He waves us toward a couple of mismatched chairs behind the counter.
“You want coffee?”
“Yes please,” I say quickly.
Jax ignores the question entirely and walks to a small fridge behind the counter.
He pulls out a beer.
O swats the back of his head as he passes.
“Hey!”
“That’s my last one,” O says.
“You say that every time.”
“And you drink it every time.”
Jax shrugs and pops it open. “Consistency is important.”
O sets a chipped mug of coffee in front of me. I take it gratefully.
O looks between the two of us. “So,” he says slowly, “you two together?”
Jax coughs on his beer. “No.”
“Definitely not,” I say at the same time.
O squints at him, a slow, knowing grin spreading across his face. “That’s not what the energy in this room is telling me.”
“We are friends,” Jax responds.
“Funny,” O says, his eyes crinkling. “I remember the way you looked at her the night you two stumbled in here years ago. Like a starving man who’d just been handed a steak.”
My eyebrows lift.
Jax stares hard at the floor.
“We’re… toxic for each other,” I say, trying to salvage the conversation.
O nods thoughtfully. “Hm.” He takes a slow sip of his own coffee. “That usually leads to the best kind of fucking.”
Jax chokes on his beer.
“What?” the old man says calmly, completely unfazed. “I’m old, not dead. I’m not blind either.”
I laugh, taking a sip of my mug. “He’s wise, Jax. You should listen to him.”
O leans back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “She’s a keeper. You listening, boy?”
Jax glares at both of us. “Great. Glad you two are bonding.”
O dismisses Jax’s glare and turns his full attention to me. “Don’t mind him. He’s stubborn like a rusted-out lock. So what brings you here, sweetheart? We’ve already established he’s an idiot, and since he’s not here to introduce you as his better half, what’s the real reason for the visit?”
Jax cuts in before I can answer. “I’m showing her around.”
O raises a skeptical eyebrow, his gaze flicking between Jax’s tense posture and my amused expression. “That so.” O studies him a moment longer, his playful tone evaporating. “How are things? Your mom still gone?”
