Before You (Before You #1)(68)

“Are you okay? You aren’t making sense.” Cam’s light eyebrows drew together in a frown as he studied her face.

Standing upright, she smiled. “Cam, I’m better than I have been in a long time. Have a nice life.”

When she climbed into the back of the taxi, her whole body shook with the knowledge that by leaving Cam’s house tonight, she likely closed the door on their relationship, both literally and symbolically. Rather than being upset, she felt empowered and hopeful. She and Cam might be over and Jax might truly hate her, but she still had the gallery and her friends, and that was enough for now.





Chapter Twenty-Six



After taking the taxi to a hotel only to realize that she’d left her wallet on Cam’s bed when she switched her personal items from her clutch into her daily purse, she knew she only had two options—go back to Cam’s house or call Jax. Exhausted, she ran her hands through her hair and chewed her nails in agitation. Given everything that happened, both options were less than ideal.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” she cried, tears of frustration pouring from her eyes. She punched her hand into the vinyl seat, half wishing it was Cam’s smug face when he said she was his. What a joke, she thought. She couldn’t believe she had wasted so much of her life absolutely devoted to Cam. He may have been her protector when they were children and she was grateful for that, but she should have opened her eyes earlier and listened to her doubts about their relationship.

“Miss, I need you to pay for the fare,” the driver said, turning toward the back seat of the taxi.

“I left my wallet at my boyfriend’s—no I mean ex-boyfriend’s house.”

“I can take you back there.”

Feeling the driver’s exasperated heated glare boring into her, she decided Jax was the better option. She just prayed he answered his phone. “No, let me call a friend first.”

After three rings and no answer, her stomach rolled. She couldn’t imagine crawling back to Cam’s house. If she spent one more minute with him, she would probably scratch his eyes out.

“Bre?” Jax’s sultry voice tickled her senses. She loved listening to his voice. Even with her insides ripped to shreds, she felt comforted by the sound.

“Jax. Can I come over?” The words came out so fast they blurred into each other.

“What? Why?”

She didn’t want to revisit the entire fight with Cam, but she knew she owed him an explanation after the way they parted earlier. “I… I broke up with Cam again, for good this time. Can I stay with you tonight?”

“Bre,” her name came out long and exaggerated. “I don’t want to be in the middle of the drama between you and Cam anymore. I can’t take it. The back and forth is too hard. Can you get a hotel?”

She let out a shaky, incoherent sob. “Jax, I don’t have any money. I left my wallet at Cam’s house, and I… I can’t go back there. I can’t pay the taxi fare. I don’t have anyone else.” She shut her eyes in a wave of pain. “Please, let me come to your place. You don’t even have to talk to me if you don’t want to. I can sleep on the couch and I’ll leave in the morning. I know you hate me now…” Just saying those last words made her cry harder.

“Relax, Bre,” he said in a ragged whisper. “Of course, you can come here. I don’t hate you. I could never hate you.”

“Okay,” she choked out, staring out the window into the hazy night.

“Are you in the taxi now?”

“Yes,” she mumbled.

“Okay. Give your phone to the driver and I’ll give him directions. I’ll meet you out front—and Bre?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Love you, sweetie.”

“Thanks, Jax. Love you, too.”

When the taxi started driving again, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’ll be at your friend’s house in twenty minutes.”

Bre nodded her head, and when she realized the driver probably couldn’t see her, she mumbled thanks.

The idea of seeing Jax calmed her. Weariness from everything that had happened that night settled into her body, making her eyes heavy and before she knew it, she fell asleep.

Earlier, Jax had cursed Cam for interrupting his descent into drunkenness, but now that Bre had called, he was happy that he was too angry to keep drinking after Cam left.

He had been standing outside the front of his building since the minute he hung up the phone with the taxi driver. When he spotted two headlights turning into the parking lot, he ran toward the car.

The taxi stopped and the driver stepped out of his car door. “She’s asleep.”

“I’ll grab her,” Jax replied, handing the driver a hundred dollar bill. “Keep the change. Can you carry her luggage?”

“No problem. It seems like she had a rough night.”

Jax opened the back door of the car. Bre was stretched out across the back seat. The street lamps spilled into of the car, highlighting her features. His breath caught when he saw how beautiful and fragile she looked. Her thick lashes dusted her cheekbones and her long chestnut hair draped over the side of the backseat. Every time he saw her, he loved her more.

“Bre?” Jax whispered into her ear as he bent to pick her up.