35. Mattias

Connor and Jessie were just... the sun on a rainy day. I'd been trying to pretend there wasn't a typhoon outside for so long that just looking at them brought tears to my eyes. I'd never seen two people so happy to be together.

Connor wouldn't leave Jessie alone for a second, clearly didn't even want to take his hands off them, guiding them by the shoulder and holding their hand and ruffling their hair almost constantly. And Jessie soaked up the attention like a little sponge, almost glowing with joy.

We spent the afternoon making cookies, as promised. I made the dough, obviously, and Connor spent the whole afternoon trying to sneak extra chocolate chips into it. Which... was fine, really. Who ever said "this cookie has too many chocolate chips in it"? And the way he did it, pretending to wait until my back was turned and dropping more and more in, made Jessie giggle madly, which was a fucking joy.

Everything was joy.

It was like the sun had come up, and I hadn't even realized it was night. Jessie was as perfect as Connor, and they were perfect with everything. Kind to Grandma, and gentle with Peanut, and... well, I'd never worried about whether I'd get along with Jessie, but it was even less a concern now than before. Jessie was the easiest person to get along with that I'd ever met.

We were just taking the first of the cookies out of the kitchen's enormous industrial oven, when the front bell rang.

Damn.

I couldn't ignore work forever, I supposed.

And yet... on the counter, my phone buzzed, a message flashing up on the screen.

Everett and Peter coming to fix air conditioning.

Shit. Shit shit shit. So much for the sun on a rainy day. I might have the sun standing in my kitchen staring into the oven like the whole world hinged on when the rest of the cookies would come out and start cooling, but it was still pouring outside.

I rushed out to the counter, offering Peter and Everett a strained smile. "Hey, sorry, forgot you guys were coming this afternoon. Come on back, the AC stuff is behind the house, and in the utility room off the kitchen."

We walked into the kitchen as Connor was pulling the second batch of cookies out of the oven, Jessie standing at his feet staring up at the pans like they held the secrets of the universe. They both glanced over at us, and Jessie smiled. "Hey, Peter. Hi, Mr. Everett."

Connor froze a moment, staring at Peter and Everett, cookie pans still held in his hands.

Peter grinned at Jessie. "Hey, you found your dad, huh? That's great! I knew you could do it."

With that, the tension that had been building in Connor released. Jessie wrapped their arms around one of Connor's legs, grinning their gap-toothed grin and nodding. "Thanks for helping me. I... I didn't think Aurora would help. I?—"

Peter sighed and nodded. "She's afraid of being alone. She'll always be my friend, but she doesn't understand how people work. We need our families, not just playing forever."

"Yeah," Jessie agreed, tone surprised, like the whole concept was a shock to them. "Doesn't Aurora have a daddy? Daddies are the best."

"I don't think she does," Peter said, leaning on the central butcher block counter and talking to Jessie like they were not only an equal, but a contemporary. There was none of the patronizing tone people always used when talking to children. It was just one person talking to another. "It would explain why she doesn't understand that sometimes people have to not be in the woods. We have to... to grow up."

"But not right away, right?" Jessie asked, looking Peter up and down. "I don't think I'm ready to be a grownup yet."

Peter laughed. "No, Jessie. You don't need to grow up right now. You've got your Daddy to take care of you, remember?"

Jessie squeezed Connor's leg again, nodding. "I do." They leaned forward and stage-whispered, "And I think Daddy is dating Mr. Matty now. I saw them kiss."

Peter glanced at me, then Connor, then winked down at Jessie. "Sounds like a good deal to me. Those cookies smell amazing, and Everett tells me Mattias is the best cook in Cider Landing. All the cookies you want, yeah?"

Connor cleared his throat. "Maybe not all the cookies you want," he corrected. "But plenty of cookies."

Jessie rolled their head against Connor's hip, still grinning. They knew damned well they could squeeze all the cookies they wanted out of Connor. And frankly, I thought they found it charming when he got all "stern dad" on them. I did too, so what could I say?

I opened the door to the utility room, motioning to the machinery inside. "I think, um, that one's the AC? Damned if I know."

Peter, his attention taken up by the indication of why they'd come, pushed off the counter and came over to glance inside. "Oh yeah, that's her. She's not quite right, is she?"

She? I'd never heard anyone call an AC female before, but the whole day had been a mindfuck, so what was I gonna say?

Peter wandered in and set his hands on the machine, so I left him to it, heading back out to where Everett was quietly speaking to Connor. "—just came out of the woods in December," he was saying, looking both concerned and apologetic, and wait... was he saying his boyfriend had been one of the kids in the woods? Holy shit. "He doesn't really know how people work yet. We're working on it."

Instead of being annoyed by the idea that Peter or Everett knew where Jessie had been, Connor was nodding seriously. "I don't know how we'd help, but if we can, let us know." He set the cookie pans down on the counter finally, and pulled out a business card for Tadpoles. "Therapy or something. Though I guess he's already seeing Doctor Hawking."

"He is," Everett agreed. "And it's helping. But it's a big change. I keep thinking about trapping all the kids in my house and trying to find where they belong, but honestly, there's no way to know how long they've been out there. If their families are even still alive. I've been looking through the missing children reports, but I've only managed to find one so far, and he went missing eighty years ago. His whole family is gone."

"Will," Jessie said matter-of-factly, like they knew exactly what was going on. "He didn't like his family anyway. Whenever people talk about families, he said families are bad, and Daddies drink a lot and they're mean."

I winced and tried not to think that maybe for some kids, disappearing into the woods wasn't such a terrible option. There had to be a better way than that, didn't there?

"You guys get the cookies onto those racks, I'm gonna take Everett to my office and get him a check, okay?" Maybe I didn't need to break up the whole interaction, but it was all so new, such a fresh pain, I thought maybe Connor needed a moment to process. A moment where Jessie was still whole and present and in his sight.

So I took Everett to my office and slumped into the chair.

He winced. "Sorry. I didn't realize Jessie was part of your family. I'd have said something months ago."

"How could you know? You haven't even been back in town a year, and you weren't here when Jessie went missing. Besides, me and Connor is kind of... new. Not really new, but a little?" I scrubbed my hands down my face, shaking my head. "Sorry, I need to write you a check, don't I?"

"We'll get you a quote first," Everett said, just as a cool blast of air hit us from above. We both blinked up at the vent above us, me in shock as much as anything. The AC hadn't worked that well, ever. It had been hanging on by a thread for what seemed like my whole life, just giving enough cool air to make it acceptable, if not entirely comfortable. "I mean, we don't know how much work it took," Everett amended, biting his lip.

I sighed and shook my head. "It's either you guys or the electric bill this month, and either way I don't know how the hell I'm going to keep the place open. You might as well get the money, since I know you're going to use it to eat and pay your own electric bill."

Everett winced, but before he could say a word, the office door swung open once again, to my mother's smug, smiling face. Next to her stood the man who'd checked in earlier that day.

She'd heard about the money.

Shit.