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“Wait, what?” Scott looked between the twoof us.
“Charlotte heard them when she went to thebathroom,” Matt explained.
“Now it’s our fun little mystery,” Iadded.
“She’s cheating, though. On her husband,”Scott said.
Matt nodded and passed to him. “We alreadysolved that part of the mystery.”
“Right.” Scott inhaled, his brow crumpled inconcern.
“We’re not going to cause trouble for her.”Though I wasn’t sure why that would even be a concern for Scott.Sure, he’d known the family longer than I had, but I couldn’timagine anyone being super attached to or emotionally invested inCatherine. She was so deeply unpleasant.
“Mind if I step in?” A voice asked frombehind us. Matt’s expression momentarily darkened, but he instantlyrighted it and turned to welcome the newcomer.
“Not at all. Jackson, you know Scott,” Mattsaid.
“Of course.” Jackson shook my brother’shand.
“And this is my girlfriend, Charlotte.”
I offered my hand, and the guy tried to kissit. I quickly redirected it into a shake.
Matt offered him the joint, and I brieflywondered about swapping germs with a guy I didn’t know. Then, Ithought about everything I’d done at Ascend Red and realized howgoofy my concern was.
So, this was Jackson. The guy who’d let hiswife come to the party weekend with their kids and a bunch ofexcuses. He was tall, white, blond, and handsome, but not soimpressive that I would let him get away with treating me likethat.
Then again, I couldn’t imagine a time when Iwould allow anyone to treat me like that. And I was certain Mattnever would.
“I heard you had some difficulty gettinghere,” Matt said.
Jackson took a hit and nodded, respondingtightly, “Traffic was a nightmare.”
“I thought you were helicoptering in,” Scottsaid, narrowing his eyes like a detective doing aninterrogation.
“Fell through,” Jackson answered easily.
“I’m sure.”
Scott’s hostility struck me as odd. Maybethere was some history there that I was unaware of.
Oh, gross. He hadn’tdatedCatherine,had he? And been jilted when she married her husband?
I quashed that notion immediately. Hewouldn’t have had any standing to criticize Matt and I in thatcase, and the sister dating would have certainly come up in ourconversations if Scott and Catherine had been involved.
After another quick hit, Scott said, “Cake’scalling to me. I’ll see you all inside.”
“I hope I didn’t run him off,” Jackson saidunder his breath, watching Scott mount the steps.
“He’s got the munchies,” Matt said. “It’stoo bad about the drive up. What did you bring?”
A toothy smile lit up Jackson’s face. “TheHuracán. Never got a chance to open her up, though.”
“It’s going to be tough getting the kidsback in that,” Matt noted casually.
Jackson’s eyebrows shot up. “The kids arehere?”
I worked very hard to make my face not makethe face it wanted to make. The guy didn’t even know where hisfucking children were?