Page 17 of Jaxson

They got to talking about some of the gossip around town. Neither of them spoke about Jaxson.

Talking with Kate didn’t exactly calm her nerves, in fact, it did the complete opposite. She knew the reputation Jaxson had, but that was before the two of them started ... what? They weren’t exactly dating. They hung out a couple of times, and now she had sex with him. She wasn’t keeping her virginity for a special occasion. She’d been so focused on her work, and after losing her parents, she didn’t want to date. No one had asked, either.

Maybe she was overthinking everything, or, this was about to become a total disaster.

Chapter Six

Jaxson didn’t want people whispering behind their backs, or for it to be obvious that people might be talking about them. So, instead, he decided to roll up his sleeves and get to cooking himself.

Everything was set up in his place, and he lived in a small house just outside of town. It was a nice street, tended to have a lot of kids playing outside. Most of the neighbors ignored him, just as he ignored them. They only talked to him when they needed something and that was the way he liked it.

So, he had all the work prepared in his backyard, everything was set, and now he needed to go and pick up his date. He never put any effort into anyone else. He certainly didn’t cancel appointments and cook for them. Tillie wasn’t just any other woman. She was special to him.

So, he spent the whole afternoon cooking, and he didn’t even like to cook. He preferred to order takeout, or just bring home a pizza, or he’d go to his parents’ house for dinner, or eat the frozen meals Tillie cooked for him.

Climbing into his truck, he gave a thumbs-up to the two boys playing in the street. They were friends and tended to come and chat with him, trying to ask him everything he knew about girls. Their mothers had been worried, but he served them some soda, talked to them like friends, and it seemed to settle their parents down.

He wasn’t going to run down all the things he’d done with women, with a couple of fifteen-year-old boys. That shit would not happen. He also wasn’t going to make them angry little boys either. That was unnecessary. So, he talked to them, showed them some respect, and in return they did the same. He spoke to them the way he liked to be spoken to growing up.

His own father had done the same. There had come a point he stopped treating him like a child and started to treat him like a man. Of course, this had both good and bad parts, because there were times he didn’t want to grow up. He wanted to enjoy being a grownup when it suited him and a kid at the same time. His mother told him that wasn’t how the world worked.

He had to either be a kid and lose adult privileges, or be a grownup and accept the responsibility. Looking back now, it had been over the stupidest thing—mowing the lawn. He was paid to do it, as well as take out the trash every Friday. Only, he hadn’t wanted to do that. He wanted the pocket money but not the job.

For a month, his mother gave him a taste of not doing his chores, not getting any money. He knew she had also done it around the time he wanted something and was going to save. Instead, she made him go without to teach him a lesson, that without hard work, there was no chance of being able to afford what he wanted.

Jaxson had learned that lesson, and the lawn was mowed every single week, and the trash was taken out. That Christmas, he got the gift, and it hadn’t even been that important. He just remembered and respected his parents for the lesson they had taught him. Of course, that was now, as a thirty-five-year-old man. At the time, he’d hated them.

Pulling out of his thoughts, he made his way over to Tillie’s house. He had already gone out to the pet shop and gotten a bed and some toys for Belle. He was not going to get Tillie without having Belle as well, and he wanted both his women to be comfortable.

Holding his hand up, he went to knock on the door, but it opened, and Tillie stood before him. Her blonde hair was curled around her face and shoulders. She had on a little lipstick and some light makeup. She smiled at him, and then he saw the dress, and it had come with a sew-along as well.

It had been one she struggled not to flash her bra to the camera, but she had succeeded in doing so, and he’d watched, hoping for a part to fall. It was curved over her chest, and he knew there were several channels of elastic—one over the bust, another under the bust, and she used something called shirring. This happened to be elastic thread that created a crinkled effect, which made the piece of fabric stretchy. The dress had looked stunning on her in the video when she did it last year, and it looked amazing now.

“Hi,” she said.

Belle was at her feet, and he bent down to pick up her dog. Tillie smiled, and she reached out, stroking the back of her dog’s neck.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“Yes, yes. Let me just grab my bag. Do I need to bring anything for Belle?”

“No, I’ve got everything. Including some dog food.”

“Dog food?”

“I asked Phil at the shop what kind of dog food you use, and he got me a case.”

“Wow, okay, thank you,” she said.

He wanted to kiss her, but instead, he took her hand, and they walked back to his truck. He also purchased a harness so Belle would be secure in his truck.

Tillie climbed up into his truck, and he noticed she didn’t criticize it. There had been a couple of women who would wrinkle their noses at the truck, asking if he had something nicer.

He pushed all of that out of his mind. His past was starting to piss him off, and when he was younger and thought it was fun to sleep around with random women, he now wanted to go back in time and punch himself in the face.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

He didn’t want to tell her he hated the thought of people whispering about them, so he wasn’t going to take her anywhere.