"Well, Jaden – the dumb-ass that he is – he starts asking, 'When are you coming home?' And she tells him, 'I am home. You didn't get the letter?'"
"Oh, my God." My stomach sank at the mere thought. "So she wrote you a letter, telling you she wasn't coming back?"
Jax gave another laugh, just as bitter as the one before. "Shit, she didn't write the letter. She got her husband's lawyer to write it."
I stared at him. "What?"
"Yeah," Jax said. "Turns out, she'd divorced my dad the year before, and neither one of them bothered to tell us."
"But wait a minute. How could they hide it? I mean, that's kind of hard, right?"
"Not for them. They fought all the time anyway."
I winced. "That bad, huh?"
"Eh, you get used to it," he said. "Funny though, they'd been yelling about divorce my whole life. Only sometime the year before, they went and did it." He paused. "Or more accurately, she got the ball rolling."
"So she divorced him? How do you know?"
"A few years ago, I had someone look into it."
"But didn't she at least want to see you?"
"Me and Jaden? Hell no."
"But why not?"
"Because she'd traded up, probably didn't want the complication."
It was so cold, I stifled a shiver. "Wow." At the sound of my own voice, I winced. "I guess I already said that, huh?"
Jax gave a half shrug. "What else can you say?"
"So what happened after you showed up there?" I asked. "I mean, I bet your dad was pretty worried, right?"
"Doubt it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, it's not like he came looking for us."
"Oh." I hesitated. "But what did he say when you got back home?"
"We didn't go back home."
"Not ever?"
"Nope."
"So, what did you do?"
"So we're a few miles from my mom's new place, and we're sitting there in the car, with no gas and no money – actually slept in the car a night or two. And this lady knocks on the car window and asks if we're okay. And we say 'Yeah, fuck off.'"
In spite of everything, I almost laughed. "You didn't."
Jax smiled. "We did."
"And what did she say?"
"She told us to 'fuck off' right back. And then, she tells us she's just made lasagna, and that we should get our asses inside before it gets cold."
"Inside where?"
"Her house."
"So, did you? Go inside, I mean?"
Jax shrugged. "Well, it had been a couple of days."
"And then what happened?"
"Nothing," he said.
"What do you mean nothing?"
"I mean, we never left."
I sat, stunned, for a long moment. Finally, I said, "And this lady, it's Darla, isn't it?"
"Good guess."
It wasn't that good, considering how obvious it should've been. This explained so much, but it also reminded of something I'd overheard on the night we'd first met.
"On the night of that party," I said, "Jaden threatened to tell Darla what you did last October. What was it?"
"Nothing, but it would still tick her off."
"Yeah, but what was it?" I persisted.
"The short story is, we paid off her house."
"And she didn't know it was you?"
"Technically, it was me and Jaden. And no, she doesn’t know." He gave a rueful laugh. "I'd been wanting to do it for years, but she always got so ticked."
"So, how'd you manage it?"
"Some sweepstakes thing."
"What kind?"
"The kind you don't enter."
I smiled. "So you arranged for her to win a fake contest?"
"Pretty much."
I was glad. I'd only seen Darla a few times, and it was pretty obvious that she didn't like me. But I knew why and tried not to take it personally – at least not yet.
I said, "That must've been pretty awkward, with you dating her daughter."
"You're telling me," Jax said. "Dumbest thing I ever did." His voice softened. "But she's not all bad. You know, she's not Darla's natural kid any more than I am?"
"Really?"
"Really."
"How'd that happen?" I asked.
"The same way it happened with us – except it was a couple of years earlier."
I wanted to ask more, but wasn't sure that I should pry, at least not about Morgan, since they'd once been an item. And besides, there was something else that I was more desperate to know.
"Back to your brothers," I said, "is that why you guys don't get along? Because you never went back home?"
"That's part of it," Jax said. "But the other part is, well, Jake said some things that I didn't wanna hear."
"Like what?"
"For one thing, he called our mom a whore."
I tensed. "To her face?"
"Knowing him? Probably. But that's not what I meant. I meant, that's what he told me when he showed up in Florida."
"So he came looking for you?"
Jax gave a hard scoff. "No. He came looking for his car."
"Oh, come on," I said. "That couldn't’ve been the only reason he showed up."
"Wanna bet?" Jax said. "Shit, he even told me."
The more I learned, the more my heart went out to him. "But there's something I don't get," I said. "You said that Jake called your mom, well, something not very nice, and you said you didn't like it, but…" I wasn't quite sure how to put this.
"But I called her a skank?" He shrugged. "I guess I'm no angel either."
"You're wrong," I said. "You are."
When he made no reply, I couldn't help but recall what he'd called my mom a couple of months earlier. At the time, it had seemed so out of character, but now, I thought I understood.
Obviously, he was dealing with family issues of his own. When another minute passed in silence, I leaned closer to him and said, "You've been my angel, anyway."
At this, he looked almost horrified. "Angel, huh?"
"Well, I mean, you've been really wonderful—"
He stood. "That's it."
I stared up at him. He didn't look angry. In fact, he looked almost amused. Or maybe that was just bravado.
Either way, I asked, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I wanna show you something."
"Really? What?"
His gaze met mine. "That I’m no angel."
It took me a moment to realize what he meant. But when I did, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. Maybe I didn't know exactly what to say, but I did know what I wanted to do – and that was to love him with every ounce of my being.
So that's what I did. And he loved me back – not just on that night, but on countless nights as the weeks slid by in blissful ignorance of something secret he'd been doing on the side.
No. He wasn't cheating – thank God. But it was something that sent me spiraling into all kinds of uncertainty.
Chapter 67
It was a sunny afternoon, and I had the day off. In fact, I'd had lots of days off lately. Probably, I should've been worried, but I wasn't.
The last few months had flown by in a flurry of sex and fun, with only the barest amount of work. It wasn't that I wanted to be a bum, but somehow, I always ended up with the shortest shifts and very few weekend shifts at all.
And, on the rare times I was scheduled to work on a weekend, it never failed that someone begged to take my place. In a way, I could see why. Weekend shifts were, by far, the most profitable because that's when the tips really stacked up.
Normally, I'd hate to give up so much money, but for once in my life, I was barely thinking about it at all.
The reason for that was obvious. In the last few months, my expenses had fallen to nearly nothing. I rarely needed groceries, because Jax was always taking me out. I never needed new clothes, because he was constantly taking me on surprise shopping trips. I wasn't even buying my own lattes anymore, because Jax w
as constantly surprising me with gift cards to my favorite little coffee shop.
This particular afternoon, I'd just used one of those cards for my daily latte when Kimmie, my favorite barista said, "Oh come on, lemme see it."
She was talking about my new driver's license, which I'd just gotten that day. After months of putting it off, I'd finally given up my Tennessee license, and was officially a Florida resident.
I laughed at Kimmie's request. "No way. It's like the worst picture ever."
"It can't be worse than mine." As proof, she reached under the counter and dug through her purse. A moment later, she handed me her license and said, "See?"
I gave it a quick look. It was bad, but not quite as bad as mine. "You're on," I said, handing back her license and digging out my own.
When I handed it over, she studied it for a long silent moment before saying, "Wow. That is bad."
She was right, of course. In the picture, my skin had this weird greenish hue, like I was from outer space or something. The only thing missing were the antennas.
Kimmie was still looking at my license. "Hey, you wanna hear something funny?"
"What?"
"You're living in my cousin's old place."
"No kidding?"
"Oh yeah." She pointed to the license. "I recognize the address. Man, she loved that apartment – hated to give it up though."
"Then why did she?" I asked.
"It was the rent," Kimmie said. "Three grand a month?" She gave a low whistle. "Hard to afford that on a bookkeeper's salary."
I paused. "Wait, three thousand? Are you sure?" She had to be mistaken. Allie and I were paying less than half that amount.
"Oh yeah," Kimmie said. "I told her she was biting off more than she could chew, but she was insistent, said she'd get a roommate or something. She even asked me, but there was no way I could afford that, or rather, half-that, I guess, since we'd be splitting it."
I was so confused, I didn't know what to say.
Kimmie paused to study my face. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." I summoned up a smile. "It's just that, well, that's not what we pay."
"Oh, I believe that," she said. "Rent's been going up all over." She looked toward the window. "It's because of the beach. The closer it is, the pricier things get."
She looked back me and sighed. "And one thing about waterfront, they're not making any more of it, that's for sure."
I nodded, even as my mind whirled. Why was my rent less? Rent never went down. Did it?
Kimmie was still talking. "Just between you and me, even the coffee shop was having trouble."
"Trouble with what?" I asked.
"The rent," she said. "Just like everywhere."
"But they got it all sorted out?"
"Yeah, but only because a new company bought the property."
"Oh, so you're under new management?"
Kimmie shook her head. "No. It's just that a different company owns the building, and they're charging us less for rent."
So rent did go down, at least sometimes. Still, something about the whole situation seemed not quite right, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
So later that afternoon, I did a little research, and what I learned made me feel more than a little funny.
Chapter 68
Allie had just walked into the apartment when I said, "I've got a question. Double J – does that mean anything to you?"
She shut the door behind her and dropped her purse onto the nearby side table. "Yeah, why?"
"Well?" I said. "What does it mean?"
She looked at me like I was crazy. "You know what it means. You're the one who got me the job."
I groaned. "So it is them?"
"If you mean Jax and Jaden, yeah. What, you didn't know?"
"No. I didn't. I mean, I knew their initials, and I knew the name of their regular company, but I didn't know they had that whole other side thing going."
"You mean the real estate?"
"Yeah. It's like they own half the city."
"Not just this city," she said. "They've got property all over."
I was frowning now. "Yeah. Including this place."
Allie stared at me for a long moment. "No." And then, she glanced around the apartment. "They don't, do they? Are you sure?"
"Definitely. And get this, they also own the restaurant where I work."
"Oh. Um, no kidding?"
I felt my gaze narrow. "You knew?"
"Me?"
Allie was a terrible liar. I gave her a serious look. "Yes. You."
She winced. "If I did, is that bad?"
"Yes," I said. "It's bad. Very bad."
"Why?"
"Oh come on," I said. "You didn't tell me. What does that tell you?"
"Huh?"
"I'm just saying, you had to know it was bad, or you would've mentioned it."
"Alright, fine," she said. "I knew. But I figured you'd feel funny if you found out."
"Of course, I feel funny," I said. "I work for my freaking boyfriend."
She gave me a tentative smile. "Well, technically you don't really work for him. I mean, he's not the manager or anything."
I made a scoffing sound. "Yeah, because it's worse. He's the manager's manager with a whole bunch of people in-between." In a flash, I suddenly realized something that I should've considered hours ago. "Oh, my God. I bet that's why I never work weekends."
"Oh, stop," Allie said. "Now, you're just being paranoid."
"I am not," I said. "Do you know how rare it is for a waitress to get weekends off?"
"Yeah, but you've worked weekends."
"Not lately," I said. "And get this, if I ever am scheduled for a weekend, someone always begs to take my place."
"Well, maybe they need the money. You did say those shifts were the best, right?"
"Sure, but don’t you think that's odd? I mean, to be asked every single time to switch?"
"Maybe a little," she admitted. "But hey, they've gotta make their rent somehow, right?"
At this, I gave a hard scoff.
Allie hesitated. "What now?"
"Rent," I said. "How much do we pay a month?"
"Twelve-hundred, as if you didn't know."
"Yeah. Twelve-hundred. Wanna know what the last people paid?"
"I dunno. A thousand?"
I gave another scoff.
"You should probably stop that," she said, "or you're gonna hork up a lung or something."
I gave her a look. "Ha ha. Now, guess again."
She gave it some thought. "Nine hundred?"
I shook my head. "You're going in the wrong direction."
"Sorry, what?"
"The last person – or who knows, maybe a few persons ago – they paid more."
Allie paused. "How much more?"
"A lot."
"How much is a lot?"
"Eighteen hundred."
Her surprise was obvious. "Wait a minute, so they paid eighteen hundred for this place?"
"No, it's worse. They paid three thousand. I meant the difference was eighteen-hundred."
Now Allie was staring. "No."
"Yes."
Silently, she took a slow look around. As she did, I could practically read her thoughts, because they were same as mine just a couple of hours earlier. The place was nice and only a block from the beach.
From the first moment we'd seen it, we couldn’t believe our good luck. Now, it was beyond obvious that luck had nothing to do with it.
Allie murmured, "But I write the checks. They go to that realtor."
"Yeah," I said. "A realtor who manages the property – on their behalf."
"Are you sure?"
"Oh yeah."
"And you learned all of this, how?"
In reply, I told her about my conversation with Kimmie and then went on to say, "So it got me thinking. And I made some calls, did a little digging on the internet, too. But trust me, the information's good."
Allie blew out a l
ong breath. "Wow." And then, like someone in a dream, she walked to the nearest chair and fell back into it. "Shit."
I sank down in the chair opposite her. "Is that good or bad?"
"I don't know."
"Should I say something? To Jax, I mean?"
"I don't know," she repeated.
I sighed. "I can't just pretend to not know."
I'd already done the math. Allie and I had been living here for over four months. During that timeframe, we'd underpaid our rent by more than seven thousand dollars.
And counting.
That was a lot of money.
I thought back to the last few months, when I'd been living the high life on someone else's dime. Slowly, I sat back in the chair. "Oh, my God."
"What?"
Suddenly, I was feeling sick to my stomach. "I'm turning into my mom."
Chapter 69
It had been several days since I'd last seen him, and I'd been missing him like crazy. And yet, I kept on avoiding him, mostly because I still didn't know what to do about everything I'd learned.
On one hand, I was beyond thankful for all of his help. But at the same time, I knew exactly where this road led. And if I ever forgot, a nice visit with my mom would be the perfect reminder.
Funny, I couldn’t even do that, because she and Tabitha were off on some extended trip to California, supposedly to visit some of their old haunts. By now, they'd been away for so long, I started to wonder if they were gone for good.
The timing would be about right. After all, they did have that habit of moving from place to place in search of new thrills and the guys who'd be paying for them.
As for myself, I wasn't seeking any thrills at all as I tried to focus on regular things, like earning money for whatever might happen next.
It was a Thursday night, and I was just leaving work when Becka, a fellow waitress, called out, "Hey Cassidy, wait up, will ya?"
When I stopped and turned around, she scurried forward and said, "I'm looking for extra hours. Wanna give up tomorrow's shift?"
Tomorrow was the first Friday I'd been scheduled to work in forever. A week ago, I would've jumped at Becka's offer.
Not anymore.
I shook my head. "Thanks, but I'd better keep this one."
Her face fell. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Sorry."
"Are you really sure?"
"Uh, yeah." I gave a shaky laugh. "Gotta pay the rent, right?"
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