He doesn’t even look up from his phone.
Callum catches my eye across the table and shakes his head slightly.
This is bad. It’s worse than I thought.
After dinner, we head back to the hotel. I’m about to go to my room when I see Jax in the lobby heading toward the bar.
I follow him.
He orders a beer and sits at the far end of the bar away from everyone.
I sit two stools away and order water.
“You following me now?” he asks without looking over.
“Checking on you.”
“Don’t.”
“Jax—”
“I don’t want to talk, Zeff.”
“Too bad. We need to.”
He takes a long drink. “About what?”
“About tomorrow. About the team. About the fact that you’re destroying everything because––”
“I’m not destroying anything.”
“You requested a single room. You won’t talk to Callum. You won’t even look at me during practice. How is that not fucking everything up?”
He sets his beer down. “You want me to pretend everything’s fine? Pretend I’m okay with you two fucking my girl?”
I scoff. “She’s notyour girl. She was never justyourgirl.”
His jaw clenches. “You have no idea, Zephyr.”
But I do. “So what? That doesn’t give you ownership.”
“It gives me history.”
“We all have history with her now.” I lean closer. “And you walking away doesn’t erase that. It just makes you the guy who couldn’t handle it.”
He looks at me then. “Yeah. I can’t fucking handle it.”
The honesty in his voice catches me off guard.
“Then tell her that,” I say quietly. “Tell her you can’t do this, but you don’t punish her for it. And you don’t punish us.”
“I’m not punishing anyone.”
“Yes, you are. You’re punishing the team. The guys who depend on us.”
He’s quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know how to do this.”
“None of us do. But we’re trying. And you’re not.”
