Find someone to share it with x
It’s a note she’s left before, too many times to count, but this time I don’t throw it away and eat the entire dish myself. I leave both where they are and make myself a sandwich.
I eat standing up while texting Jax.
Tanner:did u eat dinner yet?
Jax:nope, still out
Tanner:it’s getting dark, be safe
Jax:always am x
I believe him. Jax doesn’t know the trails as well as I do, but he knows his shit when it comes to staying safe out there. There’s no reason for me to worry about him, or Gabi, but I do it anyway and wish they’d both come home already before it occurs to me that they both live somewhere else.
Idiot.Back in the bar, things are starting to buzz. Happy hour stretches out and doesn’t seem to end. Molly cranks the music, and I don’t make her turn it down again. I crave quiet, but noise suits me better. I weave through the crowd, gathering glasses and nodding at the regular faces who call my name. Somehow, I still find myself looking for Jax and my brother, even though neither of them have ever taken a seat in the comfy booths or the round tables, and the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach makes no sense until it’s abruptly not there anymore.
Skin tingling, I glance up from my loaded tray.
Jax is right there, a few feet away. The face that grins at me is tired, but he’sright there.
I abandon the tray and thread my way to him. It’s hard not to drag him into my arms, but I manage it.
Just.
He’s still dressed in his outdoor gear.
“Damn. You just got back?”
He gives me a weary shrug. “We had to make a detour.”
“Where to?”
“The hospital. Got snagged on a branch. Jerry made me get stitches and a tetanus shot.”
“Where?”
“Which bit?”
“The stitches.”
“My leg and there’s, like, three of them, so it looks like a tiny mouse tried to finish what the shark started.”
His scowl is so genuinely aggrieved that the bloom of concern in my gut turns to laughter. It bubbles out of me before I can stop it, and surprises me as much as Jax. I mean, I’m not laughing at him for getting hurt, but man, he knows how to tell a story. “Please tell me it wasn’t the same branch you face-checked last week?”
“Can’t confirm,” Jax says. “And don’t you go asking Jerry either; he already thinks I’m a trainwreck.”
I won’t be asking Jerry anything. Guilt threatens the light Jax has gifted me just by walking in the door, but I push it back. Jerry’s the nicest guy in the world, and I’m a selfish fuck who needs space between my new life and the one I had with him. Besides, Jax is leaning tiredly on the bar and nothing else matters right now.
Rainn is nearby. I point upstairs and he nods; then I take Jax’s arm and steer him out of the bar. “Did you ever get your dinner?”
“Hmm?”
“Dinner,” I repeat. “You hungry?”
Jax follows me through the doors and up the stairs. He doesn’t answer until we’re at my front door. “I could eat,” he says. “But I should probably go home. I told them I didn’t need the shot, but they gave it to me anyway and now I need a nap.”
He isn’t going home, at least not until I can go with him. I know better than to tell him what to do, but those are the facts.
