Page 77 of Jax

I started up the engine, casting one last look to beside me, only to see a small trail of drool leaking from the corner of her lip. My hand was brushing across her face, catching the small indelicacy and wiping it on my dirty jeans.

I sighed.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?

* * *

Iawoke to a loud thud coming from the bathroom and could hear the groan withering its way from between my lips. “Ronnie!” I rolled onto my stomach, pressing my head into the cushions.

“Shh!” Ronnie’s hush came from the doorway. “You’ll wake the neighbors!”

She giggled. Fucking giggled.

“We have no fucking neighbors,” I growled, lifting my head from the pillow to fix the girl, unable to hold herself up without propping a hand on the wall. “We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere.”

“Shh!” she chastised anyway.

“Just come back to bed.” I flipped open one side of the sheets in a welcoming gesture, although I was feeling far from it.

Not after the fourth time she escaped out of bed.

Now we were on number ten and I knew even if she got into bed, she would be up and about in all of ten minutes.

“Get your drunk ass in this bed now,” I ordered on a final tether of my sanity. “Or I will come and get it myself.”

“Fine.” Ronnie pouted, trying to prop a hand on her hip before it slipped off and she stumbled.

I sighed in relief and dropped my head back in the pillow, waiting for her arriving warmth.

It didn’t come however.

“…Ronnie?”

“I said fine.” Ronnie’s giggle reappeared. “You said you’ll come get it, right?”

Jesus.

I rolled, flicking my side of the sheets in the process as my feet hit the wooden floor with a thud. The planks gave a screech of protest at my standing weight, but I didn’t have the patience to be gentle with the old house.

I staggered in the early morning dawn, the sunlight beginning to peak over the horizon as it leaked its weak touch through the thin cotton curtains. This would no doubt be my last chance at sleep for today, and I had already become resigned to that fact.

Ronnie stood with her brown hair still in its mess. I could have done something with it, but it was too much of a pain in the ass and it could serve as a nice punishment for the sober Ronnie in the morning to come. She was also currently in a matching black pair of underwear and bra. It cupped her boobs nicely, making her small handfuls globed over the top, as if they might spill out. I had wanted to take a bite out of them when she’d first stripped off during her second escapade. I had also been severely pissed that she had worn something like that under her lack of clothes when she went to the club. I got annoyed over whatever intentions she had. By now, however, I was nothing more than an emotionless, exhausted void. Emotions were not among the basic functions I was capable of performing right now.

Ronnie waited in the doorway, the light from the bathroom highlighting the smudges of makeup darkening her soft, tanned skin. It also gave a striking yellow glow to her deep green eyes, taking away from the unappealing dissolved makeup look.

They pleased my own eyes as I reached up, cupping the side of her small face. My hand covered her jaw, my thumb running along the top of her cheek bone. “Why are you so much trouble?” I huffed.

Weight leaned into my palm as Ronnie nuzzled against my skin. “Haven’t I always been trouble?” She smirked, but her voice was mumbled and sleepy for the first time all night. Her eyes closed against the warmth of my palm, and her dark lashes fluttered. I wondered if she had fallen asleep standing up, until I heard her soft mumbled sigh.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered. “I don’t want to let you go again.”

That same feeling hit me in the chest, but I expected it this time and clung to it. Clung to the raw emotion because the emptiness after felt lonely and I couldn’t bear it. I was also too tired to fight it and let in the pain and heartache. It must have shown on my expression as Ronnie’s eyes fluttered open and gazed up at my face.

Her own hand reached up and touched my face. “You know, when you left, I was scared.”

“Scared?” I breathed. “Of what?”

Was it something to with the farm? With Jacob? Something still didn’t sit right with Ronnie’s story about the accident, and although I had made a few calls here and there, I had been trying to push it to the back of my mind. That way I wouldn’t worry. I wouldn’t become invested. I could let her go without care.

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