Jax (Titan #9)(102)

Jax dropped his hand. "Until I crashed into you? I thought I knew what sharing my life with another person was about, and I didn't know that part was incomplete until I met you—and your dynamic duo."

"Jax, stop." Why did he have to say things like that? "There are so many parts of me that you don't know or even like."

"Like what?"

Cullen Blackburn was too complicated a discussion. "Mayhem."

Jax cackled. "You have no idea what I think about Mayhem. You haven't asked, and my opinion is evolving."

She rubbed her temples. "Why are you—"

Fighting for me?

So perfect?

Stronger than me?

The list could go on, when it seemed like she was drowning. "Just… why?"

"You're my wife, Seven. That has to count for something."

Her heart shredded into a thousand bleeding ribbons of love she had to deny. There were so many real-life implications of their carelessness; the worst of which was her falling for him when she had no way to break free from the invisible chains she'd bound herself in. "Please stop talking."

His heart broke in front of her, and she shattered on the inside, turning to stone on the outside.

"What a sad fucking joke." Jax's crestfallen face hardened as he walked out. The door slammed behind him, and Seven knew it would be the last time she talked to him.





CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE


The lights in the small office at the back of The Perky Cup were low, and the air smelled like blueberry muffins freshly topped with crystallized sugar. Seven spun a plate littered with scone crumbs and finished her final bite. No matter how many times she went over the bank account statements for the month, there was one day that she just couldn't figure out.

This month had a day with astronomical sales. Sidney had more than sold out. But that was the problem—he had more than sold out. It was impossible for him to have made as much money on baked goods and coffee as he had. There wasn't enough flour and sugar in all The Perky Cup storage containers to make that many consumables, and on top of that, he had been short-staffed.

She'd gone through the credit card transactions so many times, she had a headache, and everything matched up. There were no weird charges, which left only cash. Which there was a lot of.

She stood up and stuck her head out the door. "Sidney, can you come back here one more time?"

She stared at the list of everything he said he'd sold and what the bank statement reported for deposits. "I hate to beat a dead horse. Again. But there's no way we sold this much. I'm not sure how you have forgotten making and selling an extra"—she hummed as she calculated in her head—"five hundred pastry items in a day, but if this is some sort of charity or you feel bad about what happened and you're trying to…" She let her voice trail off because she had no idea what to say. He didn't have that kind of extra money lying around. "Sidney, what is going on?"

The bells on the front door jingled, and Sidney turned. "I'm going to go make more mystery money. Try not to freak out when you see it at the bank."

Seven went back to her desk, still confused. She could just roll with it, or perhaps she was hyperfocused on a nonissue to avoid thinking about Jax.

Life lesson number… Oh well, she'd lost count by now. Another life lesson learned in very short order: Mental pain was physically anguishing. It had been far too long since she'd seen or talked to Jax, and heartbreak was a real thing. The stars in the sky had lost their diamond shimmer, colors had gone to gray, and maybe she would even look better as a brunette or a blonde.

The door pushed open, and Adelia popped in. "What the hell? I call, and I text, and no answer." She threw her hands out. "Feeling a little neglected, just so you know."

"You're not the only one I'm ignoring if it makes you feel any better."

Adelia's beautiful dark eyes narrowed. "Oh, sweetheart. I know. That's why I'm here. We're going to talk."

Seven shut her accounting book and pushed her calculator away, giving up on the day. Pretty much giving up on everything at that moment except for sulking. She leaned back in her chair, not wanting to hear what Adelia had to say. Seven's dad had been right. Her mind was focused in too many different directions, and she needed to focus only on one thing—her kids, because she screwed up when she tried to do too much else. They wouldn't have been in danger, they never would have been abducted, if she had just stuck to watching them and earning a living. No Mayhem and no falling in love.

"Oh God, you're going to cry. You're worse than I thought," Adelia snipped. "We need to talk about Jax."

Her desk phone rang, and Seven rolled her eyes, not wanting to talk to a vendor, but that was the only thing she was doing because it correlated to providing for her children. "Hang on." She picked up the phone. "This is Seven Blackburn."

"You are alive," Victoria said. "Put me on speakerphone. I want to hear Adelia also."

"That's right, beautiful." Adelia smirked at Seven. "This is an intervention."

Seven rolled her eyes toward Adelia and groaned. "You guys, you're insane. I've been busy."

Adelia put her hands on her hips and inched closer to the desk. "Victoria gave her supportive 'everybody has their own issues to work through' speech before you went to Vegas. Now it's my turn, and my speech is called 'pull your head out of your ass.'"