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I grinned impishly at her. "You said, "ass" again. I might have to reevaluate my opinion of you, Ms. Hart."
"Well, maybe we're both seeing a side to the other we don't let everyone else see." She winked at me and sauntered toward the pizza.
She constantly surprised me. I wondered what else she might have in store. And unlike other women I'd known, I wanted to find out.
12
Grace
The ride home began in silence. I didn't know what was on his mind. Maybe he was wishing he'd never tried to find me since I ended up tricking him into something I knew he wouldn't want to do. I wasn't sorry, though. After all, he'd done the same to me.
However, instead of turning into the whiny, entitled rich boy I thought he might, he'd turned the tables on me once again. Rather than sulking in a corn
er or calling a taxi, he'd shoved up his proverbial sleeves and gotten to work helping Shane. I'd been covertly watching him, especially after one such glance I saw how his muscles flexed across his back and strained the seams of his shirt. Jax wasn't huge like a bodybuilder or linebacker. He was more streamlined, tall and narrow-waisted, but broad-shouldered and well-muscled.
And watching him get Micah to talkâwell, my heart might have melted a little bit. I didn't know the details about Micah's past, but enough to figure out that his mother had recently gotten out of an abusive relationship. I wasn't sure how much the young boy had witnessed, but given his sullen attitude, at the very least, he hadn't been blind to what was going on around him. I admired his mom who'd had the strength to leave, but so far none of us had been able to break through to Micah. And in one meeting, Jax had done the impossible. Remembering my blabbering of the mouth at the reception, I was starting to wonder if getting people to talk was how Jax became so successful. An interesting thought given how mute he was about himself. It made me curious to learn more about him.
"It must have been hard losing your dad at a young age."
Great dialog opener, Grace! Obviously, my mouth still ran away with my thoughts. "I'm sorry. That was blunt."
"It's fine. I didn't realize your mom was such good friends with my aunt."
Given the seriousness of the topic I'd blundered into, I decided to go with his obvious effort to change the topic. I guessed I wouldn't want to talk about my dad much either if he were dead. The very thought gave me chills.
"I didn't either, but I shouldn't be surprised. Sometimes it seems like my mom knows almost everyone, and if she's not directly friends with them, then she knows someone who is. Kind of like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, you know?"
He laughed. "Your mom is something else. I'm not sure anyone has gotten me to agree to something so quickly before. She pretty much steamrolled me. I should hire her to negotiate contracts for me."
I laughed, glad he saw the humor in it. "She's pretty amazing. There's not much I haven't seen her be able to do."
We fell silent again as I pulled into the reserved parking place in front of my townhouse-style apartment, next to his car. For a few awkward seconds, I sat there, unsure of how to end our time together.
Almost as if he could read my thoughts, Jax said, "Should I add showing up this afternoon to my growing list of transgressions?"
"I was annoyed at first. I didn't expect to see you again. But like a bad penny, you keep turning up."
He chuckled. "I think we settled on more than a penny, but I get your meaning."
"At least you made yourself useful. That was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise."
"I have my moments." He hesitated, then added, "I had fun today."
"You sound surprised."
"I am. I had ideas of spending time with a beautiful woman alone, not with a bunch of noisy, nutty, and mopey creatures known as teenagers."
"Now I feel like I should apologize."
He snickered. "But you won't, will you?"
"Yeah, no." I snorted. "The look on your face when we pulled up was priceless."
"I liked spending time with you, even there."
"Again, you sound surprised."
"I guess I am. That isn't how I normally spend my time with women."
