“Patrice. Your name sounds familiar.”
“He’s the deputy mayor, Mom,” Jaxson said, and with a sigh I nodded as she stared me down. Her eyebrows dove, and the same creeping dread smacked into my gut that always washed over me when reporters were acting particularly frisky. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her thighs, and I braced myself, but a woman came up to her with a stack of paperwork on a clipboard and rescued me from further conversation.
Jaxson rubbed his hand along my thigh, I think to get rid of his nerves without having to actually wriggle away from me, but my body was definitely keyed up. I had to trap his hand in place under my palm or I would have wound up embarrassing myself in front of his mother.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I ignored it. Jaxson shifted around, though, like he couldn’t stand the idea of me ignoring a call that might be important, which was funny because of the two of us, I should be far more concerned. The damned phone rang again immediately after it stopped, and I sighed, reaching into my pocket. It was Ross, so I answered.
“What?” I pressed the phone to my ear so hard that it hurt.
“I need you to—”
“I’m taking a personal day.”
There was a gurgling on his end that sounded like maybe he’d sucked some coffee or a midmorning Bloody Mary down the wrong pipe, and then that was followed by a bunch of coughing. “What?” he wheezed. “Have you ever taken a day?”
“Later, there’s a situation I need to discuss with you.”
Ross blew out a long breath. “Yeah, I’ll be available for that meeting, since it looks like I’ll need to haul my ass into the office.”
“Poor baby. Do you need directions?”
The bastard didn’t bother answering, only laughed as he hung up on me.
Jaxson shivered, and I earned myself a grateful smile as I gave him a little hug.
“You’re busy. I’m fine here.”
Tilting his chin up with one finger, I kissed his soft lips, and he sighed into my mouth.
Across from us, his mother slapped down her clipboard of paperwork onto the empty seat beside her.
“They won’t let you back with your husband?” I asked as I sat taller in my seat, simply to give myself a way to distract her from whatever was fueling her furious stare.
“Not since they’re getting him ready for surgery. I’d only be in the way. How old are you?”
“Younger than you.”
Her frown cleared and she tilted her head back and laughed, a throaty good-time sound that made me think she might not be a bad person to know. “Okay—I like you, I guess. Jaxson seems to like you, anyway.”
He looked up at the sound of his name and smiled at his mother in what looked like relief at her acceptance of our… entanglement. He seemed shy, and while it was the worst time for him to show me that side of himself, I kind of enjoyed the way he let me guide the situation.
The fact he’d been worried about his mother’s response surprised me, though, as I sat there turning it over in my head with nothing else to do. My reaction to her had me uncomfortably aware that I was also relieved by the fact I wasn’t being cursed at right now, and that probably meant I was far more invested in Jaxson than was good for me. I stood, and Jaxson grasped my hand. I kissed his knuckles to wipe the frown off his face.
“I’ll go get us all coffee. Tell me how you like it?”
His mother was fast to rattle off her order, and I figured she wanted to get Jaxson alone to pump him for info on us. Maybe she just wanted her son to herself, but I wasn’t in a very good mood, so my suspicions lingered.
Jaxson opened his mouth to tell me what he would like, and I cut him off. “Hot chocolate?”
He closed his mouth and nodded, and I didn’t miss his smirk.
“You don’t need too much caffeine.”
“Isn’t being the coffee bitch my job?” he asked.
“Today only, I’ll let you off the hook.”
He gave me a tiny eye roll as I took off toward the elevators. I managed to make it down the block to the closest Starbucks and hopped into the midmorning caffeine-crash line that stretched to the door. I was five people from ordering when my phone started ringing. I ignored it. It kept ringing. My curiosity ballooned until I had no choice but to tug the phone out of my pocket. Jean-Paul flashed on the screen.
