Page 73 of The Last Good Man

He pulls cash from inside his jacket and leaves it on the table under his plate.

It’s more than I paid for my dinner, but he doesn’t care to ask Olivia for the check.

“So, what do you plan to do?” I ask, my eyes glued to his face.

I barely finish my question when a gust of wind hits the window with unexpected force. A jagged lightning flashes up in the sky, and a thunderbolt booms nearby before rain falls with a vengeance.

“Where does that come from?” Olivia murmurs, rushing to secure the windows. “Herbert, can you please check the door? And Ian, make sure the horses are okay?”

“Everything is fine,” her son says while her husband paces to the hallway.

A few guests linger in the lounging room when Olivia turns to us.

“You’re not going anywhere in this weather,” she says to Jax before moving her eyes to me and waiting for my reaction.

Jax watches me through his lashes, a smile clinging to his lips.

He knows how much I hate to be the bad guy.

I’m not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination, andnormally, I would invite him to stay.

With him, though, I don’t trust myself.

He reads my eyes a little longer before moving his gaze to Olivia.

“I’ll go. No problem. I’m used to driving in this kind of weather.”

Olivia shoots a concerned look at me.

She doesn’t understand why I resist the idea of him staying the night and hopes to hear something different from me.

“You could at least wait for it to pass.Noneed to drive in these horrible conditions,unless something urgent asks for your presence in New York.”

We both look at him.

“There isn’t anything that urgent to keep me away from Miss Hill.”

My heart stops.

Of all thepeople,he picked to do this in Olivia’s presence? A woman who’s been nothing but gracious to me?

They both stare at me.

A few seconds pass while I try not to let out how troubled I am by the idea of being with this man alone, hundreds of miles away from home, in a honeymoon suite, of all places, and on a stormy night.

I couldn’t have planned this even if I tried.

“I have nothing against it,” I say, sounding hypocritical as if everything is about me.

Olivia’s face lights up, while Jax’s expression stays blank.

He got what he wanted.

14

MELODY

A grinding sound follows us upstairs as the inn gets pummeled by howling wind and heavy rain.

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