Page 42 of Savage

“We’ve offered Wynter a lift back. We need to go past your house and we have girlie shit to catch up on.”

“It’s up to you. What do you want to do?” Jaxon questioned me in a soft voice.

I was torn but that odd atmosphere fizzed between us. Would he feel snubbed if I went with Amy?

My mouth opened but no sound came out. At least travelling with Amy and Mason would ensure no awkwardness in the car on the way back.

“If you want to go back with Amy and Mason, it’s fine. I won’t be offended.”

I gazed up, our eyes tangling. It was almost like I was seeing him for the first time. From his expression, I could see he was letting me off the hook, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

I digested the offer and decided it was for the best. Give me time to fight another day and all that.

“Well, if, you’re sure.”

“It’s better for me really as I’m meeting Molly in the city for a drink.”

And BOOM! I felt like he’d slapped me in the face by throwing her name in there. “I can go straight there then,” he added. So, he was meeting that cow for drinks after she’d done at the cinema. Would there be just the two of them? From the way he said it, I thought so.

“Great. Thanks, Jax, you’re a sweetie,” Amy butted in, leaning up to pop a kiss on his firm cheek. He shot her a lopsided smile. She obviously didn’t sense the atmosphere between us.

“Do you have your key?”

From the look on his face, I was surprised he’d even bothered to ask. His expression suggested that he wouldn’t have given a shit if I’d been locked out. I nodded. “Yes, I have it.”

As he turned and walked away, I felt a huge lump in my throat. What the hell was happening?

Whilst I was saying bye to Jenna and the baby, I heard Jaxon say, “Walk me out will you, I want to ask you something.” He spoke these words to Nixon and it stirred my Jaxon curiosity pot further.

In Mason’s car on the way over to my house, Amy and I chatted all the way. Mason hardly got a word in edgeways. We spoke briefly about the fire that had taken Amy’s farmhouse and how the renovations were now finished. Amy was finishing off a photography course and had started to take some freelance work. She explained that she’d just recently come back from Paris having been commissioned to take pictures at fashion week by one of the designers. This immediately pricked my ears up.

I explained that my boyfriend Dominic was also at fashion week as a photographer and asked if she had met him.

When I told her his name was Dominic Sanderson, her face dropped.

“What’s wrong?” I questioned from the backseat and she turned to look at me. I could feel Mason’s eyes on me through the rearview mirror. What the heck? Why did it feel like she was just about to blast a hole in my day?

“Well, I can’t be sure as it was all rumour, but one of the photographers was asked to leave for getting heavy with one of the models. I did hear the name Dominic mentioned but it could have been anyone. There were about twenty photographers there and Dominic is a popular name.”

I swallowed, digesting her words but I realised how stupid I was being by thinking Dominic would be confident enough to go for one of the models.

“Look, please forget I said anything. I talk bollocks eighty percent of the time,” Amy grinned with a half-laugh, it sounded strained and uncomfortable.

“She’s not wrong there,” Mason piped in, shooting her a cheeky grin.

“Oy. Good job you’re driving,” she volleyed back with a sweet, fake annoyed expression. She then changed the subject and Mason joined in.

Mason worked full-time on his family’s farm Lamb Hill with Nixon and the boys and they were in the process of finishing off Jenna and Nixon’s house which was being built beside the main building.

When they dropped me home, I thanked them both and promised Amy for the one-hundredth time that I intended to go to her brother Mattie’s wedding which was being held the following week. I had always thought that would be a tough pill to swallow, bearing in mind Alex and Amy used to date, but she was fine about it now. I suppose time heals all wounds.

When I got in through the door, I immediately went upstairs and took a hot shower. It was early in the evening and I realised I hadn’t had any lunch.

After dressing in fresh clothes and leaving my hair damp, I set off downstairs for the kitchen.

Jaxon was just coming in the front door and our eyes clashed as I stopped before him.

“You’re back?” The tone of my voice was lifted in surprise and his eyes narrowed.

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