Puppy!!
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"So, Luke brought Nutterbutter with him." Jenna casually slipped in, handing Zac a bowl of soup and setting down a plate with a sandwich on it.
"Nutterbutter?" Junia perked up at the mention of the dog's name. "Can I see him?"
Jenna chuckled, handing the little girl a napkin to wipe her chin. "Sure, we'll go visit him at some point."
"I know what the next question is going to be and my answer is no." Zac replied taking a bite of his sandwich. Jenna pouted, so much for this going her way. "No, Jenna."
"I know it is a lot to ask, but Luke can't keep him and I don't want to send him to the pound. He's my buddy, c'mon Zac. Have a heart." Jenna pleaded batting her eyelashes at her cousin's husband.
"We don't have time for a dog." Zac firmly answered.
"A dog!" Junia exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her chair. "Please daddy, can we please have a dog?"
"See what you've started." Zac motioned to his daughter. "I'm gone all the time and Brielle doesn't need that added to her list of things."
"I know." Jenna replied confidently. "Which is why Nutterbutter, my dog, is my responsibility. You and Brielle won't have to do a thing. He is mine, I am responsible."
Zac really didn't see the need to have a dog, but it was Jenna's dog and to be fair she had owned him since he was eight weeks old. This was the longest they had ever been apart.
"If, I'm not saying yes, but if he comes here then you are fully responsible." Zac spoke. Jenna nodded. "You clean up after him, you feed him, you walk him." he listed off the rules. "And if he ever gets into the music room again, you and the dog are gone."
"I promise that will never happen again." Jenna nodded.
The last time the shaggy tan coloured dog had came to visit, he had somehow managed to slip his way into the music room alone. When Zac had found him, Nutterbutter was happily munching away at a pair of drum sticks and had already more or less destroyed a custom acoustic guitar. Luke had promptly paid to have the guitar replaced and Jenna gave Zac a new set of sticks for his birthday, but the principal was the dog was a menace at least Zac thought he was.
"Daddy, can we please have Aunt Jenna's doggie? Please." Junia whined and whimpered, holding her hands together and begging. "Please daddy, please."
"Please, Zac." Jenna begged in the same manner as the little girl sitting next to her. "Please, Zac, please."
Watching Jenna and Junia put on their show, Zac shook his head, this was insanity at its finest. This was his family. Shaking his head, he pushed his hair out of his eyes and held up his hands in defeat. If he had to listen to them for another second he was going to lose his mind, knowing that neither of them would give up until he have the answer they wanted, Zac sighed and laughed.
"Fine!" he shouted over their voices. "Call Luke and tell him we'll take Nutterbutter."
"YAY!" Junia cheered throwing her arms up in the air. Giving Jenna a high-five, the little girl squealed in delight, before bounding off to tell her step-mother the news.
Settling into her seat, Jenna smiled at Zac. "Thank you."
"Smooth, I especially love how you enlisted my daughter to help you." Zac commented with a smirk. "I'm serious about what I said though."
"And I am serious about keeping to your rules." Jenna agreed with a firm nod. "You know, Zaccy, I think a dog is just what you lot need."
It was Zac who insisted that he clean up the mess from lunch, telling Jenna to go call Luke and tell him she was coming to get her dog. Not bothering to question him, Jenna left Zac to fill the dishwasher and clean up around the kitchen. He was wiping down the counter, saying something about having to go to the studio to meet Taylor and Isaac, when Jenna passed back through after her phone call. Telling her that Brielle already knew about the meeting, Zac asked Jenna to tell his wife he'd be back sometime in the evening.
Taking the message she had been given, Jenna marched forward and into the living room where Brielle had last been spotted in her favourite arm chair with a book in her hand. She had been a little distant the last few days, not wanting to upset or push her Jenna had left her alone the best she could. Entertaining the children had become a full time job, although Brielle wasn't as reluctant to interact with them as she was to interact with their father. Not gossiping about Zac and Brielle had left Jenna to wonder if they hadn't had another fight. Wondering is where she left it, pressing on would only cause her to get into an argument,
"What ya reading?" Jenna asked glancing at the front of the book.
"Rereading The Hunger Games." Brielle answered closing her book and sitting it down. "Is it odd that I picture Luke to be Gale?"
Jenna snorted and laughed. "No way, Luke would make a way better Peeta." she argued.
"Suit yourself, but you're probably right." Brielle agreed. "So, I heard you get to have your dog back."
"Yes." Jenna nodded excitedly. "The kids and I are going to pick him up right now, did you want to come along?"
"You know what, I think I'll just stay home." Brielle returned with a small smile. Before Jenna could go on about how Brielle hardly ever left the house, Brielle continued. "I have some things to do and the car will be too crowded with all of us, plus a dog."
"Which reminds me, to save moving car seats can I take the van?" Jenna asked hopefully. She loved having her car back, but moving car seats around just didn't sound like fun.
Brielle nodded. "You know where the keys are."
Promising Brielle that she'd leave the keys to her car, in case the other woman needed it, Jenna left her older cousin in the living room with her book. Picking her book up again, Brielle turned to the page where she had left off. Before departing to go get Nutterbutter, Jenna and the kids stopped in the living room long enough to bid their farewells to Brielle.
Climbing into his step-mother's lap, Abe smiled happily hugging her neck. "We're getting a puppy!"
Laughing at his enthusiasm of getting the dog, Brielle kissed the top of his head and told him to behave for Jenna. There was no such luck that her step-children wouldn't behave for Jenna, they did everything the fun loving blond asked them to. It was a natural gift she seemed to possess, or so Jenna told people. Once they were on their way, it left Brielle alone once again. She had become accustomed to being alone, with Zac on tour most of the time and the kids with their mother during those times; she had sort of grown into a habit of having things quiet and to herself. It didn't mean that Brielle didn't love having her family home, because she did, it only meant that she was more used to being in solitude than people would realize.
Jenna constantly worried about how Brielle enjoyed her time alone, which was silly. As long as Jenna would want to worry, Brielle would allow her. Worrying about others had always been somewhat of a super power for Jenna, yet she never worried about herself. Worrying in general was Brielle's greatest downfall. Continuing her book, she got lost in the pages, lost in each story of every character, books were great for getting lost. Maybe it was why Brielle read so much?
When she'd had enough of the characters in her book, she put it aside wandering into the kitchen to see what was left over from lunch. Finding that Zac had neatly stored the rest of Jenna's homemade soup into the fridge, Brielle pulled it out carefully making herself a bowl. Heating the soup in the microwave, she tapped her fingers on the counter top to the steady rhythm of the appliance, a habit she had mimicked from her husband. Being a drummer, Zac was forever finding the beat and rhythm in every day life. When you were with a person long enough, sometimes their habits became your own.
Tapping aimlessly on the counter top, Brielle stopped and smiled when Isaac appeared around the corner. It used to freak her out that Zac and his family could slip in and out of a room without being noticed, now she was used to it. It was an unwritten rule in the Hanson family, if the door was unlocked, come on in. Brielle felt it was a tad odd at first, but she had warmed up to it quickly, it was nice knowing that your family always had a door open for you.
"Good afternoon, Ike, what do I owe the pleasure?" Brielle asked pulling her soup from the microwave.
"Good afternoon." Isaac chirped, giving Brielle a kiss on the cheek. "Is your husband around?"
"No, I thought he was meeting you and Taylor at the studio." Brielle answered her brow furrowing.
"Nope, we were supposed to meet here. Maybe I misunderstood." Isaac replied thoughtfully. "You home alone?"
He had noticed the house was rather quiet for the middle of the afternoon. This house was never quiet.
"Clearly Zac is out and Jenna took the kids to pick up Nutterbutter." Brielle answered with a soft smile.
"I heard you are getting a new pet." Isaac chuckled. "Nikki said that Luke brought him along that was nice of him."
Everybody who knew Jenna knew exactly how much she loved that dog, Nutterbutter was her right hand man. She never went anywhere without him, knowing that she had come to Oklahoma without him in the first place had been somewhat hard to grasp.
"Jenna is the one with the pet." Brielle corrected. "I'm still not sure how, but she and Junia managed to convince Zac that we needed to have the dog here."
"I'm sure the two of them have their ways." Isaac smiled, gently shaking his head. Jenna had a way of getting people to bend to her will, and Junia had a way of getting her father to do whatever it was she wanted. "I imagine the kids are excited."
"Oh yes, Jenna too." Brielle smiled.
"What about you?" Isaac asked leaning against the counter top. "Aren't you excited for the new pet?"
"Honestly, Ike, I don't know what I am anymore." Brielle solemnly replied. "Sometimes I think I am doing the right thing, only to do it and have it come back and bite me."
"Everybody does that once and a while, Brielle."
"But does everybody take it on a whim to go visit their spouse's ex and question them?" Brielle asked, shaking her head. "No, I don't think so." she answered her own question.
"Taylor said you went to see Kate." Isaac confessed.
He knew Brielle didn't want to family taking about her, but when Taylor had come to him and told him about the meeting with their sister-in-law, Isaac couldn't help but want to know more. Taylor had given him a short detail version, only saying Brielle had asked a few questions and then let Taylor go on his way.
"Of course he did." Brielle huffed. Instead of going into a rant about how Taylor needed to keep his mouth shut, she looked at Isaac with a scared glance. "I didn't know what else to do and now I'm terrified she's going to use it against Zac. I only wanted some answers."
"Sometimes people make a mistake, they do things they don't mean."
"I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know who to believe and who not to." Brielle sighed. "I want to believe that this is all going to settle and we'll be fine. I really do."
Isaac only nodded. Not speaking was probably his best interest right now. He didn't want to give her a false hope, nor did he want to crush her by saying one way or another. He didn't know Kate's reasons and it wasn't his place to speak on them.
"I feel like I've gotten into this huge terrible mess." Brielle admitted.
"You did nothing wrong, you only went forth to find out what you deserve to know." Isaac reassured her.
"Things are so fucked up." Brielle spat. "We had this amazing thing going and now everything has fallen apart. I can't go a day without feeling like something is missing. I know something is missing, it kills me knowing I can't do a damn thing about it."
"I think we all feel that way from time to time, I know I do." Isaac replied softly rubbing her arm.
Brielle scoffed. "Forgive me if I don't exactly believe that. You have it good, too good. Do you know what I'd give for Zac and I to have it as good as you and Nikki?"
"It doesn't mean that I don't feel like something is missing." Isaac answered. "I love my wife and I love my boys, but sometimes even the happiest of people can feel like something is lost in their life."
"Why are you so smart?"
"It's a gift. I'm not Old Man Hanson for nothing." Isaac teased.
"Do you think you'd ever want to try and find what ever it is you feel is missing?" Brielle asked, cocking her head to the side and pushing her hair out of the way.
"I think I've found out what it is, I just have to figure out how to get it." Isaac replied.
"Whatever it is, I hope you figure out a way to get it."
Isaac smiled. "I do too." he spoke, hugging Brielle. "And in time, I'm sure you'll be able to figure out a way to patch all of this back together. Remember, you don't have to do it alone."