Chapter 207
“I don’t know yet,” Juniper murmurs, her eyes going distant as she stares off into space. “But…something big. I want to do all of it. I want…I want to do everything, feel everything. See…the whole world.”
Cora lets her hand drift away from Juniper and both she and my mom look at my little sister with a great deal of soft love in their eyes. But they let Junie have her space, turning away with each other to open another bottle of wine.
When they’re gone, I step closer to Junie, slipping an arm around her waist and pouring more of my wine in her cup. “Don’t write off mates so fast, June,” I murmur. She turns to me with a frown, combative. But as usual, it just makes me grin. “You know, the goddess wouldn’t give you a mate that wasn’t suited to your hopes and your dreams, your fate. If you want a big life, your mate will too.”
Junie just leans her weight on me and sighs, shaking her head as she takes a sip of the wine and turning back to the boys. “These Alphas,” she murmurs. “They just seem to…steamroll their mates into whatever life it is they want. Like, mom was never going to be a Queen until she met dad. And Cora’s not a doctor anymore – not really. She’s just a mom.”
“Cora and mom do a lot of work healing people in the community, and they’re both very happy with the work they do,” I murmur, needing to point that out and trying to strike a balance between the truth and letting my sister make her point. “But…I mean, Jackson doesn’t steamroll me. Not yet.”
“He’s known he’s your mate for like, a week,” Juniper points out, dry, glancing at me. “Give him a minute.”
I burst out laughing, tightening my arm around her. “Well, if he does, then I’ll have my little Junepiper come and beat him up.”
Juniper smirks at the old nickname – what Mark used to call her when he stumbled over his words a lot as a kid. But she still sighs, and shakes her head, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. “And what about the other one?” she asks.
“Luca?” I ask, a little surprised.
Juniper nods, looking at me fully now.
I sigh, and shrug. “I’m figuring it out, Junie,” I say softly. “Day by day. But, I will say that I wouldn’t give either of them up if it meant the opportunity of a different life. Besides…” I frown at my sister for a second, looking her up and down. “Do you even…have a mate?”
She sighs like it is a deep and real tragedy, tilting her head back to look at the darkening sky. “Yeah. I made Cora tell me like, a year ago. I have one – she saw it in my baptism prophecy.”
“Oh, really?” I ask, bursting into a smile, so incredibly excited for my little sister but also trying to hold my enthusiasm back if it’s something she’s worried about. “Are you sure?”
Junie frowns at me. “Yes, I’m sure,” she replies. “Cora told me, she wouldn’t lie.”
“Yeah,” I say, a little wicked now as I wrinkle my nose at her. “She told you that you have a mate but…did she tell you if it was just one?”
Juniper’s face suddenly drops in horror and she looks, frantic, between me and our aunt. “CORA!” She shouts, her voice lit with panic as she scurries over to where Cora is standing with my mom, both of them looking shocked at Juniper’s outburst. “I need some clarifications! NOW!”
The football game ends right about the time, about half an hour later, Cora finishes assuring Juniper for the eighteenth time that she only has one mate. Or, at least, as far as Cora could see. Juniper groaned and dashed off to Roger, the only other person to see her prophecy, intent on a second opinion the moment the game broke up.
“We won,” Jackson says, coming over and slinging an arm around my shoulders, looking quite smug about it.
“Of course you did,” I say with pride and utter assurance as I run a hand over his sweaty hair and hand him my glass of wine so he can take a sip. “How could they lose with you on the team?”
“It’s unfair,” Rafe complains, stalking over to us with a frown, Jesse scowling at his side. “We didn’t pick Jackson because he didn’t know how to play – we didn’t think he would be good –“
“Never bet against me, Sinclair,” Jackson says with a sigh, flashing my brother a beautiful grin.
“Yeah well, next year,” Rafe grumbles, narrowing his eyes. I laugh, pleased to see my brother have to deal with losing – it’s not something that happens often to him. “You’re on my team. Jesse, you’re out.”
Jesse squawks with injured pride, taking a step back and pressing a hand to his chest. “This is war, cousin,” he says, quite seriously, before flashing his eyes to Jackson. “Jacks you’re on my team next year – we’re best friends, after all –“
A great deal of laughter goes around, the debate continuing as we all troop back downstairs and cobble together what we can for dinner. This is always my favorite part of Midwinter, if I’m being honest – the fact that every year mom freaks out about not having enough food prepared even though, of course, the chefs leave us more than enough and we’ve never gone hungry.
And so she has the boys continually going down to the kitchen for tray after tray of food, and cheese, and cookies, and cakes, and ice cream – so much that by the end of the evening we’re all completely stuffed with little tiny portions of snacks and food, and there’s a huge stack of plates in the corner, and everyone’s lazy and full and ready to digest.
But of course, Roger lets no one rest. Instead, he and Jesse rouse everyone to laughter as the hours pass, organizing games and pouring drinks and keeping the mood light and fun. By the end, we’re all a little drunk – or more than a little – and that’s when the music comes out. Mom moans and begs Juniper to play the piano, and Juniper pretends to resist until mom’s practically on her knees, and then Junie sighs, and stands, and flumps down on the seat of the piano hidden away in the corner and begins to play an incredibly complex concerto.
Jackson’s eyes go wide with shock the moment he hears her start to play. He watches Juniper’s hands fly over the keys and I grin, turning my face to watch him instead of Juniper.
“How does she…do that…” he whispers, fascinated, his words a little slurred. Jesse and Roger have been targeting Jackson in particular tonight with their refills, determined to get him to come out of his shell a bit.
“Junie’s been a concert-level pianist since she was a kid,” I whisper to him, letting my full pride in my sister’s ability be heard in my voice. “But don’t tell anyone – she’d rather die than let anyone outside this room know. She thinks that talent isn’t very cool.”
Jackson just glances at me, agape, before turning his eyes back to June.
“No, no!” Cora says, giving Juniper an angry little tap on her shoulder. “Don’t play that – you know what we want!”
Juniper stops mid-chord and turns a wicked grin up at our aunt. “You mean, you want…this?” And she bursts immediately into the rock-and-roll riff of an oldies song we all know and love, about a too-talented man playing piano in a bar for a group of people with big dreams. Markie lets out a big whoop and bursts into the chorus. We all join in a second later.
Jackson stares around at everyone in a little bit of shock, but I wind my arm around his waist and pull him close, and he just laughs and gives into it, shaking his head and attempting to join in when he can. With the way his voice croaks as he tries to find the notes, I actually wonder if Jackson’s ever tried singing before.
But no one says anything, or makes note of his slightly off-key mostly wordless contributions to the songs. Because he’s family now, and he’s here, and whatever he adds is the perfect addition to our little chorus.
And even though the future weighs hard on each of us, we take a moment to set our fears and our worries aside. And so we sing, and laugh, and drink – all of us, together, for the rest of the night, appreciating this perfect moment for precisely what it is.
