"Because," she said, "that job was supposed to be yours. The money, the perks, everything, that was for you, not me." Her teary gaze met mine. "What the hell were you thinking?"
I blinked. "So that's why you're mad?"
"Of course that's why I'm mad. Why would you do such a thing?"
I waved away the question. "But how did you know? Jax didn't tell you, did he?"
"He didn't have to," she said. "I saw the paperwork. It had your name on it, not mine."
Damn it. I should've thought of that.
Allie persisted, "And seriously, why would you do that, anyway? This could've changed your whole life. Why would you throw it away?"
At this, I laughed through my tears. "I didn't throw it away. I would've sucked at that job." I gave an epic eye-roll. "Especially now that I know it's for Jaden. God, can you imagine?"
She gave me a look. "Yeah. I can actually."
"Oh. Right." I winced. "I guess you can."
"I'm not worried about that," she said. "I can handle him just fine." She sighed. "It's just that, well, you haven't had a lot of good things in your life, and I hate that you gave it up."
I shook my head. "You're wrong," I told her. "I have had good things." Suddenly, I couldn't help but smile. "You, for example."
On impulse, I reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. "And I wasn't lying. I would've been terrible at that job, even if it had been working for Jax." Under my breath, I added, "As opposed to his douchebag of a brother."
She was almost laughing now. "You are such a liar."
Again, I shook my head. "Are you kidding? That guy? Jax? He distracts the hell out of me."
"Yeah, I could tell."
"Really?" I hesitated. "Do you think he could?"
"No. And you wanna know why?"
"Why?"
"Because I think you distract him, too."
Chapter 39
Allie's words haunted me over the next few weeks as we settled into our new apartment, not to mention new routines for each of us.
As far as the apartment itself, it was everything Jax had indicated and then some. At least once a day, I thanked my lucky stars that he'd pointed us in that direction with the help of a local realtor.
The place was an eclectic two-bedroom unit that took up the whole second floor of a stately old Victorian house – the kind with all kinds of turrets plus our own private balcony. Best of all, it was located just a block from one of the prettiest beaches I'd ever seen.
By some miracle, I'd gotten a job almost immediately, working as a waitress at a beachside bar and grill located within walking distance of our new place. I didn't even need a car, which was a good thing, since I'd sold my prior car back in Nashville and couldn't yet afford a replacement.
All in all, things were surprisingly okay – for me, anyway. As far as Allie, she still felt way too guilty about the whole job fiasco and kept urging me to reconsider.
Of course, it was ridiculous. Not only would I never change my mind, I could only imagine how thrilled the brothers would be with yet another switcharoo.
Plus, I knew that Allie was surely exceeding all expectations, which granted, couldn't've been terribly high, given the nature of that initial interview.
Still, it was pretty obvious that she liked this job a lot better than her last one, even if Jaden was, in Allie's own words, the most annoying person she'd ever met.
I couldn’t argue with her there. I thought he was pretty darn annoying, too. But it wasn't thoughts of him that kept me awake late into the night. No. It was his brother, Jax, who'd become my dark obsession.
And I do mean dark, because thoughts of him kept creeping in while I was huddled alone in my bed. Sometimes, I wondered what he was doing and who he was doing it with. Other times, I imagined him doing those things with me, which made me feel slightly awkward every time I ran into him.
It was strange, too, because when I left his place on that Sunday afternoon, I never expected to see him again, in spite of Allie working for his company. After all, I never saw Allie's previous employers. And besides, she worked for Jaden, not Jax.
And yet, during the last few weeks, Jax had been turning up in the strangest places – outside the bar where I worked, in the coffee shop where I bought my morning latte, and once, even at the door to my own apartment, when he stopped by to drop off some paperwork that Allie had forgotten.
By now, I might've called him a friend, except my feelings for him went beyond simple friendship or even obligation, because let's face it, he'd been my own personal savior right from the beginning.
One Thursday night, I was pondering all of this with Allie in our living room when she said, "You know he likes you, right?"
I tried to smile. "Sure. I mean, he must, considering all the favors he's done for me."
She rolled her eyes. "I don't mean as a friend."
It was a happy thought, but it still made me frown. "That can't be true," I said, "because if it was, he'd make a move or something."
"What kind of move?" She gave me a wicked grin. "The naked kind?"
"No." I sank deeper into the couch. "Okay, well, maybe not at first, but he could at least ask me out or something."
Even as I said it, I marveled at my own stupidity. He was a billionaire, and I who was I? Just a waitress.
Oh sure, I'd taken a semester of community college, but I hadn't gone back, not because I didn't like learning, but rather because so many of the classes seemed completely at odds with what I'd ever use in real life.
Plus, there was the debt. My friends who'd continued were absolutely drowning in it. Some of them hadn't even finished, and yet they still had the debt hanging over their heads.
And the ones who had finished? Most of these friends were working jobs that paid peanuts compared to what their degrees had cost.
Even Allie – one of the smartest people I knew – had decided to skip the whole college thing in favor of jumping out into, as she called it, the real world.
Now, sitting in the nearby armchair, Allie asked, "Wanna know what I think?"
"What?"
She smiled. "I think he likes you too much."
Okay, that made zero sense. "What do you mean?"
Even though we were alone in our apartment, she lowered her voice. "Well, from what I hear at the office, he's pretty down on relationships."
Instantly, I thought of Morgan. If Jax's last relationship had been with her, this attitude made sense. I said, "Why? Because of a bad breakup?"
"No," Allie said, "because of the thing with his parents."
Now that was odd. Until now, I'd never really thought of Jax as having parents. And yet, unlike me, he apparently had two of them, double my total. Go figure.
I said to Allie, "So I take it they're not together?"
She nodded. "Exactly."
I felt my brow wrinkle in confusion. "But lots of people have divorced parents."
"Yeah, but their divorce was weird."
Was there such a thing as a normal divorce? I had no idea.
Allie was saying, "They don't even live in the same state."
"You mean his parents?"
"Oh yeah." She leaned forward. "And get this. Half of the family hardly talks to the other half. It's like they don't exist or something."
I gave her a perplexed look. "I'm not sure I get what you mean."
"Well," she said, "there's like five brothers—"
"Five?"
She gave a solemn nod. "Yeah. And really, it's six if you count the half-brother, too."
"Wow." I blew out a surprised breath. "Six? Are you sure."
"Totally," she said. "And the half-brother? He's super famous."
Now, I was really confused. "He can't be. If he's that famous, I would've found him."
Allie laughed. "Where? On the internet?"
"Maybe," I admitted.
"You've been doing some digging, haven't you?"
"Just a little. After all, I should know something about your
employers."
From the look on Allie's face, she wasn't buying it. "So tell me," she said, "in all your snooping—"
"I wasn't snooping. I was just browsing, that's all."
But the sad truth was, I'd found shockingly little, at least when it came to anything about their extended family. Oh sure, there'd been lots of news articles about Jax and Jaden and their growing business empire. There'd even been a few articles linking the two brothers to various love interests.
I'd skipped over anything related to Jaden and focused all of my attention on Jax. From what I'd seen, almost all of the women he'd dated had been, in the words of Jane Austen, "quite accomplished." There was that cute pediatric surgeon, along with a professor of ancient literature, and even a classic pianist.
I hated them all.
Yes, it made me an awful person, but I couldn’t help it.
And why? Because each and every one of them served as a sorry reminder of my own insignificance. After all, I wasn't educated or accomplished.
I gazed down at my lap. No wonder he wasn't interested.
And yet, a little voice reminded me that he'd dated Morgan, too. And she wasn't some kind of superwoman. Was she?
Allie's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Well?"
I jerked my head up and tried to remember what she'd been saying. "Well what?"
She made a sound of frustration. "What'd you find out?"
"Nothing." I forced a laugh. "I mean, it's not like I hired a private investigator or anything. And besides, you know a ton more about them than I do."
She frowned. "Not really."
"You're kidding, right?"
"No. Why?"
Now, I was frowning, too. "Because, you got me all interested, like you were about to tell me everything about their family, and now, you're telling me nothing."
"That's not true," she protested. "I told you everything I know, well, except for the fact that the rest of the brothers live somewhere in Michigan. And so does their dad."
"But their mom lives here? In Florida?"
Allie gave a loose shrug. "I don't know."
"Okaaaay…" Now, I was really frustrated. "But what about the famous brother? You never said, who is he?"
Allie winced. "Sorry. I don't know. It was just something I overheard."
"And you didn't ask for details?"
"No. Because I wasn't supposed to be listening."
I couldn’t decide if I should laugh or scream. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"Hardly," she said. "But I do know something."
"About what?"
"Jax." She gave me long, mischievous look. "Do you know he hates coffee?"
I blinked. "He does?"
"Sure."
"But—"
Allie smiled. "But that can't be true, because you keep seeing him at that coffee shop?"
"Uh, yeah."
She laughed. "Right. Because he only goes there to see you."
Chapter 40
At Allie's statement, my heart gave a funny little leap. Still, I tried to laugh it off. "Oh, come on. That's ridiculous."
"It is not," she said. "You go there around eleven, right?"
I nodded. For most people, eleven wasn't exactly breakfast-time, but for me, everything was different. Normally, I didn't get home from work until well after midnight, and by the time I took a bath and relaxed a little, it was usually past two or three, which meant that usually it took me a while to get going in the morning.
"Well," Allie continued, "he's been taking his lunch extra-early. And he comes back with scones and stuff. It's really weird. He doesn't even eat them."
"He doesn't?"
"No. He just leaves them in the break room for whoever." She leaned forward in her chair. "And that coffee shop? It's not the closest one to the office."
Since I didn't own a car, I wasn't terribly familiar with the local area, at least not beyond the few blocks that surrounded our apartment. "It's not?"
"No," she said. "There's this great little place like five minutes away. But the drive to your coffee shop takes him like twenty minutes – that's forty round-trip. And you know what else?"
Now, I was hanging on her every word. "What?"
"Technically, he doesn't have to leave the office at all."
"What do you mean?"
"Hello? He's loaded. And he has his own personal assistant, plus errand people, too. He could probably sit in his office for weeks and have live lobsters delivered straight to his desk, and no one would bat an eye."
I wasn't sure about that, but I did see what she meant. Still, I had to ask, "But how would he know my schedule? Or where I go for coffee?" And then, it hit me. "Wait, you told him, didn't you?"
She smiled. "Maybe."
From the look on her face, there was no maybe about it.
"But why?" I asked.
"Why not?"
I bit my lip. "You didn't tell him that I expected to see him, did you?" I could almost see it – Allie hinting that I was dying to see him again.
True or not, how pathetic would that be?
"Oh, come on," she said. "I'm not stupid. I told him because he asked."
"When?" I asked.
"My first week."
"What? And you just now thought to mention it?"
"I didn't want to make you nervous." She gave a little shrug. "Or get your hopes up. I know you're crazy about him."
I didn't bother denying it. "Did he ask anything else?"
"Actually…" She hesitated. "…a few days ago, he asked about your mom."
"Oh." This wasn't what I wanted to hear. "What did he want to know?"
"Mostly, if you'd been seeing her much."
"And what did you tell him?"
"Just the truth," she said, "that she's been making herself scarce and that she won't let you pick up your stuff."
At this, I groaned out loud. "Seriously? You told him that?"
"Yeah." She gave me a confused look. "What's the problem?"
There were so many problems, I didn't know where to begin. "Well, you do remember where I met him, right?"
"Sure. At that car crash."
"Right. A crash that I caused."
Allie waved away my concerns. "You weren't even driving. And besides, the car's already fixed."
"I'm not talking about the car," I said. "I just mean that every time I see him, I'm in some sort of trouble. It's actually pretty embarrassing."
"Oh, please," she said. "When's the last time you saw him?"
"Just today. At the coffee shop."
Allie gave me a smug smile. "Were you in trouble then?"
"Yes, actually." I felt color rise to my cheeks. "I forgot my money."
She laughed. "No way. So what happened?"
The whole thing had been beyond humiliating. There I'd been, in the coffee shop, about to pay when I discovered that I'd forgotten to tuck some cash into the pocket of my shorts.
This wouldn't've been so terribly bad – after all, I could've just dashed home for the money – except for the fact that Jax had shown up just as I was explaining my error.
And of course, he'd felt obligated to pay for my latte – and a scone – even though I'd assured him that I didn't mind walking back for the money I'd forgotten.
Did he believe me? I wasn't sure. Probably, he thought I had no money, which was only half true. I had money, just not a lot, that's all.
And then, to make matters worse, my least-favorite barista had spent the whole time ogling him like he was the tastiest treat she'd seen all morning.
As I explained all of this to Allie, I got zero sympathy. Still laughing, she said, "He probably thinks you're adorable."
"No. He probably thinks I’m an idiot.
Was it any wonder he preferred pediatricians and professors? They never forgot their money. I was almost sure of it.
But Allie was saying, "He probably loved it. You know, 'coming to your rescue' and all that."
No. He hadn't. In reality, he'd looked conc
erned more than anything.
Allie said, "So, do you want to hear the rest or not?"
Now, I wasn't so sure. "There's more?"
"Oh yeah," she said. "So when I'm telling him that you haven't seen a lot of your mom, at first, he's happy…" She paused. "Well as happy as he gets. He's kind of a brooder. You know that, right?"
I gave it some thought. Was he the brooding type? It was hard for me to tell since our relationship – or whatever it was – had consisted mostly of him pulling my butt out of the fire. The way I saw it, that was enough to make anyone kind of broody.
"Honestly," I said. "I'm not so sure."
"Oh, but he is," she insisted. "But like I said, at first he's sort of happy because your mom hasn't been coming around. But then, when I mention that you're having trouble getting your stuff, he gets all pissed off."
"Really?" I said. "What'd he do?"
"Well, he stands there for a long moment, and I swear, I can hear his teeth grinding together. And then, he just turns and walks away without so much as a 'thanks Allie for the information.'"
Funny, I could almost see it.
Allie was saying, "Pretty rude, huh?"
"I guess," I admitted. "But I still wish you hadn't told him that."
She straightened. "And I wish he hadn't been rude. So we're even."
That actually made sense in an Allie sort of way.
"But about my stuff," I persisted, "you did tell him that we're picking it up on Saturday, right? I mean, so he doesn't worry?"
Allie looked away. "Uh, yeah. About that…"
My stomach sank. "Oh, no. Don't tell me you have to back out?"
I only prayed this wasn't the case. Without a vehicle of my own, I couldn’t do it without her. I couldn’t even borrow the pickup, because the truck was a stick-shift, and there was no way I'd be attempting that, especially on only two days' notice.
When Allie made no reply, I said, "So do I? Need to reschedule, I mean?"
"No. But…" She paused. "It won't be me taking you."
"It won't?"
"No. It'll be Jax."
Chapter 41
I wasn't happy with the news and still wasn't happy two days later when Jax knocked on my apartment door – a half-hour early no less.
It was true that I'd been wanting to see more of him, but this wasn't what I had in-mind. In my fantasies – meaning the ones that weren't X-rated – we spent our time strolling along the beach or getting to know each other over drinks and dinner.
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