Page 63 of Somewhere Only We Know
“She won’t stop until you give her some attention.” Jax notes and takes the pizza and cider from my hands, then walks to the kitchen.
I drop to my haunches to get up close with Sully and give her chin a good scratch. “Thanks, for the good word with your Mom. I think it went better than expected.” Booping her on the nose, I toe off my shoes and head towards the kitchen. My steps slow as I look at some of the pictures she has framed on the wall. Mainly of her family, a few from what I’m assuming is Kamryn’s wedding, and a group photo with her girls. But in them, I don’t see the Jax who’s in the kitchen. This version of her looks like a ghost. There’s no color in her complexion, no joy in her eyes, and she looks almost sick. Like whoever she was dating shamed her for what she looked like so she changed herself to make him happy.
“I wish I could go back.” Jax says as she comes next to me. I look down at her and see her main focus on the wedding photo. That’s where she looks the least like herself.
“What happened?”
“I guess we’ll have to talk about this sooner than later, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.” I tell her and turn to her. “I want all of it. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.”
A blush covers her face and I like this side of her a lot.
“Can I tell you while we eat? Because I’m hungry.”
I nod and take a step until I’m wrapping her in my arms and walking forward with her backwards steps and laughter sounding like music to my ears. The sound of Jax’s laughter is less innocence like it was when we were in college. It has ahusky undertone to it that adds to the allure of who she is as a woman now.
I kiss the top of her head and release my hold on her to wash my hands.
“I met my ex right after I finally moved on from you, or so I thought I had. Which took me about three years,” Jax starts when we’re both settled at the table. “I was leaving Kamryn’s office one day and my purse spilled on the sidewalk.” I snort and she smiles. “Total cliche right? I was blinded by his kindness and after leaving a meeting with Kamryn that left me frustrated, I think I needed that. I needed a light to show me that I made it through the darkest part of my life and he was that.”
Jax takes a bite of her pizza and I follow suit. For a simple pizza, the flavors explode on my taste buds and I don’t come up for air until I finish my slices.
“So how did you two…date?” The word tastes like acid on my tongue.
“He gave me some line about how he’ll help me clean up all my messes. Somehow that worked on me. I blinked and three years had gone by.”
I hook my thumb over my shoulder towards the hallway with the pictures. “And how did you get to that?”
“The comments would start little—” a red haze covers my body as I fear this story is going to take a turn “—until they weren’t. Comments about my weight and how come I don’t look like this fake Instagram model or if I ate less and worked out more, he could lift me effortlessly.”
“I’ll kill him.” I say and mean the words entirely. To hell with baseball. Any man who makes a woman feel less than for the curves on her body deserves a life of misery.
Jax smiles softly and surveys me with careful eyes then points to my face. “I like this look on you.”
“What look? Charming, chivalrous, possessive?”
“Yes, yes, and yes.”
The look that passes between us is loaded. It’s more than the small dreams we had as kids. This is the look where we realize our dreams we made is now the future that we dreamed it could be.
“So movie,” I say, shaking myself out of my daydream. “What’ll it be?”
“I basically have all the apps, so our options are endless.”
We clean up from dinner, reminiscent of college, then shut off the lights and head to the living room. Jax turns on the battery operated candles, the strip lights on the back of the TV, and then joins me on the oversized couch.
I flip through the apps before picking one and doing another scroll before landing onPitch Perfect.
“Seriously?” She asks with a teasing lilt in her voice.
“Kayla is obsessed with it and you can’t deny it’s a funny movie.”
We lay back and the beginning credits begin, covering our eyes when Aubrey throws up on stage and laughing when Amy does the mermaid on the ground.
“How are we going to work?” Jax asks when the auditions start on the movie.
“Like the dating part or the married part?”
