Page 81 of The Fallen Man

“That was awesome,” he declared and then got a full look at the expressions on the faces of his relatives. They clearly did not share his enthusiasm.

“That was a bunch of fucking bullshit,” said Evan.

“What he said,” agreed Dominique.

“Well, completely. I would even go so far as to rate it up there with a pile of rhino dung in order of magnitude, but I looked good, so… you know.”

Jackson was the only one who laughed.

“I did like the part where you corrected Senator Griffeth on the actual rules of procedure,” said Evan.

“Studying does pay off,” said Aiden, feeling smug.

“I liked it when he emailed all of them the correct documents while she was still trying to sputter out a complete sentence,” said Dominique.

“Well, that was Jackson having prepared me with the email list ahead of time,” said Aiden. “I can’t take full credit for that.”

Aiden’s phone dinged, and he pulled it out. He’d texted Ella, and the others live time updates during the proceedings. Looking like he was goofing around on his phone had annoyed multiple senators, which had been the point.

Are you done now?

Ella had switched to a private thread.

Just got out. I kicked ass. Even Evan said so.

You are so hot. I will be sending you nudes later. Way to rock that. XoX

Aiden couldn’t stop the grin that was spreading across his face.

“Ella says hi.”

“Uh-huh,” said Dominique. She looked like she would have other things to say, but her own phone made an alert noise, and her face softened when she checked the messages. Evan was checking his texts at the same time. Aiden glanced at Jackson, who wore a wistful expression as he watched Evan and Dominique get messages.

Their morning’s covert inspection of Jackson’s phone while he’d been in the bathroom had been a dead end. Aside from Pete, his most frequent non-family member was someone labeled KatieSC. KatieSC was a very dull text partner. She invited him over and said when she was busy, but her texts were neither sexy or even particularly friendly. If that was who Jackson was in love with, Aiden wasn’t sure it was mutual. Which was annoying because Jackson was a goddamn wonderful human being who deserved someone awesome.

“Olivia baked her way through the morning,” said Evan. “She appreciated Aiden’s group text updates and audio clips.”

“So did Max,” reported Dominique. “But he wants to know how to get Olivia to stop baking.”

“Yeah, he can’t,” said Evan. “Just tell him he’ll have to go to the gym extra this week.”

Dominique shrugged and went back to her phone.

“Olivia wants to know if Dominique can teach her how to saywhat an interesting questionlike she does,” said Evan, continuing his scroll.

Jackson laughed again. “I also enjoyed that part.”

“Did I say that?” asked Dominique looking puzzled.

“Yeah, to his face,” said Jackson. “It was brutal.”

“It was kind of Grandma level,” agreed Aiden. “The best part was when you stared at him with your eyebrows raised and just let him twist before responding.”

“I learned that from Evan. It makes people terriblyuncomfortable. And then, when they open their mouth like they’re about to say something else, you talk. It throws them off.”

“Timing is everything,” said Evan with a shrug. “But asking you about a brutal physical assault with the implication that you had in some way caused it was beyond sexist. He earned every second of that discomfort. Not that he learned anything from it.”

“It’s generally very unlikely,” said Dominique. “Can we get lunch? I’m starved. Turns out sugar cereal is not a real breakfast. How did we ever eat that crap?”