Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“Alright, what do you want for breakfast, ass face?” Logan asks.
“Pancakes,” I grin.
“You got it, dude,” he replies before taking off down the road and eventually pulling into the first diner he can find.
Half an hour later, we’re munching down our breakfast when Sean’s eyes turn curious. “What?” I ask when he won’t stop staring.
“I don’t know,” he says, as if deep in thought. “You seem . . . different or something,” he adds, making the other two look at me in the same way.
“Probably the dick she got last night,” Carter mutters, making me elbow him in the ribs. “I’ve noticed it has a way of relaxing a girl.”
“Shut up,” I scold. “There was no dick. And for the record, I feel better. I finally got a few things off my chest.”
“Yeah,” Carter scoffs. “Your clothes.”
Everyone ignores his comments as Sean and Logan push for details. “Well?” they ask in unison, doing the mindfuck triplet telepathy thing.
“Jax found out I was on campus,” I start.
Logan groans, cutting me off. “Ugh, what did that little prick want?”
“He just wanted to talk,” I explain. “He has a few unanswered questions about why I left.”
“Yeah,” Sean scoffs, “and I have a few unanswered questions about why the fuck he didn’t bother showing up to Mom and Dad’s funerals. He might not have been blood, but they were his parents too.”
Logan and Carter both grunt their approvals. “Stop it,” I scold them as a wave of anger comes over me. “Have any of you seen him at home in the last three years?” I ask. “No,” I answer, not giving them the chance to jump on the defense. “Did you check in with his parents only to find out they haven’t spoken to him since the day he left for college? No. You all know damn well that I haven’t spoken to him since I left, so did any of you call to let him know when Mom or Dad passed?” They give each other guilty looks, but I continue on. “No, you didn’t. None of us did. So how was he to know? I had to break his heart all over again, telling him that the two people he actually considered to be his parents are now dead,” I cry. “He didn’t come to the funerals because he had no fucking idea they were gone. Which means you can all lay off and forgive him because he hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s just as torn up as we are.”
They give their different versions of guilty curses, and I know exactly what they’re all feeling because I’m feeling it too. Since the day Jax moved in next door at twelve, he became an unofficial member of the family. Hell, I’m pretty sure he was at the house more often than the boys were.
“He really didn’t know?” Logan asks quietly, looking the worst out of all my brothers. Logan and Jax were the closest, especially when Jax started showing an interest in hockey and Logan took it upon himself to teach him all the tricks of the trade. To this day, their skating styles are still so similar it’s scary.
“He had no idea,” I tell him. “The last he heard, Mom was in the clear. He didn’t even know the cancer had come back.”
“Shit,” Logan grunts.
“Come on, there’s nothing we can do to fix it right now,” Sean says, just as devastated. “Let’s go visit Mom and Dad and then we can make good with Jax later.”
Sean gets up and pays the bill while Logan slips out quickly to make a call, probably to the new girlfriend.
“It was Jax, wasn’t it?” Carter asks as I scoot out of the booth.
“What?” I ask, a little confused.
“The guy in your bed this morning. It was Jax.”
“Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t,” I tease with a knowing smirk.
“Cass. Answer the damn question. Do I need to kick his ass or not?” he asks, following me out of the booth.
“If you’re going to start getting protective over my virtue, then you should have kicked his ass back when I was fifteen,” I grin, turning around and giving him a teasing wink only to see him stop dead in his tracks, his jaw hanging open and unsure how to respond.
I laugh as I push through the door, snatch the keys out of Logan’s unexpecting hands, and climb into the driver’s seat of the biggest truck I’ve yet to drive. I lock the driver’s door behind me preventing any of my idiot brothers from ruining my plan. “Get in, fuckers,” I holler out the window as I bring this beast to life and feel the rumble of the engine beneath me. “We’ve got a date with the parents.”
Chapter 6
JAXON
I get up on Monday morning and meet the boys for our daily run. As usual, I’m the first one here, so I get some stretches out of the way.