Re: Caden and Jasper
Jasper couldn’t help but chuckle. He didn’t have anything invested in his uncle’s love life, so maybe his perspective was dumb or something, but he didn’t really get why anyone was mad about it. Maybe it sucked for Roxy, sure, but she had done the dumping in the first place, so whatever. “Yeah, Jules would love that,” he muttered with a soft snicker. “Really though, uh, congratulations, I guess? I’m glad she’s at least like ... as hot as you thought when you were fucked up, and that she didn’t knock you out and steal your kidneys or something.” Was that even a real thing that happened? Jasper wasn’t sure, but the idea had to come from more than just books and movies, right? “Hope it works out for the best.”
In Caden's mind, his love life was his own business. He knew Aaron and Gavin were concerned about the bar but Caden had already gotten the ball rolling on paperwork to ensure Shan had no right to that particular asset of his. Everything else, he just didn't care enough about to protect. He took a drink of beer while shrugging. "Exes don't have any right to get upset," he said simply, glancing at Shan again. "But yeah, I mean, she may still try to get to my kidney. She's probably crazy as fuck. But I like it, so if my organs go for a pretty penny on the black market, more power to her. I figure I'll be catching shit for this for awhile."
Jasper felt like he could argue with the first part, but he knew where Caden was coming from, so that was probably pointless. He and Jules had broken up much differently than Caden and Roxy. He chuckled faintly and gave an exaggerated shrug. “Who cares, right? None of them have room to throw shit anyway -- my mom was bugfuck crazy, Mila fucking stabbed Aaron ...” Jasper made a vague gesture around. “Glass houses, throwing stones, however it goes.” He hoped that this new lady didn’t try to steal any of Caden’s organs, of course, but Jasper was sure his uncle could handle himself. If anything, she probably just wanted money. “And you’re kinda crazy too, so like, if you like it, maybe you two are made for each other,” he offered with a little grin.
Caden cocked a brow, a lopsided grin forming on his lips. "You think I'm crazy? Fuck, that might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me. It's usually much worse." He was right though. Ollie was a nutcase. Mila was... well... Caden gave Aaron shit about the stabbing, but lately he had been thinking about what he and Gavin were responsible for and maybe he was starting to understand his own culpability for what had happened. Aaron was clearly happy and that's what Caden wanted for him, even if he found it hard to show. He took another drink from his beer and eyed Jasper closely again. "Even if you don't have plans to get out of this place for good, you should take a weekend... or a week... go somewhere and take a breath. Have some fun."
At least he didn’t look offended, that was a relief. Jasper tended to think all of them were kind of crazy in their own way, though he had zero desire to seek out family therapy or anything like that. “I said kinda,” he corrected with a chuckle. He was sure people called Caden all kinds of bad shit, and maybe some of it was true, but Jasper knew he wasn’t all bad. He’d always looked up to his uncle, and he felt more tied to him than ever these days for obvious reasons. “You’re prob’ly right though. I’ll try to find some time, I just started work again, y’know? Mr. Fox is pretty cool though, so he’d prob’ly give me a long weekend.” Jasper thought of the trip to Portland with Logan, and what a mixed bag that had been. Maybe he needed to take a small trip by himself sometime, do some uninterrupted thinking. “I would say the same to you, but I guess you just did that.”