Page 132 of Just Friends
He stared down his nose. “What money?”
“The money I made on Soulmate.”
He tutted. “You really expect me to believe a stupid dating app is worththatmuch money?”
I started hoeing again. As far as I was concerned, this conversation was over. “I don’t care what you believe, honestly.”
He followed me as I went.
“Please, Piper-bear,” he begged, his hands clasped together. If his girlfriend wasn’t fifty yards away, I had no doubt in my mind he’d be on his knees, too. “Please just gimme achanceto put your heart back together again.”
“Too late. Jax already has. Even better, he never broke my heart to begin with.”
“Aw, piss.” He spat. “I never would’ve left you in the first place if I’d known this was gonna happen.”
“Welp. I guess that’s the risk you took when you broke things off. You live and you learn, Nate.”
“So hereallywon your heart, huh?” Nate asked, as if he still didn’t quite believe it. “Forever and ever, amen?”
I smiled and nodded. “The wedding’s next summer. We’re going to start trying for a baby right after.”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “So what’s he like? I already know he’s a pro athlete, so I bet it’s safe to assume he’s some kind of knuckle-draggin’ jock idiot, right? A spoiled millionaire who plays a kid’s game for a living and never worked an honest day in his life—I got him pegged, don’t I? You can be honest with me, at least.”
I snickered. “You couldn’t be more wrong if you’d tried.”
“Oh yeah? Tell me, then, what’s he like?”
In the distance, I heard an engine. This time, it was the unmistakable big-block growl of Dad’s old Chevy.
“Stick around a minute longer,” I said, “and you can meet him and find out for yourself. That’s them coming up the road right now.”
“Shit, okay,” he said, and quickly adjusted the tuck of his shirt.
Not much later, Dad’s faded blue truck roared past with the windows rolled down. Nate’s first surprise was that my dad sat in the passenger seat,giving us a smile and a big wave out the open window as they whipped by.
“Ned actually lets your boyfriend drive that thing?”
“Fiancé,” I corrected him, “and yes, all the time.”
“But your dad never lets anyone else drive that truck,” Nate said with a whine. “That truck’s his baby.”
“True.” I nodded. “But Jax is like the son he never had.”
“Aw, hell,” Nate murmured.
Jax backed the truck into the open barn and killed the engine. Jax popped right out—but Dad, well, not so much. After a long day of fencing, poor Daddy looked sore and stiff as a board and had trouble getting out of his truck on his own. Jax hurried over to the passenger side and gave him a hand.
I waved and called them over.
Jax came our way with Dad hobbling closely behind him. Jax’s t-shirt was drenched with sweat, the fabric plastered to his muscled chest. He pulled the hem of his shirt up to mop the sweat from his face. Sunlight glinted off the hard ridges of his abdomen. The muscular V on his glistening waist put a thirsty lump in my throat.
I heard Nate mumble beneath his breath—“Damn”—as if even he had to admit,yup, that’s what a man looks like.
Through the garden, Jax neared, his eyes stuck to me and wrinkling with happiness. “Hey, sweetheart.” He bent down to greet me with a kiss.
“Hi, handsome.” I stood on my tip-toes and our mouths met in the middle. After a hard day’s work, his lips were a delicious snack—rough and salty and sun-kissed—and I couldn’t wait to kiss him forreal,after dinner, once we were alone. “How’d it go? You guys were out there all day.”
Jax gave an easy shrug. “Eh. Can’t complain.”
