Page 169 of Stay with Me

“There’s not too many hotels around the hospital,” he replied, still looking at me. “And I have friends who can find shit out for me very quickly.”

“Well, that’s a little creepy,” Cam murmured under his breath as he extended an arm, helping Avery to her feet.

Jax’s shoulders were thrown back, tensed. “I know.”

I blinked. “Maybe we should—”

“I’m sure they already know, too, because you went to them and didn’t come to me, so they’re going to hear this, too.”

Oh double wow.

Cam and Avery stopped where they stood by their suite door, caught sneaking out of the room. A quick glance at Jase and Teresa told me they were wishing they had popcorn to share.

“Jax, we can go outside.”

“I came home and you weren’t there,” he said, and then he went on. “Considering everything that has been going on, that really fucked with me. Yeah, I know we’re all cool, but still a text message or something giving me a heads-up would be appreciated.”

“Now. Wait,” I said. “I did tell you I was with my friends.”

“AfterI came home and I saw those papers on the coffee table,” he corrected, eyes flashing almost black. Damnit he had a point, so I kept my mouth shut, and he continued. “You saw your mom. So right off the bat, I know that’s got to have fucked with your head and I also see that she left you the house. That’s good. I’m happy to see that.”

I glanced around the room, feeling my cheeks heat as my friends watched with avid interest, including Cam and Avery.

“But I know that’s not why you’re sitting in this hotel room instead of in my bed right now.”

Oh. My. God. My face went completely red.

Teresa pressed her lips together as her eyes lit up.

Time to nip that direction of conversation in the bud. He wanted to have this out in front of my friends, we were going to have this out. “You own Mona’s. You’ve owned Mona’s for over a year, and you never thought you should tell me this?”

His chest rose. “I planned on telling you. I was going to—”

“Is that what you were saying while I was in the hospital, about needing to talk to me about something? You’ve had time to tell me. Tons of time before that, like when I first showed up and was rummaging through the office!”

Jase’s head swung back to Jax, as in, the ball was now in his court.

He didn’t respond immediately, which was okay, because now I was gearing up for a whole onslaught of words and questions and maybe a little bit of cursing, but when he spoke, for the second time in one night my entire world was rocked.

“I’ve known you for over a year,” he said, and the tension drained out of his shoulders, as if some kind of weight were lifting off him. “I’m not talking about knowing you through what Clyde or your mom has told me. I knew you. I’dseenyou before you even knew I existed.”

I opened my mouth as confusion poured into me. “What?”

“The first time I saw you was last spring, over a year ago. You were outside of your dorm, walking to class,” he said, and I suddenly felt like I needed to sit down. Everyone in the room had faded to the background. It was just him and me. “I was there with your mom. It wasn’t the last time. Every couple of months, when Mona would be sober for a day or two, she wanted to see you. So I would drive her down to see you, because I know ...I knowwhat it’s like to not get that second chance. You know that. So I’d bring her down. Once you were outside of another building talking to her.” He jerked his chin at Teresa. “You were there with another guy. The three of you until Jase showed up.”

Oh my goodness, my legs felt weak. My thoughts cycled back and there was a good chance he was talking about Brandon.

“The last time was in the spring. You were sitting on a bench by yourself outside what I think was the library. You were reading. And each time I brought your mother down there, she never followed through. She didn’t have the courage to try to make amends for any of the shit she pulled, but she wanted to. It just never panned out, because you always looked so happy.” He exhaled slowly. “You always looked so damn happy. Smiling. Laughing. Your mom didn’t want to mess with that.”

I took a step back, finding it hard to stand still.

“Each trip, she talked about you and it was real, you know? She wasn’t high or messed up. It’s how I knew about everything. It wasn’t Clyde and it wasn’t when she was drunk, even though sometimes she would talk about you then, too, but she really talked about you when she was sober. She found out you were majoring in nursing and she wasn’t surprised by that. She told me once that you’d grown close to the nurses when you were in the hospital.”

I closed my eyes against the unsteady rush. That was true, what Mom had said. I had grown close to the nurses, and now I knew how Mom had known about my major. She’d been to Shepherd, with Jax.

“All those times she came, she came to talk to me?” I asked, and my voice sounded incredibly small.

“Yeah, she did. She recognized her faults and fuckups more than I think anyone gets,” he said, and when I opened my eyes, he was still watching me. “She never wanted the bar life for you. She knew that the likelihood of her being around for a while wasn’t good. When she knew I’d take the bar off her hands, would make it good, she sold it to me. She didn’t want you to even have it as an option.”

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