I gave a sheepish laugh.Busted.
This time, I didn't bother protesting that I didn't have a story. After all, he'd been a pretty good sport about the blood thing. So instead, I said, "What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
I studied his face. He looked like he meant it. And the funny thing was, Iwantedto tell him.
How strange wasthat?
Chapter 49
A half-hour later, I was still talking. And to my surprise, Jax was still listening.
"And so," I finished with a half-hearted laugh, "my mom got stuck with me anyway."
On the other side of the table, Jaxwasn'tlaughing. "Stuck with you."
"Well, yeah," I said. "It's just a figure of speech. And really, it's kind of funny, don’t you think?"
From the look on his face, he didn't agree, not that I could blame him. I'd just told him the reason I'd been born.
Twenty-some years earlier, my mom had gotten pregnant after a month-long fling with Roland Cassidy, one of the biggest rock stars on the planet. Thinking she'd just hit the jackpot, she'd begun planning for the baby –andthe huge windfall that would surely follow. Money. Marriage. Possibly both.
Unlike me, my mom tended to think big.
Unfortunately for her, multiple paternity tests proved that I wasn't Roland Cassidy's child at all, which put a serious kink in her plans.
Across from me, Jax said, "But you were still named after him?"
"Well, yeah," I said. "She named me right after I was born – just the first name, not the last. Good thing, huh? Can you imagine how silly that would sound?" I rolled my eyes. "'Hi. I'm Cassidy Cassidy.'"
Jax still wasn't smiling.
Under the weight of his gaze, I started babbling. "Still, I'm almost surprised she didn’t change it – the first name, I mean. After the tests came back negative, she wassomad." I paused. "Or at least that's what I hear."
Now, Jax was frowning. "You heard it from who? Her?"
"Well, her and Tabitha."
"The chick who'snotyour aunt."
"Right." Already, I'd explained how my mom and Tabitha had been groupies together and how they'd bothlovedthe idea of my mom being Mrs. Roland Cassidy.
Decades later, they probablystillblamed me for not being the kid of some famous guy I'd never met. The whole story was hilarious and horrible all at the same time. And now, I'd shared it with Jax.
Had that been a mistake?
Maybe.
But he'd known from the beginning that my life wasn't all sweetness and apple pie. Plus, telling him what happened seemed important somehow, and not only because he'd asked.
I couldn't deny that I was falling for him. Probably, I'd begun falling on that very first night. And tonight, he'd been showing some serious interest – the kind of interest I never imagined even a couple of weeks ago.
If – heaven forbid – my family history was going to make him turn tail and run, I wanted him to do it now, and not later, when I'd be risking a broken heart.
Or maybe, the risk was already there.
After a long silence, he asked the question I'd been dreading. "So, who was the dad?"
