Page 9 of Kiss Marry Kill
“You’ll stay with me for a few days until I feel this house is safe.”
Megan’s eyes widened in disbelief, and all her irritability morphed into shock.
“Hey, Rose, let’s go see what’s going on up front. There’s a cute cop I’d like to get your opinion on,” Nelly, God bless her, suggested.
“You do know I’m not stupid, right? Just tell me to get out, if you want me out,” Rose huffed on her way out of the kitchen.
Tonight Megan had gone through the full spectrum of emotions. She was drained and even though she was happy to see Jax and was hopeful they could become reacquainted, right now all she wanted was to crawl into her bed, maybe cry a little in private, and ultimately sleep for the next twelve hours. “I’m not staying with you, Jax. I haven’t seen you in five years, I don’t really even know you, and I’m exhausted.”
“You know me well enough. I have a spare room. And my house is safe.” He had on his impassive face again. The one that wasn’t warm and welcoming. The one that reminded her of how little she knew this new Jax.
“I’d have stayed anywhere with you, no questions asked, five years ago. Now, no. I’m scared, I’m tired, you’re intense—and to be honest, a little scary. But most important, I knew you for four days five years ago. You could be as crazy as Ryan for all I know.”
“You know that’s not true. You know I wouldn’t let anything hurt you, not then and not now.” She let her shoulders sag a little because she did know he wouldn’t hurt her—but that didn’t mean she was going to go home with him. That would be foolish and irresponsible and . . . too tempting.
He pulled out a chair and gestured for her to sit, which she did. “I’m sorry, Megan.” He sat on the chair across from her and took her hands in his, unconsciously rubbing the tops of her hands with his calloused thumb. “Sometimes I forget what civilian life is like. I don’t mean to be so harsh, but it’s coming from a good place, Meg. I didn’t like hearing about your stalker on TV, much less finding you terrified and hiding in a closet.”
Meg.
Wow, that brought back so many good memories. That’s all she could focus on. Meg. How he had quickly become so integral in her life back then. No one having ever called her anything other than Megan. No one caring enough to really get to know her—the real her. The girl who wanted to sing, to be free, and wild . . . and be Meg. Not Megan, the rich proper girl who couldn’t do something as lowly as singing. He’d changed her to her core in just a few days. That’s not true. He didn’t change her. He helped her see herself for the first time in her life. The change was all on her, he just brought it out of her. Of course she trusted him. It was irrational and maybe a little crazy, but she did.
“You’ve changed,” she said, seizing the chance to talk about something other than the Ryan situation.
“So have you.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“But I’m still the same person inside. I’d never hurt you, you have to know that.”
“I do.” And it was true, she believed that from the depth of her soul. But the fact that he was so brooding, even when he was being protective and sweet, standing vigil while the cops questioned her, taking her side with her mother—he was still a little scary and a lot intense.
“Please, come home with me. Just for tonight.” God, another time, another place, she’d have jumped all over a proposition like that from Jax.
“I’m having déjà vu,” she admitted. He had made the same request five years ago. And saying yes had been the best decision of her life.
He smiled. “It’s late. You’re exhausted. My house is safe, safer than anywhere else you could possibly go, and I have an extra room.” It didn’t go unnoticed that he repeated that second part and she wasn’t sure if he was saying it for her benefit or for his own. He was still so attractive. More so, even. But with the night she’d had, all she wanted was sleep. And even though there was some affection in the way he looked at her, too many years had passed. The time they had spent together had been so short-lived that whatever he had felt for her had likely fizzled away. “Please,” he begged, almost a whisper.
With a yawn, she finally relented. “Okay. I’ll go tell Nelly and my mom.”
Chapter 3
FIVE YEARS EARLIER
It was supposed to be a fun Thursday afternoon.
Jax sat in seat L213 just like he had every year since he was a little boy. When his dad had been alive, he’d sat in L214. Coming to the baseball game without his father was still difficult, and the loud douchebag yapping into his phone two seats to his right wasn’t helping matters. The only thing keeping him from losing his cool was the brown-eyed beauty he’d taken notice of the two times she’d jumped up to cheer and accidentally brushed her plump ass against his shoulder. She was in seat L214, his dad’s seat, between himself and the douche. With a foam finger, terrible taste in beer, and a teal Florida Marlins T-shirt, she knew when to cheer, when to boo, and when to curse at the ump’s bad calls. Her brown hair was in a thick ponytail under her cap and she had bangs sweeping across her forehead that bounced around when she moved. Her thick lips glistened with some sort of gloss and her cheeks were pink from the exertion of cheering and yelling as well as from the sun beating down on them. But the best part of her—aside from her delicious jean shorts–covered ass—was those big brown expressive eyes. Not that he’d noticed much about her.
Being so close to her, mere inches away, when she put down her foam finger and took off her baseball cap to smooth out her hair meant the flowery smell of her shampoo assaulted his senses.
These last few years, coming to the baseball games had been a somber event. He remembered how his father had cheered louder than anyone else every time the Marlins got a run. He’d openly slap Jax’s back and then hug him as if Jax had been the one scoring. Not an avid drinker, his dad had terrible taste in beer, much like the beauty sitting next to him. He’d wear top to bottom teal and give Jax a hard time for not doing the same. He never felt closer to his father than he did at the stadium.
But now surreptitiously watching the woman next to him had brought joy back into the game, even if only for today.
* * *
“Can’t that wait until after the game? They’re about to start.” Megan begged Richard Knight, her boyfriend of two years, to put his phone down and watch the baseball game. “Come on, it’s my last fun day before school starts next week.”
He looked up at her with an annoyed expression. “I had fun in law school. You will too. This is just a game, Megan. I have work to do.”