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I giggled, not caring that I probably looked like a hot mess. “Are you sticking around for a little while this week?” I asked quietly.
“It depends.” He turned those long lashes my way. “Did you get to keep that white dress you were wearing earlier?”
My jaw dropped until I realize he was teasing me, I playfully punched his arm. “I did, but I have no place to wear it again,” I flirted and teased him back.
He visually gulped. “I can think of several places,” he said in a low voice as he caressed my leg under the table. “I won’t be going back to work until the Monday after Thanksgiving. I have Leo all spun up and I feel confident that he can run things, so I can take a little break. Can I take you somewhere this week? Maybe Tuesday?”
I smiled and nodded. “I would like that. I feel like we’ve barely seen each other since our last date.”
He reached out and caressed my cheek and lowered his voice some more. “That was mostly my fault, but not all of it. I’m sorry if I upset you weeks ago. Jax said you might have been slightly upset at me for asking Jace to help me out with the Wings and Lace show.”
I gulped and looked back down at my plate, my smiling dying. “I know you guys have jobs and I know you all have past. It’s up to me to get over it.”
“Honestly, Jace was just there to use his gift. Nothing happened between Molly and him,” Troy explained.
“I wish I could believe that,” I said quietly. “However, it doesn’t help when almost every gossip magazine has their pictures splashed across it.”
“Seriously, how can you be so tiny, but eat so much?” Mike yelled at me from across the table as he scrutinized my food.
I gladly welcomed the change of topic. “Easily,” I stuck my tongue out at him. “I ran a total of twenty-five miles this week and that doesn’t include my strength training classes.”
“Did you see her abs?” Taylor exclaimed as he held up his shirt. “She has better abs than me!”
“Well, that’s pretty easy,” Jax cut in. “Football season’s over. You get lazy.”
Jax wasn’t normally that mean spirited, but I had a feeling he didn’t like the fact that Taylor had commented on my body.
It was increasingly difficult to convince my guys that the band saw me as one of the ‘guys’ and talked and treated me like one of them and they shouldn’t take offense. The band knew my boundaries and they weren’t dumb. They saw the guys took a little more interest in me than a normal ‘sister’/ ‘brother’ relationship. They weren’t brave enough to ask me the situation and I wasn’t ready to divulge that information.
Taylor laughed good naturedly. “Tell that to all the girls throwing themselves at me on stage every week. Don’t be bitter because you’ve decided to become a monk.”
Jax blushed and ducked his head. I know he didn’t have a retort for that. I know he was constantly turning girls down and he was truly devoted to me. My nightmares had gotten better, but they weren’t completely gone. No matter what time of night it was he always came to me. It was so much better than him being in my head. What surprised me the most was that he never tried anything beyond comforting me. He just held me until I fell asleep.
Suddenly, the lights were cut off and I jumped in shock. I grabbed onto Troy and he put his arm around my shoulders. Around me everyone started singing “Happy Birthday” and I was really confused. Whose birthday was it? Did I miss someone’s birthday?
Further confusion set in as Drake, Ella, and Jemmy made their way towards me with a cake full of candles.
“Umm, it’s not my birthday, guys,” I said awkwardly.
“Yes, it is,” Ella squealed clapping her hands. “Pops told us.”
I blew out the candles and the lights came back on. Will was standing behind Jax and Rachel, who had been sitting in front of me. He handed me a folder and I cautiously opened it.
In front of me was my real birth certificate. I was born Amanda Lynn Cornwall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Miranda Lynn Cornwall, Father Unknown, on November twenty-first. Tears welled up in my eyes. I never found my birth certificate among my father’s papers. All I had to go on were my memories. I was always told I was Blake Lynn Thomas and my mother was Randy Lynn Thomas and I had been born on January third.
This was the most I have ever known about the true me.
“Pops, you made her cry,” Jax said accusingly.
Will looked really concerned as he looked down at me. “I’m sorry, Blake. I knew you wanted answers, and…”
“You told me you like surprises,” Jemmy said with tears in her eyes. She could be so sensitive at times. “I told Pops we should throw you a surprise party for your eighteenth birthday. You’re eighteen today!”
Ella ran around the table and crawled onto my lap, “What’s wrong, Blake?”
I looked up and tried to brush my tears away, a tremulous smile on my lips. This did make me extremely happy and disappointed at the same time. I wish my father/ uncle hadn’t lied to me, but I was glad I finely had some truth. “I’m sad my…dad,” I looked down at Ella, now understanding why he may have lied to protect me, “didn’t tell me this, but honestly, I am happy I know some of the truth now.”
The band knew I had a horrible childhood, but they never got the full details. They knew I was an orphan for the most part and I didn’t have much details about my past before I was five.
