Chapter 20 Jaxon

I knew Grayce wasn’t happy with me. She’d made that clear from the moment I’d shown up on the doorstep, but I didn’t much care. I’d enjoyed Sidney’s company, she seemed like a good woman, a good mother, and I could tell that she and Grayce were close. I was envious of their relationship. It had been years since I’d been able to spend any quality time with my own mother ... I wished it was that easy in our familial relationship.
“How about a drink?” I asked Grayce. She was still scowling at me, but she took a seat at the bar anyway, and I ordered us a couple of beers. Alex eyed me over the counter as if trying to get into my mind to see what I was thinking. I wanted to wish her good luck because even I wasn’t sure what I was thinking.
“Your mom is nice,” I told Grayce. She scoffed and took a long swallow of her beer.
“What do you want, Jaxon?” she asked. She wouldn’t look at me.
“I want to have a drink with you,” I said.
“Oh, we’re friends now?” When she finally did look at me, I couldn’t help but to wish she hadn’t. “Not like in high school when you mocked me with your friends, huh?”
“You have got to let that go,” I said. “That was years ago, and I was a jerk.”
“You didn’t even remember!” Grayce cried. “You didn’t even know who I was, Jaxon, even though I spent all four years of high school being bullied and taunted by you and your asshole friends.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. This seemed to catch her off guard because her mouth snapped shut and she looked away from me.
“Was that so hard?” she asked after a moment. Her voice was quiet. “Earlier, you acknowledged the fact that you were a bully, then you showed up uninvited to my house, and between now and then, that is the first apology I’ve heard.”
It was so obvious now, as I watched her fingers trace an invisible line in the wooden countertop. She was angry for more reasons than just the one. And it made sense, it did. I’d admitted to her face that I remembered bullying her, and I’d barely uttered an apology.
“Forgive me?” I said. Grayce looked up from where she had been staring down the counter, and a half-smile flickered on her face.
“We’ll see. You might have to make it up to me.”
I considered this for a moment. “Fine, what do you want?”
“You’ll have to give me time to think something up,” she said. I didn’t like the look on her face, and I almost regretted agreeing to it.
“You’re in it now,” Alex said. I had almost forgotten that she was still hovering around us, listening in.
“I’m a man. I can take it.” I raised my beer to my lips and took a sip. “Oh, Alex, Kate wants your number.”
“Kate?” Alex repeated.
“The girl at my party last night. You know, the one you were all up on.” I was amused when an actual flush crept up on Alex’s cheeks. Not much seemed to fluster her, but this did. I wasn’t lying, either. I didn’t remember much from last night, but I did remember Kate coming up to me sometime during a game of beer pong and asking about Alex. I’d almost forgotten to tell her. “Do you want me to give it to her?”
“Of course she does,” Grayce said. “She wouldn’t stop talking about the girl in between the half a dozen times she puked up the tequila shots last night.” If possible, Alex flushed an even darker shade of red.
“Okay,” she said. “You can give it to her.” She scribbled down her name and number on a piece of scratch paper and handed it to me. She hesitated, then nodded once at me, just slightly. “So, um, thanks.”
“No problem.” I slipped the paper into my pocket, relieved that she was no longer giving me the death stare. I turned to Grayce as Alex moved away to serve another customer.
“Are you coming to the next game?” I asked her. She shrugged, not looking at me.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Don’t you have to?” I asked. There was no way to word it without sounding like an ass. I found I had become rather good at that, sounding like an ass.
“I don’t have to do anything,” Grayce said, and I leaned back just a little bit so that if she decided to swing at me, she might not fully connect.
“Isn’t it your job?”
“Can you shut up?”
“Someone is on one tonight,” I said, whistling between my teeth. “Don’t have an aneurysm.”
“God, you’re just everywhere, aren’t you?” Grayce said. She finally turned to look at me, glaring between two slits for eyes. “Don’t you have other friends?”
“None of them that I really like,” I admitted, and fortunately for me, this made Grayce almost crack a smile.
“Find some,” she suggested. I tilted my head at her and then at Alex.
“I thought I had,”
“Whoa, bro,” Alex put her hands in the air and shook her head. “Don’t drag me into this little after school club you two have going. I want nothing to do with it.”
“Alex has no friends except for me,” Grayce said. “She’s dead inside.”
“Aww, thanks, baby.” Alex blew Grayce a kiss, then she looked back at me. “It’s true, though. So, piss off.”
“I have to be better than that Shawn kid, aren’t I?” I asked. “At least I’m tolerable.”
“Hey now,” Grayce said. “Shawn isn’t intolerable.”
“Sure he is,” I said.
“He is,” Alex agreed. “But I can’t say you’re any better.”
“It takes time for me to grow on you,” I told them.
“How much time?” Grayce asked. “Because I’m still struggling.” I snickered and sipped my drink, then shrugged.
“As much time as it takes, I guess.”
Grayce smiled at this. What a beautiful smile. I couldn't get enough of it.
“Excuse me while I use the restroom,” I said, getting up from the bar. Grayce waved me off and I went to the bathroom to try and get control of my growing hard-on. It seemed at this point that I couldn’t even talk to Grayce without thinking about her naked, and wanting her. I wanted her bad.
Once I had some control of myself, I walked out of the bathroom, almost walking straight into Grayce who was heading for the woman’s bathroom.
“Shit,” she said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” I stopped in front of her, pretending not to notice that no one else was around, just the two of us.
“I’m just going to the bathroom, too,” Grayce said awkwardly. “The girl’s bathroom, I mean.
“Right. Yeah, no I figured that much.” I stayed where I was near the bathroom door so as to not spook her. When Grayce didn’t make a move towards the bathroom, I took a single step towards her, and then another, until we were mere inches away from each other. Grayce swallowed, hard, but she didn’t move away. I reached one hand up to touch her cheek. Her skin was warm under my fingers, and she shivered, but she didn’t step away. She pulled her lip between her teeth to chew on it, a habit I’d noticed over the weeks we’d spent time together.
“Jaxon,” Grayce breathed, but she didn’t continue. She closed her eyes instead as my lips met hers, hungry for her, and Grayce moaned as I kissed her, exploring her mouth with my own, letting my fingers trail down her bare arms. I stepped even closer until our bodies were touching. The bulge in my jeans grew again, and when Grayce felt it against her abdomen, she reached one free hand down to cup it in her fingers. I gasped, caught off guard, ready to explode, and tangled my hand in her hair, pulling her into me until we became one person. Grayce searched my mouth with her own, and tiny gasps of pleasure escaped from between her lips. I pushed her back against the wall, ready to take her, ready to fuck her like my mind and body so desperately wanted.
“Wait,” Grayce said, placing a flat palm in the middle of my chest. “Stop, Jaxon.”
I did stop, because I wasn’t some sort of asshole rapist. My hand dropped from Grayce’s head and I stepped back. Both of us were panting, and my skin felt like a red hot iron.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and Grayce shook her head, trying to compose herself.
“It’s not you,” she said. “It’s me. I just---”
Before she could finish that sentence, Alex came around the corner, humming a tune and checking her phone. She stopped dead when she saw us standing in the private hallway. Her eyebrows shot up suspiciously.
“Hi,” she said. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No at all,” Grayce lied. “We were just talking. About football.”
Whether or not Alex believed that didn’t matter, because Grayce turned and headed for the bathroom before anyone could say anything. I turned away from Alex before she could spot my fucking hard-on and flashed a grin.
“I’m out of here. See you guys later, okay?”