“Okay, first of all Quinn, you were supposed to enjoy this week of having the apartment all alone with Cole!” I hollered at her. “I don’t care what kind of drama Jaxon has; you need to make up with Cole.”
I jumped off the bed and shouted for Cole down the hallway. I heard Quinn groan from behind me, but knew this was for the better. Cole made his way down and into my room; he looked really overwhelmed. Quinn had not gone easy on him.
Jace poked his head in, “Mind if I join, or am I interrupting something private?”
“Get over here, gorgeous.” I patted the spot next to me on the bed and he hopped on right beside me. I appreciated when he slid his shoes off so they weren’t on my white comforter.
Cole stood leaning against the doorframe. “Ems, I’ve already said this to Quinn a thousand times. It’s not my place to tell you all of Jaxon’s business, and I have no idea why she’s here now.”
“Let’s get this straight. I may have had a different assumption of what would happen when I came back here and could finally talk to Jaxon. But, right now, I just can’t worry over any of that. You and Quinn are being silly. Quinn, don’t get upset over what’s going on with Jaxon and respect that Cole’s not going to gossip,” I begged her.
“Fine…” she said quietly.
Cole beamed like I had just lifted a huge weight from his shoulders. He came over to Quinn and picked her up to place her in his lap in the chair. I fell backward onto my bed and sighed. Jace scooted back, lying down on his side and looking over at me with his hand propping his head up.
Cole had started roaming Quinn’s body with his hands. Clearly, he hadn’t gotten much this week with a stressed-out Quinn. I snapped my fingers to get them to stop.
“No way, that’s not happening right in front of me.” I pointed to my door.
“Sorry, Emmy, we’ll talk more later,” she smiled at me and I nodded.
“I freaking love you, Ems! I knew I should have gone and brought you back,” Cole said, walking out the door with Quinn in tow.
“Hey! Shouldn’t you be saying that to your girlfriend instead of my best friend?” she fake pouted. He continued to push her out the door and we heard him sweet talking her all the way into her room.
“Oh God, did you have to listen to that all week?” I looked over at Jace, giving him my best sympathetic look.
“No, it was worse. I had to listen to them fight and get all sexually frustrated with each other. It was better than hanging out next door though,” he groaned.
I didn’t know how to respond to that last part. What was going on next door? Have those two been alone in that apartment all week? If this was someone from Jaxon’s past and he was letting her stay with him all week, I couldn’t compete with a past love.
The way Jace was lounging on my bed, I could see down his shirt through the open collar. I noticed familiar black intricate lines touching his collarbone. I slipped my finger onto the collar of his shirt and tugged it across his shoulder.
“You have the same tattoo as Jaxon? Is that a requirement, if one twin gets a tattoo the other must as well, so they can remain identical?” I asked, shocked.
He laughed at my stunned face, “No, I don’t think it’s a requirement. We just got them together after our dad died. If you look closely, they aren’t the exact same, but from afar, they appear that way.”
“I had no idea that your dad passed away.” This was difficult territory for me.
“I suppose you didn’t. Jaxon never talks about it.”
“When did it happen?”
“When we were seventeen, he went on a business trip to Colorado and his plane had engine failure and went down. Jaxon went a little wild after that; our mom kind of let him get away with murder because she knew he was grieving. He’s gotten a lot better though. He seemed really happy when we got here, a lot happier than I’ve ever seen him. I can’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with a certain frustrating blonde though,” he laughed and nudged me.
“My parents died when I was fifteen. I can understand going wild after something like that,” I replied morosely.
He ran his hand through his hair like I’d seen Jaxon do a million times. “Shit, Em, I had no idea, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, it wasn’t your fault.”
“Have you told Jax?”
I shook my head and continued to stare at the ceiling.
“You guys really need to talk more,” he replied.
“Has she been staying there?” I knew that I didn’t need to clarify whom I was talking about. It wasn’t any of my business, but I was hoping Jace could help me out.
“Em, earlier you said you had some assumptions of what would happen when you got back here, and those obviously didn’t pan out,” he said, ignoring my question. “Did you come back to make up with Jaxon?” His voice had taken on a serious tone, but his face didn’t look upset at that prospect.
I rolled over onto my stomach to hide my face in the crook of my elbow. I just wanted to forget this whole Jaxon thing ever happened. I wish that I could ignore the fact that I had developed all these feelings for him, that I had decided to let down my guard and now the door was being slammed in my face. I knew Jace wasn’t going to let it go.
“It’s okay if you did,” he said, interrupting my thoughts. “I think you need to talk to him; he really needs to hear what you have to say.”
“Like you said earlier, he’s busy,” I replied in a clipped tone.
“Call him, text him, meet up with him somewhere. Please just tell him. I don’t know why Audrey’s here, but she’s bad news, and he doesn’t need her in his life again.”
“We live right next to each other and we have classes together. I’m sure I’ll run into him at some point. In the meantime, promise me you won’t tell him I’m back? That’s if he even noticed I was gone in the first place.”
“Oh, he noticed.” He collapsed onto his back and his arms shot up in the air. “I don’t understand girls. I thought I did, but California girls are on a whole other level it seems,” he grumbled.
“I don’t think we understand ourselves either. I sure as hell don’t know what to do about myself.” I patted his chest and sat up.
“He asked about you every day.”
I nodded my head, “I figured that’s why you texted me.”
“I texted you because you’re my friend, Em, but he also needed some peace of mind.”
I patted his leg, “It’s fine, Jace.”
“Mind if I hang out over here for a little longer? I need to study and Audrey’s voice is like nails on a chalkboard for me.”
“Of course, we don’t mind. Sleep on the couch if you want to.” I didn’t like the idea of Jaxon having the whole apartment alone with her, but I couldn’t throw Jace to the wolves.
“Sweet, thanks, Em,” he smiled.
Chapter Ten
Dropping a Bombshell
Somehow I managed to avoid Jaxon for three more days. I didn’t know if I just knew how to evade well, or if he was just busy with Audrey; I hoped it was the first one. I showed up late to our classes and managed to snag a seat in the back. I always had my bag packed and ready to leave before the class was over so I could sneak out without him seeing me. I had no idea if he knew I was back or not. Jace never told me if he asked.
As I was walking across the courtyard toward the cafeteria on Wednesday after biology, I noticed Jaxon sitting alone under a giant oak tree. Seeing him reaffirmed how much I’d missed him the last week and a half. He was so striking lounging in the shade of the tree. He had on blue jeans with a long-sleeved red shirt that made his skin look bronzed. His dark hair was poking out from under his black ball cap that was placed haphazardly on top of his head. He hadn’t noticed me yet because he was reading one of his textbooks.
I walked up next to him under the shade. I saw that he finally noticed me when his hand just slightly slid off the page of the book. His eyes trailed up my legs to my denim skirt, and I swear they le
ft a trail of goose bumps as they roamed upward to my face.
The sexy smirk on his face was almost my undoing. “I was wondering if you would ever come talk to me again, Em,” he finally said.
Ouch. “Don’t do that. Don’t call me Em like everyone else; you’ve never called me that before,” I said quietly.
“Aren’t I just like everyone else to you?”
He was not going to let me off the hook easily. I had hurt him with my rejection and I needed to make it right. He deserved to know that he had been right all along, that I was just scared. When he called me out on running away from him and us, he was accurate, and I didn’t like that. I kneeled down in the grass as gracefully as I could with a skirt on. I wanted to be able to see into his blue eyes and apologize.
“Jax-“
“There you are!” I heard a girl interrupt from across the courtyard.
I turned to see that it was Audrey with her curly brown hair pinned to the top of her head. Jaxon cursed under his breath and slammed his text shut. Shit, does she go to school here now or something? I turned back around to face Jaxon, giving him a questioning look. He was too busy looking at her though.
“I’ve been looking all over for you, Jaxy.” Ew, I hated that nickname instantly. I don’t know if it was because it was coming out her mouth, or if it was just horrible in general, but I did not want to hear this. I stood up and grabbed my bag off the ground from beside me.
“What are you doing here, Audrey? I said I would come back to meet you at the apartment after my classes,” he sounded frustrated. I noticed that he had spun his ball cap to the back and he was standing up as well. I guess his quiet solace was entirely interrupted now.
“What, I can’t come hang out with my hubby? Besides, it doesn’t look like you’re in class, anyway,” she said while looking directly at me.
What the hell did she just call him? “HUBBY?” I gasped, looking at Jaxon. Was he married? Had he been married when we slept together? I started backing away from both of them.
“Audrey, shut the hell up!” Jaxon hollered. He pinched the bridge of his nose and when he brought his hand out toward me, I shook my head and continued walking away. “Emerson, please!”
I didn’t look back or respond, but I could hear him in the distance talking to Audrey in harsh clipped tones. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Who the hell gets married in college or did it happen before college? Why would Jaxon chase after other girls while he was married?
I ran all the way out to the parking lot, intending to run straight home or catch the bus if there was one waiting. Here I was once again running from Jaxon. When I got out to the lot, Jace was sitting on the tailgate of the truck reading from about four different textbooks again. When he looked up and saw my face, his dropped and he hopped off the back of the truck and came running up to me. He grabbed my shoulders and bent down to look in my eyes.
“He’s married?” I shouted at him.
His hands dropped and he backed away. “Shit…”
“I don’t care what kind of bro-code you guys have, but don’t you think that kind of thing should be made known?” I started walking again. My body was feeling antsy, like I couldn’t control this painful current flowing through me.
He reached out and stopped my movement. “Em, it’s not what you think.”
“I don’t care what it is anymore. This whole ‘relationship’ situation is already too painful and it never even began. This is exactly why I never wanted to go down this road in the first place, why I made rules. I give up!” I shouted.
“Just stop for a second, Em. Let me at least take you home, we can talk this over,” he pleaded.
“Forget it, Jace. I’ll see you later, I’d rather walk right now anyway.” I continued walking away from the parking lot and he didn’t follow after me.
On my walk back, I decided to call Quinn, hoping that she was available to take a call. She answered on the third ring and I could tell I had interrupted her, because she told me to ‘hold on’ in a whisper.
“What’s up, Emmy?”
“Audrey called Jaxon her hubby.”
“WHAT?” she shrieked, “Emmy, she’s a crazy bitch, just talk to Jaxon.”
“Quinn, what if he’s married?”
“I’m going to kill Cole. I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you at home later.”
“Later.”
I should feel bad for Cole, but this time I didn’t. He was supposed to be my best friend; shouldn’t he be looking out for my best interests? The mile walk back to the apartment took longer than it should have taken me. I just wanted to lie down in my bed and mope for a couple of hours. Then I would dry my eyes and3 move on. This wasn’t me; I didn’t get upset over anybody. But for now, I just needed a couple of hours to feel sorry for myself.
It’s nice having such close friends. I love it, really I do, but you get absolutely no privacy or solitude. People feel comfortable just walking in on me all the time. Especially Jaxon. I was lying on my bed with my headphones on and eyes closed, listening to angry rock music, because that always gets me out of my funk, when I literally felt my door slamming. My eyes popped open to see Jaxon standing there in front of my closed door, looking extremely livid.
The whole right side of his face was flaming red and he had a large gash right above his eyebrow that was dripping blood down his face. It had already streamed down his cheek onto his shirt. I also noticed his hands were balled up into tight fists. I jumped up to look for a towel to put on his face.
“Oh my God, what happened to your face?” I cried, ripping the headphones out of my ears.
I snatched a washcloth out of my closet and came back to help him clean up. He grabbed me and slammed his mouth onto mine. For a moment, I forgot about my rejection, his ‘wife,’ and even his bleeding face. There was only he and I, with nothing between us. I missed him so much. I missed the feel of his body under my hands.
Before I was ready, he pulled back and ended the kiss. “Are you ready to listen to me now?” He asked in a husky voice and I could tell that kiss had the same effect on him as it did for me.
“Let me grab some supplies to help clean up you first.” I left my room before my face turned as red as his. I grabbed all of the first-aid supplies Quinn and I had from the bathroom.
When I got back to my room, he was sitting in the chair at my desk and I gestured at his shirt. “Take it off.”
His uninjured eyebrow cocked up at me in question, although he was smiling at my request.
“Your shirt is getting ruined by your stupid face bleeding all over it,” I replied, to his cocky look.
“It’s already red, who cares?” he asked, but he reached behind his neck to take it off anyway. I loved the way he dragged his shirts over his head.
It took every ounce in me to stop myself from sliding my hands up his abs and around his neck. I wanted to put my lips on that tattoo hugging his right shoulder.
“Are you going to tell me why half your face is busted?”
“Are you going to talk to me without running away?”
“Touché. I’ll talk,” I replied, leaning in quietly and inspecting his eyebrow. “You should probably get stitches.”
“Hell no, I don’t need stitches, just slap a bandage on it.” He grabbed my hips and placed me in his lap with my legs wrapped around him. I instinctively grabbed his bare shoulders to steady myself.
When I gave him a questioning look, he shrugged. “Just so you can get a closer look, Nurse Emerson.” I watched as a smile broke out across his face. Playful Jaxon was hard to resist.
I tapped his forehead above his gash as to remind him he had some explaining to do first.
“I was in the parking lot coming to find you when that idiot Cole came blazing down the lot yelling at me. He fucking just started wailing on my face. He was pissed,” he let out a small laugh. “I knew he had a right to be, so I didn’t stop him. Jace jumped in there after a few good ones though. I’m almost fucking positive he coul
d have stopped him sooner, but I think he’s pissed at me too.”
“Cole did this?” I hollered at him.
This cut was really deep; I had no doubt that he needed stitches. One time I had opened the kitchen cabinet and a glass cup came flying down at my face from the top shelf. It sliced a cut across my cheek right under my eye. The ER doctor didn’t want to place stitches so close to my eye, so he sent me home with a box of butterfly stitch bandages. I still had a couple left over that I could use on his eyebrow to hold the cut closed; hopefully it would heal without a scar or infection.
“Yeah, I guess he was finally tired of me ruining things with Quinn for him, because she got pissed at him for not telling you about Audrey. Man, don’t get in the way of that guy and his girl.”
I groaned, “They just got started and we keep spoiling it for them. I’m an awful friend.” I continued wiping up all the blood and trying gently to scrub off the areas that had already dried to his skin. When it was all clean, I smoothed some ointment across it. He continued to sit there quietly, watching my face while I worked. Every once in a while, we would make eye contact and I had to force myself to break it before I started something up with him I wouldn’t be able to stop. I needed to know who Audrey was and what he hadn’t told me yet.
He was still staring into my eyes as I pushed his cut together and applied the bandage so it would hold the skin firmly in place. When I was done, I dropped my hands into my lap.
“I’m not married, Emerson.” I slowly let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. “I used to be though.”
The breath I had just released was sucked right back in. He laid his forehead down onto my shoulder, I’m assuming so he didn’t have to look at my shocked face.
“I told you I had no room to judge anyone. I was a moron.” He lifted his head back up to look at me. His face appeared sad and guilt-stricken. I gently tried to smooth away the lines across his face, carefully avoiding his cut. “I went a little crazy in high school and I started dating Audrey. My senior year, right after I turned eighteen, she got pregnant. She was so pissed at me and pressured me to do something to make it right. I couldn’t tell anyone; I was disappointed in myself. I didn’t tell my Mom or even Jace. I snuck off with her to get married since we both were eighteen. I thought that was the right thing to do if she was going to have my kid.” He laid his forehead back down on my shoulder.