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I was checking that position off on my list with a very enthusiastic thumbs-up and a note to add it to the rotation.
Maybe we had a competency kink. Was that a thing? I was a decent cook, and when the eggs didn’t get forgotten in the pan, they were way better than his. Jax watching my complete mastery of simple breakfast foods might have turned him into a mindless brute. Not that I was complaining. Starting your day with a screaming kitchen orgasm was pretty high on my favorite things list now. Just like I’d probably end my day with yardwork-induced sex because of what this simple homeowner’s task was doing to his forearms.
With a sigh, I bit off half a gummy worm.
“You eat those really violently,” he commented, tossing a few weeds into a bucket next to him. “Makes me wonder if I should be nervous when your mouth gets too close.”
Arching my eyebrow, I snapped off another chunk. After swallowing it down, I said, “Oh honey, I won’t use teeth unless you ask nicely.”
Jax gave me a heated look, tugging off the work gloves and dropping them to the ground while he ambled back onto the deck, settling his hands on the arm of my chair and stealing a long kiss from my upturned mouth.
“Delicious,” he murmured.
I held up the bowl. “Want one?”
“I’d rather taste them on you,” he said, sneaking another kiss before he walked back to his work.
“So I was thinking about something this morning,” I said. “You know, after the ruined eggs and the sex and we were off doing boring work.”
“What’s that?” He dug into the dirt with the gardening tool, unearthing a particular stubborn weed with long, straggly roots.
“The trips you took. They weren’tallabout me, were they?”
Jax gave me a wry, subdued grin. “I can’t tell which answer you’d rather hear.”
I threw a gummy worm, hoping to nail him in the head, but it fell a solid two feet shy of the target. “The truth, mister.”
Eyebrow arched attractively, he sat back on his haunches and gazed out toward his barn for a moment. “Most of them were, yeah,” he said, glancing back at me. “You were too young. Too sweet. And I just … I thought that space would do the trick. Make it go away. And it did, for a while at least. Then something else would happen and I couldn’t keep you out of my head like I wanted.”
“But my brother never knew.”
“That it was about you? Hell no.”
As I processed that, I twisted my lips to the side and tapped a gummy worm along the edge of the bowl. “But he always let you go. Always. I’d get emails from him telling me that you’d be gone for two weeks, with a day’s notice. How did you pull that off?” I held his gaze challengingly. “I’m the one who prints your checks. Or used to, until we expanded. I know what you make. How did you do it?”
Jax used his forearm to swipe across his forehead, expelling a forceful breath. “We’d get here eventually. Might as well be now.”
I took a bite of my candy, watching him with narrowed eyes. “Where?”
Turning to face me, Jax was unexpectedly serious. “I need you not to freak out about this.”
My eyebrows shot up my forehead. “Do you know that approach has literally never worked with any woman in thehistory of ever? The moment you preemptively tell someone not to freak out, they’re already starting to freak out.”
He exhaled a quiet laugh, his shoulders shifting uncomfortably. Then he set his jaw and met my curious gaze. “I don’t actually have to work for your brother.”
Tilting my head, I said, “Of course you don’thaveto. You could work anywhere.”
“No,” he said gently. “I mean that I don’t need that job. Before Henry’s dementia set in, he appointed me the executor of his estate. It’s … extensive, and he set it up so that I get paid a healthy salary to make sure his investments are taken care of, that he’s always taken care of. This is just one piece of property he owns—his favorite, admittedly. When I travel around the Pacific Northwest, I can stay at any one of his places. He’s got four or five in total. I sold a couple last year that were more trouble than they were worth. I’ll probably sell a couple more this year, because they’re worth so much, and I’d rather let someone else handle them.” He paused, blowing out a slow breath. “And when he sold all the car dealerships, the assets grew tenfold. I made a percentage off that sale too.”
Mouth hanging open, the gummy worm clattering onto the deck when it fell out of my limp hand. “You… what?” I breathed. “Wait, so I’m paying Henry, but I’m sort of paying … you?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “You know I’m not touching a cent of that money. It’s still going to Henry’s estate. And yes, some of that funnels back to me, which will funnel back to our child. Every cent you give me is going to go right into an account for the kid. College or whatever.”
I blinked a few times. “So you’re telling me that all this time, you’re like … loaded?”
He smiled. “I’ve done all right,” he said modestly. “But someday, hopefully not soon, when Henry passes away, it’ll all be mine.”
Not even sour candy would help with this. I sat back in my seat and stared at him.
