“Tired,” I admit, “and I miss working under a hood.”
He hums and whispers, “Maybe it’s time we think about getting you a bed here. The club donates enough dough, and you can’t keep going on like this. You’re exhausted. As for work, Blade has made it perfectly clear there is a job waiting for you when you are ready, but get ready to deal with the Chevrolet…”
I swallow hard. Blade has mentioned a few times that if I want a job, I can have one, especially after I decided to hand my notice in to Gary. He was understanding, thankfully, but honestly, the man was a good boss, even though I didn’t work with him for long. He didn’t care about my gender. He cared that I knew what I was doing and that he could leave me unattended and know the job was still going to get done, and leaving was not an easy choice for me.
Having a baby prematurely makes you think about hard decisions and helps you understand what is more important. My son is everything to me, including his dad.
“You stay here as well,” I remind him, deciding to avoid the whole job thing right now. I know it would be easier, especially with Hudson, but some brothers are still skeptical of having me work on their vehicles.
Their bikes are their pride and joy, and they don’t care if I know what I’m doing. They still see me as their little doll who would run around with pigtails.
Jax chuckles and replies, “Yeah, I do, but I also leave for two hours a day to get back into the swing of things with clients.”
I tilt my head at him, and we lock eyes as I admit, “I had to physically force you to leave,” and he smirks while shrugging, not denying it because I did.
He has a good range of clients who are loyal to him, and they understood, but some needed touch-ups, others wanted a new tat. I wasn’t going to let them go elsewhere, especially after hearing him tell someone to go to another shop, a rival that are crap at that which is why I never went elsewhere for mine.
Wonder how he’d feel knowing Charter tattooed his name for me on my eighteenth birthday?
“My family is here, and where you two are, I want to be. Besides, you have sat here day in and day out. I needed to pick up the slack,” he mumbles, getting me out of my head, and I smirk.
Picking up the slack? The guy needs to get his head checked again.
I grip his shirt and snort, “Jax, you were in a coma, you couldn’t have exactly picked up the slack.”
“Yeah, only because I left my gun lying around,” he retorts, and I stop, causing him to stop as well with his grip over my shoulders, and we lock eyes again.
He doesn’t, he can’t?
“You blame yourself!” I accuse, my pulse racing at the thought of him punishing himself for something Misty did.
“How can I not, cupcake? I left my gun lying around for her to point it at you, the same woman I fucked just to try and ignore how I was feeling about you. All of this is my fault,” he admits, and I flinch.
Damn, is this what he’s been living with since regaining some of his memories?Guilt.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I say sternly, and he shakes his head, but I grip his top tightly as I move to stand before him and snap, “It wasn’t. Your gun fell out of your jeans after I came outside to find you. It wasn’t your fault, it was Misty’s. She wanted you, Jax, but she also wanted every other brother in that clubhouse. She just thought you’d be the one to make someone your old lady if you knocked them up. You were her target which you wouldn’t have been if I had just told you the real reason why I wanted to leave Rose Meadows instead of coming up with bullshit excuses,” my eyes race between his and I admit, “I have loved you since I was eight years old and you saved me from falling out of the tree in the yard so stop blaming yourself for this.”
He smirks as he wraps his arms around my back and mutters, “A bit pervy of you, cupcake.” I roll my eyes and state, “Says the guy who wanted me at sixteen…”
He grins widely before gently rubbing his nose against mine, not caring that we’re in the middle of the hallway, with people passing us. He admits, “I probably wanted you way before that, but didn’t want to admit it to myself. You are my girl, Ivy Miller. You always have been, and I love you.”
My eyes tear up, and I grip his top tighter, and I whisper, “I love you too, my perv,” and he chuckles before pressing his lips against mine, and I melt into him.
There’s no tongue, no deepening the kiss, just something sweet and simple that sends shivers down to my bones.
“Now, who tattooed my name on your skin?” he demands against my lips and I smile a little and admit, “Charter when I was eighteen.” He narrows his eyes, but they soon soften when I ask, “Can you tattoo Hudson’s name for me?”
Gently, Jax runs his fingers through my hair and rasps, “It would be my pleasure, though Charter is in the shit with me,” and I grin before pressing up on my tiptoes and kissing him hard before I turn back into the side of his body and we continue our trek towards the elevators.
“I think you should go to New York,” Jax says out of the blue as we near the silver double doors. I trip making him chuckle and continue, “with me and Hudson that is, you aren’t staying. I just think a few days away, you me and our boy and maybe while we’re there we can go and see a judge that the club is friends with –” his words cut off and I stop again and look at him, my eyes racing between his.
“You want to marry me, Jax Garcia?” I confirm, trying my hardest not to melt into a puddle with how he’s looking at me.
“Marry you, move you in with me, give you the old lady cut I’ve had made,” he admits, and my mouth parts in shock as he finishes, “I want to create a whole world with you, Ivy, one where we’re not best friends, not knowing how to navigate our feelings, but one where we’re together always…”
A few tears fall, and he wipes them away and says, “So what do you say, Ives? Are you going to marry me once our son is discharged?”
I sniffle and confirm, “You really believe he’ll be discharged?”
