AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was speaking with a lot more confidence than I actually felt, but I couldn’t let him know I was grateful. Not Jax. Not ever.
“Well then fuck me for showing up,” he grumbled. “Next time I’ll just keep walking.”
We stared at each other for a moment, probably because it had been a while. To tell the truth, Jax looked good. Better than good, actually. Even under his jacket I could see he’d put on ten or fifteen pounds of muscle. His arms were thicker, his shoulders broader. But those ice-blue eyes. That smug, condescending smile…
Those things were all the same.
“So, you know who that asshole was?” he asked smartly. “He said your name.”
I stared back at him for a moment, then let out a long, resigned sigh.
“He’s… my date.”
Two dark brows arched upward. “Your date?”
“He was, anyway. Yeah.”
Jax laughed, and his laughter was every bit as mocking as I remembered it.
“Well, you sure know how to pick em’!” He scratched at his well-trimmed beard. “Where the hell did you find that guy, anyway?”
I searched for a quick lie, and came up with nothing. His smile widened.
“Ah, Tinder train!”
“Shut up.”
“Choo-choo!” he mocked, holding a hand to the side of his mouth. “All aboard!”
“Oh please,” I countered. “Like you did any better with what’s her name? Melissa?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah,” I smiled wryly. “That’s it, Melissa! The one who used to wear pajamas when we went out to the movies, and drank from a sippy cup?”
“It wasn’t a sippy cup.”
“And remember that time she put her hair in pigtails?” I forged on. “For no good reason? At twenty-something years old?”
God, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed watching him squirm. And it was so easy, too. I knew all the right buttons to press.
“Melody, not Melissa,” he spat evenly, “is ancient history.”
“Oh yeah?” I pressed. “And what’d she do? Did she leave her crayons out all over the table? Color outside the lines? Did she forget to put away her toys, or—”
“She robbed a bank.”
He said the words matter-of-factly, I couldn’t do anything but chuckle.
“Yeah, right.”
“No, seriously,” Jax said. “An actual bank. Plastic gun, ski mask. She wrote the teller a note and everything.”
I paused, picturing Melissa — no, Melody — in my head again. Then I started laughing, totally uncontrollably. The look of disdain on his face had me laughing even harder.
“So it’s not like you’re batting a thousand, either,” I told him.
“Do you even know what batting a thousand is?” he asked glibly.
