Undeniable (A Country Roads Novel) (25 page)

Everything felt empty. He felt empty. It had been ten days without her, but it felt like years.

Jax occupied his time working on the house. Brendan obviously hadn’t been around, but Shep showed up a few times to help. He didn’t ask any questions, or say anything really. Bennett was there on occasion, too, or sometimes Tripp, but for the most part it was just Jax, working alone.

Everything was finished except for the kitchen. For some reason he saved it for last. He was working on installing the cabinets that morning with Shep and Bennett, and when they finished they moved on to the countertops. The new appliances were scheduled for delivery that week, and then everything would be done.

Jax had been working on the house for eight months. Eight fucking months of grueling work, but as he looked around at it, he felt nothing.

“I’m going to go get lunch,” Jax said, needing to get out of there. “Burgers okay?”

“Works for me,” Bennett said.

Shep only nodded. Not making eye contact with Jax before he turned back to the counter.

Jax called in the order to Bubba’s Burgers as he got in his truck, but the place was packed when he got there, so he took a seat at the bar and waited for the food.

“Tough break, Deputy.”

Jax looked over as Chad slid into the seat next to him.

Yeah, this wasn’t going to end well.

“I don’t care about whatever it is you’re about to say. So why don’t you go bother somebody else.”

“I thought we could commiserate together. You know, two guys that have been screwed over by Grace King.”

Jax stilled.

“I had no idea you two split. Was it because she was sleeping with Shep? Or did that happen afterward?”

“What?” Jax asked, turning to Chad before he could stop himself.

“Oh, you don’t know. Well, that’s just perfect.” Chad grinned. “Apparently, Shep’s Mustang was outside of Grace’s apartment all night and well into this morning. Someone even saw him leaving looking thoroughly used up. You can read all about it in Bethelda’s blog.”

Jax’s ears were ringing so loud he could barely hear the little waitress who handed him his order a second later.

Jax grabbed the bag of food and walked out of the restaurant. He sat in his truck for a full minute before he grabbed his phone and pulled up the Web site.

Jax sat there stunned. He thought something was up, as Shep had barely been able to look at him all day. But he couldn’t fucking believe that Shep would do
this
. That he’d sleep with Grace.

The ringing in Jax’s ears was getting louder and louder and when he pulled up in front of his house five minutes later it was all white noise. Jax ran up the stairs two at a time and when he opened the front door all he saw was Shep leaning against the counter, a stupid, smarmy grin on his stupid, smarmy face as he talked.

Jax crossed the room and Shep saw him a moment before he clocked him in the jaw.

“I can believe you slept with her,” Jax said as they both went down to the floor hard, but Jax only got in a few hits before Shep had him in a headlock.

“Listen, listen,” Shep said as he struggled to restrain Jax.

“I can’t believe you. I always knew you’d screw anything in a skirt, but not her, not Grace.”

“I didn’t sleep with her, you moron,” Shep said, tightening his hold as Jax continued to try to fight. “So do you want to talk about it or continue to flail around like an idiot? Because I’m bigger and stronger than your punk ass.”

Maybe it was the loss of oxygen to his head, but Jax stopped struggling. Shep pushed him away and got up.

“I don’t think you have any idea how badly I want to deck you in the face right now,” Shep said as Jax got to his feet.

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“You don’t get to talk,” Shep shouted. “Do you really believe that we slept together? Do you really think that of me? Of Grace, for that matter? She’s in love with
you
. You want to know what happened last night? She was working at the café after nine, for the fourth night in a row, and I was worried about her. I don’t like her working late. Not because I’m
in
love with her, but because I love her like a sister. We went over to her place, got drunk on tequila, and she cried on my shoulder because she thinks she’s never going to get over your stupid ass.” Shep pointed his finger at Jax.

“I don’t get you,” Shep said shaking his head and still yelling. “I don’t get how you can have the woman you love in front of you and not do anything about it. And don’t you dare claim to not love her, because you told me you did the night you got drunk after she slapped you at the bar. When I drove you back to my house all you did was talk about her. Talk about how much you love her, and that she was the only woman you would ever love.

“And you know what, Jax, it didn’t even take you saying it to make it painfully clear to
everyone
that you love her. Everybody who’s worked on this house knows it,” Shep said, indicating the walls around him with his arms. “Especially because of this kitchen. This is
her
dream kitchen. Do you think that fact has escaped anyone’s notice? Because it hasn’t. You built this for her.” He paused to let that sink in.

“Do you want to ruin every relationship you have? You let Grace walk out of your life like she was nothing. Brendan’s done with you. Was it your goal to piss me off, too? I screw anything in a skirt? Fuck you, Jax. You’re
screwing
up your life. Is this what you wanted? A house to live in all by yourself for the rest of your life? Because if that’s what you want, you’re well on your way to it. How did you find out anyways?”

It took Jax a second to realize Shep had asked him a question. He was still trying to process the fact that he’d just gotten his ass handed to him.

“Find what out?” he asked unsure of what Shep was talking about.

“That I stayed at Grace’s?”

Jax took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Chad was at Bubba’s. He told me about Bethelda’s latest blog post.”

Shep just looked at Jax dumbfounded before he reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He dropped his hand after a moment and shook his head. “Did you listen to the words that just came out of your mouth? You took the words of Chad Sharp and Bethelda Grimshaw over twenty-five years of friendship? Are you joking?”

“I…I wasn’t thinking,” Jax said, still dazed. “I haven’t been…” not since he’d messed things up with Grace. That was the last time he’d thought clearly. The last time he’d felt even remotely good about anything. What the
hell
was wrong with him?

“No kidding. You need to get your shit together.”

“Yeah.” Jax nodded, rubbing his hands across his face. He just wasn’t sure how to go about doing it.

S
ixty-two-year-old Gene Fritch was a wealthy man. His family had lived on Mirabelle Beach since the 1930s and they’d accumulated quite a bit of the land. Over the last twenty years they’d built dozens of beach houses that they rented out. Five years ago they built the LaBella Resort complete with golf course, private pool, and spa. Harper worked there three days a week giving massages, and she was booked solid every day. The Fritches made a pretty penny during the summer, and the snowbirds kept them well in the black during the winter.

Well, Gene had died of a heart attack, and his funeral was going to be a finale of grand proportions.

Carla Fritch, Gene’s third wife who just happened to be twenty-five years younger than him, was known for her theatrics. Gene’s funeral was going to be the performance of her life, so she spared absolutely no expense. She ordered the funeral home to be filled with orchids, roses, and lilies. The café was catering almost five thousand dollars’ worth of food, there was going to be an open bar, and a professional violinist and harpist were being flown down from New York to play music.

Paige was still on maternity leave, but she was going to come in and work for a little bit. Carla ordered the picture tribute, service folders, prayer cards, and every other thing she could possibly put her husband’s picture on. It was well over eight thousand dollars’ worth of stuff. There were going to be huge pictures of him stationed around the funeral home surrounded by the plethora of flowers that she wanted everywhere. Not to mention she’d ordered some of that creepy jewelry the funeral home sold. Carla was going to be walking around with her dead husband’s thumbprint around her neck.

When everything was said and done, Gene Fritch’s funeral was going to be over one hundred thousand dollars. To top it all off, he was going to be buried with another one hundred thousand dollars’ worth of stuff: a gold crucifix from the 1500s, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl ring, a tie pin and cufflink set that was made of platinum and diamonds, a twenty-thousand-dollar suit, and a baseball signed by the Mets when they won the 1969 World Series.

Apparently good old Gene thought that he could take some of his riches with him to the afterlife.

The funeral was going to be on Thursday night. Gene was going to be lowered into his final resting place at dusk.

That gave Grace and Lula Mae a good couple of days to plan everything out and start prepping. The day of the funeral, Grace and Lula Mae showed up at the café at six in the morning and cooked for a solid nine hours. They had Lula Mae’s SUV and Grace’s Bug loaded up with everything before four and had two hours to set everything up before the service started.

“Grace,” Lula Mae said as she stacked the shrimp cocktail on a platter, “I need you to run over to the store. I forgot the ketchup for the cocktail sauce and we need more fresh strawberries for the mousse cups.”

“Anything else?” Grace asked as she grabbed her purse.

“If the fresh pineapple looks good get two of those and we could use some more cilantro.”

“I’ll be back,” she said as she headed for the front door.

Grace pulled into the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly five minutes later. She grabbed a handheld basket and headed for the produce. She got the strawberries, pineapples, and cilantro. The service started in twenty minutes, so she rushed over to the condiments aisle, rounding the corner and running smack-dab into a solid chest, the very same solid chest that she loved.

“Grace,” Jax said as his hands grabbed on to her arms to steady her.

Why did the first time she saw him have to be then? Have to be when she couldn’t take a second to really deal with it?

“Jax,” she said, inhaling sharply. “Sorry, I, uh, wasn’t watching where I was going.” She took a step back.

“It’s okay,” he said as his hands fell from her shoulders.

She wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and press her mouth to his. To kiss him until neither of them could breathe anymore. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything except ripping her heart open even wider.

God, she missed him, everything about him. She missed wearing one of his T-shirts and smelling like him all day. She missed drinking coffee with him in the mornings, the feel of his fingers in her hair, and his hand at the small of her back. She missed waking him up in the middle of the night to make love. But it hadn’t ever been love to him. Just sex because he didn’t love her.

“I have to go,” she said, needing to get away from him before she started crying in front of the relish display. She stepped around him, and as always he let her walk away.

Jax still felt the warmth from Grace’s skin on his hands, still had the scent of her in his lungs. He’d had her in front of him. Literally had her in his hands, something he’d wanted since he’d let her walk away from him weeks ago, and he hadn’t done anything to make her stay.

There were so many things he wanted to say to her. That he was a moron for starters. That he should’ve never let her go. That he missed her so much it was physically painful to be without her. That he was miserable. That she was everything to him.

That he loved her.

Jax couldn’t remember telling anyone that he loved them. He might’ve told his grandmother at one point, but he wasn’t sure. For him, the very idea of saying those three words was terrifying. He’d always thought that saying it would make it real, make it possible to let someone in, make it possible for someone to hurt him.

Parents were supposed to love their children unconditionally, to take care of them, protect them. Jax had never had that. He’d never known love from his own blood, so he’d always thought he wasn’t capable of it, that it wasn’t part of his DNA.

He was a fucking idiot.

He’d been loved for most of his life, and it might not have been by a family that shared his blood, but it was most definitely by a family that would bleed for him.

He’d had Claire, Lula Mae, and Oliver who’d always treated him like a son. Brendan and Shep who were more like brothers than anything else. Brothers who had helped him through the darkest times in his life, who had helped him build a house because they wanted him to have a home, brothers that called him on his bullshit when he was too blind to see what was standing right in front of him. Well, what
had
been standing right in front of him.

Jax had been there the day Grace came home from the hospital. It was a couple of months after his grandmother died, and seeing her had been the first real moment he’d felt hope. She was so small, and perfect, and he wanted to protect her like he’d never been protected. And somewhere along the way, he’d fallen in love with her.

Who was he kidding? He’d always been in love with her. The love he had for her at age twenty-nine was definitely different from the love he’d had at five, but it had always been there.

Jax had been running from his love for Grace for a long time.
Too long.
He wanted to tell her as she stood in front of him, but she’d looked up at him with so much pain in her eyes that it had literally taken his breath away.

“I thought you were going to get the beer.”

Jax turned and looked at Bennett who was holding a bag of chips and a jar of ranch dip. They’d gone up to the house that afternoon and Bennett helped Jax install the appliances that had been delivered. Afterward, they’d grabbed a pizza to take back to Jax’s. The Yankees were playing the Angels so they were going to watch the game and drink beer. Jax had just been missing the beer part of the equation so they’d stopped by the supermarket.

“I ran into Grace.” Literally.

“Oh.” Bennett nodded. “How’d that go?”

“I’m an idiot.”

“Well, Shep and Brendan are pretty likely to agree with that statement.”

“Yeah.” Jax nodded, running his hand through his hair and turning back in the direction Grace had gone.

“Go after her. Talk to her.”

“She’s working tonight.”

“Oh, yeah, that funeral for Gene Fritch.”

“Let me go get the beer,” Jax said as he turned around and headed toward the refrigerated section. Well, at least he had the night to figure out how to get her back.

“All right, what’s going on with you?”

Grace looked up from stacking another tray of cookies. Harper was standing in the kitchen doorway, her hands folded under her ample breasts and a frown on her lips.

“Seriously?” Grace asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Besides the obvious,” Harper said, waving one of her hands in the air. “Something happened. Your mood has gotten funkier since I saw you yesterday.”

“I saw Jax,” Grace said softly. And she felt like she’d been ripped in half for the last three hours.

“Here?” Harper said, looking over her shoulder at the crowded hallway.

“No, earlier tonight at the store,” Grace said as she started stacking cookies again. “Where’s Mel?”

Even though Gene Fritch hadn’t been the one to hire Harper, nor had he really had anything to do with the spa, technically he had been her boss. Harper had to come to the service, so she dragged Mel along with her.

“I don’t know. I got cornered by Tarvis Fritch, one of Gene’s disgusting grandsons, and I only just got away. Who hits on someone at a funeral?”

“Creepers.”

“Exactly. And don’t think I’m going to let you get away with that little subject change.”

Grace sighed and looked up.

“Okay, I’m not going to push you on this right now, but be prepared for Mel and me kidnapping you when this is all said and done.”

“I have to help my grandmother clean up first.”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Lula Mae said, coming into the kitchen. “Pinky, Panky, and your grandfather are here. We can take care of it.” Lula Mae turned to Harper. “You take her with you when this is all finished.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Harper said, giving Grace a big ‘I won’ smile. “I’m going to go find Mel.” She turned around and left the kitchen.

Graced followed, carrying her newly stacked tray of cookies. She went out into the crowded hallway and into the viewing room.

Carla was standing by the casket, sobbing loudly as people hugged her. She was wearing a bright red dress and enough diamonds that Grace felt like she needed to put on her sunglasses to help with the glare.

Grace put the cookies down and then headed upstairs to use the bathroom. The one downstairs had a line ten people deep. When she walked out, she ran smack into Missy who was coming out of the casket display room.

“What are you doing up here?” Missy asked, narrowing her eyes at Grace suspiciously.

“Going to the bathroom. Do I need to ask permission these days?”

“You don’t need to be up here,” Missy snapped.

“Missy, can’t you find something better to do than be a giant pain in everybody’s ass?” Grace didn’t wait for an answer before she sidestepped Missy and headed back down into the crowd.

It was almost eleven by the time Grace, Mel, and Harper got out of the funeral home.

“Where are we going?” Grace asked as she climbed into the backseat of Harper’s car.

“Don’t you worry about it,” Harper said as she started the ignition. “So what happened when you saw Jax?”

Grace rested her head back on the seat and stared up at the ceiling. “Well, I
ran
into him and he put his hands on me to steady me. I miss his hands. I miss him,” she said unable to stop her voice from cracking.

“Oh, sweetie,” Mel said sympathetically.

“Did he say anything?” Harper asked.

“Well,” Grace said, pulling her head up, “I told him I was sorry for running into him. And he said, ‘it’s okay.’ That’s it. Well except when he said my name. I wanted to throw myself into his arms just as much as I wanted to run away.”

“Ugh,” Harper said, shaking her head. “I really just want to smack him.”

“Me, too,” Mel said.

“Look, I’m fine with us doing whatever tonight. But can we not talk about him? Please?”

“Talk about who?” Harper said.

“I have no idea,” Mel said.

“Thanks,” Grace said, closing her eyes as she leaned her head against the seat again.

“But can we please talk about Tarvis Fritch hitting on Harper?” Mel asked. “Because that
has
to be discussed.”

Grace couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips. Really, she couldn’t ask for better friends. They were always just what she needed.

“Oh, jeez,” Harper groaned.

“So when are you two going on a date?” Mel went on. “Is he going to take you out on his big fancy yacht. Seduce you under the light of a full moon.”

“Shut up,” Harper said. “He’s disgusting. He kept leaning into me to talk, breathing on my neck.” Harper shivered. “And he touched me. I’m going to have to burn this dress now.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. I like that dress,” Grace said.

“I did, too,” Harper said sadly.

The car slowed and came to a stop. Grace pulled her head up and saw that they were in front of Rejuvenate Spa and Salon, the other place that Harper worked.

“What are we doing here?” Grace asked as she unbuckled her seat belt.

“We’re about to have a little fun of our own,” Harper said, turning to Grace and grinning over her shoulder. “I asked Celeste and she said we could have free rein.”

“Seriously?” Grace asked.

Rejuvenate was not a cheap place to go. On average they made about one hundred dollars per client.

“Yup.” Harper grinned. “Let’s go.”

All three girls got out of the car.

“And I got some loot,” Harper said, handing a bottle of wine to Mel.

“How did you get that?” Grace asked, unable to keep herself from grinning.

“She flirted with the bartender,” Mel said.

“Never say I didn’t do anything for you,” Harper said as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

All three girls stepped in and as Harper moved toward the alarm panel, Grace shut the door behind them.

Grace saw it a second before it happened. She turned to her left as a figure moved in the dark. There was a loud bang and someone was screaming as Mel fell to the ground, the wine bottle shattering on the floor.