“Oh.” She tilts her head. “Who are you with?”
“I’m going to the restroom,” Ellie says, standing suddenly, causing Felicia to jump back from the table and me to stand with her, trying to grab her arm, which she pulls from my grasp.
“Fuck,” I clip, watching Ellie rush across the room and out of sight.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” Felicia says as I scrub my hands down my face. “It’s okay, but I’m serious. I won’t be calling you again,” I tell her, hating that I feel like an asshole, but knowing I need to make it clear to everyone, not only her, that I’m off the market.
“Sure, I understand. Take care, Jax,” she says, turning to leave, but not before I catch something in her eyes that sets my nerves on edge and has me instantly on guard.
“You’re gonna have your hands full, my friend,” Jones says, pulling my eyes from where they were glued on the bathroom door and turn to look at him. “You know I love you, man, but some of the girls you’ve been with are,” he rolls his finger around his ear, “muy loco, and that girl…your girl looks scared of her own shadow.”
“She’s been through a lot,” I tell him, and he points the spatula in his hand at me.
“I know, and that’s why I’m telling you to close down shop on these bitches, so they don’t think they have the right to fuck with her. ’Cause, homie, whether you want to face it or not, they will fuck with her, and until your relationship is solid, you can’t have that shit.”
“I know, man.” I let out a deep breath then stand when Ellie comes back to the table.
“You okay?” I ask, pulling out her chair again.
“Yeah, fine, sorry,” she mumbles, picking her menu back up.
“You know what you want, beautiful?” Jones asks, and I try not to let it annoy me that he’s calling her beautiful, but it still does.
“What’s good?” she asks him, setting down the menu, turning her body toward him.
“Everything, but if you trust me, I’ll make you something special,” he says, giving her the smile that had women dropping panties left and right before he got married to Sylvia.
“Sure.” She shrugs.
“You want your usual?”
“Yeah, man,” I say then look at Ellie, who has her eyes on her coffee cup in front of her. How the hell I’m going to prove to her that she’s it for me, I have no idea, but I know there is no fucking way she won’t be mine.
*
“You may now kiss the bride,” the pastor says, and Wes bends July backwards over his arm, kissing her in a way that I’m surprised Uncle Asher doesn’t get out of his seat, storm up the aisle, and take her from him.
“Oh, God,” my sister sitting next to me cries, and I look down at her as she wipes her eyes while wrapping her arm around mine. “They are so perfect for each other,” she says then looks at me, smiling before standing up when everyone else does.
“Ax,” Hope calls from my other side, and I pull my eyes from my sister and hold my breath as Hope smiles up at me.
She looks like her mom…her mom, who has taken up my every thought since meeting her.
“What’s up, sweetheart?” I ask softly, still unsure of what to do with a three-year-old little girl.
“Can you pit me up so I can see Mama?” she asks, and my chest gets tight, similar to the way it does every time I look at her mom.