Page 85 of Best Man
At least they were in public, just in case Big Rig tried to kill him—like the way Niko had tried to kill Reavo when he found out, by firing slapshots at his head,ugh!
The waitress delivered their plates. Both men ordered the ribeye with garlic potatoes and green beans. Niko picked up his fork and knife, but all he could do was stare at his lunch. Adrenaline had soured his appetite.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Jax asked, already a few bites into his steak. “What’s wrong with you, man?”
Niko set his silverware down. There was no point in delaying this any further. “Jax, I must tell you something. And you may not like it.”
Jax didn’t show any emotion, though his eyebrow briefly quirked. “Oh?” He sawed off a bite of steak and shoveled it into his mouth.
Niko took a deep breath and searched for the words. “I, uh. Hm.”
Jax stared at Niko, chewing, waiting. “Yeah? What is it?”
“I … er … I don’t know where to begin.”
“Well.” Jax took another bite. “Maybe you could begin at the wedding.”
Niko’s head grew hot in a flash, swamped by a rush of paranoia. “Wha’?”
“Yeah. You know. The wedding.” Jax swallowed down his mouthful. “Or maybe the night before the wedding is where you should start? When you borrowed my truck to go hang out with Paulina?”
Niko was too stunned to speak.
“I mean, youaregoing to tell me about you and Paulina, right?” Jax asked.
“W-who told you?” Niko stammered.
Jax laughed. “Bro. I’m not fucking stupid. I know what you’re like when you fall in love.” He reached over and clapped Niko on the shoulders. “Relax, bud, I’m not mad. Go ahead. Tell me what you need to tell me.”
Head still spinning, Niko managed to meander his way through the story, giving Jax the condensed version: he’d tried his best to be a good friend and stay away from Paulina, but they shared something special, and neither could quite resist each other. One thing led to another, and before Niko knew it, he’d fallen head over heels in love with Paulina and convinced her to come to Dallas. They’d kept it a secret since the night of the wedding that they were dating.
Jax wasn’t at all surprised, let alone mad. “I’m happy for you, bud. I was waiting for you to tell me the story.”
Niko was still stumped by how he knew. “When did you find out? What do you know? I don’t understand.”
“Where should I start? First of all, you two are notnearlyas stealthy as you think you are,” Jax said with a snicker. “I knew you were crazy for her the moment I saw you flirting with her when you walked her down the aisle during the rehearsal. Then I saw you guys talking to each other outside at the dinner afterward—we wereallinside the restaurant, talking and laughing about it, by the way.”
Niko gulped. “Really? Everyone? Even Piper?”
Jax laughed again, harder. “Yes, ‘even’ Piper.EspeciallyPiper. Bro, you and Paulina are so fucking bust, I don’t know what you two were thinking—did you really think you were fooling anybody? Asking to borrow my truck so you could hang out with her all night? Come on, man. It was so obvious. Then, Hathaway spots you parking my truck at seven in the morning, but Paulie said you guys were only working until four in the morning.Hm,I wonder what you guys were up to during those three hours?”
Niko felt the blood drain from his face.
“What else? Oh yeah—the night of the wedding, multiple people saw you guys run off into the woods together, only to disappear for hours. I heard there was some kind of extended, tearful goodbye at the end of the night? And Parisi swore up and down that he saw you kissing Paulina before you got on the bus.”
“My God,” Niko muttered. “I didn’t think anyone could see us where we were standing.”
“So, when Paulina called Piper the other day and told her she was taking her up on that job offer and moving in with us after all? You better believe we both knew therealreason she wanted to come to Dallas.”
Niko couldn’t resist taking a shot back at Jax. “So you are saying we were as obvious as you and Piper, pretending not to be in love for five years?”
Jax surrendered with two hands raised. “Hey. Fair. Maybe I’m not one to speak. I’m just saying, it was amusing watching it all unravel fromthisside of the fence. Now I know howyoufelt watching me and Pipes together!” He let out a deep bellow of a laugh.
Niko was relieved that Jax wasn’t pissed, but not everything added up just yet.
“If you knew all along,” he began, “why didn’t you say something?”
“I was getting married, dude! I had other things on my mind. As long as you and Paulina were keeping things quiet, I didn’t care.”
