“Then take your burgers and go home.”
“I didn’t know things were that bad for the boys—or even for you.”
She looked down at her feet. No way would she let him see her cry. “I’m fine. The boys are fine. Go before your burgers get cold.”
“You know, just because we have this...thing going on, it doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Friends talk.” He said the words in her ear, which meant he was too close.
She took a step away. She didn’t want to. There was nothing she wanted to do more right now than lean back into him. Pull his arms around her and just close her eyes—lose herself in the security of having someone else around to help shoulder the burden.
Instead, she kept her body language unapproachable. “I don’t need any more friends. As you just saw, Dixie has that covered.”
He tucked the burgers under his arm, watching her. Always observing. Always seeing something she didn’t want him to see. “She loves your boys, Em. So do Caine and Sanjeev. Caine said as much. I think it hurts her that all of this was brought about because Louella used your situation to hurt her. She feels responsible. She wants to make it right.”
Em stuffed her hands inside her jacket pockets. “Look how right she’s made it. If she would just let it lie, it will eventually go away.” Of course, it would only happen if another big scandal came along. But she could wait.
Jax allowed her the space between them, but it didn’t stop him from pursuing the subject. “Do you think it’s going to just go away if you don’t address it?”
“Do you think it’s going to get better when Dixie is screaming and threatening everyone in the PO with her bags o’ money in the middle of the diner?”
“I hate to say it, but I’m sort of on Dixie’s side here. She’s defending you because she cares about you. It hurts her to see you hurt. That’s not a bad thing in a best friend, Em. If I was your best friend, and I had to listen to the people in this town always talking about your ex-husband or what led him to stray from your marriage, I’d get fed up with all the crap, too.”
The speculation, the intimate details people thought they knew about why Clifton hadn’t come out to her, were still rampant. After three months, they still talked like it had happened yesterday. Sometimes, she wanted to scream the truth at them. But what would that accomplish? “Then it’s a good thing you’re not my best friend,” she said, thin lips and all.
He grinned. “Nope. Just your boy toy.”
“Go home, Jax.” Before I beg you to hold me and make this all go away. Before I lean on you when I need to learn to stand on my own two feet.
“Because that’s where all good boy toys go when they’re dismissed?”
“Because that’s where I’m going.”
“To lick your wounds?”
“What are you tryin’ to accomplish with this pep talk, coach?”
“I’m trying to get you to stand up for yourself. I saw the way you reacted when Louella showed up at the school. That woman’s a piranha. I can smell her desperation from a mile away. Add in the fact that she’s pretty horrible, and not a chance in hell I’m going to stand by and let her behave as though you’re not standing right in front of her. Why don’t you do the same?”
“Chivalry really isn’t dead. And I do stick up for myself.” She did. Maybe not in a screaming fit filled with blackmail and rage, but she took jabs at Louella. Small ones. But they were jabs. They counted.
Jax called her on that. “You poke at her. But I’d bet you’ve never let her really have it. Sometimes, you have to teach people how to treat you.”
“Then here’s your first lesson. Leave me alone before everyone’s stickin’ their noses to the window in Madge’s to see what we’re doing out here.”
“Why would it be such a bad thing if people saw us together, Em? Am I ugly? Do I have a hunchback?”
Did he ask that because of his ego, or because he really wanted to be seen with her? “Because people will talk about you and Maizy just by association. I won’t have it. I won’t have you and Maizy dragged through the mud because I’m everyone’s target right now. You don’t know the people in this town. They can make a life miserable.”
“Only if you let ’em. And if you’re going to live your life the way you think other people decide you should, it’s better I’m only your boy toy.”
Because a man like Jax would only want a strong woman who took no guff. Ouch. “Thanks, life coach. Now that I’m all pumped up and ready to go huntin’ bear, you can go.”
“I’ll do that. And glad I caught you. I sent you a text. Maizy has a fever. Can’t make tonight. But call me if you want to talk. ’Night, Em.” He reached behind him and brushed her fingers with his before strolling off into the shadows of the square, his long legs eating up the pavement until she heard a car door open and shut, an engine start, and he was gone.