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Olive and Sage ran around the corner, oohing and aahing about the house and big backyard.
“You have a meadow,” Olive gasped, pressing her little face to the slider. “Can I go look at the flowers?”
“Of course, sweetie. Knock yourself out.”
Sage yanked the slider open for Olive, and they ran into the backyard. My mom came around the corner, carrying two bags of food in her hands. “Everything looks wonderful, Poppy.”
She wrapped me in a hug, and even though I wanted to look away from Jax, I couldn’t.
My heart galloped in my chest the longer neither one of us broke the breathless eye contact. I thought Jax would smile. Thought he’d do something to ease this discomfort pressing against the seams of my entire being. But he didn’t.
He just stared right back.
My whole body trembled, and my mom must have sensed something was off because she hummed, tightening her arms like my only tether to the ground. “You okay?” she whispered.
Instead of answering, I buried my head in her shoulder and let out a slow, deep breath.
No. I wasn’t okay.
When I opened my eyes again, Jax was gone.
Chapter 29
Jax
If this Monday didn’t feel long enough, the two idiots on either side of me were determined to make it feel ten times longer.
“She text you back?”
Rob nodded, tossing his phone to Dipshit. “Acted like she hadn’t ghosted me for the whole fucking week.”
Next to me, Wade sighed. Heavily. I pressed the nail gun to the frame, hitting the trigger three times as quickly as possible.
I’d nail every square inch of the framing if it would drown out the sound of the voices.
Dipshit glanced at the phone and whistled. “That’s what she said?”
Rob gave him a look. “You see what I said back?”
“Bro.”
I growled, slamming the nail gun down onto the work horse. “If you two don’t zip it, I’m going to staple your mouths shut.”
Dipshit’s eyebrows shot up. “That feels like an excessive reaction.”
“I just want to get our work done, and you two never stoptalking,” I yelled.
Rob leaned closer to Dipshit. “He’s been in a bad mood the past few weeks. You missed a lot before you got hired.”
“What did I just say, kid?” I snapped.
Rob grinned. “He came home from this big long trip because he gets four times more vacation than the rest of us, found out he’s gonna be a daddy with the boss’s sister, and his panties have been in a wad ever since.”
Dipshit’s eyes widened. “Greer?”
Wade muttered something under his breath. I slicked my tongue over my teeth, pinning him with a glare so potent that I hoped it shriveled his balls.
Rob burst out laughing. “Can you imagine?” He wiped at an imaginary tear under his eye, then shook his head. “The other one. The one who was here last week.”
