Page 77 of Somewhere Only We Know
“How legendary are we talking?” Jax asks and my mom turns around at her voice. “And why do you call Nate,Nana?”
“Let’s just say that when he was on his phone, we knew he was texting you. And when I was younger, I couldn’t pronounce anything with a T or an H, so Nana stuck.”
“Cute.” Jax says and turns her head to look at me, sticking her tongue out when she does.
I give her a soft smile and kiss her on the back of the head before moving around her to go hug my mom.
“Hi, honey.” My mom says and wraps her arms around my torso.
It’s easy to forget that your parents are fragile. The older you get, unfortunately, the oldertheyget. So it’s easier to tell in small acts of love like a hug. My cheek rests on top of my mom’s head and I let her hug charge me like a battery.
“You don’t call. You don’t visit. I was starting to think you forgot your way back home.”
Although she can’t see me, I wince. “I know. I needed a reason to come back.”
Marrying Jax helped me realize that I can go home. Nomatter how painful the reminder of who I lost. Or what I lost.
“Did I hear something about Jax?”
Kayla sighs, but it’s with love. “Nate finally brought her to visit.”
I groan towards my sister and Mom laughs as she steps away from me, turning her sights on Jax before moving towards her and taking her in a hug. “My goodness you are stunning.”
I turn around in time to see a blush and smile covering Jax’s face. “Thank you.”
Honestly, I always thought college Jax was beautiful. But that version of her has nothing on what she’s bloomed into today. Stunning is a tame word to describe Jax. She’s…some days I can never find my words around Jax. Yes, my wife’s beauty ties me up in knots. And I think she knows that when she teases me.
“What really brings you two here?” My mom asks with her arm still around Jax.
“It was time. And we have news.”
My mom and Kayla look at Jax’s stomach before looking at me. “Are…you…?”
“No!” Jax and I say at once. I hold my hand out to Jax and Mom begrudgingly lets her go. “We got married.”
“What!?” Kayla yells.
When we hold our hands up they’re both in shock. Which to be fair is the face Jax and I made when we woke up in Vegas.
“When?” My mom asks as her face drops.
Jax looks at me and wills me with just her eyes that I’m on my own. Her parents were easier to break the news to.
“Uh, November.”
You know when it’s snowing? And the falling flakes arethick enough that it mutes the noises around you. You can finally hear your thoughts in a world that’s always too loud. Every time it snows in Cincinnati, which isn’t a lot as the weather is sometimes very similar to Virginia Beach’s, I feel like that. Like the silence is a comforting source of joy for someone whose life is always hands-on and on the move.
But this moment? When my mom and Kayla are stone-faced and slack-jaw after hearing that Jax and I got married almost two months ago? Yeah, I hate the silence.
“Two months? Nathan Alexander,”ouch, “I know you did not keep this from me, us, for two months.” My mom scolds me and I feel about two feet tall.
“We just saw you at Thanksgiving and nothing.” Kayla says and her hands drop on her legs in shock and defeat.
I blow out a breath. “Why don’t we sit and I’ll explain?”
Jax rubs her nails down my back in a soothing gesture as I wait for the two women I’ve shut out to agree to taking a seat. Exchanging a look, they move to the living room and we follow, getting settled in the broken-in leather sectional.
“Now, November?” Kayla asks.
