“All good. Riley was just checking in. Making sure you’re not a serial killer.”
“I thought I was an axe murderer. And what’s the verdict?” He chuckles.
“Jury’s still out, but you do make me scream bloody murder.” I joke.
This has him choking on his soup, which makes us both burst out laughing before we fall into a comfortable silence, eating our soup.
“Are you up for watching another Christmas movie?” I ask him.
“Hell yeah.” He grins.
“You really do like them? That wasn’t just a thing to, you know …” I ask him.
“Get in your pants?”
“Yeah.”
“No. It’s not a thing. I truly do like them,” he assures me.
“Are you close with your family?” I ask him, remembering him talking about his grandparents and his brothers, but not his parents.
“Yeah. It’s me and my brothers. We all work in a similar field, two are police officers, two of us are firefighters, and the other one is a helicopter pilot for Search and Rescue.”
“And they all live in town?” I ask.
He nods. “My entire family still does. My dad is the chief of police for the district, and my mom is the high school principal. My grandparents used to live just outside of town on their farm. It’s too much for my grandmother now, and she lives with my parents, terrorizing them. I’ve inherited the farm. None of my brothers were interested except me. It means everything to me.”
“Oh wow. You farm?”
“Not anymore, it’s not a working farm, more of a hobby farm as I’m so busy with my job,” he explains.
“Who is looking after the farm while you’re stuck up here?”
“One of my brothers is. I texted the family chat and asked for some help.”
“That’s nice of them.”
“He’s going to call in that favor one day, he’s not doing it out of the goodness of his heart.” He chuckles. “What about you? You said you had a sister.”
“Yeah, Maggie, she’s older. The perfect child. She has her shit together. The high-paying job as a lawyer. The million degrees. The beautiful home. My parents … are fine. Loving but distant. They mean well, but they never really got me, you know? They wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer, and I worked in marketing.”
“Marketing seems like a pretty good job to me.”
I shrug. “Guess so, it’s not my love nor my passion. Stupidly, I let Chett talk me into the degree. I’m still working out what I want out of life now. It’s like someone has taken my rose-tinted glasses off and I’m looking around, wondering how the hell I got here.”
Jax’s jaw tightens. “He really did a number on you, didn’t he?”
“Nine years is a long time to let someone tell you who you should be. I think that’s the worst part. Not the cheating, but realizing how much of myself I lost trying to make him happy. How small I made myself.”
“Hey.” Jax turns to face me fully. “You’re not small. You’re fucking fierce. You drove yourself out here alone, in a snowstorm, to figure out who you are. That takes guts.”
“Or stupidity.”
“Bravery and stupidity often look the same.” He grins. “Trust me, I know.”
I smile despite myself. “Is that your professional opinion?”
“Absolutely.” He reaches out and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, the gesture so tender it makes my chest ache. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re incredible, Sloane Winters. And I feel lucky as hell that you’re stuck here with me.”
