Page 95 of Badd B*tch

Mara's eye roll was so much like her son's that it was eerie; he was a perfect admixture of both his parents' features and mannerisms. "It's a fact, not something to believe in or not. It's the inverse of a family curse, you could say." She indicated the two of us, Jax and me. "You two are proof positive. Anyone else, you'd have either flown all the way to Nome without issue, or one of you would've died in the crash, god forbid, or something. But instead, you found each other." She glanced at me. "You mean Jax hasn't mentioned our family's weird history when it comes to love?"

"He did say something about a lot of interesting meet-cutes."

She snorted. "Meet-cutes, right. Every couple in our family—every single one—has met each other under strange, improbable, or in some way unique circumstances."

"And then fall madly, obsessively, crazily in love," Zane continued, "and live happily ever after. It's a family trait."

"But it's not some superstitious charm," Jax said. "We just fall in love easily as a family. It's genetics."

"It’s a hell of a lot more than that," Mara scolded. "Stop being so cynical and logical."

"And you think the Badd Family Love Charm is working on my sister and Jax's cousin?"

Mara shrugged. "Maybe. They did look like they were having fun together. Meeting at a hospital isn’t all that interesting, though."

Zane just waved a hand. "If the Charm is working on them, something hinky is gonna happen. Just you wait."

"But Kieran doesn't do anything interesting," Jax said. "What could possibly happen?"

Zane sputtered. "Jax, don't be a dick. He just hasn't figured out his thing yet. He will. Not everyone is born knowing exactly what they want to do. You were obsessed with computers from the time you were…what, Mara? Six? Seven?"

"Seven," Mara confirmed. "He played some kiddie version of a coding game at a friend's house and was hooked."

Jax lit up. "I remember that! That's, like, peak origin story! I don't remember what it was called, but it was so fun. You created your own game and then had to play it. The more creative and difficult but still playable your game was, the higher the score." He yawned. "Ya'll, this is super embarrassing, but I need to sleep. It's hard to keep my eyes open."

"Alright, let's go." Zane clapped a hand on his son's thigh. "Get some rest, kiddo. You go home tomorrow."

"Did I see everyone in the waiting room?" Jax said. "I don't wanna ignore anyone."

"Yup," Zane answered. "You sure did."

"You're lying," Jax said.

"Yup, I am. Don't worry about it. You'll be out tomorrow, and you'll see 'em then. We all came because initially all we knew was that you'd been found and were en route here, and you were badly injured. Now we all know you’re gonna be okay and home soon, so you can get the rest of the well wishes from 'em at home."

"Want me to go so you can sleep?" I asked, my voice pitched low.

"Hell no," Jax said, scooting down awkwardly and resting his head on my shoulder. "I won't sleep unless you are here."

"Well, then." I spread the blankets over our laps and got comfortable, pulling Jax's head onto my chest and dragging my fingers through his hair. "Here I am."

It felt weird being like this with him in front of his parents, but the look on their faces as I tried not to be self-conscious about petting his hair was….squishy. So, I supposed they approved.

Jax mumbled a few times as he fell asleep, mostly incoherent nonsense. I was dozing off again myself when he started jerking and twitching and moaning.

I held him close and whispered in his ear. "Hey, you're okay. It's okay. You're dreaming. You're safe, and I’m safe. It's okay."

He settled again almost immediately, and that, for some reason, made me cry.

Which is how Tania found me: wiping my eyes.

"What's the matter?" she asked in a low whisper, crouching next to the bed at my hip.

I shook my head, wiped at my face again. "I…" I let out a slow breath. "I think I love him."

Tani just hugged me. "Of course you do." She kept hold of me. "You could do a fuckuva lot worse, honey. And his family?" She widened her eyes. "Nuts, in the best way possible. I'm gonna ask if they'll adopt me. Or I could just marry Kieran, and we can both be Badds." She clapped a hand over her mouth. "Did I just say that?”

I nodded. "You did."