Running Into Love - The Complete Box Set

by Annalisa Nicole

  All I can do is shake my head yes.

  We eat our breakfast and enjoy a cup of coffee. We both go back to my room where I put on my suit jacket and sit on the bed. I take a shoe and start to put it on. Jax kneels in front of me, runs his hands down my leg, then takes the shoe from me. He takes my foot and puts my shoe on, then straps it on at my ankle. He repeats this with the other shoe, then pulls me to my feet.

  “I’ll drop you off at work, and then I need to get to the restaurant. Come to my place after work, so Quinn can talk to you. I’ll make us all dinner, you, me, the girls and Quinn. I promise it will be alright.”

  Again, all I can do is nod my head yes. I’m scared out of my mind, but I keep repeating what he said, I can give you time.

  When I get to work, I have about three point five seconds before I need to head right back out to court. Where, again, I got my ass handed to me on a silver platter. This case will be a lot shorter than I expected. There is no evidence and no witness has come forward. There’s really nothing to try. It’s expected to last the rest of the week, before closing statements will be made.

  I pull up in Jax’s driveway and see Quinn sitting on the porch steps. I get out of my car, take a deep breath, head up the walkway, and take a seat next to her. She doesn’t say a word, which makes the words in my head fly around in different scenarios. What is she going to tell me? I’m not good enough for her brother? Or, what if she says she’ll shank me if I don’t turn around, get in my car and leave? What if she needs to tell me Jax has a girlfriend, or better yet, another wife that lives in Tennessee?

  She takes my hand and holds it in hers, stopping the analyzing party for one in my head. There’s a long silence before she finally says her first word.

  “I’ll never forget the day I walked into my brother’s hospital room when he came back from his last tour. I’ll never forget the feeling in the air. He came home a broken man and he’s never been the same since. Until you, that is. I think that’s what scares me the most. Jax lost everything in one day, his career, his wife, his hopes, and dreams. Everything he knew had ceased to exist. He was thrown into the foreign world of being a single father to two little girls that he really didn’t know all that well. I think for any other man it would have killed them. But not Jax, he’s one of a kind. He took what he was dealt and he turned it into something good. He embraced being a daddy, and he opened his restaurant to give his girls a good life. When I first saw you two together, I was overprotective. I didn’t know what kind of person you were. I’m sorry for how I behaved. I see how happy you make him. Other than his girls, no one has been able to do that for him. I think I was jealous of you, too, because I could never put that light back into his eyes. It’s not like me to be jealous, or to drink and drive, or do drugs. I’ve never done any of those things before in my life. Please don’t think I’m a bad person,” she says with tears running down her cheeks.

  I look into her red, swollen eyes, and I see the truth in them. “Quinn, I don’t think you’re a bad person. I think you’re just someone who made a bad choice. We all do. Can I tell you that I’ve been in your shoes? I lost a sister-in-law in a drunk driving accident. Olivia was her name. She was the sweetest, kindest, most selfless person I knew. She was also the light in Asher’s eyes. I watched my brother’s spirit die with Olivia; I know what that looks like. I don’t know what the future holds for Jax and I, but I can tell you, that like you, I’m a good person, and I’ll do everything I can to keep that light in Jax’s eyes.”

  The smile on Quinn’s face could light the darkest of nights. She wipes her tears, and then hugs me tight. She pulls away and searches my eyes. “What’s life like for your brother now?”

  I smile, “He’s remarried to the most amazing woman. Her name is Willow, they have two beautiful kids, and a third on the way.”

  “I just don’t understand how someone can move on from the tragedy of losing your spouse,” she says.

  “I don’t think they ever do. I don’t know from personal experience, but I can tell you that Asher and Willow named their first born daughter Abbey Olivia, in honor of Olivia. Don’t ever worry about forgetting Scarlett. I don’t think our hearts are even capable of that.”

  She gives me another squeeze, then says, “Let’s go inside. Jax and the girls are waiting for us.”

  Jax

  I watched Quinn and Ava out the kitchen window as they talked. I had a nice talk with Quinn myself. Quinn is a really good kid. She has her head screwed on straight. I think she had some unresolved feelings that bubbled over, but thankfully, she’s back and focused.

  When Quinn and Ava walk in the door, Hope grabs Quinn’s hand and Sky grabs Ava’s, and they drag them into the kitchen.

  “Look, here are the cookies we baked. I wish you could have stayed and helped. Maybe next time you can help us, they’re really good cookies, here,” Sky says, holding out a chocolate chip cookie toward Ava.

  “Sky, after dinner we can have cookies, we don’t want to spoil our dinner,” I remind her.

  Sky pouts, but before I turn around at the stove, I see Ava take the cookie. Looking out of the corner of my eye, I see her devour the cookie in three bites. Sky giggles and I smile to myself. Ava may think she needs time, and if she does, I’m willing to give her all the time that she needs, but she’s not going anywhere.

  The five of us enjoy dinner, then settle on the couch to watch a princess movie. With my arm draped over my two little princesses and my hand on Ava’s shoulder, my heart feels full, and like the fourth of July, bursts with color.

  Thursday morning, the girls are spending a long weekend with my parents. Until then, Ava and I have agreed to not confuse the girls by having Ava stay the night while they’re here. Thursday can’t come soon enough. We’ve made plans to eat at the restaurant Thursday night, then I’ll finally get to sleep with my woman in my arms.

  At eight, I put the girls to bed, and Quinn disappears into her room. I have a steamy make-out session in my front room before I put Ava in her car. The girls have already invited Ava over for dinner again tomorrow night. For the first time, I don’t head downstairs for a workout. I don’t hesitate either when I walked in my room, where I fell right to sleep.

  The next morning, I wake up with an urge I’ve never felt before. I pick up a piece of paper and a pen, and I just start writing. When I’m finished, I fold it up and put it in my nightstand. I’m left drained, but with a feeling of a new beginning. I pick up the phone and call Ava.

  “Morning, sunshine,” I say.

  “Good morning, Jax,” she replies in a sleepy, sexy voice.

  “I’ll see you after court today, for dinner, right?” I ask.

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Good, have a good day in court. I’ll see you tonight,” I say, and hang up.

  I’ll be glad when this case is over. Not because I think the case is what’s holding up our relationship, because that’s not it. She may think it is, but it’s not. But this case has been a really big stress for her, more than I think she realizes.

  I go downstairs to my smiling girls’ faces and make them breakfast before I head to the restaurant.

  Our new chef, Mason, and our new hostess, Jenna, have been working out perfectly. I plan out an amazing dinner for Thursday for Ava and me before the lunch rush starts. Then it’s non-stop from lunch all the way until after dinner prep. I leave the restaurant in Parker’s capable hands, bringing with me five servings of tonight’s dinner special.

  Just as I have the table set, Ava knocks at the door. The dark circles under her eyes, and the worry lines in her forehead and eyes, concern me. I take her briefcase and jacket, and sit her at the table with a glass of wine.

  “There will be no working tonight,” I warn her.

  Like a good girl, she nods her head. My two picky eaters, Ava and Sky, didn’t hesitate to dig into tonight’s dinner, spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and a Greek salad. Quinn insists on cleaning up after dinner. I take Ava’s h
and and lead her downstairs with me, so we can have some privacy. I lock the basement door behind us, then sit her on my weight bench. Her ass barely hit the padded bench before she breaks out into tears.

  Most of what she says is unintelligible, but what I do get from it is that she’s scared of losing this case.

  “I’m going to lose this case and I’m losing sight of my goals. I’ll have put the promise I made my dad at his grave aside for nothing. I’m nothing if I’m not true to my word. What kind of lawyer am I, if I’m not true to my word?” she cries.

  I open her legs and kneel between her thighs, wrap my arms around her and hold her tight. She wraps her arms around my head and puts her cheek to the top of my head. I let her cry until she cries no more.

  “You are an excellent lawyer. You’re an amazing person and I know you’re doing all you can do,” I remind her.

  “This is an open and shut case. The jury would be dumb to not rule in favor of the defendant,” she says tearfully.

  “Have you done all you can do?” I ask, looking into her eyes, wiping her tears with my hand.

  “I’ve done absolutely everything I can with what I’ve been given,” she sobs.

  “I know this may be hard to hear, but honey, that’s all you can do.”

  “Most of the time the law is on your side, but sometimes the law just sucks,” she sighs.

  Putting my hand behind her head, I pull her lips to mine and taste her salty, tear stained lips. With my thumbs, I wipe the last of her tears away. I pull her off the bench and into my lap on the floor and thread my hands in her hair. She reaches for my belt, unbuckles, unzips and pulls out my throbbing erection. Thank God, she chose to wear a skirt to work today. Moving her panties aside, she lifts up and sinks slowly down on top of me. She feels so damn good and it’s been too many damn days without her.

  She moves up and down on me as I pick her up and put her on the weight bench in a semi-upright position. I unbutton her shirt and unclasp her front closure bra, exposing her breasts. I remove my pants before I straddle her on the weight bench. Her hands go up my shirt, then her nails rake down my chest. I enter her hard, with every upward thrust her whole body moves up the bench.

  “Harder, Jax,” she whispers.

  I give my woman what she wants. She covers her mouth to muffle her mews as she comes. I softly grunt my own release, as I slowly set her back down on the bench. Looking at us connected, her breasts full and exposed only for me, those fucking fireworks explode in my vision.

  Wednesday is a blur. The walk-in refrigerator at the restaurant went out and it was a mad rush to get a repairman before all the food inside of it went bad. This was not an easy task and one that couldn’t be done. I ended up purchasing the largest refrigerator I could, while the repairman told me that it would cost more money to fix the walk-in than to actually replace it with a brand new one. I ordered a new one, but it won’t be delivered for three weeks. So until then, the restaurant will work out of a household size refrigerator.

  Ava insists on cooking dinner at my house and it’s a big hit with the girls. She cooked macaroni and cheese with hot dogs, Sky’s favorite meal. Ava thought it was a lame thing for her to cook, but I love that she offered to cook us dinner. Sky was on cloud nine, it’s her birthday meal and this year she’s got it twice now. On their birthday, the girls pick what they want me to cook them for dinner. It’s completely their choice. Sky never fails with requesting macaroni and cheese with hot dogs.

  Ava helps me pack the girls’ bags for tomorrow morning; my parents will come and pick up the girls while I’m at work.

  I put Ava in her car again and it isn’t an easy thing to do. I don’t want to let her go. I want to keep her all to myself and make sure she’s not staying up until the wee hours in the morning going over this case. I want to protect what’s mine.

  Chapter 12

  Ava

  Thursday morning, I wake alone in my own bed once again. I’m looking forward to spending time with Jax tonight. What I’m not looking forward to today is court. Closing arguments end today, then the jury will be dismissed for the day and will deliberate on Friday.

  I start my coffee in the kitchen and realize I haven’t seen Savvy again in a few days. I look down the hall and her bedroom door is closed. I open the door and see her bed made, and I wonder if she had an early study group. I turn on my shower as hot as it will go and step in, letting all my thoughts and worries run down the drain, at least for the moment.

  I get dressed for the day and pack my lucky yellow blouse, a black pinstriped skirt, and a pair of Louboutin spike heels in an overnight bag, to take with me to Jax’s house. I’ll take all the luck I can get tomorrow.

  I grab my coffee, a Pop-Tart, my briefcase, my overnight bag, my purse, and head to the office. Just before I leave for court, Reagan comes in my office with a bouquet of flowers. They’re from Jax. It puts a smile on my face, and a fierce fire in my belly. Today is an all or nothing day. After today, there’s nothing more that can be said about the case.

  Reagan puts the flowers in water, wishes me luck, then I head to court with my head held high.

  After court, I wish I had worn my lucky yellow blouse today and tomorrow. Fashion be damned! In any other case, my closing argument I delivered would have been killer. But being the case that it is, it wasn’t up to standard. I spoke from the heart for the victim, for the victim’s family, and for every soul that has been taken from this earth by the hand of another. But, it didn’t mean a damned thing when it comes to the cold hard reality of the facts in this case.

  I head to Jax’s house with a ton of mixed feelings. I know I did absolutely everything humanly possible in this case under the law. I’m excited to spend the night with Jax, but I’m angry with myself with the nagging feeling that there had to be something more that I could have done. There just had to be. The look in the victim’s mother’s eyes, and the fact that she’ll never see her daughter alive again, kills me. The devastation in the father’s eyes for his little girl that he’ll never be able to walk down the aisle because of lack of evidence, rips my heart to shreds.

  By the time I get to Jax’s house, I can’t stop the tears running down my face. The second Jax’s eyes connect with mine, he stops what he’s doing in the kitchen and takes me in his arms. Nothing in the world feels safer.

  Quinn walks down the stairs saying, “Alright you two, I’m out for the night. I’m going to the movies with…”

  She stops mid-sentence when she sees Jax and I standing in the entryway. She walks up to the two of us and squeezes us both in a hug. I feel the vibrations of Jax’s throat on my head as he talks.

  “Call Parker for me, tell him we won’t be coming in for dinner. Do you mind going to the restaurant and picking up our dinner, then bring it back here for me?” Jax asks Quinn.

  She lets us go and whispers, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Thanks, Quinn,” he whispers back to her.

  Jax walks me to the couch, never letting go. Like a little girl, he sits me in his lap and holds me tight. He never asks any questions, he just holds me while I cry. I know it’s dumb to cry even before a verdict is read, but I know what it will be. I’ve failed. I’ve let down the victim. I’ve let down her family. I went back on a promise I made to my dad, all for nothing. I’ve let down Jax. I’ve let down the company I work for, and I’ve let down myself. I’ve lost cases before, but nothing has ever felt like this. All my dreams are crumbling right in front of my eyes.

  Quinn comes back into the house and I hear the rustle of bags being set on the coffee table. “After the movie, I’ll stay at Mom’s tonight with the girls. Call me if you need anything,” she says.

  “Thanks, Quinn,” he says.

  Jax lets dinner get cold in the bags on the coffee table. He picks me up when he thinks I have fallen asleep. He carries me up the stairs and puts me in his bed. He lays next to me for quite some time, just stroking my hair and my back. After about an hour, he gets up and
goes downstairs. In the dead silence of the house, I can hear the telltale clinking of weights in the basement.

  An hour later, he comes back in the bedroom, kisses me on the head then gets in the shower. After several hours of crying, I’m completely drained and dying for a glass of water. I head downstairs and grab a bottle out of the refrigerator. The white takeout bags Quinn picked up are sitting in the refrigerator. I go back upstairs and sit on the edge of the bed. I feel so much better after letting out all of those pent up emotions. Actually, now that I think about it, I feel a little stupid for being so dramatic.

  I take a drink of water, then set the glass on the nightstand. The corner of a piece of paper sticking out of Jax’s nightstand drawer catches my eye. I glance at the bathroom door and tell myself no, you can’t snoop in his drawers and read his personal papers. Then the other half of that argument tells me there’s no harm in reading it. Just put it back exactly like it was and he’ll never know. I examine the paper and its position and memorize exactly how it’s sticking out of the drawer. I sink my teeth in my bottom lip and slowly open the drawer. The plan in my brain went way smoother than what happens next. The paper catches on something on the top of the drawer and rips as I pull it open.

  No, no, no, no. Please don’t be a huge rip. Please, please, please be small and unnoticeable.

  There’s no turning back now, the damage has already been done, or at least started. I open the drawer all the way and see a three-inch long rip in the very center of the paper.

  Shit.

  I start to put it back exactly like I remember, when the one word written on the eight and a half by eleven piece of paper that’s folded in half catches my eye.

  Scarlett.

  Now I know for a fact this is definitely not meant for my eyes. But what if this is bad, like, I mean, really bad? What if he wrote to his deceased wife that he’s in this new relationship and it’s just terrible and nothing can ever compare to her? And he doesn’t know how to get out of it and end it.