“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” Ari’s mother clearly thought she’d brought up feelings of grief for a dead parent.
Jax waved away her concern. “Don’t be! I mean, he never existed.” He shrugged. “There’s a man out there who I owe for 50 percent of my genes—Sam too—but he was never our dad, never Mom’s anything.”
“Oh.” Ari’s parents looked stunned. They had clearly understood the subtext and did not appear to know what to make of it. “Well, what, uh, what an unusual choice.”
Jax’s eyebrows twitched. He’d always seemed proud of his family and his mother’s choices. Ari doubted he was impressed by the wordunusual. “I think it was a practical one, Maman,” he cut in smoothly.
“Totally,” Jax said with a small smile. “Mom wanted kids, but no husband.”
“Well.” Ari’s parents exchanged another look, and Ari knew exactly what they were thinking. They had always believed children needed two parents because parents were the model for the relationship the child would grow up to emulate. Old-fashioned, but they would only point to statistics that showed a close relationship with one’s father as a child was a predictor of successful intimate relationships later in life.
He had a feeling Jax could school them on the shortcomings of that math.
Should he have warned Jax about this? On the one hand, he didn’t plan on breaking up with Jax, so his parents were eventually going to find out he’d been raised by a single parent. On the other hand, maybe it would have been better to avoid the subject until Jax’s charm worked its magic.
Maybe Jax sensed the doubt this had introduced, because he added, “Mom’s parents were always in the picture too, and if you count the faculty Mom roped in as aunts and uncles, we probably had the world’s most overqualified babysitters.”
Ari had to hand it to him—he really was good at reading people.
“I can imagine,” Ari’s mother said warmly, glancing over at Ari. “We were lucky to have a similar support system when Ari was a child. Though Afra did the majority of the babysitting once she was old enough, of course.”
“Of course,” Jax agreed, smiling out of the corners of his eyes as he too looked at Ari. He seemed to be saying,See? Told you I’m good at this.“I bet Ari never gave her any trouble either.”
If that wasn’t a leading question, Ari had never heard one. But parents loved to talk about their children, and his were no exception. Ari’s father got up to put dinner on the table, and as they ate, he cheerfully recounted the greatest hits of Ari’s childhood.
Ari would put up with any number of embarrassing stories if it meant his parents and Jax developed a rapport. He was starting to feel silly for having doubted him.
“It is so strange that Ari kept you from us,” Maman said to Jax, though there was an edge to her voice and she was looking at Ari. “He’s never hidden things from us before.”
And things were going so well. Ari wasn’t sure which of them that was intended to be a dig at, but either way, it wasn’t a great sign.
Jax, however, missed the cue on this one, because he said blithely, “Oh, I don’t know about that. Every kid keeps things from their parents, right? Ari plays things pretty close to the vest.”
“Are you implying I don’t know my son as well as you do?”
Jax blinked, obviously taken aback. “I’m just saying most of the time we don’t know as much about other people as we think we do.”
When the tension didn’t entirely dissolve, Jax cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, could you direct me to your restroom?”
Nader gave the directions, and Ari tried not to panic at being left alone with his parents. He couldn’t blame Jax for needing a break, but….
“Well,” said his mother, “Jax is certainly a character.”
“Maman—”
“Heishandsome,” his father interrupted, talking over both Ari and whatever his mother had been about to say.
Unfortunately this did not prove to Ari’s advantage. “Yes, of course he’shandsome,” Ari’s mother said dismissively. “But Ari, sex appeal is not enough to build a relationship on. What do you and this man have in common, really?”
Ari had considered attempting to eat through Jax’s absence in an effort not to have to speak, but now he was glad he’d decided against it. “Maman, you’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m being a parent,” she corrected. “It’s my job to ensure your future happiness. And I don’t see how you’ll be happy with a bartender, sweetheart. He is basically a frat boy.”
“Maman,” Ari bit out. He’d known she would be judgmental. Thank God he’d prepared Jax. “That’s enough. He’ll hear you.” If she was going to insult him, she could at least have the courtesy to do it in Farsi to spare Jax’s feelings.
Of course, maybe she was hoping hewouldoverhear.
“And anyway, it’s not—”It’s not your business to ensure my happiness. It’s mine.But Ari didn’t finish, because Jax reappeared in the dining room doorway.
