Page 88 of Fox
I give him a partial shrug. “She can’t give up that opportunity because of me. If she wants this, I need to let her go. I can’t have her stay with me and me fuck everything up between us. I was going to try long-distance. I would’ve hated it, but I was willing… Until she offered me Hel’s for free. She was signing it over to me.”
“So what! You wanted the shop, and she trusts you to run it properly! You should’ve been honored! You threw away something good and real. Why? Because she—”
“Because her falling in love with me to get the shop wasn’t some scheme!” I shout, trying my damndest not to drive my fist into the wall.
“No one said you did.” His face softens as he steps closer. “Fox, you aren’t your dad. Just because Janie loves you and is willing to give you something important doesn’t mean you’re manipulating her.”
“I’m over forty. I have no family and no education past the tenth grade. All I have is my job. And that woman came in here, and fucking found something inside me that she…” I laughed in disbelief. “That she loved about me. She’s young and smart, fast and funny. She is goal-oriented and passionate. She’s warm….” I rub my chest where the now-familiar ache resides. “She is everything good and decent, and I am so fucking in love with her. I’m in love with her enough that I wanted her to find her way on her own.”
“But do you love her enough to go after her and find your way together?”
We all noticedJanie’s absence at the convention. She’s gone from being the annoying brat trying to make life harder to being a vital part of our group. The shirts we designed were a hit. Our booth was full of fans, customers, and new clients making appointments to fly out to have our designs tattooed on them. She set it all up without our help. We could only carry on Tony’s dream of Hel’s Ink because his daughter was here making it happen. I couldn’t let her leave, thinking that none ofit mattered. That she could just give me Hel’s because she felt I was a better fit. But more importantly, I couldn’t let her leave, thinking it was because I wasn’t in love with her. That I was rejecting her. I need her to know that I am so in love with her.
A flash of red catches my gaze, but I almost brush it off because that suit-wearing woman isn’t my Torch. But she is. She looks like a corporate CEO on her way to a meeting. It doesn’t suit her. She is stunning, but the sharp angles of her clothes and makeup make her look cold and unapproachable.
I cuss while running across the street as the skies unleash what can only be described as a monsoon. Janie, of course, has an umbrella, as does everyone else on this godforsaken street corner except me.
I run up behind her, my body soaked from the rain and shivering as the cold sets in.
“Already in a man-killer suit, Torch?” Her body stiffens before her head whips around. She stares at me in complete shock as I try to blink the rain out of my eyes.
“What are you doing here?” She calls out over the loud rain and busy street.
“I love you!” I say just as a loud boom of thunder shakes the earth.
She shakes her head, pointing to her ear. “What?”
“I said!” I close the few steps between us until I’m standing under the umbrella with her. I take the umbrella from her hands and hold it higher over us. “I love you, Janie.”
Her bottom lip quivers, and she moves her head away. “Stop it.” She snaps and grabs the umbrella back before walking away.
“Janie, I mean it!” I yell, running after her. She spins around, and I nearly run into her.
Her lips are pressed into a thin, hard line, and her blue eyes are icy and filled with electricity. “So what? Now that I’m here, you want me to drop everything and go back with you?What about the last three days? What about when I told you my feelings, and you let me leave, broken? And then I leave you a note to come get me, and you still have me wait?”
“I didn’t want to be your reason for staying in California and giving up on this if it’s what you wanted. And I didn’t want to take Hel’s from you. Also, I didn’t get the note until yesterday.” I say as I will my teeth to stop chattering.
“And now?” She raises her brow and looks around. “What are you doing here now?”
“I can’t be your reason to stay,” I say, walking closer to her again. “I refuse to be that selfish. Atlas, Ash, and Derek are absolutely that selfish and want you back at the shop immediately. So I’m here to take you back.” I watch as the corner of her mouth quirks despite trying to keep her scowl firmly in place.
“This won’t be easy, but we can make the long-distance work if you want this, and I will go with you when I can, or you can come to visit me. We will figure it out if this is the life you want, baby doll. I just, I want to be a part of it. I’m terrified to fuck this up, Janie, but I…fuck, maybe I’m that selfish because I’m willing to risk fucking it up if it means I get to keep you.” I wince at my comment. “It sounded way better in my head, sorry.”
There is a long silence between us, and I’m thankful my body is going numb, so I don’t feel the cold rain anymore.
“The job is for a vlog show,” Janie says and turns to start walking again. “They want me to go with another man. We will travel and have an on-camera relationship.”
Instantly, I’m not feeling so cold as my boiling blood runs through me. “Well, I don’t know how they’ll expect him to have any sort of relationship with you when he’s in a fucking coma.”
She forces her lips to stay down. “Don’t make me laugh,” she pleads, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“Do you want the job?” I ask, feeling suddenly very heavy. Was coming out here a mistake?
I watch as her eyes go from me back to the building. She bites her lip and shrugs. “No, but if I’m giving you Hel’s—”
“I will never take that shop from you.” I snap. She flinches, and I hold my hands up to apologize. Sighing, I look around the crowded sidewalk.
Fuck it.
