Jax (Titan #9)(18)

"Is this where you give me the just-say-no-to-drugs conversation, Mom? Because I think I'm acing that test."

Victoria locked her arm around Seven's shoulders and hugged. "Remember that best friend necklace we had in eighth grade? And when I lost my side, I swore my life was harder than yours?" She shook her head. "We've had such a rough go sometimes, and through it all, really amazing things have come of it. Bianca and Nolan."

"Don't make me cry." Tears brimmed at the thought of what a hard night that had been and how beautiful it had turned out. Those little babies had had no one, alone with overdosing parents. A mommy who'd died and a father who had given up custody to Seven. She hadn't thought it over when child protective services and a police officer had shown up at her door in the middle of the night with two babies and a bag of ill-fitting clothing.

"Seven, I've never met anyone stronger, and there is nobody that I'd be prouder to call my best friend. But the amount of responsibility on your shoulders isn't fair, and sometimes I'm scared that you forget you're a person too."

"I know that," she whispered.

"I have no idea why you can't admit Jax is hot as fuck and you're into him when you easily run a business and support your parents and your adopted kids." Victoria squeezed her again. "I'm terrified that because our youth was taken away, you don't know how to enjoy the life that you have fought for and earned."

"Holy shit, Victoria…" Seven sniffed. "I'll work on having fun. I'll try. I promise."





CHAPTER TEN


Bianca and Nolan ran around the living room, revving their imaginary Harleys with bandanas tied around their hair and Gennita, or Glamma as they called her, calling out directional changes. Seven stared at her small carry-on bag, clothes precisely folded, and resisted the urge to take everything out and start again.

"I can get you a handful of Xanax if you want, sugar pie," Gennita hollered down the hall. "I don't have to see you to know what you're doing."

Seven cringed. I'm that predictable. "No thanks, Glamma."

"Doctors wouldn't prescribe them if there wasn't a reason."

Nothing she hadn't heard a thousand times before. If the worst thing that came from Seven's spikes of anxiety and out-of-control freak-outs were the all-consuming urge to fold clothes, she could handle that. Mostly.

Mind over matter.

That, and she didn't have the extra cash for prescriptions and doctor's appointments for herself. Plus, she had never been keen on the idea of taking pills in the first place. "Doctors prescribed coke once upon a time too."

Gennita changed hats to Glamma. "Lemme hear those throttles."

Bianca and Nolan roared.

"How do those hogs feel? Too tight? Need any adjustments?"

Seven walked into her living room to see both kids turning imaginary handlebars left and right, twisting their knuckles and testing their throttles, with Seven's tools strewn over the carpet. She teased Gennita with a perusing glance then a wink.

"What? We had to make adjustments to our throttle cables." Glamma shined her nails against her jeans, preening in all of her Harley-riding glory. "Can't raise babies to rely on someone else."

"I know, Glamma." She eased over to the woman about her mom's age, dressed in leather pants and a shirt that had "Sentenced to Life Behind Bars" written around motorcycle handle bars screen-printed over her chest. "That's why I trust their Glamma to raise them when I can't."

Gennita dropped her nail-shining routine and softened. "I know, babe."

"Do you want to stay here or at your place tonight?" Seven asked.

"Here." Then she pursed her bright-red lips together as she rethought her answer. "Yeah, here. I don't trust Mack not to bother me all weekend. I told him I have the babies. But if the compound gets rip-roaring tonight, and his drunk a-s-s forgets and comes home? We'll be here."

Seven groaned on her behalf. The guy was a few months postrecovery from pancreatitis. His decision to ignore doctor's orders on lifestyle changes did nothing but piss off Gennita.

"I'll leave pizza money, and it'll be like a vacation."

"No, honey. Don't waste your money because Mack can't handle a sip of water now and then. We're fine on PB and J and raviolis."

The roar of real Harleys arrived outside Seven's house, and tears burned her eyes, threatening her makeup.

"Don't do it," Gennita said in her best Glamma voice. "They're f-i-n-e if you are."

So fucking true. Seven sucked in a breath as a Harley throttled outside, a calling card from Johnny to get a move on.

"Okay, you guys. Remember how I said I had my trip?"

Nolan made a big show of dismounting his bike, but Bianca simply went into her serious mode.

"It's time for me to go, and you have nothing but Glamma time! So. Much. Fun!" She threw her arms around them. "Are you excited?"

"Yeah!" Nolan squeezed Seven's neck, gagging her.

"When will you be back?" Bianca asked for the twentieth time.

"Two days, tops."

"Promise?"

She pulled the little girl into her arms, squishing her next to Nolan. "Swear. I promise. And you can't promise if you don't mean it."