Chapter 26
Jaxon leaned back in his chair, watching with a smile as Amy wolfed down her sandwich across from him. Her eyes darted in his direction as she swallowed her bite and smiled back. "You're not going to eat?"
He pushed his sandwich towards her. "I'll make me another."
Her cheeks blushed a light pink as she shook her head at him. "One's enough for me."
"What, are you going to be shy now? I didn't forget the way you stole my omelet."
The pink darkened to red. "You kept talking and talking. If I didn't stuff my mouth with something, I would have interrupted you every two seconds with a question." She smiled. "So, in reality, I was helping you, not stealing your food."
As the last word left her mouth, she took a giant bite of his sandwich with a smile. He shook his head at her as a small chuckle left his mouth. "So, are you really going to tell Logan where to go?"
She paused, her food halfway towards her mouth. Easing the sandwich back onto the plate, she pushed it away. "Greg won't go with him. I know him well enough to know that he won't trust anything that my brothers have to say, especially after the things they kept from me. If they wouldn't even tell me that he'd called after we broke up, how does Greg know that they'll actually give me the information or bring him here so he can talk to me?" She shook her head with a sad smile on her face. "No matter how much I trust my family, I can't trust them to actually think about Greg's best interests."
"You're amazing," he whispered, not being able to keep the words from flowing past his lips.
A small crinkle of confusion lined her forehead. "What?"
"You," he said, shaking his head. "The guy was a complete jerk to you. He broke your heart, and here you are, sitting across from me telling me that you're going to risk your life for him just because you don't think that your brothers will care about protecting him." He paused, but when the confusion didn't completely leave her face, he reached out and placed his hand over hers. "You're amazing. He did something to you that not a lot of people could forgive. You learn to forgive and move on. It's more than I could ever do."
"I haven't moved on." The words slashed at his heart, but he kept his mouth shut. "The pain is still there, and believe me, I still want to punch him in the face every time I think of that day."
"But..."
"But," she continued with a smile, "I know the news was a shock to him. He'd talked about wanting kids so much when we were together. Me not being able to have them was just too much."
His grip tightened on her hand. "Hell, the man's an idiot. We've talked about this before. Anyone who would walk away from you for something like that didn't actually love you. Relationships have hard times. It's not what hits you, but how you deal with it. He should have handled it different. Although," he started with a large smile, "I can't lie and say that I'm not happy that he was an idiot."
Surprised laughter fell from her mouth as she turned her hand palm up and tightened her grip on his hand. "Thank you, Jaxon. Seriously, thank you."
He brushed the words aside. She didn't need to thank him. After all the things that her and her family were doing to help him, the very least he could do was make her smile. "Now, let's get back to the fact that you plan on sneaking out as soon as you can without your brothers."
Green eyes widened at him. "How did you know?"
"I guess I just know you too well. You aren't going to let Logan and me go by ourselves, and he won't let you come with us. So, you and I will just have to go." He frowned. "I just don't know how. I don't have a car, and I'm pretty sure I saw Logan pocket your keys as soon as we walked into the house."
She reached in her pocket, jingling her prize as she held the keys in the air. "Swiped his from his pocket when he was hugging me. Believe me, this isn't the first time they've tried taking my keys to keep me from going somewhere."
It was his turn to let out a surprise chuckle. "I'm guessing you already have a plan?"
"How could you think otherwise?" she asked with a small curl of her lips.
***
Stopping at the red light, Jaxon glanced to his right and had to fight to keep from laughing. Despite his usually strong will, he felt a chuckle slip thorough his lips before he could pull it back. Amy snapped her gaze towards him, smiled at his laugh, before shaking her head. "What's so funny?"
"You," he answered honestly as the light turned green. Easing forward, he took the turn she pointed to before explaining. "I was sure that all four of your brother's would see through you in about two seconds."
"They would have scared Greg off. I had to lie," she said defensively, crossing her arms under her chest as a slight blush formed across her cheeks.
His smile widened. "And when they figure out that you really didn't go upstairs to take a nap?"
"It'll be too late," she said with a smile of her own. "They don't know where Greg was talking about, and I left my phone at home."
He glanced down at her wrist and winced. No matter where Amy went, no matter what happened, as long as she wore that watch, they would always know where she was. Later, when this was over, later when there wasn't any danger lingering in the shadows, he'd let her know. But now, at that exact moment, when he wasn't sure what would happen in the future, he was relieved that Amy's brothers could find her.
"It's right there," she said, interrupting his thoughts.
He stared at the place as he eased into the empty parking lot. Raising an eyebrow in surprise, he stared at the building in front of them. Before he could turn to question her memory, she had already jumped from Logan's truck. Shaking his head, he threw his door open, slammed it behind him, and caught up to her just as her hand gripped the restaurant's door handle.
"This is the place?" Jaxon asked suspiciously as he glanced around the darkly lit area.
The rickety picnic tables they stood in front of had people's names carved into the face of them. The bench seats had scrapes and dents. On some, the paint was peeling, and on others the paint was completely gone. The dim lighting hid any bugs that may or may not have been scurrying on the uneven floor.
He tried to keep the frown from his face, but knew he didn't succeed when he noticed Amy's bright smile dim slightly. There was no doubt in his mind that, for Amy, this was somewhere that held a lot of memories. With the way her eyes lit up, he knew those memories were happy ones, and Jaxon didn't know whether to be glad something good had come out of her relationship with Greg or jealous as hell that she could still think of the man with that expression on her face.
"This is our place," she echoed with a chuckle as she shook her head as if clearing it.
Grabbing his hand, she tugged him towards one of the many empty tables. When he raised an eyebrow at her in question, she plopped down in the chair and waited for him to sit beside her before answering his unspoken words. "One night," she started as she picked up the mismatched salt and pepper shakers and set them to the side, "we were on our way to meet his parents at this fancy restaurant downtown. I remember dreading that dinner. You see, by then, I'd figured out that his parents didn't like who I was—"
"Idiots."
She smiled at his interruption. "They liked my last name and what that could do for them."
"And Amy," a voice started, "gave me hell for making her go."
Glancing up at Greg, she motioned towards the seat across from them. "Believe me; he was giving it back just as well as I was giving it."
"I wasn't paying attention," Greg continued, sending her that small smile that said he had expected her words, "and hit a pothole. Blew my tire."
"Let me guess," Jaxon said with a small chuckle. "Amy didn't want to wait for road side assistance, got out, making you follow her, and found this place."
Greg nodded his head as his smile began to disappear. "You know," Greg started, "you were right. I didn't really know Amy. When she jumped out of my car, I sat there for a moment, shocked that she'd even think about walking through a neighborhood like this. But you, you knew exactly what she was going to do, and by the smile on your face, you admire her for it."
"I do," Jaxon admitted.
The other man stared at Jaxon, and by the expression on his face, Jaxon knew one thing. No matter what Amy thought, this man was far from being over her. "I wish I would have paid more attention to her," Greg whispered. "Maybe if I thought more about her and less about what my parents wanted for me, you wouldn't be here right now. Maybe, she'd still be with me."
"You could live in a world of maybe, or you could do something about your mistake."
"Jaxon," Amy whispered in warning. "I want his help, just as much as you and Marshall do, but I don't know if getting him involved will solve anything."
"Amy," Greg interrupted before Jaxon could say another word. "You know me. I don't do anything unless there's something in it for me. I'm not just doing this for you, as selfish as it sounds, but I'm doing it for me too. Your boyfriend is right. There are things that I've done in the past and things that I've done nothing about. Until a year ago, I never would have thought about the consequences, but I've had time to realize just how much I hurt a lot of people. I'm going to do whatever I can to make up for it."
Amy reached out and put her hand over Greg's. The man smiled at the action, and Jaxon felt his gut clench when she smiled back. "I've forgiven you, you know that, right? What you did was wrong, but being angry at you forever isn't going to help anything."
"God, I miss you," he said with a chuckle. When Jaxon froze in his seat, Greg laughed. "Relax, I'm not trying to win her back. I know a lost cause when I see one, but that doesn't mean that I'm going away," he warned. "If she'll let me, I'll do whatever I can to gain back the friendship we had before."
Amy drew her hands back, and when Jaxon glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, he saw the slightly uncomfortable expression on her face. He knew, without a doubt, that when she had said she'd forgiven Greg, she was being honest, but there was a difference before forgiving and forgetting. She wouldn't forget what Greg had done. She would remember, and what she would remember was that trust, that trust Greg had broken.
"I'm going to the bathroom," Amy mumbled as her chair scraped the floor below them.
They both stared at the seat she had left for a moment before turning towards one another. Greg's eyes flickered towards where Amy was walking, and when the man was sure she was out of hearing range, he leaned towards Jaxon. "I can promise you a couple of things; I'm really not going anywhere. I'll do whatever I can to help the two of you out, but if she even slightly seems like she's kicking you to the curb, I'm not going to miss my window of opportunity."
Jaxon leaned a little closer to Greg and smiled. The man jerked back, his back hitting the chair and making it scoot back an inch or so. "I can promise you some things too. You lost the hardest thing to get back. Not her heart, or her forgiveness, but her trust. You're going to have to try a whole lot harder to gain that back. Another thing, I'm not going to sit back and let you take her. There will be times that she's angry at me, times that she doesn't even want to look at me, but I'll still be there. Remember that."
The other man nodded his head, and Jaxon knew they had an understanding. Neither of them would back down. Greg knew he had made a mistake in letting Amy go. Unfortunately for the man, Jaxon never planned on making the same mistake. He would keep her safe, keep her happy, but no matter what happened, no matter who tried to break them apart, he wouldn't leave her. He had just found the only thing that made him smile since his brother's death, and Jaxon wouldn't give up that happiness without a fight.
He glanced over, watching as Amy's disappeared in the the restroom, and knew he was being selfish. If he really wanted her to be happy, he'd leave right now. He'd get up and walk away. She didn't deserve to be saddled with his burdens. She didn't deserve to be put through his pain. He thought about her smile, and his stomach tightened. It might be selfish of him, but hell, he couldn't keep himself from feeling happy, from hoping with all hopes that he would be able to see that smile every day for the rest of his life.