JAX: MC Biker Romance (New Adult Contemporary Bad Boy Romance) (19 page)

She looked up at him and grinned. “Remember this?” she asked, holding up a photo of Jax, his older brothers, her, and their dad all crowded around in a fishing boat. Jax was in the middle holding up the biggest fish he’d ever caught, even to this day.

He smiled. “That was my twentieth birthday.”

“That was a good day.”

He laughed low in his chest.

“You remember that day?”

She nodded.

“That was seven years ago. You were only five.” He grabbed the picture from her hand and looked at it fondly. Cleaning out his father’s stuff was something he had never dreamed of doing so early in his life. He was only twenty-seven for Christ’s sake. In his mind, parents weren’t supposed to pass until the children were old and greying themselves. But, he knew better. He knew life didn’t happen that way. He knew it was just some stupid, idiotic, fantasy he’d created in his own head.

All he could do was thank his lucky stars that his mom understood not to push him to do this right after he’d passed just a few months ago.

“So, do Jimmy and Jonathan not want to come help us?” she asked, her ignorance adorable to him.

Jax sighed and crouched to sit down beside her, nudging her playfully as he did. “They’re just busy.” That wasn’t true; at least, not really. That was their excuse. It was always their excuse. They never had time with anyone – at least, not any one of them. They were only interested in their father’s company, and the money that came from it, not the actual foundation of it.

“How’s it coming, guys?” a familiar female voice called from the stairs.

“It’s coming,” Jax yelled in response. It was only a second or two before he heard footsteps growing louder and louder, as they climbed the steps.

“Janie, can you go set the table for dinner?” their mother asked as soon as she poked her head into the attic space they’d been sitting just across from. Almost immediately, in perfect obedient fashion, the girl nodded with a smile and jumped up. Heck, she had even dashed away before either of them could even so much as say thank you.

“Remember how much trouble you and your brothers used to give me to do that same chore?” She held a faint half-grin on her face, but he knew she was only partially joking. He and his brothers were buttholes growing up; he was the first to admit that. Heck, they still were buttholes.

“She misses your brothers,” his mom sighed before taking a seat beside Jax, who was still hunkered over with the photo in hand.

“I know.” He did. He knew all too well because he had been in the same boat for so many years. He missed them too. The only thing was that Jax missed who they used to be. Not the men that they had become. “Too bad they don’t really give a crap about family.”

They were greedy; selfish and uncaring.

She scoffed. “Well, they’re going to have to change that real quick if they want the ranch.”

Jax’s brows twisted in confusion, and immediately Julie’s eyes widened. She hadn’t meant to say that.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Mom, what does that mean?”

She sighed. “The first one of you three boys to have a child and start a family of their own is the heir.”

“What kind of medieval crap is that?”

She looked at him warningly. “Watch your language!” She smiled fondly, her eyes starting to glisten. “Dad always loved family, you know that… he just wants his sons to experience that.”

“Sorry…” he sighed, just before sitting the photo down. “You know I don’t want the place. It seems like more trouble than it’s worth to me, and I’m not going to impregnate some woman just to get it.”

She laughed and smoothed his blonde hair from the bangs to the very back, parting it as she went. “You always were the sweet one…” She grabbed hold of his cheeks and squeezed, pulling his face closer to her. “Start a family some day.” She kissed him on the cheek.

“Maybe one day; I don’t know. I don’t think I’m the type,” he laughed. “But, I just don’t see them doing any of that, Mom…” He didn’t. He couldn’t imagine any of them having a family; not yet, anyway. He was irresponsible and the other two didn’t give a crap about family; that much was clear. When they were old enough to stop being ranch hands, and the real money started rolling in, they changed. They basically shut everyone out, bought brand new cars, got fancy wardrobes, and decided to be buttholes.

Jimmy – or as he calls himself, James – most definitely thought he was supposed to inherit everything. He was the oldest. It made sense; at least, to him it did. Jax chuckled. He was willing to bet every dime he had in his pocket that the both of them would be trying to get woman after woman just to knock one of them up, so that they could get their cash.

*****

Brianne took a deep breath. This was crazy… insane, even. Was she losing it? Why the heck was she showing up like this? Maybe it was a sign that they hadn’t exchanged numbers.

She felt her heart thump hard in her throat. It was crazy to be standing face-to-door with his silver trailer. She hadn’t seen him in three months, and even then, she’d only seen him that one time; that one, solitary time. They weren’t exactly on familiar terms. Heck, she barely had even remembered his name.

She’d pretty much vowed to put every single thing from Texas out of her mind the moment she left her crappy, cheating, ex-boyfriend and this hick town behind her. It wasn’t like he was a bad guy. On the contrary, he was a very good guy. She remembered waking up that next morning, his arm slung over her bare breasts, and the night’s memories flooding in. She remembered him getting up and making the two of them breakfast. She even remembered how sweet he’d been by buying herself a bus ticket home to New York.

She had felt bad. It was an expensive ticket. She promised to pay him back, but he told her it wasn’t necessary. It was his winnings from a night or two before. No big deal. It was sweet; sweeter than she’d ever imagine her first one-night stand to be – but after it was over, it was over. She promised herself to let it slip away just like everything else that night. That was, until about two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, her life changed forever.

She took a deep breath and tapped on the door, only to find, after waiting for a couple of minutes, that no one came to the door. “Jax!” she yelled out, running down the steps and running over to the side of the trailer. Wasn’t like there were a whole lot of places he could have been hiding, but she didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t know how long he’d be; whether to wait, whether to look elsewhere.

Not like she would know where the heck to look for him. She didn’t know anything about him, nothing except the fact that he rode bulls and lived in a dinky trailer.

She sighed, defeated, shuffling her feet to her car until something caught her eye; a brown leather saddle sitting on the picnic table just beside her car. Her eyes squinted and she looked closer at the branding on it.

J Cinco Ranch.

The address was in small letters below it. That was close.

Maybe he worked there? If he didn’t, then perhaps they could at least give her some sort of insight on where she could find him.

He deserved to know. It was the only reason she brought her butt all the way back across the country to a place where she’d been burned months ago.

She found herself captivated by green rolling hills, as the sign J Cinco Ranch came into view. Were there even hills like that in Texas? Was she even still in Texas? She looked at her phone’s GPS and twisted her brows in confusion. Did he really work there? If so, then why the heck was he living in a dinky trailer right off of a rodeo? This place looked expensive. It looked like someone could have paid him enough to have a decent place to live.

There were cattle grazing in a pasture to one side, and horses on the other. She was entranced by the beauty of it all, and her eyes couldn’t stop flitting back and forth. It was like a large, hard to capture, picture. She had even slowed the car down to take it all in.

There was a lot to take in, though; miles and miles of it. She wondered if she’d ever reach a house or a barn or any sign of human life until she reached a gravel road with a large – mansionesque – plantation style home off in the distance, a barn, and then several barns and buildings sitting aside and spread out over the horizon. Her mouth fell open in shock. Being from the city, she’d never seen anything quite like this before. Not even when she had lived in Texas for the short time that she had.

She didn’t even realize there was country-side like this in Texas.

She gripped hold of the steering wheel and whipped her head side to side, looking for any sign of human life – and that’s when she saw him. His rippling muscles flexed, as he carried a saddle from the barn closest to the house, and toward a large black horse tied just outside it. She parked the car smack dab in the middle of the drive and hopped out.

“Jax!” she called out, wanting to kick herself as soon as it blurted from her mouth. There had to be a smoother way to do all of this.

He looked confused. She couldn’t blame him. She was confused, too. In reality, she wasn’t even sure why she had come all this way to tell him in the first place. He just seemed like a good guy, like he deserved to know.

“I’m pregnant…” she blurted out again; this time in a whisper. She didn’t have to wonder if he’d heard her though because his eyes widened, mouth fell open, and immediately dropped the saddle that he was carrying... that is, before he started gagging… literally gagging.

“Are you okay?”

She really wanted to kick herself this time. Why had she not eased him into it?

He crumpled over and continued heaving for a couple of moments before wiping his mouth and nose, and glancing back up at her. His eyes were red, puffy, and watering.

“You’re sure?” he asked, wiping his mouth.

She nodded. “It’s been three months. I’m pretty sure.”

“Whoa, what?!” a little girl called out from around the corner of the barn; basically out of nowhere. Had she been there the whole time?

“Go inside, Janie.”

“Janie, chill out,” Jax said for the fourth or fifth time. “Stop being nosy!”

Truth was, he didn’t know what else to say. He was floored. Hadn’t he used a condom? Did it break? He faintly remembered toward the end that it had felt even better than usual; way better than usual, actually.

Dang. It really must have broken.

How had he not realized, then? How had he not pulled out?

Footsteps pounding against dirt sounded out, and when he shook himself free of his stupid inner monologue, he saw Janie running toward the house full-speed. He groaned. He knew exactly where she was going.

“I’m so sorry,” Brianne said. “I shouldn’t have come.”

He had to admit the reaction she’d gotten out of him wasn’t one he would have ever expected to have. He had thrown up for Christ’s sake! What did that tell her? She held a look of confusion, sadness, and maybe even a little rejection. Her eyes kept averting from him. She bit her lip and blinked rapidly; tears welling up in the brims of her eyes whenever he finally caught a glimpse of them.

“I don’t expect anything from you; no money, nothing like that. I know that you’re struggling.”

She was babbling now… a lot, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, cradling her gently. “No…” he trailed. “I want to know, and I want to care of you.”

She looked up at him, confused. “Who was that little girl?”

“My sister.”

“Wait. If that’s your sister… do you two work here together? She looks too young to work.”

He laughed. “As soon as you can grab a rake or carry a bucket, you’re old enough to work at the ranch. So, she does work here, but this is my family’s ranch.”

Her mouth fell open in what looked like shock, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Of course, she thought he was dirt poor… he lived in a small, rolling tin can, and that’s the only place she’d seen during their one night together.

He wasn’t like his brothers in that regard. He didn’t use his parents’ success as if it were his own. Sure, he worked hard on the ranch, but it wasn’t his. It was theirs. But, if it had been either one of them, the money would have been the first thing they would have bragged about to a woman as beautiful as Brianne.

“Is it true?!” Julie yelled, tears of happiness in her eyes, as she jogged up toward the barn. Her hands were fiddling in front of her, rising and falling to her mouth as she approached, and he could do nothing but cringe in response.

“That’s my mom…” he sighed, knowing that he now had to introduce everyone. He knew though, that it wasn’t a good time to mention the provisions in his father’s will… he hardly even knew her.

*****

“That’s the heartbeat,” the lady doctor had said sweetly, as she pressed the ultrasound into Brianne’s tummy. She still couldn’t believe it was there; that there was a life inside of there; a life that the two of them made.

Jax’s hand had squeezed hers firmly. That’s what she remembered the most. He’d held her throughout the entire appointment, and for the entire car ride for that matter.

“I’m not the best at responsibility, but I do plan on cowboying up,” he’d said, as they drove toward his home. She didn’t even know what that meant.