“Maybe she woke up one morning and realized how badly she screwed up, and now she wants to make amends.”
“Well, if that’s what it is, then she’s a little too late.” Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. “I’m scared she might have made contact with Danny. He was super happy when he got home today—I half expected him to burst into song or something. I’ve never seen him grin so hard.”
Jackson’s hand stilled for a second before resuming its stroking of her knuckles.
“He’s always made excuses for her,” Mia went on. “Even after she deserted him, he refused to admit what a horrible person she is. What if he met up with her behind my back, Jackson? What if—”
“He didn’t.”
She glanced at him in surprise. “How can you be certain of that?”
“Because I’m pretty sure I know why your brother is smiling like a fool and walkin’ around like the big man on campus.”
Wariness circled her spine, especially when she noticed the sheepish look on Jackson’s face.
“What’s going on?”
He hesitated.
“Tell me.”
His broad chest rose as he inhaled deeply. “Okay, promise not to freak out—”
Mia’s lips puckered in a frown. Any conversation that started with ‘promise not to freak out’ was bound to end poorly.
“—but I’m ninety-nine percent sure your brother lost his virginity this weekend.”
She gasped. “What? Are you kidding me? How do you know?”
The guilty flicker in his eyes was all the answer she needed.
“He told you?”
“Not after the fact. But he asked for my advice beforehand,” Jackson admitted.
Mia’s jaw dropped, then slammed shut as her lips tightened in a thin line. It was a few seconds before she could speak again, and when she did, it came as an explosion of accusation.
“And you didn’t talk him out of it? You just gave him the go-ahead to have sex?” Her chest clenched with resentment. “He’s sixteen years old! He’s too young to be having sex! Why didn’t you try to stop him?”
Jackson answered in a calm, even tone, unfazed by the indictment. “There was no way to stop him, short of tyin’ him up, sugar. Trust me, I was a teenage boy once. All those lectures about abstinence went in one ear and out the other.”
“Did you at least try to talk him out of it?”
“No.”
Mia stumbled to her feet. “I can’t believe you encouraged my little brother to have sex!”
“I didn’t encourage a thing. He’d already decided to do it before he spoke to me, and nothin’ I could’ve said was gonna change his mind.”
She spoke through gritted teeth. “But you didn’t even try. You say you’re my boyfriend, right? Well, my boyfriend would have tried to stop my brother from making the biggest mistake of his life.”
Jackson had the nerve to smile. “Believe me, Mia, having sex for the first time ain’t gonna be the biggest mistake of his life. And as I recall, didn’t you lose your virginity at sixteen too?”
“Yes,” she grumbled, “but I was very mature for my age.”
“Bullshit. You were a horny kid, just like Danny.” Jackson’s features hardened. “And I find it mighty insultin’ that you’re laying the blame for this at my door.”
He was right. Rationally, she knew it wasn’t his fault—Danny’s hormones were to blame—but she couldn’t seem to stop herself from lashing out at Jackson. She was still so on edge from the encounter with her mother, but Brenda wasn’t here, and neither was Danny, and Mia’s anger and frustration needed a target.
Unfortunately, that target was Jackson.
“I think you should go.”
His mouth fell open. “Are you kiddin’ me?”
“I’m not in the mood to hang out tonight,” she said tersely. “I need to be alone right now.”
“Mia. For fuck’s sake. Look, I’m sorry I didn’t hogtie your brother and throw him in the back of my pickup to stop him from gettin’ busy, okay? But you’ve gotta face the facts—Danny is growing up. He’s not the fourteen-year-old kid who got dropped off at your door anymore. He’s becoming a man, and sorry to break it to you, sugar, but sex is a part of that.”
She was stunned to feel tears pricking her eyelids. God, she never cried, and now she was crying twice in one day.
“Please, just go, Jackson,” she mumbled. “I really need to calm down and clear my head, and I can’t do it while you’re here.”
The frustration burning in his eyes was unmistakable, but Jackson was a gentleman to the core, and so he didn’t push her the way other men might’ve done.
Instead, he nodded curtly.
And stalked out of the apartment without another word.
Chapter Fourteen