Destined to Change by Harley, M. (top android ebook reader TXT) 📕

“Honey, just go and have a good time. Maybe you and Jaxon can get to know each other a little bit better. Jake says great things about him. He’s had some problems, but he seems to be doing better here. Jake thinks he just needed to get out of the big city and relax for a bit.”

“Mom, I don’t want to get to know him. And what problems?  Is he in trouble or something?  And besides that, I have a million things to do today, and I have to take care of the little monsters.”

My mom gave me her best “I am your mother, stop arguing with me face.” “Lor, I’ll keep the kids, and there’s nothing that you need to do that can’t be put off until tomorrow.  I don’t know what’s going on with him, but Jake seems to think staying here will be good for him.  Honey, I just want you to be happy. I see the way Jaxon looks at you. It wouldn’t hurt anything to get to know him a little better. Declan wouldn’t want you to be alone.”

That last statement made my breath hitch. “Mom I’m not alone. I have Mags and Sammy and I just don’t want to complicate things.”

Mom huffed, exasperated. “I’m not taking no for an answer, honey, you’re going into town with them. Now go get prettied up, and they’ll pick you up after lunch.”

Great. I was twenty-six years old, and my mommy still told me what to do. The worst part about it was, I normally listened.

I tried to come up with a reason why I couldn’t go into town. But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t think of anything. So, I pouted to my mom, went home, and got ready.  Then I patiently waited for Jake and Jaxon to pick me up. Get prettied up? Uh, no. We were going shopping, not to a party. I put on a pair of blue jeans, my brown cowboy boots, and a light tan sweater. My hair was still curled from this morning, so I piled it loosely on my head in a bun, with some tendrils hanging down on both sides.

I heard the old pick-up truck roaring down my drive, and I went out the front door. Much to my surprise, Jaxon was alone in the truck. It was not Jake and Jaxon, nope. It was just Jaxon and Loralei. Shit!

My mom had totally set me up.

Jaxon flashed that sexy smile, “Ready to go?”

“Um, isn’t Jake coming with us?”

Jaxon looked a little confused. “Uh, no your mom said you wanted me to drive you to town to pick up some supplies. Don’t you still need a ride?”

I couldn’t believe her. I decided I would exact my revenge on her soon. For now I needed to figure out how to handle this situation.

“Nope, mom told me that you and Jake were going into town to get supplies, and I should go with you.”

Jaxon laughed, shooting me the sexiest damn look I had seen in a long time. “Sounds to me like your mom wants us to have some alone time. Why do you think that is?”

Holy hell.

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just climbed in the cab of the truck and pretended his sexy little grin wasn’t affecting me. Because it wasn’t - it couldn’t be, right?  Oh hell, I didn’t know what to think. This man was seriously hot and sexy. So – damn - sexy. I thought to myself my lady parts deserve to be happy, don’t they? I decided to get through this trip without any embarrassing experiences, and we would be home before I knew it.

The forty-five minute trip into town seemed like it took hours. We barely spoke. If it hadn’t been for the classic rock playing on the radio, the entire trip would have been silent. Jaxon and I didn’t make eye contact. He looked straight ahead with his hands perfectly at ten and two on the steering wheel.

As much as I tried to not think about him, I couldn’t help myself. He was so close and he smelled so amazingly good. His scent was hard to describe. It just screamed man.

I started fantasizing about what it would be like for him to kiss me - to press those beautiful lips against mine. And what it would feel like when he slipped his tongue into my mouth, or how amazing it would feel to have him touch my breast, or for him to unzip my jeans and slide his hand down...

Finally, from the corner of my eye, I caught him sneaking a peek at me. I wondered what he was thinking. I was so embarrassed. My cheeks were bright red and my heart was about to beat out of my chest. I was worried that he somehow knew what I had been thinking about. But apparently that wasn’t the case.

Jaxon asked me the one question I had hoped I wouldn’t have to answer, “So, where’s the twins’ dad?” That question completely squashed all of the amazing fantasies I had been having about Jaxon and brought me back to the real world, real quick.

I couldn’t believe he was asking me this question. Didn’t Jake or my mom or anybody in this little town tell him? I said the only thing that came to mind, “Dead,” I deadpanned as I fixed my eyes straight ahead of me. That was it. That was all I had to say about it. Jaxon looked baffled. He didn’t mutter another word all the way into town.  I just sat there wondering why I had said that. There were so many other things I could have said or I could have explained what happened, but I didn’t do it. Dead seemed to sum it all up.

After the shopping was done - in complete silence - we headed out to the parking lot. Jaxon noticed the little, dingy dive