“She’s on her way home now,” Evie said.
“And I’m trying to tell our brother here that she is beyond grown, but he doesn’t want to listen,” Zach said.
“What is there for me to listen to?” Jesse asked. “She lied about where she was going and spent the night out with God knows who. That doesn’t bother you?”
“I mean, it does, but I think it bothers us for different reasons,” Lilah shot back.
Zach turned to Evie, squeezing her hand. “Babe.”
“Yeah.” She squeezed his hand back before she left the room.
“Li, can you give us a sec?” Zach said.
Their baby cousin looked back and forth between the three of them, her tongue rolling over her teeth. She hated when people treated her like a child, but that wasn’t what was happening here.
“Not trying to pull the grown-folks card on you,” Zach said. “Just wanna talk brother to brother. To brother.”
“Fine. But Jesse,” she said in her soft voice. She hopped off the stool and fixed him with a hard stare. He actually stopped pacing to look at her, even though he was still huffing and puffing. “You really need to back off. If anyone knows how awful it is to have the menfolk in this family butt into your love life, it’s me.”
“This isn’t about her damn love life!” he yelled. Sam couldn’t stand when he got like this. He had Senior’s hard, authoritative edge, but where their father knew the limits of his temper, Jesse had a point where he couldn’t control it. None of the men in their family shouted the way Jesse did. Sam knew where his anger came from, but a lot of time he wished that wasn’t the case. Lilah wasn’t fazed though. She’d been sick to shit of Pleasant men since she was born. If she could handle her dad and her seven brothers, she could handle all six feet and seven inches of Jesse.
“Whatever. Get all loud all you want. You know Miss Leona. She doesn’t care if you live next door. She will kick you right off the lane if you push her too far. Especially if you come at her disrespecting her like this. She is yourgrandmother. She is the matriarch of this family. You need to act like it.” Lilah was speaking the whole truth, but Jesse had already tuned her out. Sam could see the vein on the side of his face threatening to burst. Lilah sucked her teeth as she followed after Evie. When they heard a door close down the hall, Zach looked over at Sam. They were going to have this talk with him now.
“Alright. What’s going on with you, man?” Sam said.
“Sam, you need to back off,” Jesse snarled.
“What the fuck are you talking about? You’re the one who’s about to Hulk out—” Sam shot back, but Zach cut him off.
“Jesse, you need to relax and talk to us.”
No one wanted Zach to bust out the breathing techniques their mom had taught Jesse when he was going through puberty. A growth spurt had tackled his ass at age ten. And by the time he was thirteen he was already. Football and basketball coaches around the state were lined up to get a piece of him, ready to add him to their roster. But Jesse just wanted to bake with Evie and Miss Leona and be left alone.
Kids at school teased him mercilessly for his large, awkward body, and the adults were much worse. People who didn’t know him didn’t know he was a kid and that made things even harder. Adults who did know him wanted to take advantage of him or make him show off his strength and athletic skill like he was some circus animal. He grew a tough shell quickly, but that didn’t stop the pain and confusion from simmering below the surface. There was almost a full year when he barely spoke, only responding to his family when addressed directly.
Something happened when he went away to college and by the time he finished business school and the rest of his peers had caught up with him in physical maturity, he’d seemed to level out, but if people pushed him, that fucking temper. Sometimes you’d see it coming. He’d warn his brothers when they were getting on his nerves. Sometimes, though, the top would just blow right off.
Sam and Zach let out frustrated breaths, both thinking about how they could get through to him before their grandmother came walking in the door.
“You can be concerned about Miss Leona seeing someone new, but you can’t stop her from doing it. I want to know why it pisses you off so much,” Zach said.
“It’s not—” Jesse finally started to unclench. He let out his own breath and tried again. “I know that she doesn’t want me in her business, but I am just trying to protect her.”
“From what?” Zach asked calmly.
“The guy she’s talking to, Frank Chester?”
“Yeah, the organ guy from church. What about him?”
“He was trying to get at the ranch.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Zach asked.
“Yeah. I’ll fight a Frank Chester,” Sam added, making Zach laugh.
“’Cause I took care of it.”
“Miss Leona said you scared the shit out of him.”