Page 77 of Stay with Me

Oh my good God. I whipped toward Reece. “He doesn’t mean what you think he means.”

Reece held up his hands as if he was saying don’t bring me into this.

I whipped right back to Jax, who was grinning smugly, but before I could say a word, and I had no idea what to say after all that, he clapped his hand around the back of my neck, his fingers threading through my hair.

“It’sourproblem,” he said, voice low. “Okay? You want to find your mom, I’ll help and I’ll be right beside you, but you aren’t doing this alone.”

I opened my mouth to argue that I didn’t need his help. I’d spent most of my life not needing help, but Reece cut in before I could go further. “You did good, Calla, telling Jax what’s going on. So many people out there think they can handle shit alone, when in reality, a first grader knows they need help. Continue being smart about this. While some of the people around here are mainly harmless, this whole situation is treading into dangerous territory. Be smart. Be safe.”

Those words somehow made it through the haze of irritation. Be smart. Be safe. In other words, don’t be dumb. And it was one thing being dumb when it came to Jax, but another when it came to getting myself hurt or worse.

So I nodded.

Jax gently squeezed the back of my neck and then dropped his hand. “That’s a good girl.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’ll get some of the boys looking for Mona, too, and we’ll step up getting in contact with Isaiah. Meanwhile, I’d suggest staying close to Jax or Clyde.” Reece took a breath. “And I want to talk to Mack.”

I stiffened. “You can’t do that.”

“I didn’t say I was going to talk to Mack about you. I don’t like the fact that he’s threatened you, but I’m also going to be smart about it.”

“It can’t bounce back on her,” Jax said.

“It won’t.” Reece smiled tightly. “Trust me, Mack will do something within twenty-four hours that will warrant a visit from me. I can force his attention elsewhere, at least for the time being.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jax stated.

None of this really sounded like a great plan to me, but what did I know? Reece got up to leave, saying he’d be in touch, and Jax walked outside with him. I slumped back against the couch and was in the middle of an obnoxious yawn when Jax returned.

“Is everything okay? I mean, when you went outside with Reece?”

“Yeah. He actually was talking about something unrelated to this. One of our buddies is getting married. I’m one of the groomsmen.”

“Aw, that’s nice. Is he one of the guys that come into the bar?”

He nodded. “It’s Dennis. He was making sure I could do the bachelor party since it’ll be on the weekday.” He watched me for a moment. “Tired?”

I really was. The tequila from last night and the events of today had caught up with me. I wanted to close my eyes and forget for a little while. I nodded as I pushed myself onto my feet, figuring it was time for Jax to take me back to the house.

“So am I,” he replied.

Instead of grabbing the keys he’d dropped off on the counter, he toed off his boots. I didn’t understand what he was doing since I didn’t think he’d drive barefoot. “Aren’t you going to take me to the house?”

The socks came off next, and he dropped them near the boots. “I’ve been staying with you. So has Clyde. That’s definitely not changing now.”

I was sort of glad that one of them was staying with me now.

“It’s late. There’s no reason for us to drive back out,” he continued. “You can stay here.”

My heart did a backflip. I’d never stayed over at a guy’s house before. “I don’t think I should stay here.”

“You can have another juice box.”

I glanced at the front door as my insides knotted up and my hands started to get a wee bit clammy. “I don’t want any more apple juice.”

“I have fruit punch, too. Not the generic shit. Capri Sun.”

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