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Jaxon was quiet for nearly a full minute. “Teagan? Where’s your bank card?”
“Eric has it.”
He pressed his lips together angrily, clenching one hand into a fist before releasing it. “Okay, so job one? You’re calling and reporting your card as stolen. Get your phone, call your bank and do it now.”
She pulled out her phone and did just that, discovering it was a simple automated system after she confirmed her identity. During that process, Jaxon had pulled into the Quincymart parking lot and turned off the car.
He pocketed the keys and sat back in the seat. Teagan did the same, hugging her purse close. “I can call my father tomorrow and ask for more money if Eric’s taken it all. To pay you back, I mean.”
“It’s no trouble,” he assured her.
“No, but it’s stupid of me to have let him have the card.”
“Well, to the layman,yes, but I also understand how demanding and scary Eric can be, so no. Not stupid.”
If anyone knew, she supposed it would be Jaxon. He’d run alongside Eric for about a year after he’d graduated high school. He’d called her father to help dig him up from the dirt, and Dad had done it. Made Jaxon feel like a complete loser, but he’d done it.
God, she should haveknownbetter than to keep letting Eric call her. She pressed both hands against her eyes as hard as she could, attempting to push every terrible decision she’d made over the past two weeks out the back of her head.
“Hey…” Jaxon’s hand was gentle as he tugged on her wrist. “None of that. We’ve got shopping to do, right?”
She took a deep breath and nodded, letting her hands fall from her face as she schooled her features enough to speak. “What needs to be bought?” she asked. Jaxon reached across her lap and opened her door for her. Something she could have done herself, but she recognized his non-verbal ‘hurry the fuck out of the car. Please, I’m driving a bloody police cruiser and I’m nowhere near qualified to do so’ for what it was. They exited the car and Jaxon started rushing towards the front doors of the twenty-four-hour supercenter. Teagan fell into step behind him as he answered, rattling off a list. “New doorknob, new deadbolt, probably new locks for your windows. That reinforcing film that makes it harder to break the glass from the windows.”
“I need all of that, you think?”
Jaxon shot her a look and jammed his hands in his pockets, walking faster towards the front door.
“What did you do, anyway?”
“Hmm?”
“How did you get him to leave?”
“Not important,” he replied.
“Um, yes? It sort of is? You aren’t hurt, are you?”
He gestured up and down his body before replacing his hands in his pockets. “Look if you want. I’m fine.”
“Jaxon…”
“Teagan?”
“Tell me what you did. And to whom.”
He stopped walking, turning to face her, catching and holding her gaze. “It’s nothing, alright? I promise. I assure you. It was nothing. Put it out of your mind. Come on.” He reached out and took her hand, holding it until they ended up inside.
His touch was warm despite the chill in the air, and Teagan took it at face value. As a way to get her to hurry and get inside the damn store.
A quick walk back to the home improvement department found all the things he said she’d need, plus a few tools as well.
“Don’t you have those things in your truck?” she asked.
“I do. But my truck’s back at Brad’s, and time is sort of the essence. Besides. You really should have most of these already. The fact that you don’t makes you a bad tenant.”
“Hey,” she said, a bit affronted. “I’m an excellent tenant. Apart from somehow allowing my apartment to become a crack den overnight, I’ve been a dream until now.”
Jaxon smirked and shook his head. “You need them anyway. And I never got you a housewarming gift, so consider this as my attempt to make up for that.”
