“Of course, she’s swooning.” Jax breaks out into a sexy grin akin to any big bad wolf worthy of his granny eating salt. Wait, that did not sound right. Of hisPoppyeating salt. I bite down on my lower lip so hard, I nearly draw blood to keep from giggling. “I’m glad you stopped by. I was just about to call you.”
“Really?” Heart stops. Dies. Jaxson Stade, love of my life, was about to use those seven magical digits to tap me on the technological shoulder to tell me he loves me. Okay, so maybe not that. But still. Communication efforts were underway. It’s a start.
“Yes, really.” His brows twitch, and I melt under the duress of those violently blue eyes. When God made Jaxson, he might have dumped a little too much testosterone in the mix because Jaxson has the power to turn any girl into an ovary popping puddle. I swear, I hate this part of me. I used to be strong—attack with my words and then run the hell away was my MO around him for so long. But I can’t help the fact I’m weak as water. When Jaxson Stade pours out all of his attention on you, he has a way of making you feel like the only woman on this lonely planet. “My mother is here.” He nods toward the boardroom. “Let’s go in and say hello.” His arm finds its way around my shoulder as he gives a little wink.
Conner steps in and flips Jaxson’s arm right back off of me. “Why don’t you head in first?” he grunts at his best friend. “We’ve got a little family business to tend to.” My brother offers me a strange combination of a frown and a grimace.
“Will do.” Jax bounces his finger off my nose before heading into the room just down the hall.
“What family business?” I try to peer over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Jax through the wall-sized window that leads to the boardroom.
Conner steps over to make sure my view is completely blocked. He was this way when we were kids, too. Always making sure he wasn’t being ignored while acting like an ass. “Have you lost your freaking mind?”
“No, I haven’t lost my freaking mind. I’m trying to lose my freaking virginity in the event you haven’t noticed,” I tease while jumping up to catch a glimpse of what’s going on in that boardroom without me.
“What?” Conner squawks while stepping in front of me with his refrigerator wide girth, and I give up all hope of sneaking a glimpse of my childhood crush in a zoot suit.
“I’m kidding. I lost my virginity ages ago to Tommy Macintosh in the back of that old VW he used to have.”
“Geez!” Conner covers his ears half-heartedly. “Would you cut it out? Are you trying to kill me? Is that what this is about?”
“No, I’m not trying to kill you. Don’t flatter yourself. This isn’t about you. It’s about me.”And our mother, I want to add but don’t. “I’m happy.” In a revenge-fueled kind of way. “Besides, that’s Jaxson Stade back there. Any girl in town would be glad to claim him, and he’s all mine. You should behappyfor your little sister,” I bleat out that last sentence like a threat.
“I’m not happy. I’m weirded out. You’re right. That’s Jaxson Stade, the boy you practically grew up knowing as your second brother. Hell, he’smybrother. And my brother and sister can’t do things like that together.” Conner softens with a pained look in his eyes as he walks back to his office, and I don’t stop him. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. And I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”
What’s gotten into me? I shake my head. It’s clear something has gotten into him. Yes, Jax was close to both of us, but it’s clear Conner is the only one who saw him as a spare sibling. My hormones were too devout in worship to see him that way. But he’s right. I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.
I take a deep breath and step into that office, fully expecting to find Jaxson’s sexy self preparing his mother for the steamy show to come, when I step right into a dark-haired vaginal touting vixen instead—Larissa.
“Well, if it isn’t Ms. Yeast Infection herself.” I force a tight smile. “If you’re looking for a good ointment to cure that rash, I hear there’s a sale at Walgreens on that tutu cream you tried to peddle.”
“You know—you’re still not funny, Montgomery.” She flicks me in the face with the stack of papers in her hands and walks out the door in those six-inch stilts she’s trying to pass off as heels.
I step in to find a shocked Debbie Stade staring right back at me.
“Poppy, is that you?” Deb honks so loud my name traverses around the cold sterile room like an echo chamber. She swoops on over in her chic pantsuit, her hair carefully coifed and sprayed to a menopause bob perfection.
“Alive and in the flesh!” I head over to Jax without hesitation. I might have started on this road to deception with hesitation, but I’m all aboard the Jaxson Express, or at least I’m hoping to be before midnight. Sadie is right. What is wrong with ending my dry spell while I’m in between jobs? Hopefully soon, I’ll be back in L.A. getting coffee for my new, requisitely tyrannical boss while pretending to be important to my friends and family back home. Okay, so it’s not that bad, and if I had a new job, I’d be more than happy to play barista.
“I just couldn’t stand to be away from this one another livelong minute!” I wrap my arms around Jax Stade in a suit and die a thousandGQdeaths. His chest expands as he takes in a breath, and I’m mesmerized by the way the fabric of his smooth shirt stretches over that rock-hard chest of his. Jax was on the track team back in high school, and the swim team, and the football team—and let’s not forget his love of baseball in the spring. He’s an all-around competitor, whom I might have called Jock Cock a time or two, but only because I was teasing—and drooling. I’ve always been fascinated by the things this boy could do with his body, right up until he started doing the entire cheerleading squad. That sort of killed my fascination—and thus, my fascination sort of turned into a bona fide fear for the general hygiene of his balls and our future children he was housing in there. Although that dream eventually faded just like our friendship.
“Come here, you.” Jax lands his palm over my cheek and plants a slow lingering kiss right over my lips. He pulls back, and I’d swear on my life that the chuckle he’s giving is entirely due to the fact my cheeks have ignited a deathly shade of garnet.
“I still can’t believe this is real.” Deb pulls the three of us into an awkward embrace. “Did your mother mention anything about the POTS gala?”
“Yes!” I give a little enthused hop. “And we’ll be there with bells on.”
“Bells!” She claps up a storm. “Weddingbells, I hope.” She gives a little wink as she cinches her purse over her shoulder. “You know as happy as I am for you both, I’d like to think that my Dalton is smiling down on the two of you twice as hard.” Tears glitter in her eyes as she brings her dead husband into the mix, and my stomach clenches. It’s all fun and games until someone drags a dead body into the room. And in this case, it’s Jaxson’s father. He was a great man, and I cried as hard as Jaxson did the day we lost him.
Jaxson pulls me in close as he looks to his mother. “I’d like to think so, too.”
She shakes her finger at her son as she heads for the exit. “A lot of people thought the two of you belonged together from the start, but he believed in you like no one else.”
“Oh,” I whimper without meaning to.
“I’ll catch you two later. Don’t behave now—you hear?” She gives a wicked cackle as she closes the door behind her.
I bury my face in my hands a moment. “I’m sure your father would be rolling in his grave if he knew what we were up to.”
