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That seems awfully...reckless of you. And you don’t strike me as a reckless man.
Not a question, exactly, but he answered it well enough anyway. In Jaxon’s mind, he wasn’t being reckless because he knew I desired him, and he’d just proven it.
“No more passes, sunshine,” he said, breaking the spell.
Good ol’ Jaxon was back.
“Not gonna need any, Ranger,” I declared, heading back to my seat.
His laugh was Jaxon’s only response. But it was enough. He thought he had this bet in the bag. A scary thought, that, because I was pretty sure Jaxon played to win.
Every. Time.
THIRTEEN
jax
She wasn’t coming today.
That shouldn’t matter, but somehow, it did. After three days in a row of coffee, lake views as we worked, and a more mellowed-out Natalie than the one I first met, I’d gotten accustomed to mornings with her. Today, though, she had some fieldwork to do and the deck was conspicuously empty.
And then, of course, there was that kiss.
For a “big tough guy” as my younger brother liked to call me, I’d buckled under my own desire, and that was before we actually kissed. Afterward, my fantasies of Natalie had taken a turn I never expected. From hardcore to something more akin to a Hallmark movie. I’d gone from envisioning her riding me to her sitting with me every day, drinking coffee, working from home.
I picked up my phone. Nothing. She should be done by now, and I’d told her to swing by anytime today if she finished with her fieldwork. But it approached eleven, and usually by lunchtime she was gone, so it didn’t look like I’d be seeing her today.
On a whim, I pressed my older brother’s number. He picked up after two rings.
“A call? From Jax? Something’s gotta be wrong.”
I wasn’t much of a phone guy. Text, sure. But calls? Nah.
“Funny. You have a sec?”
My brother still lived in Maplewood with his wife and two daughters. As Mom said, “Thank god for Teddy or I’d have no grandchildren.” When I pointed out both my younger brother and I were under thirty and this wasn’t 1950 when people married young, she ignored me. There was nothing my mother loved more than babies, including her own sons.
That might be a stretch. But Mom did love babies.
“Sure. What’s up?”
The question that popped into my head, the one I’d thought to ask him, seemed ridiculous now.
“Never mind. How’s it going there? Anna okay? How are my girls?”
“She’s hanging in there. And the girls are great. But you’re not getting off the hook that easily.”
I didn’t respond.
“I have patients waiting, so spit it out.”
“I was surprised you answered, to be honest,” I said, my brother’s practice usually being slammed.
“Jax.”
“Fine. When you met Anna. Was it different? Like right away?”
He whistled.
