by Cassie James
I’m not ready to face whatever Hollis left me. I step out of the room and close the door resolutely behind me. Before we leave this place, I will have to face what’s in that office, but I’m sure as hell not prepared to do that just yet.
Instead, I abandon the office to return to the folders. There’s a teacher having an affair with a former student on the small dining table tucked into the corner of the kitchen. Scandalous, but not that interesting to me since it’s not a teacher I’ve had. I move to a stack of folders leaning against the fridge in the opposite corner of the kitchen. I’m not sure why they draw my eye other than the fact that they’re slightly more to the side than the other stacks.
Apparently it’s kismet. I open the top folder without pausing to look at the name, and maybe that’s a mistake after getting my first look inside. My mouth goes dry as I blink hard, half-expecting the page in front of me to change when I open them again.
It doesn’t.
“You guys,” I try to call out, but I’m not sure they can even hear me as my voice cracks almost immediately.
Hollis Lexington didn’t leave behind a treasure. He left behind a curse.
Chapter Ten
Smith pokes his head around the doorway between the living room and kitchen. “Everything okay?” My face must tell him the answer is no, because even though I don’t speak, he abandons whatever he was doing in the other room and crosses the kitchen to me. “Hey, what’s wrong? What did you find?”
My whole body descends into a slight cold sweat as he puts his hands on my shoulders while never dropping eye contact. He tries to peer down at what I’m holding in front of me—that snaps me back to attention.
“I—” I close the folder and grasp it tight against my chest. “I don’t know if you want to see this.”
He frowns. “Why not?” He runs a finger over the edge to check out the label. “My grandfather?” He tries to take the folder from me but I hold tighter. “Juliet, let me see it.” I hesitate, but he keeps pulling incessantly until I start to give a little. He has as much right to know about this as I do. Unfortunately. Slowly, so slowly, I pull my fingers away to let him take the folder.
He flips it right open, fully unprepared for the sight that greets him. He winces as he stares down at the photo on the top.
“That’s my grandfather.” His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows hard, turning his head away from the photo as he snaps the folder shut and shoves it back toward me. “And your grandfather.” He blows out a long breath. “You’re right, I did not want to see that.”
The image is burned in my brain now—a polaroid of Grant Harrington Sr. and Hollis Lexington locked in what is clearly a lover’s embrace. And even though the icky bits aren’t showing, they’re obviously naked. Considering both men had families with women, I can only imagine that something like this would have been an incredible scandal if it got out. Which brings me to the other issue at hand.
Quietly, I tell Smith, “I think the folders are organized.”
He laughs until he realizes I’m not laughing with him. He casts a pointed look at the apparent disarray surrounding us, but I can see it clearly now. The way the haphazard stacks get sort of grouped together, forming a trail from the front door to this last stack in the kitchen. “Someone organized these based on the severity of what’s inside.”
Smith still looks skeptical, but it’s so obvious to me now. My voice rises enough that the other guys come to see what’s going on. I keep talking, “Think about it. Mina Winchester maybe killed her husband, but he beat her. Brock Harrington scammed people out of their money. There’s a teacher over there that slept with a recently graduated student—”
“What?” Patrick interrupts, his eyes going wide with alarm.
I wave my hand as if I can wave off his question. “We’ll come back to that.” I hold up the folder in my hand. “And now this.” I glance at the other guys. I don’t explicitly want to say what this is if Smith doesn’t want me to, but he shrugs for me to go ahead. “An affair between my grandfather and Smith’s.”
Jax lets out a low groan as he drags his hand over his jaw. “I’ve got a lot of fucking questions.”
“We all do,” Smith grunts as he scuffs his foot against the tile floor. This has to be weird for him. It’s sure fucking weird for me. It’s one thing to know about an illicit affair, it’s another thing entirely to have to look at photo evidence of it. “It’s turning into fucking TMZ in here or something. I’m gonna get some air.” He turns and is gone before I can stop him. I put the Grant Sr. folder back on the stack.
“Okay, just to clarify,” Jake speaks up. “Wouldn’t scamming people out of money be worse than a teacher sleeping with a former student? It seems to me like money is king to people who have a lot of it. And you did say the student had graduated.”
Jax callously puts into words what I was already thinking. “That would be true… if the scamming had happened in Patience.” He shrugs when the rest of us stand in uncomfortable silence over his answer. “We take care of our own. That fact that he didn’t target any of our own people means Hollis probably gave him a fucking pass.” Jax brushes past the other guys. “Do you really think there’s a system?” He eyes the stack beside me. “Because if so, I’d like to vote we start at the worst of it and work our way back.”
Of course he would want to see everyone’s worst secrets first. I haven’t forgotten how he used Ace’s horrible secret against him. They seem to have well worked things out between them now, but it does still make me hesitate at the idea of giving Jax anymore ammo against anyone.
I hate that Hollis did this. And I hate that Pearl helped him do it. Why wouldn’t she have given me some kind of warning about what I was walking into? She had to have known this would be too much for me to take in. I’ve only lived in Patience for a year, no one prepared me for taking on the town’s secrets. All of them, it seems, if the number of folders in here is to be trusted.
Plus, if Brock Forrester knew Hollis had information on him, or at least suspected, then I can only wonder how many others did, too. No wonder Hollis’ treasure has become a thing of urban legend amongst my classmates. Their parents have probably been terrified that someone could stumble upon their secrets at any time.
“We need to take a break,” I decide on the spot. This has already been a lot, and now I’ve just gotten thrown a major curveball about my own grandfather.
What is it about my family members and their relationship secrets? First Pearl, now Hollis. It’s no wonder Pearl didn’t talk much about my grandmother. It looks an awful lot like she was nothing more than Hollis’ cover while he was busy carrying on a secret affair. Hell, I guess now it’s also no wonder I’m having my own not-so-standard relationship. Apparently it runs in my freaking blood! Pearl had her own little non-monogamous thing going on. Hollis had his secret lover. Half the men around Patience hang around the country club waiting to screw underage girls—who basically turn up there shopping for older men.
Actually, now that I think about it, I might actually be having one of the more normal relationships in Patience.
Patrick looks around the room at the sheer number of folders awaiting us. “We just got here. You already want to take a break?” I almost don’t notice the way Ace quickly elbows Patrick, but apparently it’s enough to get the point across. “A break sounds good,” he says, a complete one-eighty. I don’t even bother trying to call him on it—right now I’ll take his agreement even if it does sound forced.
Ace nods easily. “All this shit will still be here later. We could all use some time to process.” Jax looks like he might protest, too, but Ace draws himself up to his full height. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t actually ever get physical, but the size of him is pretty damn intimidating, nonetheless. Jax grumbles, but he’s the first to start back toward the front door. Patrick and Jake aren’t far behind, but Ace pauses, wrapping both arms around me to tug me hard against his chest. I drown everything out for a moment by focusing on
the sound of Ace’s heartbeat. For a moment, Ace’s steady heartbeat is my calm in the center of this storm.
Ace eventually loosens his grip. “You know, if we don’t get out there, they’re all just going to end up coming back in after you.” He’s right. I wouldn’t exactly consider any of my guys great at keeping their distance.
I let out a soft groan as I agree, “I know. Let’s go see if maybe everyone wants to go find something for dinner. There was a seafood place down the road, wasn’t there?”
His eyebrows shoot up. “You mean the little dive place we passed?” He snorts. “Good luck convincing the rest of them the eat at a place like that.” Clearly, Ace underestimates me. It takes less than five minutes to convince the guys that the dive seafood place is the only thing I want for dinner.
And yeah, I end up having to promise Jax more than a few dirty things to get him to cave, but I wouldn’t exactly consider that a hardship. Especially not when everyone ends up loving the food, even in spite of Smith’s insistence that, “I just don’t think that hole-in-the-wall and seafood go together.” No one talks about the beach house during dinner, and one of the benefits of going to a little unknown place during the off-season is that we have the whole place almost all to ourselves.
There’s no avoiding it forever, though, and the mood falls heavy again as Jax drives us back to the beach house after dinner. He pulls into the driveway and we all sit in silence, no one moving at first.
Smith turns to look at me. “What do you want to do, Jules?”
His eyes are weary, the same way they’ve been since he got his first look at that picture. Part of me wishes I’d hidden it instead of drawing attention to it. Maybe it would have been better not to share the burden with him. Except then I would have just felt guilty for keeping a secret. It’s a seriously no-win situation.
“I think you and I should talk. Alone.” I reach my hand out to him and he takes it, squeezing my hand in his. “And maybe we could watch a movie?” I suggest to everyone else, but that idea is met with an answering groan from all of the guys. Even Jake.
“Jules, we came all this way to find Hollis’ treasure, and now we’ve barely scratched the service.” Even Ace looks a little put-off now. I turn away from the awkwardness and stare out the window toward the beach.
Softly, I beg them, “Please just give me tonight. It’s been a lot to process. And I love you guys, but this is my legacy that was left behind. I don’t want to do anything rash and end up regretting it. We just walked into a lot of sensitive information. Stuff that could hurt people. Maybe even people we care about.” Someone takes a sharp intake of air, so I know my words are reaching them. “We need to be careful, and level-headed, and I won’t speak for any of you—but I’m not ready to be either of those things tonight.”
Nobody answers right away, but when I turn back, they’re all looking at me. I meet Jax’s eyes, pleading with him to take my side on this. If he goes along with me, everyone else will, too. He looks around at the other guys and then growls out, “You heard her. Now get your asses out of my car.”
We end up watching two movies. I’m on edge the whole time after Smith asks to wait to talk until afterward. By the time the second movie’s credits are rolling, everyone is getting sleepy. It’s been a long fucking day.
“I’m going to change real quick,” I tell Smith in a quiet voice. “Meet me on the back porch?”
He nods. “Yeah. Hey, the temperature was dropping. You can grab one of my sweatshirts if you want.” There’s a glint in his eye that tells me it’s not just a suggestion. He wants me wearing his clothes—and who would I be to deny that? Wearing a boy’s clothes is half the fun of dating him in the first place.
When I come back downstairs from the room Smith claimed, I go straight to the back door and step out. He’s waiting for me, elbows resting on the railing as he faces the door, his eyes lighting up when he sees me in his school sweatshirt.
“Good choice,” he says with a laugh. It’s got Property of The Patience School written across the front, which I think is actually tacky as hell, but I don’t dare tell him that. Especially not when he holds his hands out to me, inviting me closer. “You know,” he says as I stop in front of him, “we don’t have to talk about this unless you really want to. I’d rather not think about the details as much as possible.” He scrunches his nose as he reaches for me, his hands twisting around the sides of the borrowed sweatshirt as he grabs a fistful of each side to tug me closer.
“I know this is weird, finding out our grandfathers were…” I trail off knowing neither one of us wants to hear me finish that sentence. “But at least now we know where all the tension between our families actually came from. Something obviously went wrong between them. And it wasn’t something that really has anything to do with us. Which means the Lexingtons and Harringtons have nothing to feud about. Not anymore.”
Smith tugs me forward by his grip on the sweatshirt and places a quick kiss on my mouth. “You’re right. All of that is water under the bridge. History, you could say.” He slips his hands under the sweatshirt, pausing only when he realizes there’s nothing underneath. “And don’t you think now is the perfect time to rewrite history?”
“I’m sorry,” my voice comes out huskier than I intended, but I roll with it, “are you trying to seduce me whilst in the middle of discussing a generations long family feud?” He nods as he leans forward to kiss me again. When he pulls back, I point out, “I thought you only played team sports.”
He grins. “Jax is passed the fuck out in there already, but there are plenty of other games I’d be more than happy to play solo.” He gently guides me backward until the backs of my legs hit the porch swing. I raise my eyebrows, but sit like he’s expecting me to. It feels like I’ve been transported back to when we first started seeing each other and couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. Admittedly, I haven’t been sure where to draw the lines ever since finding out about his… quirk when it comes to the bedroom.
Whatever line I was worried there might be? It disappears the second Smith kneels between my legs.
Chapter Eleven
The next morning comes far too soon. I wake up in bed with Smith after a night of not-quite-sex—but close enough—to him still dead asleep. I laugh quietly under my breath when he doesn’t move an inch as I climb out of the bed and pull on his sweatshirt and a pair of clean jeans. Somehow my bag managed to make it here last night, which is a godsend since I have no idea where my shorts from yesterday ended up.
The sun has barely risen as I make my way downstairs to the smell of coffee. I’m surprised anyone else is awake this early, even more surprised when I turn the corner and realize that it’s Jax sitting on a stool hunched over the kitchen island with his head in his hands.
“Good morning,” I call out, not wanting to startle him. He still jerks as he turns to find me standing at the threshold of the kitchen.
“Oh, thank fuck.” He jumps off of the stool and practically dives toward me, jerking me hard against him in a hug so tight I have to hit him so he’ll let go so I can breathe again. His lips pull tight as he looks down at me with an uncharacteristically serious expression. “I know that I don’t deserve to ask you for anything. I’ve done my share of fucking up. But Juliet, please, if my father has a folder in there, I don’t want the other guys to see it.”
The way he looks at me is so vulnerable I freeze up. I’d honestly forgotten all about the secret of his paternity. And honestly, I’d also kind of forgotten that I might be in a relationship with all the guys—but they’re definitely not in a relationship with each other. Just because I’ve chosen to trust them all, doesn’t mean Jax is obligated to do the same.
And his secret would be far worse for him than his father probably if it were to get out. Jax is the top of the food chain because of who everyone thinks his dad is. Governor Woods could probably spin the story politically if it came down to that, but socially, Jax would never be able to recover if the truth got
out.
If I wanted revenge for all the shitty stuff Jax had done to me—this would be my moment to get it. But that isn’t even remotely what I want.
I cup his face in my hands. “I love you. God help me, but I do. Let’s go find that folder.”
“Really? Even after…”
“So help me, if you start talking about all the shit you’ve done, I might just change my mind. Let’s leave the bullshit in the past where it belongs, yeah?” He still looks like he wants to argue. No fucking surprise there. It’s Jax Woods. Of course he wants to argue. “Hey.” I tighten my grip on his face and pull him closer. “You showed up for me when it mattered. I’m not holding any grudges, but if you keep being the one to dwell on the past, neither one of us is going to be any good at moving forward. You wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t wanted you here.”
“Damn.” He lets out a low whistle. “Okay.” I drop my hand and start to turn, but he grabs me by the belt loop and tugs me back. “And I love you, too,” he adds as he thrusts his other hand into my hair to pull my lips to his.
I melt when he kisses me. We’ve all been spending so much time together as a group that a lot of the physical stuff has gotten put on hold. Which is a real damn shame considering how good this feels. Jax lets go of my pants to splay his hand across my lower back, his touch forcing me to arch my back as he tightens his grip in just the right spot. He groans when I halfway rub my lower body against him, trying to relieve some of the building pressure now that we’ve gone from zero-to-sixty in about three seconds.
He pulls back slightly and says, “Folder?” in a tight voice. I’d already forgotten. Thanks, mushy, sex-crazed brain. Jax is really damn good at making me forget my own name—much less anything else.
“Right.” I clear my throat and reluctantly start to move away from him. His hand tightens in my hair, pulling sharply in a move that sends a bolt of lighting somewhere else entirely. Damn him. I open my mouth to tell him we’re not gonna make it past the kitchen if he keeps tugging like that, but I don’t get the chance. His mouth descends on mine again, even more frenzied this time than the last.
