Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Ron, you were five when you guys were separated, and it wasn’t by choice.” I broke down what Jax had told me about the separation, swiftly. Bullet-pointed it, basically.
Veronica’s throat worked. She sniffed and pressed the back of her hand to her nose. “I didn’t know that,” she said. “Maybe it was stupid of me not to ask, but every time I spoke to Grandma about it, she told me that it was Cole’s choice.”
“She was trying to protect you in her own way,” I replied. “Ron, listen to me. He’s not a bad person. Yeah, he’s been through some shit, but he’s not some wicked guy who’s going to ruin everything.”
“He already is,” Veronica replied then bit on her bottom lip. “Shit, forget it.”
“No, tell me.”
She squared her shoulders, then thumped across the boards toward me. She stopped a pole away and grasped it. “It’s going to sound selfish, Riley, but for the longest time it’s been me watching you with Michael. It was Michael for five years, and before that it was me and Craig, and it’s been one royal shitfest. Finally, it’s just us. Two friends, single, working out our own problems, and now this happens. I just don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“Why you like him. I know he’s probably attractive to you or whatever, but he’s—he’ll always be the brother who never contacted me. The one who wound up in prison. The one who never bothered. When I needed family the most, he wasn’t there.”
I sighed and shook my head against the cool metal. “Babe, I know this is hard for you, but what’s going on with him and me has nothing to do with that, OK?”
“I don’t trust him. Bottom line. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I’m not going to.” Last night had been amazing, but the conversation after had driven home the point that Jax and I weren’t meant for each other. It was only a couple more weeks until the thirty days were up, and then I’d be out of his hair. I’d find somewhere else to live.
I’d—what, forget all the feelings that soared through me the minute I so much as thought his name?
I’d have to. He already had opinions about me and my future.
“There’s nothing you need to worry about.”
“So you’ll move out of his place?” Ron asked. “You said you’d sleep on my sofa last night.”
That was before the rest of last night had happened. I couldn’t bring myself to judge Jax for his past, only for his actions now, and so far, they’d been pretty darn amazing. He’d picked me up and saved me from sleeping in my studio, he’d fed me, he’d offered to help me.
“No,” I replied. “I’m not moving out. You might not trust him, but I do. At least, enough to stay with him until the month’s up.”
“Why?” Veronica’s grip on the pole tightened, and her bicep corded. “Why? I don’t understand why you trust him when you don’t know him, and I’m telling you that I don’t trust him. Doesn’t my opinion mean anything to you?”
“Of course it does, girl. Come on. You’re ‘I told you so,’ and I respect that,” I said and smiled with the joke. She didn’t crack a smile. “But, Veronica, you don’t see what I see, and you don’t know what we’ve been through over the past ten days. It’s been a strange roller coaster. It’s there, but it’s not there, and I don’t know. I need to work this out myself.”
She kept quiet and wrung the pole’s proverbial neck with both her hands.
“It’ll be OK,” I said. “I’m thirty, not three. I’ll manage.”
She still didn’t speak.
“Veronica, come on. We’ve got a long day ahead of us, and you’re tired. We’re both not in the place to discuss anything serious today.” I checked the time on the clock on the wall. “Our first class starts in an hour. Let’s get in a good workout, and if you really want to talk about it, we can do it tonight after class, all right?”
She managed a nod, but her emotions were written all over her face, and they weren’t pretty.
We did our warm-up in silence, and I tried, but failed, to lose my body in the movements again. It was difficult with Veronica nearby, casting rough glares in my direction. Finally, classes started, and we separated into the two halls—thankfully, Jax’s guy had come and repaired the poles.
The day passed, and in our breaks, we sat in silence in the studio or in the office or in the little bakery down the street, sipping coffee. Veronica didn’t bring him up again, though she did open her mouth, hesitate, and snap it shut again like seventy times over the course of our lunch break.
The dancing continued, and finally, at the end of the day, it was time to go home. I packed away the stereo as usual, went through my little closing-time routine, and grabbed my gym bag. I turned and ran right into Ronny.