Page 54 of Xactly What She Needs

She’s handled worse and came out kicking.

“You’re looking at me weird.” Bri says while giving me a curious look.

I freeze.

“Sorry,” I sigh as heat rises up my face. “I was just—I don’t know. You’ve been so wary about coming out onto the shop floor, I was surprised that you were able to do it today without, you know —”

“Freaking out?” she guesses. “Well, yeah. Fair enough. But, I had to see you. I was getting — freaked out.”

Bri laughs at herself, as though she were being completely ridiculous in her behaviors. I want to reach out, maybe even give her a little shake and say ‘it’sokayto be scared’, but I suspect that she doesn’t need that.

“And I guess I had to come to see that you were still here, or something, I don’t know. I don’t feel like psycho analyzing myself. Just, you know, I felt kinda bad and wanted to come. And I used lunch as an excuse. And I suppose my anxiety over being alone overrode my anxiety over coming onto the shop floor.”

Listening to her explain herself, in those short, jolting sentences, makes me feel nauseous. She shouldn’t have to do this. There’s no good reason for a person to be scared of anything because of what someone else has done. Especially a place where they worked.

“You don’t need to explain yourself to me,” I tell her.

“I know.” She gives me a small but genuine smile.

She leans her whole weight against me, and itsuddenly feelsvery significant that she’s here, with me, trusting me with the burden she’s experiencing from this. And I’mokaywith that.

“Gosh, you’re thinking a lot today,” Bri teases.

“I am. I think I have a lot to think about, don’t you?”

“Maybe. So, tell me about Chloe.”

“Chloe? What’s there to tell?”

I don’t mean to sound so defensive, but Bri just smiles a knowing smile and waits. She pats my knee and rests her head on my shoulder.

“Fine. She’s this college kid that has a rich daddy, and she finds any reason possible to bring her car into the shop. We’ve got a long-standing joke that she’s basically huntingus, but lately we’re not actually surewhoshe likes.We’ve never led her on, or anything. We’ve even hinted that she’s not our type, but she still keeps coming round. We’re not sure what she’s after.”

“She’s a teenage girl, Xander. She’s after a win.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that she’s built up a fantasy about you and Jax, and she’s working to make it real. But the part of her that drives her to act this way, her age, is also what will drive her to move on eventually. She’ll give it up when you don’t give anything up. Trust me.”

“Oh?” I tease. “You’ve done this before?”

“Of course I have. I was a teenager once. And there was thisreally sexy—”

“Okay, okay, I think I’ve heard enough. We’ve got some work to finish up here, and I think you do too. So, let’s eat lunch and get to it.”

I let Bri leave me after we’ve finished eating, but there’s the temptation to ask her to stay. If she’s at my side, nothing can happen to her. I won’t need to spend the next three hours fighting off the urge to check in and see that she’s still in one piece.

I am, I know, being fucking dumb. She’s just walked out into an area I know she’s uncomfortable with, battled with agirlwho has a crush the size of a city on Jax and I, and walked away from it with an easy smile. She doesn’t need to be coddled.

Maybe I do, though.

****

“You look like you’re going to cry. Are you? I wouldn’t advise it.”

“Fuck off, Jax.”

“Oh, are you angry? Now you look like you’re going to punch someone. I wouldn’t advise that, either.”

---