Page 19 of Challenging Jayce

"I should probably get going. People are going to start giving us weird looks if I sit here any longer."

"Or you could come back upstairs and we could talk more about those ideas you have for the house?"

He watched the indecision play out in her eyes but he didn't say more. He didn't do anything to sway her either way. She needed to come to him, to be fully aware of what she was getting herself into, and he didn't just mean the house.

Jayce was a broken man. He never cared to fix the messed-up parts of himself. Not for Jasmine. Not for his friends. And certainly not for himself.

Now he wanted to, and it wasn't just for his son. It was also for the woman who challenged him at every turn.

"Okay." She turned the car off and looked him in the eyes. "Let's go talk and see how I can help you."

If only she understood the full impact of those words.

He pushed off the seat and stood to his full height, while offering his hand to her. Jayce didn't let her pull away once she was standing. Instead he intertwined their fingers and headed back into the hotel.

Thankfully, no one had called the cops for a crazy man sprinting through the place. People still gave him strange looks but they were lesscall the cops,and more intrigued by the new development.

Jayce understood how these people felt.

He waited until they were back in his room before he spoke again. "You've gone quiet on me."

Just like the first time she came up, she kicked her shoes off next to the bed and climbed up onto it until her back was against the headboard. It was crazy how much he liked having her there.

"I never know what to expect from you. I feel like it's been a roller-coaster ride since the moment I met you."

He guffawed at that. "We didn't exactly meet on the best terms. If I remember correctly, you didn't like me from the moment you saw me."

Her cheeks turned a cute shade of red. "That's because Shaun was freaking out before you arrived and then the first words out of your mouth were condescending. I only reciprocated."

Yeah, he hadn't exactly given the best first impression. That was nothing new for him though. There was a reason he was never introduced to clients or agencies until after they met his friends. The guys knew he would probably be an asshole and fuck something up. It never bothered him because diplomacy wasn't his thing. Getting the job done was.

"I'll give you that one and I guess I can see how you would think I've been all over the place. I've never felt so many different things in a short period of time. To be honest, I haven't felt anything in years. I hardened my heart a long time ago."

The expression on her face looked a lot like pity and that was something he never wanted. "Don't you dare feel bad for me. Yes, Jasmine fucked me up with how she left but it was my choice to shut down and push everyone away. It didn't start with her. She was the catalyst that finally pushed me over the edge."

The pity in her eyes didn't go away.

"Will you tell me how it started?"

If it had been anyone else asking him that question, he would've shut down immediately. People were nosy bastards by nature. He didn't get that feeling from Kennedy.

"I already told you, I was raised dirt poor. My mama was one of the good ones but she chose to stay with a shitty husband. My father was the devil himself. A mean drunk and even meaner when he was sober because that's when all his problems surfaced. He couldn't hold down a job to save his life. My mama tried to support us but it was never enough. My father would piss it away on alcohol or his next get-rich-quick scheme. I vowed to be different. I joined the Army and saved every penny I could."

"And Jasmine hated that," Kennedy correctly assumed.

"She did. To her, if there was five dollars in the bank, then she had to spend four dollars and fifty cents of it. She didn't know the meaning of savings and forget military housing. She wanted something better. Something bigger and nicer. She wanted to show off what she had. See, we came from similar backgrounds, but where I was compelled to save, she was compelled to show off how far she had come.

“It was just one of the many things we fought about in our marriage and should've been a sign for me to get out. Instead I stayed and had my heart smashed in the process.”

If you had left, you wouldn't have Michael.

"You mean she wanted to show off how faryouhad come? Unless she worked while the two of you were married because she sure as hell didn't while married to my brother."

Jayce huffed. "No, she didn't work while we were married, even though she could have. She always used the excuse it was important she spent time with the other military wives. Especially the officers’ wives."

So many signs he had missed. He had thought countless times that it was just a phase; that eventually she would get over needing to show off that she was better than her upbringing but it never happened. Now he realized it was just her personality.

"Can I ask what you saw in her? Because after a decade and a half, I still couldn't find a single decent quality." Kennedy's hands flew up to cover her mouth. "I shouldn't have asked that." She waved her arms out in front of her. "Please forget that came out of my mouth."

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