“Yeah, well. Something tells me that Sky isn’t going by tomorrow just to check out Jaxon’s wrist.”
“Oh, he’ll give it a passing glance,” Rowdy joked, then went serious. “I’m guessing Sky is trying distract himself from a broken heart.”
“What happened?” I asked, fingering the tiny braid Rowdy’d added to his hair.
“Sky’s sugar daddy got in one final night with him last Friday, then left the next morning before he even woke up.” Rowdy sat back with loosely crossed legs, thoughtful. “Maybe he’s looking for a new way to get his heart broken.”
“Chasing after a straight guy is a sure way to make that happen,” I said as Rowdy pulled up Sadie and Jaxon on FaceTime.
“Ugh,” he said, then smiled when Sadie’s and Jaxon’s faces showed up on the screen.
Jaxon moved his hair off his face, and his wrist was wrapped.
“Did Kit wrap that up for you?” Rowdy asked.
It was hard to tell, but Sadie seemed to turn a little pink. “No,” she answered. “Kit’s new land manager did that for him.”
“Lane?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Nice. Did Kit talk to you more about the office manager position?”
“He gave me a few details over breakfast and gave us a tour of his behind-the-scenes operations, but he said that when I’d had a few more days to settle, he’d like to chat about it. I’d be, uh, working closely with Lane, so he was mostly concerned that we’d get along.”
Jaxon snorted. “No problem there.” He shot us a knowing glance. “Lane’s been by, like, three times already to make sure mywristis resting properly.”
“Well, he’s a very kind man,” Sadie said, her tone slightly defensive.
Jaxon got into the camera, his face taking up the entire viewfinder. “It was like one of those dumb Hallmark movies. They saw each other from across the room, and all of a sudden the rest of us disappeared.”
“Jaxon, we just got here. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mark my words,” Jaxon said sagely. “Not only am I getting a new house, I’m getting a new dad.”
“Jaxon.”
Jaxon rolled his eyes, looking every bit the thirteen-year-old. “If he thinks I’m calling him daddy, he’s got another thing coming.”
She shot him a look that should’ve singed his eyebrows right off. “You shush or I’ll have you mucking out stalls one-handed.”
“Mom, I am so bored. I would happily muck out the stalls.”
Sadie smacked his chest with the back of her hand. “You think at this age he’d be a raging hormone monster, horn dogging after whatever hot young thing he was interested in. But no, I end up with a seven foot tall aro-ace kid with nothing but time to harass me.”
Jaxon beamed. “Whatever. You already bought your first aro-ace ally shirt.”
Rowdy laughed. “There are aro-ace ally shirts?”
Sadie and Jaxon exchanged a look, then cracked up.
“Kinda?” she answered, lifting her palms. “It’s a shirt with the aro-ace colors, and the tagline is ‘My line ends with me.’”
We all got a good laugh out of that, and it was amazing to see that Sadie, with everything she’d been through, had nothing but full-throated support for her son. I knew a lot of wealthy folks with everything going for them who could learn a lesson or two about loving their children where they are.
“Looks like things might work out really nicely for y’all,” I said, happy for them both. “And if we need to find another arrangement, we will.”
“You won’t need to,” Jaxon insisted with a know-it-all look. “Lane’s got that all locked down.”
