by Cassie James
“Packing can wait,” he says with a grin as he tangles a hand in my loose hair. Even though this day should feel heavy, I can’t help but laugh as he pushes my head down so our mouths can meet. He surprises me by not taking control right away like he usually does. He lets my languidly explore his mouth as his hand not tangled in my hair runs down my back and finds its way to my ass. He tightens his grip, trying to pull me impossibly closer.
I pull my head back breathlessly. “What about—?” We haven’t had sex since the time with Smith. Jax looks up at me with half-closed eyes, and it seems to take him a second to pick up on my question.
“Princess, no one has ever accused me of not being able to perform—audience or otherwise. I can do just fine all on my own. Or have you forgotten about our little private party in your friend’s bathroom?” I pinch his arm and delight in watching him flinch. “Ow. Why the hell’d you do that?”
“Because you were an asshole after we had sex in the bathroom, remember? And I don’t think you’ve been sufficiently punished for that yet.” Despite my words, his lips curl up at the corners.
His hand slides around to caress the inside of my thigh. “I’d be more than willing to discuss appropriate punishments. Though I should warn you, if you’re thinking of spanking me, I absolutely will spank back.” He raises an eyebrow like the idea is all too appealing. My cheeks flush to what I’m sure is at least a bright pink.
“No wonder the two of you aren’t done packing yet. I tried to tell them letting you stay up here was a bad idea.” Patrick huffs as he crosses his arms in the doorway while I look back at him from over my shoulder. Sheepishly I pull away from Jax, sliding out of his lap. He only reluctantly lets go of his grip on my hair, tugging slightly on the ends as he does. I shoot him a sharp look that he shrugs off.
“I swear it was all his fault,” I blurt out, pointing at Jax.
He snorts as Patrick rolls his eyes. “Yeah, no shit.” Patrick points to the door but Jax doesn’t move an inch. “Out, Woods. At this rate, we’ll never get on the road.”
I raise both eyebrows and give Jax a pointed look of my own until finally he stands, though not without his fair share of grumbling, and slinks out of the room like a scolded child. He’s barely stepped out when Patrick carefully closes the door behind him, stepping further into the room. Patrick looks concerned as he takes his phone—no, my phone—out of his pocket and holds it out.
“You left this sitting downstairs. Someone kept calling over and over again. I almost answered but then I remembered that time at the mall and I realized I probably shouldn’t.” That was when Lynne kept calling, but he picked my phone up and told her she had the wrong number. “I looked up the zip code just to check. It’s Nikon Park.” He hesitates before asking, “Do you think it’s her? Do you think she’s calling again?”
Of course it’s her. Of course she’s calling again. She still hasn’t gotten the money she thinks she’s owed. Out loud, I only answer, “Maybe.”
I take the phone from him and power it off. Just the idea of knowing she’s trying to call again makes me sick. She never learns. If she had, she would have realized that day I saw her that I’m a lost cause. There’s not a chance in hell she’ll ever get a dime from me for killing my parents. Even if my mother was a monster, I’m not going to live to see myself turned into one, too. I cross the too-big closet and open my underwear drawer. I give the phone one last cursory glance before dropping it in and slamming the drawer closed. There’s something about stowing it out of sight that puts me slightly more at ease than if I just left it sitting out somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Patrick tries to reach for the drawer but I step into his path to block him. “You can’t just go without a phone, babe.”
I laugh lightly. “Why can’t I? There are seven people in this world I care about. Five of you are going to the beach house with me. I can talk to Sadie through Smith. And she’ll get ahold of Salma for me if needed.”
Patrick’s lips twist. “Yeah, I’m sure she will,” he says with a suggestive laugh. He must realize how confused I look because he’s very careful as he chooses his next words. “Uh, they’ve gotten pretty close these last few weeks.” They had? How had I missed that? Patrick answers my unspoken question. “You’ve had a lot going on. And you already know, Sadie’s a big fan of sneaking around.” He rolls his eyes.
“You know, I used to think the two of you had a thing.” I’m not sure why I say it. Everyone has told me they were only friends, and if that’s not the case, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t actually want to know.
He shakes his head and steps closer so he can take my hand and kiss the back of it. “Definitely not. What we did have was a pretty fucked up contest over who could pull the most girls. We liked competing with each other.” My shoulders tense. “I don’t do that anymore. You know that, right?” I try to remember the last time I saw him flirting with another girl, but I honestly can’t. It’s a little jarring, to be honest. I used to see him flirting non stop, but now I can’t think of a single recent incident. I don’t know when things changed, I only know that they did.
I take my hand from him so I can put my arms around his neck instead, drawing him closer to me. “Yeah,” I tell him softly, “I do know that.”
“You know,” his voice is husky, “I didn’t come in here just to become the new distraction.” I run my lips over the underside of his jaw. “Okay. Okay.” He pulls away from me and crosses to the other side of the closet, eyeing my warily like I might seduce him from across the room. “I’ve gotta get out of here before we have a repeat performance of last night.”
My lips curl up. “I wouldn’t mind.”
“I don’t think I’d have time to do it justice,” he explains with a smirk. “We were supposed to leave thirty minutes ago.” He raises his eyebrow as my cheeks go pink. I genuinely hadn’t realized Jax had slowed me down that much.
“Ah, okay. Get out. I’ll be down in ten.” I listen to him step out and close the door behind him as I start frantically tossing clothes into my bag. By the time I’m done, I’m pretty sure I managed to put together a reasonable wardrobe for this trip. That is, if I plan on spending half the time wearing only lingerie because I’m pretty sure I don’t have a full trip’s worth of actual outfits.
And I may or may not have done it on purpose.
As I descend the steps with my bag, I can hear the guys’ voices coming from the living room. I drop my suitcase at the bottom of the stairs and follow the sound of voices. They don’t notice me right away, so I stand in the doorway watching them. Jax, Smith, Ace, and Patrick are all talking about some sports thing I don’t care about. Jake hangs on the fringes. The guys might have accepted him into our little group, but he hasn’t quite found his space here. It makes me feel guilty seeing him sort of left out. But then he notices me, turning a lazy smile in my direction as he holds his hand out for me to come to him. The guys only vaguely seem to notice me as their sports talk evolves into the beginnings of a silly argument. I go to Jake and perch on the armrest of the chair he’s in.
He doesn’t look the least bit bothered by being left out the conversation, but still I can’t help but ask quietly, “Does it make you feel bad when they have conversations without you like this?”
Jake puts a hand on my knee and looks up at me, studying my face for a long moment. “I came back for you, J. Not for them.” He squeezes my knee and I drop my hand to hold his. “Besides, they were including me until they found out I’m a Yankees fan.” I shake my head slightly. I know that’s a baseball team, but otherwise I have no idea why that’s significant.
He grins, knowing exactly how little interest I have in the topic. “Everything is good. That’s all you need to worry about.”
“You’re sure?” I sink my teeth into my bottom lip. I can’t help but worry. The other guys, they’re bonded by so much, and Jake is now the outsider I once was. The only difference being that my name held weight here and his doesn’t.
“I’m sure. Now lean down here and kiss me while they’re all distracted.” He grins again and I can’t resist doing exactly what he asked, even if I do hate that he thinks he shouldn’t be kissing me when anyone is looking. It sure as hell never stops the other guys.
I kiss him carefully. First one corner of his mouth and then the other. I can feel him start to smile when I finally kiss him properly. I don’t care what he says, other guys in the room or not, I’m not going to miss out on a chance to enjoy this. All those years we spent as friends, never quite crossing the line to anything more, it feels like I’ve got a lot of missed time to make up for. I stroke my thumb across his cheek as his teeth graze my bottom lip.
After a minute, he pulls his head back to whisper just an inch away from my lips, “I think you’ve proven your point.” His eyes flicker to the side, to where the guys are standing. It’s quieter behind me, so I guess they’ve noticed me now.
I stand up and face them, a nervous twist to my stomach until I see that everyone looks completely unbothered. Jake was getting antsy over nothing. I take a breath and remind myself that he hasn’t had the same time to get used to this as everyone else has. We didn’t exactly grow up around many thriving relationships—even the monogamous ones were always a shit show. Jake’s parents are still together, but they’ve had their own fair share of problems over the years. Add to the dynamic that I’m dating five guys instead of one and I guess I can’t really blame Jake if it takes some time for him to feel settled.
Jake, though, he’s always loved proving me wrong. When he stands up behind me, his arm goes around my waist. Maybe he’s more prepared to handle this than I give him credit for.
“Time to go,” Jax announces, jingling keys that don’t look familiar. He sees me looking at them. “I figured there was no point in taking two cars.
I don’t actually understand what he’s saying until we walk outside and I see the brand new SUV parked in front of the house. “Jax?” He steps up next to me at the edge of the driveway. “Did you get a brand new car just so we could all ride together to the beach house?” I can’t help the slight bit of judgement that seeps into my tone.
“No,” he answers defensively.
He steps past me with more than a little attitude in the way he stomps toward the driver’s side. Smith takes his place beside me almost immediately. He’s fighting a grin as he leans over and quietly tells me, “Jax definitely got a new car just for this trip.” I don’t even bother trying to hide my own grin as Smith takes my bag from me so he can toss it in the back with the guys’ bags. Jake walks over with his own bag and adds it to the mix.
This is really it. The beach house could be the answer to Hollis’ treasure. I have to hope it is, because otherwise, it means we’re no closer to solving that mystery than when I first found out about it. And I can’t help but think that this is exactly what Pearl wanted from me—not just to stay at Lexington Estate, but to finally understand exactly what my family legacy is.
Treasure and all.
I wait to let the guys in the car first, curious to see how they choose to sit. Everyone might be in agreement about our arrangement, but that doesn’t mean the guys don’t have their own separate friendships aside from their relationships with me. I’m not surprised that Smith climbs up front next to Jax. They’re by far the closest two of any of the guys. The one that surprises me is Patrick. Jake climbs into the very back, probably assuming that I’ll join him, but it’s Patrick that climbs into the third row and plops down next to him. I don’t say a word as Ace waits to help me into the car before going around to the other door to climb into the middle row with me.
As strange as it is to glance back and see Patrick and Jake together, I’m hoping it’s a good sign. Jake could use a friend, and maybe this really does mean that Patrick is past his jealous stage, and it wasn’t just a fluke. Content that everything is going easy-breezy so far, I settle back against my seat as Jax steers the car out of the driveway.
We’ve barely been in the car ten minutes before Patrick starts getting restless. Something I definitely didn’t know about him—he apparently has a penchant for road trip games. We’re all quick to veto license plate games and car bingo. He’s like a helicopter mom trying to entertain everyone from the backseat. Smith finally turns with a wicked grin and suggests a different game.
“Fuck, marry, kill.” I can practically feel Jax’s eye roll as Smith continues, “J—fuck, marry, kill? Choose between the five of us.” The other guys all groan, including Patrick, who I’m sure is regretting trying to make us play games now.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I announce. No good could possibly come from answering that loaded question. But Smith turns and looks at me expectantly again.
“C’mon, it’s just a game. No hard feelings if you say you wanna fuck the new guy, I swear.” My cheeks burn with a blush that I can feel creeping all the way down my neck, too. Jake and I haven’t even gotten close to talking about sex, not that Smith would know that. His question feels even more loaded now than it did before. There’s no way in hell I’m answering.
A hand reaches up from the backseat . I look over my shoulder to see Jake leaning towards me. “He’s right, it’s just a game. Do you wanna hear mine?” Jake gets a wide grin as a murmur of confusion rises up in the car. “I’m definitely going to marry Patrick, because he’d just make the most delightful housewife, yeah?”
Patrick makes a sound like he’s going to disagree, but then he pauses for just long enough that everyone turns to stare at him. Even Jax, he glances back just long enough that the car swerves for a second before he turns back to the front and straightens the wheels back out. “To be fair, I am great in the kitchen,” Patrick concedes, sending me into a fit of giggles that has everyone joining in after a second. I shoot Jake a grateful look for breaking the tension.
He leans back and puts his hands behind his head as he continues, “And then I think I’ll kill Jax. He seems to have a frenemy situation going on with my new hubby here, so I’d like to go ahead and clear that up. You know they say there’s a fine line between hate and lust. I’d hate to lose my man this soon after the nuptials.” I slap my hand over my mouth to hide my giggle. He sounds so damn pleased with himself as he cracks that joke, too.
“Who are you going to fuck?” Smith asks, amusement in his voice. I can’t help but look back at Jake again, and when I do our eyes meet. He holds my stare, not saying a word. His lips tug up in one corner. He’s imagining it. Us together. I know, because now I can’t help but imagine it, too.
“Okay!” I interrupt loudly before he can answer and turn me back to being as red as a tomato. “Fuck, marry, kill. I’ll fuck Smith.” The guys all have a comment about that.
“Two for the price of one,” I hear Jax murmur half under his breath as he reaches over to give Smith a good-natured punch in the arm. Smith’s face goes pink, but none of the other guys say anything about that. I’m not sure if they know about Smith’s preference or not, but either way I’m not about to confirm that Jax is right. That’s sort of exactly where my mind went.
Instead of letting that linger, I move on to the next thing. “I’m definitely killing Jax.” That shuts up Jax’s laughter, but it sends everyone else spiraling into full-blown belly laughs. Made only worse when he lets out a growl.
“What? Why me?”
I shrug even though he’s looking at the road and not me. “You just seem like you’d be the first to annoy me to the point of committing murder.”
“Great. Everyone’s fucking killing me in their make-believe scenarios,” he grumbles under his breath.
I lean forward to give him a patronizing pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, if you ask nicely I’d fuck you first then kill you. Best of both worlds, eh?” Ace snorts next to me, reaching over to nudge me with a grin. There’s nothing Ace likes more than seeing me fuck with Jax. It’s only fair really, considering what an asshole Jax was to him before all of this.
Ac
e shifts in his seat to look at me. “Okay, but then who are you going to marry?”
I’m quiet for a long time. There’s an awkwardness in the car as the guys wait to see how I’ll figure out this particular riddle. There’s no chance in hell I’m about to walk into that trap.
I purse my lips and pretend to really consider my answer. “You know, if we pooled all our family money together, I bet we could buy a small country.” Jax’s eyes glance at me in the rearview mirror as the other guys stare at me with confusion all over their faces. “Our own country, our own laws, right? Polygamy’s really going to be a hit in our six-person state. I can’t wait to plan five weddings.”
The guys laugh, but deep down there’s an ache in my stomach. At some point, I’m worried this will be a real bridge we have to cross. Right now marriage feels like a conversation that’s still light years away, but all too soon I’m sure it’s going to be something we actually have to talk about. Hell, Patrick’s mom already tried to offer me the family ring.
But now’s not the time to dwell on that. Instead, I do what I do best. Push it to the back of my mind and hope for the best when the time does come. One problem at a time.
Today’s problem is Hollis—and whatever the hell he left behind.
Chapter Nine
The drive to the beach house is long, but not nearly long enough. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears, drowning out everything else with a low thump-thump-thump. I put a hand over my chest to try to steady it, and Ace must notice because he reaches out to put his hand on my knee. I try to send him a grateful look, but I’m sure it comes out as more of a grimace.
The driveway seems to go on forever. When the car starts to slow, I fling off my seatbelt and reach for the door handle before we’ve even stopped all the way. “What the fuck are you—” Jax is instantly mad, but I don’t wait around to listen to him berate me. I need a second just to catch my breath, and I can’t do that from within the car with all of them watching, waiting to see my reaction now that we’re here. We’re really here.
