My voice shakes, and my anxiety is through the roof. The tears won’t stop piling on top of one another as they spill down my cheeks.
“Hey.” Jax slides his chair closer. Gripping my one arm, he pulls me to him. “It’s okay. Parents suck. I mean, I don’t have any, but mine would have hated me. Talk about a disappointment.” He pulls me into his chest and his large hand runs down my back.
“Don’t make me laugh. I want to be mad,” I say.
His chest rumbles with laughter. “I’m serious though. You are what parents hope for when they decide to have kids. I’m the nightmare. If your parents don’t see that, then fuck them. I’m also proof that you don’t need a parent to survive.”
Oddly enough, his words help me. I know my parents and I were coming to a crossroads. That eventually our relationship would change as we moved in different directions like a fork in the road. I just hoped we could be headed in the same direction.
The apartment door opens behind me, and Jax’s body stiffens. I turn my head and find Dylan standing there. I sit up straighter as Jax releases me almost with a shove.
But it doesn’t matter because Dylan walks right back out and slams the door.
Chapter Twenty
Dylan
I press the elevator button, and when it doesn’t come right away, I race down the stairs. I’m pissed at myself for being a coward when Rian’s parents showed up, but damn, I’m confused about that kiss and where we stand. How would I sit and talk with her parents?
How naive of me to assume whatever happened between her and Jax was over. I never asked her after my accident.
I walk into Ink Envy.
“Boss.” Lyle slides off his stool.
I raise my hand as I pass him.
“We need to talk,” Frankie says.
“Later,” I mumble.
She’s in the middle of a tattoo, so that gives me time to lock myself in the office. I slam my door, lock it, and sit in my office chair. Staring at my cast, I want to take a pair of scissors and cut it off. I want to go out there and take a client and lose myself for hours in art and ink. Get my mind off all this shit swirling around.
All I can think of is Rian’s lips and the softness of her touch.
Then I picture her in Jax’s arms.
He was the one consoling her after her parents said something else to hurt her. Hell, they have their opinions on me too, I’m sure. With them witnessing our first kiss, she probably took a heavy dose of disappointed looks from both of them.
That’s why I stayed at Seth’s, waiting for them to leave so I could go back in and apologize for running out. Joke’s on me though, because once again, Jax sneaked in and got the girl.
A knock sounds on the door.
“Not now,” I yell.
“Okay, boss,” Lyle says.
But no less than a minute later, another knock sounds on the door. When I say nothing, a key is inserted and the door is unlocked.
Frankie stands there, dangling her keys in front of her. “Why are you locking yourself in the office? And you look like shit, by the way. Like a fifteen-year-old boy who got his heart broken. What the hell happened?”
I run my hand down my face. “Rian shaved me.” Her eyes light up with intrigue, so I raise my hand to stop her mind before it gets too carried away. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure she’s into Jax.”
Her eyebrows shoot up and she shuts the door before coming over to the chair on the other side of the desk.
“You’re with a client,” I say.
“She needed a breather. I’m giving her a five-minute break.” She sits. “Talk to me. What happened?”
Before I can respond, the door busts open and Jax stands there. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?”
I put my hand up to stop him. “Just, everyone, leave me the fuck alone.”
“You need to leave,” Jax says to Frankie.
Her eyebrows shoot up. “In case you missed it, I’m the second in command around here.” She dangles her keys in the air.
“This has nothing to do with the business.” Jax holds the door open and gestures for her to leave.
“I’m not in the mood to rehash our fucked up history right now.” I boot up my computer.
“Too fucking bad. I’m done with this shit.” He squares his eyes on Frankie. “Kindly leave.”
Frankie straightens her back and crosses her legs, getting comfortable. “I’ve been here a long time and they’re both my friends. I’m sure as hell not going to leave a man like you in charge of him seeing the error of his ways.”
“A man like me?”
“Yeah. A man who probably thinks commitment is for the weak. A man who dates a younger version of the same woman he’s always dated because he has some warped sense of self-image when in reality, people look at him like he’s pathetic.”
“You know nothing about me,” Jax says. “You’ve known me less than a week.”
Frankie crosses her arms. “I know your type all too well.”
A hollow and bitter laugh falls from Jax. “Don’t take out your heartbreaks on me. I wasn’t the guy who fucked you over.”
She laughs right back.
I roll my eyes. Thankfully, she doesn’t say anything else. Jax bows dramatically and ushers his hand toward the door. Frankie shakes her head.
He slams the door. “Fine, you’re about to find out a lot of things about your boss and me then.”
“Can we please do this another time?” I ask.
Frankie looks at me with concerned eyes. That’s when I make the decision that Frankie shouldn’t be in the room right now. Jax is right on that. Whatever is going down behind this door, she doesn’t need to know about it. No one does but us.
Jax leans against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.
“Just give us ten minutes,” I say to Frankie.
She inspects my face. Oh, how she’s used to being a bodyguard for everyone but herself. Standing, she touches my shoulder and walks to the door. “Don’t listen to his bullshit about relationships.”
Jax shakes his head, and she flips him off. Whatever is transpiring between these two isn’t good. Which is weird, because if someone would’ve asked me to bet money on how well they’d get along, I would’ve said they’d be best friends within a week.
She leaves and shuts the door. Jax pushes off the wall and sits in the chair Frankie just occupied. He leans his forearms on his knees and clasps his hands together.
His head hangs low and he speaks to the floor. “I don’t want her, man.”
I lean back in my chair, my casted arm lying on the armrest and my other hand fiddling with a pen. “Could’ve fooled me.”
He peeks up. “I’ve been an asshole. I thought it would be fun to fuck with you, but that all ended the night of your accident. That isn’t to say if she wasn’t so hung up on you, I wouldn’t have banged her.”
My jaw clenches.
“But that’s all she would have been,” he says. “Just like Naomi was.”
There were times I wondered if Jax and I would ever mend our rift. Could there ever be a time when we could get back to being friends? What would the conversation consist of? Would we skate over the Naomi situation or dissect it? I guess by him bringing her up, he wants to get it all out in the open.