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Prologue
Forget everything you’ve heard about me, okay? Right this second, you’re probably thinking, wow Jaxson, you’re an idiot. Am I right? I mean, let’s be honest. I’ve got this gorgeous secretary who’s a decade younger than me but years wiser than I could ever dream of being. She’s seen more shit in her short life than any person should have to, and she still wakes up every day and treats it like it’s the best day of her life. So, why am I dragging my feet when it comes to locking her down?
I wasn’t looking for anything more than a secretary when Avery whirled her way into my life. I was just an accountant, up to his neck in paperwork, whose secretary had retired. I put a job ad in The Gargoyle Gazette (yes, that’s really the name of our town newspaper) looking for someone who could handle working twenty to twenty-five hours a week for a surly accountant and didn’t mind answering a phone and filing papers. Avery Marks showed up the next day, resume in hand, and all but demanded I give her the job. I was hesitant, seeing as she was so young and already had too many irons in the fire, raising her siblings and working at the bar uptown already taking up so much of her time. I wasn’t sure she could handle working for an asshole like me.
She told me to pull my head out of my ass, give her the job, and let her prove to me that she could handle it. So, I did what any sane man would do when a woman was threatening his life - I let her have what she wanted. It didn’t hurt that the only other application I got was from Poppy, the eighty-three-year-old town gossip who probably didn’t know how to work anything other than a rotary phone. Avery was filling the job vacancy left by Dot, the secretary that ran the office for my dad before he passed away and my uncle, who ran the business until I was through school and ready to take over. Dot was the best, more of a grandma figure than a secretary, but she was getting up there in years and was ready to enjoy her retirement and her grandbabies.
I didn’t know when I hired her that everything Avery would consume my life. Had no clue she’d whirl in, turn my neat and tidy life topsy turvy, and make me fall in love with her while she was doing it. I also didn’t know that I’d fall in love with two kids that weren’t mine. Hell, they weren’t even really hers.
But I did. Fell in love with all three of them and I’d move mountains to make sure they were safe and taken care of. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to resist, how many times I left and went back to my place after helping Genevieve with her math homework and doing the dishes so Avery could just have a minute to breathe. I tried to build a wall around my heart to keep myself safe. Hell, to keep them safe, because what did I know about raising a family? Not a damn thing. But I sure would find out quickly that it didn’t matter what I knew or didn’t know, because everything we had built up between the four of us would come crashing down like a bad game of Jenga. I just hoped we’d survive the fall….
Avery
“Blake Austin Scott, I swear if you don’t find that other shoe in the next thirty seconds, that iPad is mine for the rest of the week!” I holler from the kitchen as I pack my lunch and his. I don’t know how the boy does it, but he seems to lose at least one pair of shoes a month. I swear I’m gonna start putting one of Jaxson’s GPS trackers in them so we can find them.
“Avery! Have you seen my cheerleading skirt?” Vie shouts from somewhere in the back of the house.
“Top drawer of your dresser!” I holler back and she shouts her thanks. Mornings are always crazy around here but throw in the fact that it’s a Monday and the first day back to school after Christmas break, and it just makes everything more insane. I’m tossing ice packs into our lunch bags as Blake comes flying into the kitchen, blessedly wearing two shoes.
“Hair brushed?” I ask as I toss him a Gogurt.
“Yep.” He says, tearing it open with his teeth and sucking it down.
“Teeth?” I question and he flashes them at me, his way of showing me that he brushed them. I give him a grin. “Are you ready to see all your friends?” Blake is in kindergarten and he absolutely loves school.
“I tan’t wait! I bet Liza misseded me and I need to see if Henry got the racecar bed that he asked Santa for,” he goes on, chattering about all of his friends, and I interject appropriately with some ‘yes, honey’s’ and a few ‘wows’ as I go about making sure we both have everything we need for the day.
“Vie! Are you ready to go?” She’s a freshman this year and I can’t even believe it. Seems like just yesterdayIwas a freshman, rushing around this same house, making myself and her late for school. She comes out of her room, one earbud in and her eyes glued to her phone, fingers flying a mile a minute. We’re out the door and in the car without any incidents, thank God, because we don't have any extra time for shit shows today.
Once I’ve got the kids dropped off at school, I make my way through town to the local coffee shop, Brew You. Leaf and Indigo, the owners, make the best java and I can’t live without it, especially on a Monday. The bell above the door dings, announcing my arrival. There’s a little bit of a line but that’s okay, Jaxson will just have to get over it if I’m late.
Jaxson Callaway, my fine as hell boss and my pseudo-friend-with-benefits. My entire body shivers with that thought, images of the things he did to me Saturday after the kids went to bed fill my mind. He’s got this boyish charm even though he’s thirty-two. With his dark hair that he wears just a little longer on top and his olive complexion, he’s quite literally the talk of the town. To be honest, I’m not sure what he sees in me. And let me tell you, Jaxson may be seen as a gentleman all over town, but the things he does to me when we are alone are not gentlemanly at all. Just the other night, he had my wrists and ankles bound to the four posts of my bed and by the time he was done, I was begging him to let me come. God, that man.
The lady in front of me moves out of the way which leaves me up to order.
“Avery! Groovy, babe. Aren’t Monday’s beautiful?” Leaf, the owner of the shop, asks as he punches my order in, not even having to ask what I want since I’m here so often. I laugh a little at his comment. He's a hippie through and through. Him and his wife, Indigo, drove their VW van into town one day a few years ago and just never left.
“Only you would think Mondays are beautiful, Leaf. It’s that whole hippie positivity vibe that you’ve got going on.” I step to the side and wait for my coffee to be ready while the next person in line orders. I check my phone, three minutes to the time I need to be to the office, but it’s only just across the street and down a few doors so I don’t have far to go. Plus, Jaxson knows I need my fix.
“Alright, pixie. Here you go.” Indigo says, using the nickname her and Leaf gave to me a few years ago when I was fresh out of high school and raising a toddler. “One Americano with an extra shot and one caramel latte, iced.”
“Bless you, coffee queen.” Indigo laughs at my comment and shoos me out of her shop with a promise that she’ll see me later, which is probably true. The staccato of my heels clicking against the pavement follows me across the street and two doors down to Callaway Accounting, the accounting business that Jaxson inherited when his daddy died. I wave to Poppy, the town gossip, who’s sitting on a bench in the town square. I bump the door open with my hip while balancing both coffees and a folder under my arm. Once I’ve deposited all my crap on my desk, I head back to find Jaxson.
This place was outdated when I came on as his new secretary. There was nothing but drab curtains and bare walls to be seen. There wasn’t anything welcoming about the place, nothing that said ‘sit, stay awhile’, although Jaxson insisted he didn’t want anyone staying any length of time so why the hell would he update the place? But, over the last eight months I’ve slowly started redecorating and sprucing the place up. The short hallway from the lobby to his office has plants sporadically placed on each side, with tiles hanging on the wall. Each tile has a number on it since Jaxson’s an accountant. I’m crafty when I want to be, and it’s an idea I thought up one night. So, over a few weeks’ time I made the tiles, brought ‘em in, and hung ‘em up. Jax didn’t protest too much.
He’s at his desk when I get to his office, elbow propped up and head in his hand. Fingers speared through his hair, intent on whatever papers he’s looking at. He’s wearing one of my favorite button up shirts, this one is a dusty blue that makes the blue of his eyes pop. He must feel me watching him because he glances up and meets my eyes, a grin spreading across his handsome face.
“Hey,” he says, settling back in his chair and letting his eyes rove all over me. I’m wearing high waisted charcoal gray dress pants with a slight flair at the bottom, paired with a ribbed red tank top, red heels, and my lips are painted a bold red today. I can tell by the look on his face and the way he snags his bottom lip with his teeth that he approves. I drop his coffee on his desk and turn to walk away but he tags me around the waist and drags me into his lap, where I can already feel he’s hard.
“Seriously, Avery,” he rasps, grazing my shoulder with his teeth and then pressing a kiss to the same spot. “These fucking pants should be illegal. I’m already hard as a rock.” He presses up just a little and I can feel his cock, my breath hitching and desire pooling between my legs. “Eight in the morning and I’m already thinking about all the dirty things I want to do to you.”
His confession sends a shiver through my body and his deep chuckle washes over me. I turn my head so I’m looking over my shoulder and meet his eyes, nothing but desire reflected in them.
“I have work to do,” I whisper just as the phone rings. He huffs out a sigh and releases me, letting me stand while he picks the phone up.
“Callaway Accounting, can you hold?” He says, not giving whoever it is a chance to respond before he hits the hold button and drops the phone back in its cradle. I roll my eyes and he reaches out, hooking me behind my thighs and pulling me to stand between his legs and running his hands up my sides.
“Easy morning?” He asks, referring to the chaos that is my life.
