Jaxson (7 page)

“Doing what exactly?” She gives me a cute little grin and I love seeing the happy look on her face.
 

“Everything on the ranch. I do all the chores now and make sure all the animals are fed and everything. I mend the fences, stall cleaning, feeding, turnout, barn cleanliness and organization, maintenance, barn chores, exercising horses, and grooming. I’m a one-man shop baby.” She starts to giggle and her hand goes to my chest. I'm not really a one-man shop. I have four guys that work for me, not including when Tate helps out.

Her eyes widen, and she tries pull away. Grabbing her wrist, I pull her closer to me and rest my arm around her. At first she’s tense, but after a few minutes she loosens up again. I pull her closer and she puts her hand on my chest to keep a little bit of a distance between us. “How was New York?”
 

She looks down for a second before she looks back into my eyes. “It was amazing at first. I went everywhere and took pictures everywhere.” She looks down and messes with her hands before looking back up at me. “I’ll bring the pictures one day so you can see mine and Gracilyn’s adventures. We did and saw everything. You’ll get to see how big I got.” A tear slips down her face and I reach to wipe it off. “I loved it there, but I was always missing one thing.”
 

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I wait for her to continue. I need her to say the words in order to believe it. She looked so damn happy when I went to see her in New York, so I can’t bring myself to believe that she missed me at all while she was gone. “I missed you so damn much. If I would have known you were in New York, I would have dropped everything. Hell, I probably would have begged you to stay with me so we could raise her together.”
 

She has no fucking idea how much I would have wanted that. How much I wanted to walk up to that asshole she was walking with when I saw her, but I didn’t. I just watched them from a distance. I saw when he kissed her cheek and when he wrapped his arm around her as he led her to some shitty ass fucking car.

“Pretty sure the pretty boy asshole you were with wouldn’t have liked that.” I can feel my face turn up in a sneer and I see her start to smile.
 

“Jealous much?” she giggles.

“Yeah he had my wife all cuddled up in his arms and I wanted to break them.” I frown and she leans forward and presses a light kiss to my nose.
 

“He wasn’t my boyfriend. I know I probably made you think he was the other day, but he was just a friend.” I shake my head no and she wrinkles her nose. “What?”

“Baby, that kid was not just your friend. No man would honestly just do that to a girl he was friends with. If he wasn’t getting any from you, I have no idea what he was thinking. I definitely wouldn’t let that fly between us, but then again I got to fuck you all the time.” I waggle my eyebrows at her and she shakes her head.
 

“You’re too much.” She groans, pushing against my chest. “When did you get your dog?”
 

“I got him about a year after dad died. He was pretty much one of the only things that keep me going at some points. Losing my father was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through.” She puts her hand on my cheek and I close my eyes, just feeling her touch.

“What were the other things?” I raise an eyebrow at her and she urges me to continue.

“Losing you and now finding out about losing Gracilyn.” Her name feels foreign on my tongue and I have a hard time thinking about it. All the emotions hit me like a ton of bricks, I have to take a deep breath before I can even look at her again. She grabs my hand, linking our fingers together in support. She can calm me unlike anyone else and I’m just thankful she isn’t a bitch trying to pour salt into the wounds.
 

“I’m sorry for all the pain I caused you over the years.” she whispers. Instead of saying anything to that, I lean forward and gently kiss her lips.
 

A little after seven, I feed Max and then take Lyndley home to her parent’s place. After we put ice on her leg, she was able to walk a little better and a lot of the swelling had gone down. When we pull up, I put my truck in park and look at the front window of her childhood home. I see her mom look out the window and watch us for a few moments.
 

“She must think I'm gonna attack you on the front porch like I used to,” I laugh. When I look over at her, she has a smile on her face, I love being the one who puts it there.
 

"Yeah. She probably thinks we ran off again,” she says, opening her door.
 

"She knows?" I ask looking back towards the house. I wonder what else she’s told her mom. I know they were really close, but hell I’m close with my momma and still haven’t even told her.
 

I see her nod out of the corner of my eye. "I'm sorry I told her. I just needed to talk to someone before I told you about the baby. It was the lesser of two evils.”

"Well, we are still legally married, so I can kiss you whenever I want." Instead of giving her time to second guess it, I lean towards her, my hand grazing her perfect jaw and tangling my fingers in her hair. My tongue slips into her mouth. She lets me take control for a brief second before whatever is going through her mind catches up and puts the breaks on everything.

She pulls away, and places a quick peck on my cheek. "Thank you for everything today. Sorry I kept you from the ranch. I would have been fine alone."

"It was my pleasure. Plus, we got to talk about a lot of things that needed to be talked about. Thank you for being honest with me." She has a small smile on her face, it’s good to see her even the slightest bit happy, even if it's short lived

"What's going to happen between us, Jax?" She looks down at the ground again and I can tell it’s because she’s nervous about the answer.
 

Smiling at her, I give it to her like it is. There are no if’s, and’s or but’s about it. I will be making her mine again. "Lyndley, you and I are going to get through this. Married. Lots of babies.”

"You still want to be with me even after everything?"
 

Nodding at her, I lean into her body. "We can take it slow if you want, but it is gonna happen. I'm tired of waiting for us to figure it out." I crush my mouth to hers and kiss her deeply this time. I don’t let her pull away and I force her to stay in the moment with me. She has to know how much I love her. She finally pulls away and I smirk at her. “Let me help you out.”
 

I get out of the truck and go around to her side. She tries to get out on her own, but I stop her and lean in to whisper, "I'll do whatever you need me to do to make this work between us. I never should have let you leave that day. I won’t make that mistake twice. I know we still have some stuff to work out, but I only want you.”
 

“Okay…” Judging by the uncertainty in her voice, I think I stunned her. Well it’s probably for the best since she’s always saying how she doesn’t deserve me and that she isn’t the same girl from before. I’m going to prove her wrong. I’m going to make sure she is treated like the princess she is and always has been.

Walking her to the front door, I turn and press a gentle kiss to her lips. I watch her open the door and start to make her way inside. When she glances back, I leave her with a smile and a wink before making my way to my truck and getting in. Taking one last look at the door that she disappeared behind, I start my truck and back out of the drive, making my way back to my house.
 

When I get home, I throw a tennis ball around with Max for a while before my phone beeps with a text. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I can only assume that it’s Tate still being pissed off, but it’s not.
 
Instead I feel like the wind got knocked out of me when I open the message from Lyn.
 

Lynnie:
I wish I could bring her back. I would trade places with her in a heartbeat.

Me:
Darlin’, she will always be with us. Thank you for the photo. It means a lot that you’d share it with me.

Lynnie:
You deserve to know her like I did. I’m sorry for taking away your choice.

Me:
There was nothing you could have done differently. God had better things for her to do up there. My old man needed her more than we did
☺
.
 

Lynnie:
I bet she is having the time of her life. Your dad is probably spoiling her
☺
.

Me:
Ha, yeah, I bet he is.

She doesn’t text me back, so I go back to the photo and just stare at it. The bear is cute, but small. It was the first and only gift our little girl received.
 

Max comes to a halt at my feet and he rubs his nose and ball against my leg. Reaching down, I grab the ball out of his mouth and toss it one last time before I make my way towards the house. Saving the photo to my phone, I close out of the message and put it as my background. I want to be able to see her beautiful face every time I look at my phone.
 

Looking up at the sky as Max comes running up; I pray that she’s having a good time with my pops, that they are both looking down over us and our families. Blowing out a breath, I open the door and Max darts inside towards his water bowl.

It’s been a few days since I’ve seen Lyndley and I’ve been dying to just see or talk to her. Tate called this morning and said that he wanted to meet me at the diner for breakfast. Part of me thinks he has an ulterior motive, but I show up anyways.

I see Lyndley talking to Tate at our table and it looks a little heated. I see her walk towards the back as I walk in the door. She comes walking back and almost collides into me, not that I mind. “Hey, darlin’,” I breathe.
 

“Hi, Jax.” she squeaks out. She looks up at me and I can see that she wasn’t expecting to see me this morning.
 

“You work here now?” I grin. She nods her head and looks back towards the table that Tate is still occupying. When I look over at Tate, he has a sour look on his face, but Lynd just smiles at him. “Are you our waitress?” I lead her towards our table and she finally shakes her head no, pointing to another area of the dinner.

“That’s too bad.” I lean into her and her hands go to my stomach. “I was thinking. Let’s go out on a real date. I’ll pick you up, take you to a movie and dinner. What do you think?”

She grins up at me and says, “I’d love to.”
 

Shocked by her answer, my grin comes back. “I’ll call you later and we can set it up.” My hand goes to the top of her jeans and I run my finger along her soft skin. Kissing her cheek, I watch her walk away before I take a seat across from Tate who has a frown on his face.
 

“What is your deal?” I finally ask after I look at the menu for a minute.

“She’s sinking her claws into you again and I don’t want to have to pick your ass off the fucking ground when she destroys you. I’ve done it once and I don’t want to do it again.” He hisses across the table.
 

Leaning forward, I get that he’s trying to protect me and shit, but he doesn’t get a say in what happens between Lyndley and I. “I get that you don’t want us together all of a sudden, but that isn’t going to stop me from pursuing her. I love her. Always have, always will. Nothing is going to change that. Either deal with it or stay the fuck out of it.” The waitress comes over and takes our order before he can say anything back to me.