Page 27 of Challenging Jayce

"He's a great kid, and Jayce is so good with him."

"I can see that. Luke told me how badly he wanted a family back when he and Jasmine were married. I guess that's why the situation sucked so hard. It wasn't like she took Michael away because Jayce was a deadbeat. She was just selfish."

"Shaun's a great father too." She felt the need to defend her brother.

"Oh my God," Monica gasped. "I didn't mean to imply he wasn't. I've heard good things about him. Well, as good as they could be considering everyone thought he helped Jasmine cheat. I haven't had the chance to ask Jayce but I can only assume Jayce likes what he sees since he isn't begging Luke to find a way to steal Michael."

She wasn't sure that explanation was any better, but she knew what Monica was trying to say. There was no doubt in her mind that, if Jayce thought Shaun was a bad father, he would've swooped in and demanded parental rights of his son.

"I hope you know Amelia and I are happy you're here. We want Jayce to be happy and it looks like you do that for him."

Kennedy wasn't so sure that was the case. The two of them had barely spoken since he discovered that Jasmine was working with the cartel. They had seen each other at Michael's basketball games but to actually speak? Not so much.

She didn't want to bother him, in case he was pulling away for some reason. There had been countless times she had picked up the phone to call him or send him a message, and every time she had talked herself out of it. Instead she focused on the book she was writing. She had a deadline to meet, so it was easy enough to force herself to get lost in it, even if her mind tended to wander.

Missing a deadline was unacceptable in her opinion, so when push came to shove, she prioritized that over everything else.

"I hope I didn't overstep by saying that." Monica's voice pulled her out of her musings.

She shook her head. "Sorry, I was thinking about work. Sometimes it consumes me."

"Oh? What do you do for a living?" Monica sounded genuinely interested when she asked.

"I'm a romance author. I'm in the middle of writing a book, so sometimes a scene pops into my head at the strangest times."

"You're an author? How exciting!” Monica squealed. “You'll have to tell me the name of one of your books. I know several people who love to read. You would be the second author I got to meet."

"Who's the first?" She tilted her head slightly as she asked, curious who Monica could possibly have met.

The author community wasn't small but maybe it was someone she knew.

"Leslie Cameron. She's actually a friend of a friend. It's a long story but I've had the pleasure of meeting her a few times when I've visited Texas. She's super nice," Monica rambled with excitement.

She snapped her fingers in acknowledgment. "I know Leslie. She's trad published whereas I chose to self-publish, but I know who she is and have seen her at conferences we attended together. She's a sweetheart and her books are amazing. I haven't seen her since I left Austin. I kinda became a hermit when we moved here." Sadness crept into her voice.

Back in Austin she had a community of authors she used to meet up with on a semi-regular basis. She had yet to find that here in Seattle. Not that she was trying very hard. All of her free time was spent with her brother or nephew.

"Well, I guess Amelia and I will have to bring you out of that shell.” Monica bumped her shoulder. “We might not be authors but we sure can be fun when we want to."

"That would be great."

Discussions about man caves and weekly poker nights filled the space.

"It looks like that's our cue to jump back into the conversation before the guys decide this needs to be hangout central."

Monica walked away with Amelia, who had yet to speak. She seemed okay to let the other woman do all the talking.

Kennedy wasn't sure dissuading the group from their conversation was the best idea. If Jayce was okay with everyone hanging out at his place, then she wanted that for him. It was time he let people in and she hoped to be the first.

CHAPTER16

It took foreverbut he finally managed to kick everyone out of his new house except Kennedy. He wasn't staying in the place yet because it wasn't even close to livable, but he wanted her thoughts. She’d been quiet while his friends were over and hadn’t spoken to anyone, until Monica cornered her.

"So what do you think?"

Things had been weird between them. He hadn't known how to talk to her after losing his shit about Jasmine. There had been several times he was tempted to call her, but between buying the house and working with Caden on getting information on the cartel, he'd been a bit busy. Kennedy was staring off across the kitchen, deep in thought, when she finally spoke.

"It's going to look great when it's all done. Your friends had a lot of good suggestions."

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