I Want You Back (Want You #1)(17)

“Are you a philanthropist?”

“No, but I’ve been accused of being a philistine.”

“I can scratch comedian off the list of possible career options for you,” I said slyly.

“So for this date on Monday night,” he continued, “it’s your turn to choose what we do. Since you challenged me to prove we aren’t mismatched . . . I’m giving you a challenge.”

Please challenge me to rub my naked body all over yours to determine if we’re sexually compatible.

He leaned in. “What went through your mind just now that put the hungry look in your pretty eyes?”

“It’s a secret. What’s the challenge?”

“The date has to involve an activity you’ve never done before.”

“Okay.” That left my options wide open. “Anything else?”

Jax granted me that cocky grin. “We exchange phone numbers in a gesture of good faith between us. No chance of you disappearing on me, Lucy Q.”



* * *



? ? ?

Mommy?”

Thoughts of the past faded and I focused on my daughter. I smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “Hey, sweetheart. You were really tired.”

“Uh-huh. I’m hungry too.”

“Good thing we’re on our way home.” I took the next exit and headed toward our apartment. “So tell me about all the things you and your dad did this weekend.”





Four





JAX




I tried to avoid my brother on Monday morning by showing up at Borderlands first thing. I knew from talking to Simone, my business partner in this bar, that Nolan normally checked in after lunch.

No such luck for me.

I’d made it about twenty steps when I heard, “Stop me if you’ve heard this one. An alcoholic walks into a bar he owns . . .”

Simone snapped him with the bar towel and he yelped.

I plopped next to Nolan at the long, wooden hand-carved bar. “Don’t you have a corporate schedule to keep? An admin who rides your ass when you screw up her hard work of trying to keep you on track?”

“Britt is home with a sick kid today,” Nolan retorted. “Besides, I’m not the only one who’s supposed to be at Lund Industries right now.”

As if anyone would notice that I wasn’t there. “I’m on my way. But I wanted to see the sales receipts from the weekend.”

Nolan spun in his barstool to face me. “Why?”

I gave Simone a nod of thanks when she slid a glass of sparkling water in front of me. I knocked back a swallow and focused on my little brother.

Little. Right. I had the distinction of being the oldest—as well as physically the biggest. Nolan’s physique leaned toward that of a runner. He accentuated his long and lean form with expensive, trendy clothes, giving him the sophisticated, debonair look women went crazy for. The employees at Lund Industries called him “the Prince,” which might’ve fit him if he hadn’t been closer to James Bond—the Daniel Craig years. Power and grace on the surface; explosive temper with highly physical abilities under his snappy suits. And like Bond, I wondered if Nolan would ever settle down with just one woman.

He probably wonders the same thing about you.

Lucy’s beautiful, smiling face flashed in my mind’s eye.

“Jax?” Nolan prompted.

I shook my head to clear it. “I want to see the receipts because I own the bar, bro.”

Nolan and Simone exchanged a look.

“What’s the silent communication between you two about?”

“You turned the bar over to me and Ash, remember? So none of us—and yeah, Simone, I’m including you in this—understand why you show up as if you care what’s going on here.”

And . . . I’d had enough. I pushed to my feet.

Since the place wasn’t officially open for the day yet, I didn’t bother locking the front door. I said, “Get Ash on the phone now,” and crossed the space to the swinging door that led to the back of the bar and the storerooms. I called out, “Dallas? Darlin’, are you in here?”

My youngest Lund cousin popped her head out and grinned at me. “If it isn’t the big, bad boss man. Good to see you, cuz.”

“You too. Meeting out front.”

“Now?”

“Right now.”

Her big blue eyes went even wider. “Guess you are in big, bad boss man mode.”

“Yep.”

Another grin lit up her face. “About damn time.”

Back out front, Nolan’s cell sat on the bar. I pointed to it. “Is Ash on speaker?”

“Yes, I am,” my cousin Ash, the COO of Lund Industries, said in his booming baritone. “What’s going on?”

“Meeting of the minds. Plus, it’s past time to get a few things straight.” I inhaled a deep breath. “Look. When I turned over control of this bar to the two of you to run with my partner, I was under the impression that I shouldn’t set foot in a bar—any bar—because it would be too much temptation. But the longer I live a life of sobriety, the more I understand that booze does not have the same power over me that it once did.”

“And we’re all so damn proud of you for that,” Nolan interjected.