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“Jasper’s busy?”
“Well, that’s the thing.”Mason’s deep inhale sounded loud and clear over the line.“The tattoo isforhim.I want it to be a surprise.”
I grinned at the peacefulness in his voice I hadn’t heard for a long time.“Someone’s in love,” I sang the words, imagining his face flushed.
“Will you go with me?”he asked, ignoring my statement.
“Not gonna need to hold your hand though, will I?”
He huffed a snorted laugh.“No.I’m not that much of a pansy.It’s just…that scar on my chest?”
He’d finally told me the details of what had gone down that night with Joseph Delaney, and the knowledge had made me want to find the kid, slice his heart out with a dull knife, and bury him deep in the woods of Maine.
“What about it?”I asked, my protective nature causing my voice to tighten.
“I’m turning that jagged J into my boyfriend’s name.”
Mason was going to permanently etchJasperon his skin.For some reason, my heart cracked open, making my eyes sting.“I’ll be there, Mason.Hell,” I chuckled through sudden threatening tears.“I’ll proudly let you squeeze my hand the entire time if that’s what you need.”
“I knew I could count on you, Kellen.You’re a true friend.”
After hanging up with him, I lay on my bed, alone as always, staring at the ceiling.Silence rang in my ears as I admitted to myself I envied what Mason had found.
Thoughts of JJ crowded my mind, but I still couldn’t come to a decision over how I felt about him or what I wanted.I could admit to fantasizing over being with him again, hell, even on a permanent basis, but the jaded part of me seized up tight at the thought.
And he’s in love with Alex.
Groaning, I rolled over, shoved my face in my pillow, and hollered a few curses.
JJ was into me, no question about that fact.
But I couldn’t allow myself to be vulnerable and get my hopes up.Especially over someone whose heart wasn’t obtainable, whose name would never be available to tattoo on anyone else’s body but Alex’s.
Chapter16
JJ
“My God, Teresa, this is phenomenal,” I moaned and spoke around a mouthful of her lasagna.
She smiled across the dinner table at me for the first time since I’d arrived.It was their son Aaron’s sixth birthday, and when asked who he wanted to come over for his special night, he’d supposedly claimed me.
Not Nanna and Gramps, Teresa’s parents who lived in Jersey.
Me.Uncle JJ.The man who’d been a staple in his life since the day he’d been born.While the thought warmed me and made me feel appreciated, for the first time sitting at Alex’s dining room table, I wasn’t sure I…fit in anymore.
Somehow, I’d become disjointed.Out of place.Like my presence sat on a different plane than the family I’d considered myself to be a part of.I hovered outside reality when I used to feel at home.
The shift had happened after spending the night with Kellen.I hadn’t met with Alex since, claiming I’d been busy with work on the two times he’d texted asking if I was up for a quick fuck.
I felt like shit for lying, but sharing intimacy with Kellen had definitely done something to me on a molecular level.
Add in that Alex’s behavior since I’d arrived was slightly…off, and my feet itched to take me back out their front door.
“I’m getting a dog for my birthday!”Aaron perked up from the end of the table where he sat in the “special” chair at the opposite end of his dad.He grinned at me, eyes alight with mischief as Alex’s had often been when we were children.
“Is that so?”I asked.
“We said we would talk about it,” Teresa reminded him gently, but I could tell by Aaron’s face that his mind was set and wouldn’t be swayed.I expected whatever hid inside the wrapped gift boxes atop the hutch behind him didn’t include flesh and blood.
