I knew that she would repeat exactly what I said back to Jacob, just like I knew it would probably piss him off, but I was just tired of having to answer to other people and asking permission before I went anywhere or saw anyone.
I turned and walked out of the house, the good mood I was in moments earlier, was a little soured now.
When I reached my car, I stopped and stared at the keys in my hand, wondering what I should do now. Was I supposed to drive the car, or was I to let Jaxson do it? I’m sure I knew which one Jacob preferred, but I didn’t know what Jaxson expected of me.
“Are you okay?” Jaxson asked, stopping directly behind me.
“Yeah,” I replied, unsure what I should say. “I was just wondering which one of us should drive?”
“Well,” Jaxson said, moving beside me, giving me a smile. “It’s your car. If you want to drive, that’s okay with me.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised by his response. When I went out anywhere with Jacob, he always insisted on driving. He had since our very first date. “Wouldn’t it bother you to let me drive?”
“Why would it?” He laughed, and I noticed for the first time that when he smiled, he had the most adorable dimple on his left cheek. “I mean unless you’re a dreadful driver… you’re not a dreadful driver, are you?”
“No,” I giggled, and I could feel myself blush a little. “I’m not a dreadful drive. I actually passed my test first time out.”
“Impressive,” he replied, giving me another smile. “Then, I don’t see a problem.”
I looked at him for a moment and wondered why someone like him wasn’t already married. He was such a sweet, caring man. No doubt, he had someone special waiting for him back home once he was finished babysitting me. Whoever she was, she was a lucky girl.
“I think I would prefer you were driving,” I said finally, as I held the keys to the car out to him, feeling happy enough that he was just comfortable with me driving. “I don’t think I’m wearing the right shoes for driving anyway.”
“Well, if you’re sure,” he replied, taking the keys from my hands before he added. “And just so you know. I think your shoes look pretty amazing. I think you look very pretty today.”
“Thank you,” I said, blushing a little as he opened the passenger door for me. I smiled once more before I climbed into the car.
He quickly hurried around the car and climbed in behind the wheel, and we were on our way.
When we reached the bar where I’d agreed to meet Teddy for lunch before we went shopping, I wasn’t surprised to find her already sitting in a booth at the back, sipping on a glass of white wine, with another one sitting across from her, waiting for me.
“There she is,” I said, leaning in towards Jaxson, pointing out where Teddy was sitting.
“Very good,” he replied, smiling at me. “Now go have some fun, I’ll take a seat just over there. If you need me for anything…”
“Aren’t you joining us?” I blurted out without even thinking, cutting him off mid-sentence.
“I’m good over here, Mrs. Wallace,” He replied, giving me a warm smile. “You’re here to spend time with your friend. You don’t need a third wheel spoiling that for you.”
I realised at that very moment; I hated that he still called me Mrs. Wallace. He called Jacob by his first name, and Lynn by hers too. He even called Russell, our handyman and gardener, by his name, but I was still Mrs. Wallace.
“Is there something else you need?” He asked me, and I realised I’d been standing there, staring into space for a few moments too long.
“No,” I replied, shaking my head as my face flushed with embarrassment. “Are you sure you don’t want to join us?”
“I’m sure,” he replied, smiling at me once more. “Now, go and relax. I’ve got your back.”
“Thanks,” I replied, returning his smile before I reluctantly turned and made my way across the bar to where Teddy was waiting for me.
“You made it!” She exclaimed when she looked up from her phone, just as I reached the table. “I was starting to think that you’d changed your mind.”
“Sorry,” I said as I slipped into the booth across from her. “We got stuck in traffic.”
“Well, you’re here now,” she replied with a broad smile as she pushed my glass of wine in front of me. “So, get that into you, and we can order some food.”
“Yes, Sir,” I laughed before I picked up my glass and took a long, welcomed sip of the wine.
“Hey, where’s Hottie McHottness today?” She asked, giving me a questioning look. “I thought Jacob would have insisted that you brought your babysitter along with you.”
“He did,” I sighed, then glanced back across the bar to where Jaxson was sitting, now reading a newspaper. “He’s sitting over there. I don’t think he wanted to cramp our style.”
“Damn,” Teddy groaned, then pouted. “I would let him cramp my style any time. The things I would let that man do to me are probably illegal in most states.”
“Teddy,” I admonished her. I wasn’t comfortable talking about Jaxson like that, but I didn’t know why.
“Oh, come on, Ally,” she sighed as she reached out and took hold of my hand. “You really need to lighten up. I mean, even you have to admit, the man is fucking gorgeous. It’s beyond me how you spend every day, all day with him, and you haven’t once thought about jumping his bones.”
“Because I’m married,” I sighed, trying not to overreact to what she was saying.
“Yes, married,” she replied, giving me a knowing smile. “Not dead. Look, I’m not saying you have to shag him. But you have to admit he is hot as fuck.”
“I guess so,” I sighed, knowing there was no way she was going to let this drop if I didn’t. “But he is just my bodyguard.”
“Hey,” Teddy sighed, then gave me a wicked grin, picking up her glass once more. “That’s what Whitney thought about Kevin Costner; didn’t stop her from bumping uglies with him.”
“Jesus,” I groaned, but I couldn’t help but laugh too.
“That’s more like it,” Teddy said, giving me another smile. “You really don’t smile nearly enough; do you know that?”
“I know,” I replied, giving her another sad smile.
“I've got a great idea,” she said, leaning forward in her seat. “Let’s forget about shopping. Let’s just have a cocktail day instead. I think we should just get hammered.”
“I do, too,” I replied, immediately knowing it was an epically bad idea, but right at that moment, I didn’t care.
Four hours and I didn’t know how many cocktails later, we were still sitting in the bar drinking. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed so hard in my entire life. Today was exactly what I needed.
As Teddy was telling me a story about some guy, she’d hooked up with a couple of weeks earlier, my phone started to ring on the table in front of me. We both stopped talking and looked down at Jacob’s name flashing on the screen, and instantly my heart sank.
I sighed as I reached for the phone, knowing he was going to be mad when he heard I hadn’t bothered to leave the bar. He was all about appearance and what the public’s perception of him was. Getting this drunk in public was not the best idea I’d ever had.
“Don’t answer it,” Teddy said, grabbing hold of my hand.
“I have to,” I said, giving her a pleading look.
“Why?” she sighed. “So, he can yell at you and make you feel guilty for having a little fun for once.”
“He’s going to be mad if I don’t,” I tried to reason with her.
“It’s Jacob, Ally,” she replied, giving me a sad smile. “He’s going to be mad anyway.”
I started at Teddy for a moment. I knew she was right. Still, I knew not answering the phone was just going to piss him off more than he already would be.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I reached for the phone once more, but it was too late. The ringing had stopped.
“Ally, please don’t le
t him ruin our day,” Teddy whispered, giving me a pleading look.
“Okay,” I nodded and forced a smile on my face. “I won’t let him.”
“How about one more cocktail for the road?” Teddy asked, giving me another wicked grin, and I knew she was trying her hardest to make me feel better.
“Why the hell not!” I exclaimed as we both giggled like naughty schoolgirls.
As Teddy ordered another round of cocktails, I glanced over at Jaxson and saw he was now talking on the phone. Suddenly, he looked up at me, and the moment our eyes met, I knew it was Jacob on the other end of the line.
“Shit,” I breathed out as the waitress walked away from the table.
“What’s wrong?” Teddy asked, giving me a worried look.
“He called Jaxson,” I explained as I glanced over at Jaxson once more, just as he ended his call. When he hung up, he slipped his phone back into his inside jacket pocket, before he pulled some money from his pocket. Setting it down on the table as he stood up slowly, then began to make his way through the crowd towards Teddy and me.
“Who, Jacob?” Teddy replied as the smile faded from her face too. “How do you know.”
“Because he’s coming this way,” I whispered just as Jaxson reached the table. “And I know from the look on his face.”
“Mrs. Wallace,” he began the moment he reached the table, looking like he didn’t know what to say next.
“It’s okay,” I sighed as I reached for my coat and purse. “I know Jacob called you. How mad is he?”
“Ma’am,” Jaxson said, looking very uncomfortable with this whole situation. “He said he would be here in five minutes.”
“He’s coming here?” I asked, knowing that this was not a good sign. “Why?”
“I think you need to wait till he gets here,” Jaxson said, but there was something in his face, something more he wasn’t saying.
Then it hit me. The only reason Jacob would come here would be to take me home himself, and the only reason he’d need to do that was that Jaxson wasn’t able to.
“What did he say to you?” I asked, knowing that it was unlikely he’d tell me the truth. “Did he blame you?”
Jaxson didn’t reply.
“Did he fire you?” I asked, instantly feeling like I wanted to be sick. Suddenly the ridiculous number of cocktails we’d consumed didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. The room started to spin. I grabbed the edge of the table to steady myself. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Without even hesitating, Jaxson scooped me up into his arms, then headed straight for the ladies’ toilets, reaching them just in time as I vomited spectacularly, emptying the contents of my stomach into the questionable-looking toilet bowl.
“That will make you feel better?” Jaxson said, his arm still wrapped around my waist, stopping me from falling to the floor. “Better you get it up now.”
As I stood there, my head slumped over a toilet bowl, being supported by this man who I barely knew, but for some reason, trusted more than any other human being I knew, I never felt more humiliated. I didn’t think I could possibly feel worse.
I was wrong.
As if on cue, Jacob came storming into the ladies’ room, just as I managed to find my footing once more.
“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT!” He yelled, looking angrier than I’d ever seen him before. “Of all the idiotic, childish, stupid… HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID!”
“I’m not stupid,” I said as I walked past Jaxson, heading to the washbasin to rinse out my mouth. “I’m drunk.”
“And why is that better?” He snarled as he closed the distance between him and me. Then he looked past me at Jaxson. “You can go.”
“He’s not going anywhere,” I hissed, feeling brave in my drunken state. “He’s here to protect me, so he stays.”
“Not anymore,” Jacob shot back, confirming what I had already suspected. He’d fired Jaxson because I didn’t answer my phone.
“What do you mean, not anymore?” I asked, holding his stare with my own.
“Mr. Stone’s services are no longer required,” Jacob replied, looking like he was ready to lash out and slap me right at that moment for having the cheek to question him.
“So, there isn’t a stalker anymore?” I asked, knowing that this wasn’t the case at all, but I needed Jacob to say the words.
“No, I just think we need to find someone a little more… professional,” Jacob replied as he grabbed hold of my arm, pinching the skin with his fingers, before pulling me abruptly towards the door
“NO!” I yelled as I pulled my arm free from his grasp, and I squared my shoulders, knowing that I may regret standing up to Jacob like this. “If he goes, then I go too.”
“Mrs. Wallace,” Jaxson quickly interjected, but my mind was made up. “That is not necessary.”
“What are you talking about, Alexandra?” Jacob asked, giving me a stunned look. In the three and a half years we’d been together, I’d never stood up to him before, so I had no clue how he would react to me standing up to him now.
“I mean it, Jacob,” I insisted, ignoring Jaxson, keeping my focus on my husband. “If he goes, then I’m going too. I don’t want another stranger in our home. I don’t want another man I don’t know following me around. If you fire Jaxson, you leave me with no other choice than to return to New Jersey to stay with my parents. I’m sure I will be safe enough there.”
“You’ll leave me?” Jacob asked, the colour draining from his face.
“I will,” I said, suddenly feeling like I wanted to be sick again, but this time I swallowed hard, pushing it back down inside me. “Because if you fire him for this, you’re not the man I thought you were. You know he’s done nothing wrong. It’s me you’re angry with. He was just doing his job. He was watching me, making sure I was safe. It’s not his job to tell me what I can and can’t drink, and it’s not his job to make me answer the phone.”
Jacob stared at me for a moment but didn’t speak. Instead, he releases a long, frustrated sigh, before he straightened his suit jacket and turned towards the door.
“Fine!” He hissed, stopping when he reached the door then turned back to look at me. “But I want you home; now!”
“I’ll have Jaxson drive me home,” I said, knowing there was no way I was going home alone with him in the car.
“Fine,” he sighed once more before he turned and stormed out of the bathroom. I glanced at Jaxson for a moment, knowing that I had just made everything so much more complicated in my life.
“Why would you do that?” He asked, but before I could reply, Teddy came rushing into the bathroom.
“Are you okay?” She demanded, looking at me with panic in her eyes. “I tried to come in, but Jacob’s flunky was standing outside the door, and refused to let me in.”
“I’m okay,” I sighed, looking up at Jaxson once more. “Can you please, take me home?”
“Certainly, Mrs. Wallace,” he replied, giving me a warm smile before he led both Teddy and me from the ladies’ bathroom and out to the car.
Chapter 8
Jaxson
The drive from the bar to Teddy’s apartment was silent. None of us said a single word for the entire time. I glanced over at Ally from time to time, and a knot of frustration formed in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know why, but seeing her so sad, almost killed me.
I couldn’t believe she’d done what she did back at the bar. Other than Travis, no one had ever stuck up for me like she just had. Even during my time in the Marines, while I knew the rest of my squad always had my back, no one had ever risked everything for me like Ally just had. And the part that struck me the most was, she did it without even hesitating for a moment.
If I was honest, I knew the moment Jacob’s number flashed on my screen that things were about to get very messy. Just like I knew her and her friend getting wasted in the bar was a bad idea too. But as I was sitting there in the bar, just drinking coffee as I watched Ally with her fr
iend, I realised it was the first time I’d seen this girl properly smiling. This time with her friend was exactly what she’d needed.
Since the first day I met her, the one thing that had struck me about Alexandra Wallace was just how sad this girl seemed. What made that fact worse, if that was even possible, was that nobody else seemed to notice just how unhappy Ally truly was. She had somehow become the master of masking her true feelings to the world. Or at least to the rest of the world, but for some reason, I could see through her mask and see her sadness, and it just made me want to protect her more.
Over the last two weeks, I had become used to her different moods. I could tell when she was genuinely happy or when she was pretending that she was. She had different tells, and, having spent most of the last two weeks watching this girl closely, and I’d grown to know her better than she probably realised I did.
The other thing that worried me was when we were back in the ladies’ bathroom, and Jacob grabbed hold of Ally’s arm, my gut instinct was to grab him by the throat and punch him straight in the face. This was the reason I made it a rule never to work in a domestic situation.
This whole thing was a mess.
Still, I was worried about Ally. I was worried about bringing her back to the house and back to her asshole husband.
When we reached Teddy’s apartment, she made no move to get out of the car for a few moments, and I knew she too was worried about Ally.
“Are you going to be okay?” Teddy asked finally, leaning forward in her seat. “I mean, I was thinking, maybe you should come to stay with me for a few days. You know, let everything calm down before you go back to the house.”
“I’ll be okay,” Ally said without taking her eyes away from the road ahead of us. “I know you’re worried, but you really shouldn’t. Everything is going to be just fine.”
Finally, she turned and gave her friend a reassuring smile, but there was something in her eyes, something I’d not seen before that worried me. I just didn’t know what that something was.
“Well,” Teddy said as she reluctantly reached for the handle of the door, “If you need me, you know where to find me.”
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