The Bet (The Badboy's Claim Series #1) ✔️

FORTY

My Mom and Janet both smiled at us once we made it into the kitchen. "There you are."

"You needed me?" I asked, grabbing a vase from out of the cabinets.

"I actually wanted to ask you something," Janet spoke up, standing from the table that her and my Mom sat at. "As you know, Jaxon has an older sister, Regan and she's going to be coming with her fiance this weekend as well as a really good friend of Jaxon's from France who is going to moving here. I was wondering if you'd like to come."

The friend from France had me a tad bit curious. From our first date when we got to know each other, he did mention he had friends in France so I shouldn't be that surprised.

I noticed I was taking to long to answer. "Of course! I'd love to."

"Great! I can't wait to introduce you to Abella. I have a feeling you two will get along." She chirped, clapping her hands.

Jaxon rolled his eyes. "I honestly don't even want them to meet."

"And why is that?" I asked, feeling a little offended.

He sighed. "You'll see what I mean. It isn't what you think it is." That eased some of my nerves. Some. 

"I hope not." I turned to my Mom and Janet. "I'm going to go join everyone in the living room."

"Okay." My Mom started off. "Just make sure you don't squeeze the life out of those flowers."

I gasped, plopping the flowers in the vase. I didn't even notice I was gripping them so hard. After putting some water inside, I headed out of the living room. Sadly, Jaxon came too. I couldn't spend a minute away from him when I was mad.

"Kitten, are you upset?" Jaxon asked, grabbing my wrist stopping us in the hall.

I didn't look at him. "No."

"Why are you lying?"

"Why are you asking stupid questions?" I countered. He sighed, pulling me into a hug. I put my hands on his chest, trying to push him away. "What are you doing? Let me-"

"It's not that I don't want you to meet Abella... it's just that I don't want you to."

I scoffed. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It does," He pulled away but, his arms didn't drop from my waist. "You're just not getting it."

"Sure I don't." Sarcasm dripping from my words. I swatted his hands off of me and he frowned. "Kitten, you're breaking my heart here."

"Sucks to be you, Tin Man." His frown turned into confusion, not picking up my reference. "You don't know The Wizard of Oz? Dorthy? Red shoes? 'I want to go home'?"

His face didn't change and I sighed. "We definitely need to "

Sean walked from around the corner and he stopped abruptly. Staring between us, something flickered in his green eyes but, they were mainly on me. "Oh. Hey."

"Hey..." I said awkwardly. It was weird talking to my ex once again since after he practically grilled me when I asked to keep quiet about my past. If it wasn't for Mare, we wouldn't be on... okay terms. We hardly even talked unless everyone else was tagged along. It surely must've been weird for him to see me with Jaxon after we had our own past relationship together.

Of course, I didn't have feelings for him but, there are things you just can't forget and there was always the feeling of guilt for what I did to him. It didn't help the awkwardness when Jaxon had snaked his arm around me, pulling me into his chest possessively.