by Shain Rose
“I’m always on your shit list.” He nuzzled into my neck. “Come upstairs with me. You need to unwind.”
I narrowed my eyes and said what I always did when he pushed me too far. “Get fucked, Phantom.”
He laughed as his hands slid to my jaw to cup my face. “You know that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”
I sighed. “I don’t like having parties where people aren’t happy.”
“They’ll be happy,” he said with so much conviction I almost believed him.
“People like steaks at a barbecue.”
“They’ll be healthy too.”
I growled but he kissed me, took what was officially his, and reminded me of what I got to have with him every day.
We fought like banshees half the time, and Stonewood Enterprise’s team knew how to pinpoint our weaknesses when they wanted something. Bob pleaded his case for everyone to have a week off after the Fourth of July weekend to me, not Jett.
After a fight within the tinted windows of Jett’s office and some great make up sex, Gloria announced that everyone was getting a week off.
We balanced one another.
I was the light to his dark, and he was the steady rock to my unstable ground.
After my stay in the hospital, Jett didn’t really leave my side. We argued over everything I did that was, in his eyes, dangerous. The overprotective side of him that he never wanted to turn off got a constant workout with me.
We needed to live and enjoy every experience. Jett wasn’t used to doing that. He wanted to work to make experiences better for everyone else.
And he did work. A lot. I was aware that he and Bastian had a partnership that allowed him a little more time, but it wasn’t much. The partnership remained unpredictable, risky. Dangerous. But we didn’t shrink from danger. As I constantly reminded him, we barreled full speed ahead even when the signs told us to stop.
I pulled back from him. “I love you, but we’re having burgers today.”
“I’m not.” His mouth turned down. “And I thought you wanted to try being a vegetarian.”
“I tried it for a day and decided it was terrible.”
“Jesus,” he grumbled as he slid his hand in mine and pulled me toward the front doors. “Let’s go get the damn cardiac arrest food then.”
I skipped along with him and beamed when we made it to his massive pickup. He swung open the door and lifted me in. Yup, still got hot all over when he did.
He rounded the hood of the truck and got in on his side. He turned the key in the ignition and then side-eyed me. “Victory.”
“Yes,” I answered with too much humor in my voice.
He growled and leaned past me to grab my seat belt and buckle it. “You’re irritating me on purpose.”
“Probably the same way you irritated me on purpose by not getting the meat in the first place.”
He chuckled and backed out of the driveway. “I intend to get some on the side of the road before we get back home.”
“Ah. Now, there’s my fun-loving man. I see why you purposely left the meat now.”
His smile was wolfish as we drove back to the store.
Unfortunately for both of us, my phone sounded on the way back. A new song. One for my mother. Aretha belted out that there wasn’t a mountain high enough or a river wide enough to keep her from getting to us. And as if my mother knew that was her song, she rang Jett’s phone when I ignored her call.
“Vick’s answering service,” Jett answered as I smacked his arm and glared at him. He was supposed to make me scream in ecstasy on the side of a small-town road. These were goals we needed to accomplish.
Instead, he chatted with my mother, window rolled down, breeze flowing through his dark hair, while he smiled wide with one tanned forearm on the door.
“She’s here. You know she never answers that phone though. She thinks it’ll ruin her fun.” He winked at me. “I know you’re fun, Annabelle. Something’s wrong with your daughter. The sooner you get to this barbecue to straighten her out, the better.”
I rolled my eyes at their ridiculous conversation. The man joked more with my mother than I had ever known he could joke in his whole life. Since my hospital stay and a family Christmas together, we’d all gotten along better.
We had a long way to go still because we were Blakelys. We pushed until we got what we wanted. My mother still wanted a cautious daughter. I still wanted a zero-to-sixty lifestyle. I wanted to live because I still didn’t know how long my clean bill of health would last.
And it was clean. I made sure to do doctor check-ins now. I made sure to follow up with my nutritionist. I wanted to live long and be crazy healthy and crazy happy.
Loving someone did that to you, made you want to be better, live better, and live longer. It made you realize all you had to lose. I’d already been embracing the world and acknowledging its beauty, but with love, the world dazzled even brighter. I didn’t want to miss a single sparkle of it.
Every piece of life was meant to be shared with someone you loved, and I shared it all with Jett. The highs and the extreme lows. He let me wallow on my bad days and protected me fiercely in those moments.
As we pulled into the Stonewoods’ driveway, he hung up and reprimanded me for not answering. I rolled my eyes the whole time. We made quick work of getting ready for the barbecue, and then family started to show up.
As the sun descended over the lake, Jett announced we weren’t going anywhere for fireworks. “I bought some for our lake this year.”
“Shut up,” I squealed. “You did?”
His mouth kicked up. “Told you everyone at the barbecue was going to have fun.”
I barreled into him and gave him a huge hug as everyone laughed at my happiness.
We laid out blankets, and I sighed when we finally sat down on our own. Jett picked me up and set me in his lap. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and I leaned my back into his chest. “I love you for doing this,” I said as I looked up at him.
He nodded once and l scanned our family and friends. “Everyone seems happy.”
“They are.” I patted his arm and gave him a peck on the neck. “You did that. You always do that.”
He hummed and pointed out the man in the distance on the lake. After a moment, a beautiful spark as bright as a hive of fireflies in the dead of night whizzed into the darkened sky. It left a trail of glitter and then burst into golden arcs raining down like a shimmering weeping willow.
Our family and friends oohed and aahed. My mother glanced over from her blanket with my father and mouthed a wow to me. I yelled out to everyone, “My boyfriend is the best!”
Brey and Katie laughed along with Jax and Jaydon.
Firework after firework lit up Greenville over the lake. I could have sworn my happily ever after couldn’t get any better. Jett read my mind, and he wanted to prove one thing. The sky wasn’t the limit for him. He would always, always get into the damn stratosphere with me.
Another firework sailed into the sky, I heard the hiss as the rocket shot up and when it burst, the color lit up the sky with words I had been waiting for.
In red: Will
In bright white: You
In blue: Marry me?
In green, a pixie fairy.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The End.
If you loved Jett and Vick’s story, a review would mean the world to me.
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* * *
Haven’t read Aubrey and Jax’s story yet? Keep reading for a sneak peak of Inevitable.
INEVITABLE
Chapter 1
Aubrey
Six Years Ago
* * *
The force of his tackle knocked the wind out of me.
Jax Stonewood wanted a reaction from me. I was brought up to never give one though. At fifteen, in a household where restraint was a key to survival, I had a pretty good handle on how to control myself when someone surprised me.
&nb
sp; I controlled my desire to look at the boy who sat on top of me, ready to smash a snowball into my face.
I took my time looking up at the clouds and the snowflakes dancing around instead. They glittered and sparkled, mingling wildly. With liberty. And a freedom that I envied.
“Aubrey, I thought I told you the last time it snowed that face washes are a tradition if you get caught on Stonewood land,” Jax said.
Finally, I turned my gaze toward him. “Don’t you dare.”
He smirked, one of his dimples revealing itself. Even catching my breath while lying in the snow, my heart still somehow melted.
Jax freaking Stonewood. My walking, talking sex-on-a-stick neighbor always warmed my blood even though I’d never admit it. Jay, his younger brother by two years and my senior by one, did little to nothing for me, but he was my best friend.
“Jax, come on, man. Mom said if you facewash anyone else, she’ll lock your ass in your room for the rest of winter.” Jay sounded out of breath, like he’d run up right beside us.
I wanted to thank Jay for coming to my rescue but couldn’t take my eyes off of Jax.
I never could.
The three Stonewood boys moved in next door four years ago, and our quiet, undisturbed block morphed into a revolving hangout for kids our age. The Stonewoods drew attention, and I didn’t have much choice joining in when Jax and Jay tackled me one day to steal my candy. Their older brother, Jett, couldn’t be bothered with their antics.
I admit, I cried to my mother, and they ended up having to apologize.
Jax and Jett tolerated me tagging along when they were in the neighborhood. After all, I was the homeschooled girl that their little brother had formed a bond with. Maybe the bond formed because we were close in age or because Jett and Jax left out their little brother a lot. Either way, it just happened.
Over the years, my crush for Jax just happened too.
Even right then, knowing he was going to smash snow in my face, I thought winter couldn’t have agreed with him more. His normally broody, calculating eyes glittered like the snow with mischief and fun. The cold reddened his cheeks just right, and the wind tousled his dark hair to look unruly. The wind, the cold, the snow loved him like everything else in the world.
The only people immune to his charm were his family, and I appreciated that Jay tried to shield me from it. “You know Mom’s not kidding either. She’s going to be pissed if she finds out you facewashed Brey.”
Instead of Jax acknowledging his little brother, his eyes stayed on mine. Then, they moved to my hat. With the hand that wasn’t holding snow, he ripped it off. “What’s with you and this bun all the time?”
I started to wiggle under him. “Let me up. My clothes are getting soaked from the snow.”
“Right.” His eyebrow quirked. “I guess I can’t mess with your pretty little face.”
My stomach dropped.
He was teasing me. I knew that. None of the Stonewood boys saw me as pretty. I'd seen the girls that paraded around them and in comparison … Well, there was no comparison.
They were tall. I was short.
They wore shirts that showed off their cleavage. I didn’t have any cleavage to show off.
They were women. I still felt like a girl.
I wanted to believe him if just for a second though. I wanted him to want me even though I knew he was older, hotter, and had much better-looking options to choose from.
That thought ignited my temper.
I bucked under him, trying to get him off. His smirk thinned, his blue eyes darkened. His head tipped closer, and I felt his breath on my lips. I could smell the mint of the gum he always chewed. He stared at my lips and then glanced back at me, like he was assessing everything in me, figuring out what made me whole. For a second, I thought he might even lean the extra whisper closer to touch my lips with his.
Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and crushed the giant snowball I forgot he was holding into my hair, grinding it just hard enough that my bun fell apart.
I screamed.
Jay groaned.
Jax rolled off me, laughing hysterically.
My cheeks heated with embarrassment, and then it got even hotter as my embarrassment turned to rage.
Instead of dusting myself off and trying to save my bun, I scurried to scoop up as much snow as possible and slammed it into his face, smearing it all around.
“You’re such a jerk!” I yelled.
Jay hauled me back quickly as Jax made a grab for me. He whispered in my ear, "Don't make it worse, Brey. Just go inside and get cleaned up. My mom just made lunch for us.”
Jax was standing with another snowball ready to launch and glaring at both of us. "Would you stop babying her, Jay? After winter break, us upperclassmen get to teach the underclassmen a lesson. You know Sophomore Kill Day includes her too."
My eyes widened.
I’d heard about the water balloons launched at underclassmen on their way to school in the fall.
I'd heard about lockers being filled with pudding and about the lockers being stuffed with underclassmen as well. The high school administrators turned a blind eye to the bullying that happened. They called it just a little bit of good old fun.
I called it torture and wanted no part of it.
I whipped my head to Jay. “Please walk with me to school next week?”
Jay smirked at me like I was silly. “I got you. Don’t worry about it.”
Jax grunted. “You can't walk her to school. It’s tradition,” Jax said, abandoning his snowball to glare at us like my idea was outrageous.
“He can do whatever he wants,” I screeched.
“People are going to start to think you two are dating with how protective Jay is of you.”
Jay and I shrugged our shoulders in unison. Jay never really cared much about anything. He just wanted to have fun and wanted everyone to have fun around him.
For the first two years their family lived next door, he was the one who never asked why he couldn’t ring my doorbell or why he couldn’t come over. He mentioned once that he wanted me to hang out later than normal. When I said I couldn’t, that my dad would be home, he didn’t ask why that mattered.
After being homeschooled for so many years, he was the first friend I could trust and the breath of fresh air that I’d needed for a long time.
I begged and begged my parents to go to a public school after getting a taste of friendship. When they finally agreed, the darkness lightened up a bit, the clouds cleared.
The first day of sophomore year opened my eyes though.
I hadn’t realized how mean people in school could be and how territorial girls were of the Stonewood brothers.
Jax distanced himself immediately. He didn’t have time for Jay or me when he was captain of everything and enjoying every girl who looked his way in school.
Jay didn’t miss a beat though. Our friendship was an immovable force even when every one of the girls he hooked up with hated me. His friendship made me unpopular. Girls didn’t want to be my friend even when they realized my father mingled in all the same circles as their parents. I was the girl whose dad owned a big local business and who got to live next to the Stonewoods. That made me enemy number one.
I was a threat and a target.
And Sophomore Kill Day was going to be difficult to suffer through.
I felt the panic seeping in. It wasn't being stuffed into a locker or getting hit with paint-filled balloons that scared me. I could handle all that. I didn't even care if I got made fun of or picked on. If I came home from school looking a wreck or a phone call from the office was made, my father would resort back to claiming homeschool was the best option to raise a proper lady.
I knew better. He'd find something wrong with the studies my mother put together or he'd find fault in my work ethic.
He already found fault with so much.
Jay put his arm around my shoulders and told me he would walk me to school, that I shouldn't worry.
I inhaled deeply, remembering that self-control was my friend. I grasped at that control so I wouldn’t snap at Jax—until I saw my hair in the foyer mirror of the Stonewoods' house.
I froze and Jax ran right into me.
"What’s wrong with you?" His voice rose, but I didn't glance at him.
My eyes were on my hair. My long, wavy brown hair had escaped the tightly tied bun that took a concentrated amount of time to do.
Both Jax and Jay stood on either side of me exchanging worried looks. My green eyes widened, glassing over as they stared back at me in the mirror. My face paled so much that it contrasted sharply with the dark brown nest that sat on my head.
I frantically started combing my fingers through it. "Oh my God. Do you have a brush? I need a brush.”
They both stared at me like I was crazy.
"Okay, if you don't have a brush, I'll take a comb. I need to fix this right now.”
Jay shook his head, and Jax stepped back.
“You guys, I need something! Anything!" Anything to make this look better. I felt control slipping through my fingertips. "Oh God. My father is going to kill my m—"
Both the boys kept staring, first questioningly, then with what appeared to be pity.
"Please!" I practically screamed.
I felt the air escaping my lungs. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus on twisting up my hair to wrap it close to my head.
"Brey." Mrs. Stonewood appeared in the mirror. She stood behind me on the large staircase. "I have a brush right upstairs. Why don't you follow me?"
I tripped and almost fell at the bottom of the stairs. Jax's hand caught my elbow, and I turned to say thank you, to grab at any dignity I may have had left. When I saw his confusion at my panic, I couldn't bring myself to say a word.
He started to walk up the stairs with me, his hand still on my elbow. I didn't care. I just needed to get my hair back in order.