Page 78 of Jax

“Scared you wouldn’t be happy,” she whispered. Her eyes dropped from my face, her hand slipping from my jaw and down to my neck. Her fingers felt like a soft buzz of electricity as they followed the trails of tattoos starting from my neck and down over my bare chest. Each loop and line carefully carved out in a grand work of art I had been working on for the last seven years.

“I’m glad you’ve found your home. I’m glad you don’t regret leaving,” she admitted, pausing at the empty place over my left pec. It was small, a barely noticeable hole in the canvas of my body, but her fingers paused on it. On the place over my heart where I hadn’t found the right thing to cover over it. “I’m glad you becameJax.” She looked up at me with that last word, that last breath of my name, and her voice sounded so wistful and indescribably full of something that it felt different from every time before. Every time she had struggled to call me Jax instead of Jackson. This time… it felt accepting. As if I finally became whole to her, not the split existence where she saw both past and present in me. She must have thought I didn’t notice. But I had.

“You’re only saying all this because you’re drunk,” I whispered, shaking my head. I wrapped my fingers around her hand and she looked up to me with drooping lids as I tugged her along with me as we headed toward the bed.

She climbed in like a toddler ready for naptime and scooted over so there was enough room for me to climb in beside her. I covered us in the sheets and looked over to Ronnie burying her head into the pillow trying to find comfort. The sunlight was cresting over her skin like a faint aura. Or perhaps that was just my tired mind as I let my eyes close.

“Maybe I am saying this because I’m drunk,” Ronnie’s voice caught my attention. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t mean it.”

I let her words sink in before turning to look at her. Like a switch, the girl was deep in slumber, the drool reappearing on her pillow with an unnatural speed and strand of hair stuck to her lip. She didn’t snore, but as her breathing slowed, I knew she was finally asleep.

My hand rested over my chest, over that empty gap where I felt my heart pound beneath it.

“I missed you too…,” I whispered into the air, hoping when I woke up, I would forget I ever said the words aloud, all the while knowing that that wouldn’t happen.

But I said them anyway.

Chapter Eighteen

Ronnie

“KILL IT!” I screeched, racing after the small blonde. Anna ducked around the table, the thing between us as we battled. She feinted left, and I jerked, but when she ducked right, I made a quick turn and ran. It was chaos. Both inside my mind and out in the room. But I didn’t care at that moment. I was out for blood!

“Want some sugar?” Bell sighed, pushing the tray of sugar cubes over to Mallory. The redhead gave the tray a curious look.

“Who even uses sugar cubes anymore?” she chided, taking two.

“Aren’t you offended?” Anna huffed, beginning to look out of breath.

“I would be, if I hadn’t been raised on them.” I chuckled, the sound coming out more menacing as I saw Anna slowing down. “‘If it’s good for the horses, it’s good for the kids,’ to quote my mom.”

I skipped around Mallory’s chair, making her long ponytail swish at the movement.

Anna gasped and ducked behind Bell, the girl rolling her eyes as Anna almost jerked the chair out from underneath her. “Jeez!” Bell snapped. “It’s just a video, V. It’s not even that bad!”

“I’m basically naked, giving body shots to men!” I screeched, the heat flushed across my cheeks as bright as a smacked ass. I would honestly want the spanking more thanthis.

“I’m so embarrassed,” I whined, dropping into the seat on the other side of Mallory, my head hitting the wood-chipped table, white flecks spraying into the air at the sudden force.

“I feel like I’ve been in a similar situation before,” Mallory pondered. I tilted my head just enough to see her eyes drifting deep into her coffee. “Mine was way worse, though.”

“Why? What happened?”

Before Mallory could answer, Anna chipped in, her voice like a hiss, as a smile I could only describe as evil took over her face. “She got arrested at the airport.”

“Arrested?” I jerked up, shooting the ginger a look. She turned and gave Anna a bitter glare.

“I still haven’t forgiven you.”

“You don’t have to.” Anna shrugged, tossing the short white strands of her hair. “I don’t feel the need to be forgiven.”

“This is the reason we’ve been banned from seeing each other all week,” Mallory hissed. “You always get us into trouble.”

“Very true. I got grounded.” Bell huffed. “At twenty.”

“Twenty might as well be two for a club princess.” Anna gave her a gentle shove as she took the chair up next to Bell after making sure I wasn’t going to jump up after her again. I honestly didn’t have the emotional energy to commit to that kind of chase for the second time. I had a feeling Anna had dirty tricks up her sleeves. Tricks I did not want to encounter.

Not to mention, the bruise from her fight at the club hadn’t yet faded, and after witnessing the hell she brought forth, I was convinced I didn’t want to end up her enemy.

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