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Jaxson chuckled as he noticed his brother wasn’t having such a hot hair day today. It was mangled in a mess, half sticking up straight as if he had been combing a hand through his hair all morning. Probably had been. They both stressed out the same in some ways. Sometimes his hands felt idle if he wasn’t doing something with them. He either combed his hand a million times through his hair, rubbed them on his thighs, or put them to good use baking something. His brother did the same, but instead of baking, he built something. He had a crazy knack for whipping up rocking chairs and beautiful tables without blinking an eye.
“I need to send Elliot a huge thank you. He didn’t just bail me out, he got the judge to throw out the charges. I couldn’t believe it when he called me earlier.”
Jaxson nodded because he already knew that. Neither Mase nor Tyrone—the asshole ex—had wanted to press charges against each other. Considering no one else got hurt, they didn’t resist arrest, and nothing was damaged in the diner, the judge decided to toss out the charges. Although, Mase and Tyrone—since neither lived in Mulberry—were asked to continue to stay out of town. For how long? That wasn’t stated clearly. Even Elliot didn’t have a concrete answer on that one when he spoke to him this morning. If it were up to Jaxson, Mase would never step foot in the town again, unless Mase was with him.
“Look, I know you don’t want to hear it, but let this one go. You don’t need to be dealing with this shit.”
Mia’s voice rang in his head.
Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, but it was said and he couldn’t take it back. He understood where Mia was coming from, but he also didn’t want to see his brother get hurt.
Mase sighed, running a hand through his hair—probably his billionth time for the day. “There’s something about her, man. I can’t explain it.”
“She lied to you.”
“It doesn’t matter. You should’ve seen him in the diner. He’s crazy and out of control. I told her to file a restraining order against him.”
“When did you tell her this?”
Mase glanced away from the phone. “Does it matter?”
“Yeah. You were asked to stay out of Mulberry.”
A shit-eating grin, one that rubbed Jaxson the wrong way, emerged on his brother’s face. “I didn’t go to Mulberry. She came to Mason.”
Jaxson shook his head. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I hope so, too, bro. I’m kind of winging it here, to be honest. I’ve never felt this way about a woman. She makes me feel…I don’t know. Like seeing where this could go. How about Mia? What’s going on there?”
He tried to keep his features passive so his brother didn’t see the turmoil hiding inside. Because what was going on? Basically teetering on the edge of losing her because she was too afraid to jump in with both feet. Right now she was wading on the edge of the water, unsure if she’d be able to stay afloat. If it were up to him, he’d keep her above water. Until the day he died. Nothing would stop him.
And he was still simmering from his interaction with Champ. Man, he had wanted to punch that asshole in the face so hard, it took all his strength to hold back. As much as it would make Dane happy, he hoped Champ didn’t show.
“We’re good. We haven’t talked about wedding plans, but we’re good.”
He bought her a new sketch pad so she could design her dress. That sort of counted as talking wedding plans. Except he did walk out of the room before she could say anything. Because, yeah, he didn’t want to hear a rejection of some kind.
Mase nodded, but he could see the concern in his gaze.
“And the ring? What kind did you get her?”
His eyes bugged out as Mase’s question caught him by surprise.
Ring?
Like, engagement ring?
Holy. Shit.
He was the world’s dumbest man. There was no ring. Amongst all the chaos in the last few days, popping the question out of nowhere, he hadn’t gotten her a ring yet. He needed to rectify that immediately.
Then he noticed the anticipatory gleam in his brother’s eyes. Not the kind that said he was excited for his brother and needed to know all the details. Oh, no. More like the kind where he needed ideas of his own.
“Why do you want to know?”
Mase laughed, a bit of nervousness filtering through. “Trying to show my support. Something you seem to be lacking lately.”
Wow. He had never argued this much with his brother in his life. Not even when they were little kids. Yet, he could feel another fight inching its way to the surface.
