“You broke up with Shawna.”
“It was maybe three hours ago. How did you find out?”
“She came and told me.”
He swore. “I’m sorry, Jax. I didn’t mean for you to get in the middle of any of this. I screwed up from start to finish.”
“Yes, you did. She’s devastated and humiliated and talking about never trusting a man again. That’s all on you.”
There was a long pause. “Because you don’t think I feel bad enough on my own?”
“Not really. You chose this path and I have zero sympathy for you.”
“Thanks for the news flash,” he said, sounding annoyed. “I gotta go.”
“Wait. Did you tell the kids?”
There was a second very long pause. Jax held in a groan.
“Seriously,” she said. “You didn’t?”
“I thought they’d take it better coming from you.”
“This isn’t my mess. Why do you think I should be the one to clean it up?”
“I don’t know what to say. I’ll get it wrong and make everything worse.” His tone turned cajoling. “You always know what they need to hear.”
“Stop trying to bullshit me. You don’t want to be there in case they’re upset and they will be. Dammit, Harris, you let them believe Shawna was joining our family. You let them think it was forever. They’re not going to understand this at all.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right. This is on me. I’ll get them from camp and tell them before I bring them by the house tonight.”
Jax allowed herself about five seconds to imagine how well that would go.
“I’ll do it,” she said. “After I talk to them, you can come over and we’ll have a family discussion about this whole situation.”
“I was going to go watch the game with some friends tonight,” he began. “Maybe tomorrow we could—”
“Tonight,” she said firmly. “Be at the house at seven.”
“Okay. Sure. See you then.”
Jax spent the rest of the day in a state of dread. She might not have wanted Shawna in their lives, but her kids had been all in when it came to the person they thought of as their future stepmom. She’d been sweet and caring and Gentry had been so excited to be a bridesmaid.
Ugh, this was so difficult, she thought, suddenly grateful she and Marcus were going slow. If they kept seeing each other, she would keep him away from the kids for a very long time. They would need to heal from the Shawna debacle before meeting any guy she was dating.
She picked them up from their camp at the usual time and let them talk all the way to the house. When they got there,Xander called out that it was his day to get the mail and ran to the box. She and Gentry had barely made it in from the garage when he burst in behind them, waving a small, thick envelope.
“I think it’s the custom collar,” he said, waving the package. “For Huckleberry. Can we go to the store after dinner and put it on him?”
He and Gentry opened the package. A slim, lime-green collar fell onto the counter. Jax had found a vendor on Etsy who personalized the collars and had paid for expedited shipping.
“I don’t know if Huckleberry is going to like wearing a collar,” she said. “I’d rather put it on him in the morning, when I can watch him. We don’t want him trying to scratch it off.”
Xander’s eyes widened. “You mean like there’d be blood.”
“Don’t say that.” Gentry looked worried. “I don’t want him hurt.”
“I’ll be right there. We don’t know what his life was like before. Maybe he’ll love the collar.” Jax smiled reassuringly. “But I want to go slowly with him and be careful.”
