Page 25 of Challenging Jayce

The walk out to his truck was quiet. It wasn't until they were out of the school parking lot before Michael spoke again.

"Thank you again for coming to my game. It means a lot to me."

Jayce cleared his throat. "I know we don't know each other yet, but I promise to be at every event you have from now on. I know I missed the first fifteen years of your life but I don't want to miss any more."

Michael fidgeted in his seat. "Mom hardly ever came. She hated basketball. Said it was boring and she had other things that required her attention."

Fuck Jasmine and her self-centered way of life.

"Well, I'm not your mother and I have to disagree. I enjoyed watching you play. There was nothing boring about it."

He might not have known a damn thing about the sport but just having the opportunity to watch Michael was enough to make it fun for him.

"Are things going to change now that you're my dad?"

They were stopped at a red light, so Jayce put his forearm on the steering wheel and turned so he was looking at his son. "Change how?"

"Where I go to school and who I live with?" Michael didn't look at him. He played with the strap of his bag that sat on the floor between his legs.

"Michael, look at me." It took a moment for his son’s eyes to come up. "I promise you, I'm not taking you away from your life. Shaun is your father just as much as I am. He raised you. I wouldn't think to take that from you. Would I like for you to spend some days with me? Absolutely, but no, I'm not taking you away from anything."

A car honked behind him and he was tempted to stick his hand out the window and give the person the finger. Instead he shifted gears and rolled through the light.

"Do you live far from here?"

"A little less than an hour away. I'm in the process of buying a house though, and that will be a little bit closer."

"You don't live in a house now?"

Well, this wasn't the conversation he wanted to have. The hope was he would never need to explain his current living situation. That plan was shot to hell.

"No, I live in a one-bedroom apartment, but now that I have you in my life, I'm going to buy a house. Your aunt Kennedy helped me pick it out. It's a fixer-upper, so it might take some time before I can have you over."

"Aunt Kennedy loves to decorate. She did my room. Mom wasn't happy because she wanted it to be more sophisticated but Aunt Kennedy knew what I liked."

He would keep that in mind when it came to decorating Michael's room at the new house. He didn't have the first clue what teenage boys liked. He had barely been one himself because life forced him to grow up too quickly.

"Then I guess it's a good thing she's helping me."

The rest of the drive to the pizza place was more relaxed, as was the conversation while they ate. The entire evening turned out great, and it was nice to see how their future looked.

CHAPTER15

When Jayce askedher to meet him at the house he bought, she thought it would just be the two of them. She never thought she would be meeting his friends and their significant others.

With the way Jayce spoke about his life, she didn't think he let many people get close, but based on the number of people in his house, that wasn't the case.

"This place certainly has potential," Austin, or at least that’s who she thought he was, said from where he stood in the open living area.

Kennedy had been introduced to everyone in the room but names weren't her strongest quality. She remembered Monica only because the woman walked in wearing a power suit in deep red with matching heels. She looked every bit the mighty CEO Jayce introduced her as.

"That's what Kennedy said." Jayce shrugged. "I don't see it but I'll trust her judgment."

His friends looked at one another. She could only imagine what they were thinking.

"Well, the inspector said the foundation is good as well as the framing and the roof. It's mostly cosmetic work needed and we can help with that." She was pretty sure that was Caden who spoke. The man walked in with a computer, and she remembered Shaun talking about him.

"I wasn't aware wielding a hammer was one of your specialties." That was definitely Ryker. She only remembered his name because he was sure to tell her that he was the jokester of the team. "I thought if it didn't involve computers, it wasn't in your wheelhouse."

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