𝚃𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝: 𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙳𝚊𝚠𝚗 - 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝙸𝙸 (𝙳𝙺 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚏 𝚡 𝙽𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚒}

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 11

~

𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙳 𝚃𝚁𝚄𝚃𝙷𝚂

{𝙳𝙴𝙰𝙺𝚈𝙻𝙸𝙽}

The four of us – me, Mani, Jorja, and Dinah – took Jaden over to my parents' place for the day.

It had been a while since they saw him. And with Christmas around the corner, I wanted everybody to be together for the annual Chestnut pre-holiday shenanigans.

"I'm surprised we were able to get out of Jedi training," Dinah chuckled, her and Jorja in the back seat on both sides of Jaden.

"It's been about a couple months since Jaden saw his other grandparents," Mani smiled. "With everything goin' on right now, it'd be better if we went to them instead of them coming to us."

"Is that what you told her?" I heard Jorja ask me as our connection opened.

I glanced her way through the rearview mirror before lookin' back out on the road. Her and I were still best friends, so of course she knew when somethin' was up.

"You don't have to fill me in," she said. "Do what you gotta do."

"I'm just glad to get away from all the glowin' eyes," she said aloud.

"Baby," Dinah giggled, Jaden laughing his heart out.

"Honey," Jorja chuckled, "I know they're the good guys. But even you gotta admit, Dracula One and Two are creepy."

Mani and I even had to chuckle at the comment. It was refreshing to get away from everyone for a day and be around human normalcy. It's exactly what we needed.

We pulled up to my parents' house, Jorja gettin' out in time for Jaden to spring out the truck and race his way to the front door. My parents came out the house just in time for Pop to catch him in his arms.

"There he is!" he exclaimed. "Look at you! You grew half a foot!"

He looked him over as his eyebrows furrowed.

"No, for real...like six inches."

I chuckled as I watched Ma kiss Jaden all over his face. They greeted the rest of us as we approached them.

"Hey, babies," Ma smiled, kissin' all of us on the cheek. "Ya'll come on inside! Lunch is on the table."

"That," Pop said, "and we got a tree to decorate, huh?"

"Ya'll go 'head," I said. "I got a few errands to run. I'll be back soon, though."

"You want me to go with you?" Mani asked, walkin' up to me as I held her by the waist.

"Nah, I'm good, baby. Besides...one of us needs to stay and make sure Jaden's straight with the tree. You know he's a little accident prone..."

"Ooo..." she said in realization, "...and your dad just bought that new TV, too."

We both chuckled before she gave me a farewell kiss.

"Text us if you need anything," Dinah waved.

"I got you, sis," I replied.

Jorja gave me a knowing look as I wrapped a loose arm around her neck, her leaning into me as I kissed the crown of her head.

"Be safe..." she said.

"Always," I replied, watchin' her enter the house with everyone else.

I got back in my truck and made my way to Seattle. Vic's note gave me a new sense of hope. Maybe she did have a plan for us. And maybe this J. Jenks was the key. I arrived at the restaurant just as it began to rain. I walked up to the hostess once I got in.