✔𝚮𝐞𝐥𝐥𝛐 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 ➳ 𝚩𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝚩𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 4: 𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐠𝛐𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲-𝚸𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝛐𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 to catch Jodie Carter in one of her few calm moments in a day, you might come to the faulty conclusion she was a kind and gentle person. Her face naturally settled in a serene smile with big attentive eyes, lightly sketching in a notebook perhaps. With legs neatly tucked underneath herself and a blanket over her, she might even look modest.

But if you looked for long enough, you would spot the glint in her eye, a cheeky bite into the pencil and a dramatically harsh line being strew over the page. Right now, the sketchbook and pencil were tucked between two couch cushions while she ate.

"Alright, that should do it," Steve said and put the fire poker back in its spot. He had just gotten the fireplace started, and Peggy sent him a thankful smile.

"Well, that means we're off to bed," the oldest Carter smile and some sound of 'okay' left Jo, but it was hard to decipher with her mouth full of food. Peggy grabbed onto Steve's hand and the couple could soon be heard walking up the stairs.

"So, I'm thinking, beers and river tomorrow?" Pietro asked while Tony kept fiddling with the device in his hands. Jo had given up long ago asking what he was doing. She never really got that sort of stuff anyway.

"You going to bed already?" Jo spluttered out between her bites of food. "It's barely midnight."

"We've been driving all day!" Pietro exaggeratedly said, and Tony let out a snort.

"A drive where you were sleeping the whole time." He sat up on the couch, annoyed at the small machine that wasn't doing whatever he wanted it to.

"Still, we gotta see if Mr Smith had his cherry popped!" Pietro laughed, causing a chortle to sound from Jo who choked slightly on her food and wildly coughed.

"Dude, nasty image," Jo breathed after taking a large gulp of her soda. "You're right, though. We should check out if they're ripe."

"I wouldn't mind checking out Mrs Smith," Tony slyly grinned and put his feet up on the coffee table.

"Isn't she like 70 years old?" Jo asked and put her plate on the table. Peggy was a seriously good cook. Maybe her staying here for the summer wasn't the worst of ideas.

"I like 'em ripe," Tony laughed and let his head fall back over the couch.

"This conversation seems like a great point for me to leave," Pietro grinned in a flash he disappeared from the room. There was a silence for a bit, the two 19-year-olds simply listening to the fire. Jo couldn't take that for long, of course.

"What do you think about Barnes?" She asked with a bouncing leg, staring into the fire with furrowed eyebrows. Tony just shrugged.

"I don't really have an opinion on the guy – seems nice enough. Have you told Peggy about what happened between the two of you?" He asked and tried to appear careless, but his eyes were locked to her.

"Doesn't matter. We didn't hate each other for two weeks and that was it...." Jo sighed and took out her sketchbook.

"Didn't you go on a few dates?" He asked, glancing down to the book in her hands and he picked up his own device again.

"No," she puffed and flipped to the first page. Her doodle page. "We were supposed to go on a date, but it never even happened. Doesn't matter-"

"Funny how you keep saying it doesn't matter but you wanted to talk about it," Tony said, sharp as ever. Jo's eyes shot to him, glaring but he simply smiled.

"I wish Wanda was here," she grumbled, and Tony rolled his eyes. When she didn't continue, he stood up from the couch, taking his device with him.

"Well, when you want the skinny you can come to me," he said and shook his head. Tony walked around the table and towards the exit doors leading to the entryway, but he paused with a hand on the doorframe. "There won't be any trouble if you just ignore him."