Page 12 of Xactly What She Needs

“So, out with it, Jen. What the fuck has been going on at school?” I ground out.

She rolls her eyes. “It’s nothing, okay?” She looks around at the three of us pleadingly. Well, mainly pleading with Bri. She knows damn well that Jax and I won’t let this go. “I only have a few months left. It’s not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal. No one should bespoutingthat shit about you.” Jax growls like a feral bear as he leans forward, his elbows resting on the top of his knees.

“Well, they are and I can handle it,” she spits. “I’ve dealt with all of you for years. A few months of annoying comments is nothing.”

“Little bear, just tell us who it is and we’ll take care of it,” Jax saysgently.

She turns bright red, making even her ears look like tomatoes. “You’ve done enough, don’t you think?” she growls in his face, making him lean back from the fire shooting out of her eyes. She brings her hands up to her head and pulls at her hair. “Don’t you guys get it?” She looks between the two of us and shakes her head. “Little bear was fine when I started working here like three years ago, but I’m not that little girl anymore. You can’t keep scaring guys away from me.”

“The fuck we can’t,” Jax growlsslowly, making me nod my head in agreement.

“You two are fucking ridiculous!” she shouts, making all of our eyes widen. “I’m going to be eighteen in a few months. I’ll be in college soon. I’m not your little bear!” she screeches before storming out of the break room, leaving us all in stunned silence.

That outburst was unusual for Jenny. She’s usually the glower at you silently while hoping you trip on something type.

“That went well,” I state.

“You think?” Bri hisses at me, causing me to raise my hands.

“Hey, what did I do?” I point to Jax. “He’s the one who caused all of this.” I ignore the middle finger he throws my way.

“I didn’t do nothin’,” Jax says with a frown.

Briella looks at us as though we’re stupid. She starts shaking her head slowly and crosses her arms. “You both are to blame, as well as every other guy at the club.” She holds up her index finger. “Nu-huh, you all are damn well to blame for this. You have made that poor girl a pariah of the worst kind.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “Look, I get it,” she sighs, “you all adore her and are only looking out for her. But you all have gone about it in the worst possible ways for years. And sure, when she was younger, that was fine. But she’s right, she’s no longer a little girl. She wants to date and thanks to all of you fools, there isn’t a boy in this town who will go near her.”

“I don’t see the issue.” My brother states like a moron. Even I know to keep my mouth shut right now. And that’s saying something since I never shut up.

Bri glares at him, secretly making me and probably him proud. “The issue,” she says around clenched teeth, like it’s taking all of her willpower not to smack him, “is that you guys are making her life a living hell. And then instead of just letting her deal with her own problem,shegives us both a harsh, disapproving look, “that you caused, you try to force information out of her.” She’s back to giving us the moron look. “Have you two never been near a woman in your life? What made you possibly think that was a good idea?”

4

I swear to God, the looks dumb and dumber are giving me right now makes me want to slap them. I won’t because I’m not stupid, but a little fantasy never hurt anyone. They both arestaringat me like I’manidiot for suggesting that they’ve been ruining her life, little by little, for years. It’s a true testament to thatgirl'sundeniable sweetness, that these two are still alive.

Jax tilts his head at me, like he’s truly trying to figure out why I’m upset and Xander is scratching the side of his face. A move I’ve caught him doing when he’s trying to buy himself more time. Not that I overly pay attention to him or anything. Just a random observation. Yeah, let’s go with that.

“I mean,” Xander starts, “we just want to know who’s saying things so that we can help her. We need all the information to do that.”

I glance over at Jax and see him nodding his head in agreement, like his brother is completely rational sounding. Men! They’ll never get it.

“Has it occurred to either of you that she wants to deal with her own issues, instead of having to air out her dirty laundry?” I can barely get the words out with how tightly my jaw seems to be clenched. I look down at my hands and realize that they’ve now gone white from keeping my anger in check. I open my hands and rub them against my thighs to get blood flowing again.

“She’s our girl,” Xander shrugs almost helplessly. “We just want what’s best for her.”

“She became ours to protect the day she started workin’ here,” Jax states gruffly.

My tattered heart gives a sad little thud, because as horribly as they’ve gone about all of this, they really do just want to make sure that she’s safe and happy. They’re obviously bad at it, but their hearts are in the right place.

I pinch the bridge of my nose, something I’ve been doing frequently since I started working here. “You guys need to give her space.” I hold up my hand because I can just see the protests that they want to spit out. “She’s not a little girl. She’s old enough to make her own decisions on how she wants to handle the curve balls life throws at her.” I eye both of them for a few seconds. “Do you really think that if she didn’t believe she could handle something, that she wouldn’t come running to you guys?” I try to soften my tone at the pouting giants. “She knows in her heart that you will have her back no matter what. But she needs the freedom to choose. You can’t force her to let you handle all of her problems.”

“We can get rid of her problems a lot easier,” Jax mutters.

I purse my lips. “I don’t even want to know how you plan to get rid of her problems. Committing crimes is not okay, especially when the crimes are against teenagers.” I truly never believed that I would be saying something like that, to my employer no less, but here I am.

Jax gives me a dead eyed stare, only slightly creeping me out. “Some of them are probably eighteen by now.”

I shake my head. “Not the point Jax. So, very, very, not the point,” I huff out in disbelief. Good grief. I mean, I know that they’re bikers and have probably done questionable things that I will never be asking about, but for Christ’ssake, we’re talking about high school kids.

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