“Damn, that’s good news,” he breathes out. He looks over at Em and offers a sympathetic look in her direction. “So, where’s Audrey?” he asks me directly.
My mom’s head whips around to look between Max and I. Quickly, she inquires, “Audrey Mills?”
Max’s smile grows wide when he says, “That’s the one. Your son is a lucky bastard.”
I can feel her eyes boring into my skin and then she whips her head back around to look at Em, who hasn’t moved a muscle.
“Audrey hasn’t been with Jaxon in years. He’s with Em now,” she states in a confused tone.
“What? When the hell were Audrey and Jax together?” Max blurts out. “That’s weird.”
I stand up and clasp my hand firmly onto Max’s shoulder and steer him out the door. When we reach the hallway, I say, “Thanks for that, dude. You’ve got a big-ass mouth.”
“Where is she?” he asks, completely ignoring my comment. I shrug my shoulders and glance down at my shoes. “You fucked it up, didn’t you?” There’s nothing I can say because he’s right. I couldn’t have messed this up any better. But right now I need to be here. My focus is Jaxon, no matter how often my mind drifts over to Audrey.
“I didn’t tell anyone about our relationship. Jax used to date her back in high school and that ended beyond fucked up. I was going to tell Jax and then time got away from me...”
“You were a pussy,” he seethes.
“Yeah I was, okay? But I was finally going to tell him the night of the beach party.”
“How convenient. I knew there was something weird going on, but I didn’t realize you were keeping her hush-hush,” he says.
I drag my fingers through my hair in frustration and breathe in and out raggedly. “It wasn’t
“No, she didn’t understand, but she’s way too nice and trusting to say otherwise. Then you went and did something to mess it all up, didn’t you?” His voice rises in anger but when he realizes his surroundings, he forces himself to calm down. He turns away and begins walking toward the elevator before swiveling around to glare at me again. “You better make this right, or watch someone else do it for you,” he says in a deathly calm voice.
When he hits the button to call the elevator, I race toward him. “Max, what are you about to do?” I can’t stomach the idea of him going to comfort her.
Calmly, he steps inside and looks me square in the eyes. “Maybe exactly what you should be doing.”
The doors begin to close and I shout, “Max, what the hell?! Don’t touch her, don’t you dare touch her!” My fists bang on the metal door and I stop it before it can close on me.
He leans his head out and gets close to my face. “How the hell are you going to get all worked up over a girl you just tossed aside? You’re my friend, I wouldn’t touch her. All I’m saying is, there are others who are ready and waiting to offer her the world.”
“I have to stay here with Jaxon,” I defend in a defeated tone.
He shrugs his shoulders and steps back inside. “Well, you better hope you’re worth the wait. Oh, and by the way, you might want to fill mama in on all of this. She looks mighty confused over there,” he says, nodding his head behind me as the doors finally slide closed.
Slowly, I pivot around to see my mom standing casually outside of Jaxon’s door, waiting for me to finish. She heard it all.
I raise my hands in surrender and rush to defend Audrey from all of the horrible things she must be remembering. “Mom, she’s not who we thought she was. She’s beautiful and amazing. She’s kind and forgiving. Thank God for the forgiving part because boy did Jaxon and I need it.”
“No girl wants to be kept a dirty little secret, son,” she says, as I walk up next to her. Her line of thought immediately confuses me. She isn’t thinking about the troublemaker we thought Audrey was. She’s thinking about how I rudely kept her a secret from everyone I loved.
When she sees my wheels turning, she says, “I trust your judgment, Jace. I always have. If you say she’s a good person, then I have to trust that.”
“If Jaxon were awake, he could vouch for me. Em loves her. Quinn and Cole have become friends with her as well.”
“Wow, Em loves her?” she asks in a surprised tone.
“Em bulldogged her into telling her the story of everything that happened. Shit, Mom, we had it all wrong. So very wrong.”
“And then you shoved her out of here right before I arrived, correct?” she questions.
“How did you know?”
“Jace, your greatest weakness has always been caring too much about what others think of you. And I’m your mother, I can read you like a book.”
I groan and lean my head against the wall outside of Jaxon’s room. “Yeah, I yelled at her to leave. In front of everyone. I freaked out, Mom. Cole told me you were coming and she was trying to comfort me and...I just pushed her away.”
She gasps and asks, “Jace, didn’t you learn anything from Jaxon’s mistake? At what point did I ever teach you two that it was okay to publicly embarrass girls? Especially the ones you supposedly love.”
“We’re idiots.”
“You got that right,” she grumbles. When she disappears inside the room, I try to call Audrey. Three times. No answer.
- Seventeen -
Five days into my post-Jace life, I hit a groove. I’ve picked up all of Em’s shifts at work while still working my own. Ed tried to convince me to give some to others but I need the distraction. I’ve been doing schoolwork like a madwoman, and now I’ve almost completed all of my assignments for this semester.
I rarely sleep, and when it does come around, it’s only for a few hours here and there. I feel as if I’m running on pure adrenaline, but I know eventually it will hit me and I’ll crash hard. I’ve scrubbed down the apartment and even tried to hit the gym with Lane once. Going to a gym that only has men is not fun. I don’t care how hot those guys are. I never want to be that self-conscious about the way I look while working out again.
I get off work early tonight because the customers actually clear out pretty quick for once. Lane has bags under his eyes from the stress of trying to figure what he can do for me, but I don’t need anyone’s help. I’m handling this fine. I’m ready to get on with my life.
I realize that for five days I’ve kept Lane from sleeping a full night. So when I climb into bed, I force myself to stay and not roam the apartment. Just as I begin to calm down and think about the idea of sleep, my window slides open. I startle as I watch a pair of long legs slip through the window. Chuck gets up with a wagging tail to greet my intruder.
I can instantly tell by the size and build that it’s Jace. I stay quiet and watch him navigate himself through my room. He steps out of his shoes, slips off his pants, and yanks his shirt over his head. Slowly, he crawls into my noisy bed and searches for me in the dark. He doesn’t say a word, and I can’t catch enough breath to formulate one.
When his hand reaches my body, he grabs a hold of me and pulls me into the safety of his arms. He’s breathing heavily and he buries his face in my hair. His hands hold me tight and it’s hard to catch a breath from the amount of pressure he’s placing on me, but I don’t have the heart to pull away. He needs me.
“Jace...” I whisper in the dark. But he never responds and when I wake up in the morning, I’m the one left all alone this time.
I bend down to pull out my newest batch of blueberry muffins. The apartment smells delicious, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all of these baked goods.
“Jesus Christ, Audrey. If you pull one more batch of carbs out of that oven, I’ll go insane!” Lane grumbles
