effort of staying quiet.
"I think she's winning," I whispered back, equally shocked.
But then, the atmosphere shifted. Jare caught the stick, and in one fluid motion, he disarmed her and pulled her into his chest. The shouting stopped. The violence vanished. The way he held her... it wasn't the ex's hug. It was the way Keifer held me.
I watched as Jare threw the stick into the pond and buried his face in her neck. Then he kissed her—not a polite kiss, but a deep, desperate one that made me feel like I was reading someone's private diary.
He pinned her against the tree, and for a second, I forgot to breathe.
"Damm," Keifer whispered, using Edrix's favorite word. "I knew they had history, but I didn't know Jare had that much fire in him."
I felt a rush of heat to my face. I should probably turn away, but I was so happy for them. Jare had been so lonely, so burdened by his secrets, and Mia had been heart-broken for so long. Seeing them finally break the ice was beautiful.
"We should go," I whispered, tugging on Keifer's shirt. "Before Jare realizes we're watching and actually does bury you."
"Good idea," Keifer smirked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder as we began to backtrack quietly toward the house. "But I'm never letting him live this down. The next time he gives me the 'Big Brother' talk, I'm just going to ask him if he's found any good sticks lately."
"Don't you dare," I giggled, leaning into him. "Let them have their moment. They've waited two years for this."
I figured giving them an hour would be more than enough time for them to wrap up their "reconciliation." I headed back out to the garden, thinking I'd find them sitting by the pond, maybe holding hands and talking about their feelings like normal people.
I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
As I rounded the corner by the trellis, I stopped dead in my tracks. My jaw dropped.
Jare had Mia backed up against that same tree, but things had clearly escalated. His shirt was half-untucked, and the way they were tangled together—it looked like they were trying to merge into one person.
The sounds were even worse than the sight.
I squeezed my eyes shut tight, spinning around so my back was toward them.
"Please, guys!" I shouted, my voice dripping with equal parts secondhand embarrassment and disbelief. "There is literally a house full of rooms right behind us! Go do what you have to do there! I would hate for the garden to have to witness whatever this is anymore!"
The silence that followed was heavy and immediate. I heard a frantic shuffling of clothes and a very feminine squeak from Mia.
"Jay-jay?!" Jare's voice roared
It was pitched higher, sounding completely caught off guard and—if I wasn't mistaken—extremely embarrassed.
"Yeah, it's Jay! Your sister! Who is currently traumatized!" I kept my eyes closed, shielding them like I was staring at the sun.
"We were... we were just talking," Mia stammered, though she sounded breathless and her voice was muffled, probably because she was hiding her face in Jare's chest.
"Talking? Mia, I have ears! 'Talking' doesn't sound like that!" I groaned, waving a hand dismissively behind me. "Just... go! If Percy or Section E come out here, Jare, you'll never hear the end of it. And frankly, neither will I."
I heard Jare let out a long, frustrated growl, but then I felt him walk past me, pulling a very disheveled and red-faced Mia along with him. He didn't say a word, but the sheer heat radiating off him as he stomped toward the back entrance of the house told me everything I needed to know.
Once the sound of their footsteps faded, I finally opened my eyes.
Keifer's voice whispered from the shadows. I jumped, turning to see him leaning against a pillar, grinning like a shark. "I thought my brother-in-law was a saint. Turns out, he's just been repressed."
"You were watching the whole time?!" I hit his arm.
"Not the whole time," Keifer teased, pulling me into a hug. "Just the 'damm' part. Come on, Mutya. Let's go back inside before the garden decides to give us any ideas."
"What ideas?" I asked, tilting my head and looking up at him through my lashes, feeling a little bold now Jare had finally been breached.
"I don't know, wifey," Keifer answered, his voice dropping into that low, silky tone that always made my heart do a backflip. He pulled me closer by the waist, his eyes dark with mischief. "What did you have in mind?"
I grinned, resting my hands on his chest. "How about a little dessert before dinner?"
Keifer's grin turned predatory in the best way possible. "I'm always down for dessert, baby."
He leaned in, his lips hovering just a breath away from mine, and for a second, the whole world narrowed down to the heat between us. But just as his lips touched mine—
"NOPE! COME INSIDE! NOW!"
Jare's roar echoed from the back balcony, sounding suspiciously like he was projecting his own guilt onto us. I jumped back, looking up to see my brother standing there, his shirt finally tucked back in but his hair still a complete mess.
Keifer didn't even flinch. He just looked up at the balcony and bellowed back, "ASSHOLE! YOU HAD TIME WITH YOUR GIRL, LET ME HAVE SOME WITH MINE!"
"KEIFER WATSON, I WILL THROW A STATUE AT YOU!" Jare yelled back.
"DO IT! I'LL JUST HIDE BEHIND JAY! YOU WON'T HIT HER!" Keifer shouted, sticking his tongue out like a five-year-old.
"Section E is waiting! Jay Come in before they eat all the muffins!" Mia's voice joined in, sounding much more cheerful than an hour ago.
I looked at Keifer and burst out laughing. "Well, so much for dessert."
"Don't worry," Keifer said, stealing one last quick, firm kiss before grabbing my hand and leading me toward the house. "We have the rest of our lives for dessert. But for now, we should probably go save the kitchen from those animals."
"And save Jare from his own embarrassment," I added.
"Good luck with that," Keifer chuckled. "He's officially lost his 'Saint Jare' status. I'm going to bring a stick to the wedding instead of a gift."
"You are so dead," I laughed, pushing open the glass doors.
The loud, chaotic music of Section E hit us instantly—the sound of home. Three days to the wedding. Two happy brothers. One insane best friend. And the man who had stayed by my side through it all.
Life was finally, perfectly, loudly normal