because he didn’t use the bathroom downstairs. I heard his feet hit the stairs, and I wondered why he’d chosen the one upstairs, but my brain was too overworked to really give it too much thought. By the time he returned, I’d found my one hamburger among the array of food he’d gotten.
Jax pulled out a chair next to me and dropped down in it with grace. He was sitting to my right. “So.” He drew the word out as he unwrapped a chicken sandwich. “How long are you planning on being here?”
I shrugged a shoulder as I plucked the pickles off my sandwich. “Don’t know yet.”
“Probably not long, right? There isn’t shit to do around here, and with your mom out doing her thing, there aren’t many reasons to hang around.” There was a pause. “You going to eat those pickles?” When I shook my head, he helped himself to them.
I didn’t respond and I got two bites in before he spoke again.
“You in college? Shepherd?”
My hands stopped halfway to my mouth. “How did you know?”
He’d moved on to his hamburger, placing the borrowed pickles under the bun. “Clyde talks about you every once in a while. So does Mona.”
Every muscle locked up and my stomach soured. Anything that my mother had to say about me could not be good.
Silence fell between us while he removed one of the buns and folded his sandwich into a one-bun burrito. “So, what you studying?”
I dropped my half-eaten burger on its wrapper. “Nursing.”
His brows rose as he let out a low whistle. “Well, my fantasies involving nurses in little white skirts just got a whole lot richer.”
My eyes narrowed at him.
He grinned. “What made you pick nursing?”
Focusing on rolling up my discarded burger in its wrapper, I shrugged again. I knew exactly why, but the answer wasn’t easy to admit, so I changed the subject. “What about you?”
“You mean, what do I do besides bartending?” He finished off the hamburger and grabbed for the fries.
“Yeah.” I watched him. “Besides that and eating a lot.”
Jax laughed that deep, sexy laugh again. “Right now, I’m just bartending. Got my fingers in a few other things.”
He didn’t elaborate, like me, and so I didn’t push it, but that also left very little to talk about.
“Fry?”
I shook my head.
“Come on. It’s the best part of eating fast food. You can’t turn down a fry.” Those eyes of his warmed even more. “It’s pure grease, carbs, and salt. Heaven.”
My lips twitched. “You don’t look like you eat a lot of carbs.”
One broad shoulder rose. “I run every day. Hit the gym before I hit the bar. Means I eat what I want, when I want. Otherwise, life would suck if you spent half your time begrudging yourself of shit you want.”
God, did I know how super-true that was.
So I took a fry. And then two. Okay, maybe five fries before I got up to throw away our trash in a little bin that surprisingly had a fresh trash bag in it. As I washed off my hands, Jax stood and made his way over to the fridge, letting out another low whistle as he opened it up. I had no idea what he was doing. The fridge was empty with the exception of condiments.
He shut the door and propped his hip against the countertop. Taking in the buttercup-colored walls—walls that Clyde had painted before we moved in—and the scratched surface of the small round table we ate at, he drew in a deep breath and his striking face got all serious. Jaw set. Full lips thinned. Eyes deepened to a dark brown, almost mahogany.
“You’re not staying here,” he announced.
I blinked as I shifted so my right side was visible to him. “Thought we already had this conversation.”
“There’s no food in the fridge.”
“Yeah, I kind of noticed that.” I paused, crossing my arms. “There also wouldn’t be food at a hotel—a hotel I’d have to pay for.”
Jax angled his body toward mine, and my gaze dropped. Narrow waist and hips. Definitely a runner. “Hotels aren’t that expensive around here.”
Irritation pricked along my skin. I knew I was going to have to go to the grocery store at some point, because I did plan on staying, which meant I needed food. I also needed my car to be functional, so that was God knows how much money I’d have to spend. I knew that the longer I stayed here, the quicker I’d blow through my funds, but it was seriously my only option. I had no other place to go, at least not until school started back up in late August.
That was if I got approved for higher financial aid.
And if I didn’t?
Maybe I could get a corner in a padded room to rock in.
These were things Jax really didn’t need to know. “Thanks for taking me here and getting food. I really appreciate it, and if you could let me know who I need to contact about my windshield, that would be great. But I’m kind of tired and—”
Suddenly Jax was directly in front of me. Like one second he was by the fridge, and then the next he was right there. I sucked in a startled breath as I pressed back against the counter.
“I don’t think you’re getting what I’m saying, honey.”
Obviously not.
“Your mom is cracked. You know that.”
Okay. It was one thing for me to say my mom was screwed up. Totally another thing coming from his mouth. “Look, my mom is—”
“Not going to win any mother of the year awards? Yeah, I know that,” he said, and my fingers curled against my palms. “She’s also not going to win any boss of the year awards, either. But you probably know that already.”
“What does any of that have to do with me staying here or not?” I snapped.
“You actually don’t need to be in this town, let alone at this house.”
My mouth dropped since I wasn’t expecting that statement. “What?”
“You need to go stay in a hotel for tonight, and then as soon as your car is ready, you need to get your sweet ass on the road, which will hopefully be tomorrow afternoon, and you really don’t need to come back.”
Okay. That did it. I’d had it up to here with everything, and I didn’t care that Hot Bartender Dude was probably the sexiest guy I’d ever seen or that he was nice enough to drive me here and buy me food. Or that he thought my ass was sweet and liked my legs.
I squared off with him, forgetting everything else. “Answer me one question.”
His
