Almost Easy

Zacks POV

“Dad!” Liddy whined, I could hear the annoyance in her voice and could almost pinpoint the problem before she spoke again, “Ethan won’t stop coming in my room!”

I rolled my eyes and left the office desk I had been glued to all morning working on emails and sending out quote requests for prop material.

“Eth I swear to god, you need to start behaving. We’re going over Uncle Matt’s in a little bit and Desiree will be here to watch you guys. Lid needs to get her homework done.” I walked down the hall towards his room where he was innocently playing legos, “Don’t act like an angel, your horns are showing.”

His hands ruffled his hair up, sticking his tongue out Ethan laughed, “Yeah right Dad. When’s mom coming home?”

“In a few minutes, she went to pick up some drinks to bring with us.” I quickly found a new reference, child friendly, for wine, “But then Desiree is going to be here very soon after that, so you need to smarten up.”

“He’s always perfect when she’s here,” Liddy chimed in from her room down the hallway, she had been moved from her old room to take over the guest room, and Ethan took her room, “He has a crush on Des.”

“Do not!” Ethan whined.

“Do too! Ohh Ethan and Dessi sitting in a tree!”

“Dad!” Ethan looked up at me while I tried to hide a smirk, I used to screw with Liz the same way when the guys came over, “Lideya I’m going to beat you up!”

“Woah woah, no beating up your sister.”

I turned as Jacky walked in, finishing putting her earrings on, already in her dress for the evening, “When did you get home?” I asked as Ethan went back to his legos.

“Two minutes ago, it’s a dress it’s not hard to put on.” She smiled, her warm eyes lighting up slightly, “Is that what you’re wearing?”

“Why did that sound so condescending?” I raised an eyebrow and followed her to our room where she grabbed a pair of heels from her shoe closet, “And why are you getting so dressed up? What don’t I know?”

“A lot apparently. Dress nice, Matt has a surprise for us tonight.” Jacky mulled over some shawls to wear over her bare shoulders.

“Ones I suppose you know?” I asked, she nodded, “Not fair. What’s going on?”

“If I tell you, you won’t go.” She turned and handed me a button down, “Wear this and those jeans are fine. Just trust me. For once hm?”

“Once, pfft.” I scoffed and changed my shirt, “I trust you with my life woman.” I pulled her close by her hips, “My life.”

“We’ll see after tonight.” She pressed her lips gently to mine, interrupted only by the front doorbell ringing.

“Dessi’s here!” Liddy shouted and Jacky hurried out with her shoes to answer the door.

I finished fixing up my shirt and finding some nice shoes, then combed my hair and put on some cologne. I grabbed a blazer and rushed to the kids rooms, giving them quick hugs and kisses goodbye before making my way down stairs where Jacky and Desiree were talking candidly at the door, “Speaking of the devil.” Jacky turned and smirked at me.

“Lovely, well the two hellions are upstairs. Kids doing her homework and Ethan’s playing with legos.” I finished the buttons on my shirt, making sure my undershirt was straight beneath it.

“There’s leftovers in the fridge they’ll eat, you know the drill, Liddy will bring Ethan down when she’s done. Help yourself to food, bedtime is nine. Feel free to fall asleep on the couch we should be home before eleven.” Jacky finished the minimum briefing session.

“I told my parents midnight so that’s perfect.” She smiled, “Hope you guys have a good night Mr and Mrs Baker.”

“Oh we’ll see,” Jacky laughed under her breath, “If we both come home it’ll have been successful, text me if you need anything.”

“Alright. Good night.” Desiree hung out the door as we walked down the driveway to Jackys car, I waited for the lock to latch on the front door and turned to Jacky.

“Why do I have a bad feeling about what you’re dragging me in to tonight?” I asked skeptically and climbed in to the drivers seat, seeing as Jacky had on non driving shoes on.

“It’ll be fine, just keep and open mind ok? He’s been really nervous lately and it took a lot of half ended conversations to get him to tell you guys this.” She sighed as we began driving down the road, “He told Johnny yesterday and tonight is you and Jimmy.”

“When’s he doing this to Brian?” I asked, the silence from my wife’s mouth was as good as an answer, “Because Brian couldn’t care less?” I hesitated to answer for her but she nodded, “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“I think it is, Z.” Jacky pulled the mirror down to fix her hair as we pulled in to Matt’s drive way, “You two have been like brothers since you were young, you caring about his well-being and happiness shouldn’t be contingent upon their marriage.”

“He threw out our friendship when he fucked Val during their marriage.” I hissed and shut the engine off, “He threw out the depth of our brotherhood then, and he’s lucky it’s repaired itself to what it is now. It’s fine now, we care enough to make sure he isn’t dead in his bathtub every morning, or passed out in his own whisky saturated vomit, and we still let the kids see him, and call him uncle Matt. I’m not letting him bring someone else around Liddy. You know our child-“

“I know our daughter better than you do and that’s why I always said being secretive about Liz leaving was wrong. She’s been much more receptive since that blowout with Matt. He’s as much her uncle now as he was then. He isn’t just in your life Zachary. He’s in all of ours and Liddy remembers that, and I think we should be supporting him just as much as you would be supporting Liz if she were still here.”

“You say that like she’s dead.” I threw the keys in to my pocket, rumbling around the center console for a pack of cigarette I knew were in here for emergency stressful situations, Lord knew we had our share.

“It’s been five years, isn’t that your mantra on that matter? Five years Zack, five years can change a person. Look what happened in Colorado, huh? If she had stuck to her guns she would have married Sam, we wouldn’t have even known about it, and he would have beat the shit out of her.”

“Don’t start. We don’t need an argument over this again.” I ran my hands down my head to the back of my neck, “Let’s go in.”

“Smoke that cigarette outside my car and then we will.” Jacky narrowed her eyes at the stick in my hands as we exited the car, I lit it quickly and took a few drags before discarding it and approaching the front door to Matt’s house, Jimmy was already here. You could hear him talking from outside, “That’s either a good sign or a terrible one.” Jacky whispered as I knocked on the door, waiting as Matt’s footsteps approached

“Hey guys,” He smiled and moved aside for us to come in, “Thanks for coming.”

“Started early huh?” I asked, smelling the alcohol on his breathe and clothes, “So what’s up?”

“Well Jim and Lee know already.. but I’d like to introduce you guys to my girlfriend.”

My jaw hit the floor as Jacky reached for my arm, her acrylic nails digging in my skin, “Hey guys..”

“Matt?” I asked, blinking a few times as Jimmy cleared his throat, “Marie?”

“Hey guys.” She waved back weakly.