The Real Me (How to Tame a Heartbreaker Book 4) (8 page)

Cam laughed. "You can have it if you want." He meant it. He'd love to give it to her—thought she'd look good driving it. She laughed as if he was just being silly and put her car into reverse. Until that very moment, Cam forgot he had no way of getting in touch with her. She was already backing out as he waved and yelled, "Call me. I don't have your number."

She nodded and waved in a non-committal way, but figured she'd wind up reaching out even though she knew better.

Chapter 9

Jax went
straight to her apartment when she left Café Coco. She lived in a basement apartment she was renting from a family friend who, like her own family, pastored a Baptist church. That's how they knew each other. Her dad's church was actually an offshoot of Pastor Gregory's church, and they'd been friends for years. The Gregorys were also like her own family in that they had no idea that she worked at a bar. Jax wasn't sure how neither family got suspicious of her having money since they knew the shelter didn't pay her to be there, but she'd gotten by with the lie by omission for over a year. Maybe everyone was smarter than she thought and knew she was lying, but she really thought they assumed she was still at the restaurant and never asked.

The apartment was generally a good situation. One of the only things on the list of
cons was that Jax had to walk through the tiniest corner of the Gregory's living room to get to the door that led to her downstairs apartment. Most of the time, if she came in after dark, she was able to sneak in undetected, but tonight Mr. Gregory and his wife, Claudia, were sitting in the living room when she came through.

"How's it going?" Claudia asked, smiling at Jax.

"I'm good," Jax said. She absentmindedly wondered if it was obvious that she'd been kissing someone, but remembered it was probably too gentle to really leave a mark.

"I went up to Clarksville today."

"We figured. Are you just getting back?"

"No ma'am. I went to have coffee and dinner."

Claudia may have wanted to know who Jax went to dinner with, but didn't let curiosity get the best of her.

"I guess I'll be getting downstairs," Jax said. "I have a busy week of finals. Don't worry if you don't see me at all this week. I'm sure I'll be at school 24-7."

"Okay well, don't wear yourself out, sweetheart. And let us know if we can do anything to help."

Jax smiled as she ducked into the stairway, closing the door behind her. She was glad they hadn'
t asked her too many questions even though part of her wished she had
someone
to tell about Cole and everything that had just happened.

She went through a list of people, and realized she didn't really have anyone in her life that she could share
girly stuff with. Her mom was out of the question. Her little sister was a possibility, but she wasn't sure if Kate would be able to keep a secret from their parents. Mary and the girls at the shelter were options as well, but they were all either older than Jax or were dealing with their own issues. Her next-closest friends were people she went to school with or worked with at the bar, but there again, she didn't usually feel the desire to share her personal details with anyone. Jax wasn't really the type of person who got close to girl friends, and it was times like these, when she wanted to share something with someone, that she regretted that about herself.

Instead of taking a chance and telling one of her friends or family,
she just chilled in her apartment, thinking it out on her own. By the time she finished thinking it through, she had made up her mind to go ahead and finish out the week of school before contacting Cole. There was a real chance that she could be distracted by him, and distracted was the last thing she needed to be during finals week. The choice to make contact was hers to make since he didn't have her number, and to her own shame, that kind of power felt good. She smiled at the thought of the little piece of notebook paper with his number on it, and how it'd have to wait another week before making it's way out of her apron. She hoped he'd notice she hadn't called and would be really anxious to talk to her once finals were over and she got in touch.

The first part of the week was hard. Jax thought about Cole quite a bit in between studying and taking finals, and found it difficult to resist the temptation to call or text him. She ended up sticking with her initial resolve, though, and by the end of the week, it got easier to ignore the phone number that had been burning a hole in her apron.
Jax had a sit-down with Mary Thursday afternoon before she left for the day, and ended up giving her the scoop about Cole. Mary was at least thirty years older than Jax, but she still got wide eyed when Jax brought it up, making it obvious that she wanted all the details.

"I can't
believe
someone's caught your eye, Jackie. What a fortunate young man! You
must
tell me about him. What's he like?"

Jax smiled. "Thanks for saying that, but I don't know if I'd call him fortunate. I might not be any good at any of this."

"Why do you say that?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because I have his number but don't call him for days on purpose because
I can. Or maybe it's just that I'm too nervous to do it. I have no idea. Either way, he's really cute and nice and I’m basically ignoring him right now for no good reason."

"You're just playing a little hard to get. The
re's nothing wrong with that."

Jax shrugged. "Trouble is, I don't really know what to do with myself if I decide to let him get me."

"Are you saying you've never been with a guy in that way?"

"No, I mean—it's true that I've never been with a guy, but that's not what I was saying. I'm more worried about everything that comes before that. I'm talking about the simple idea of
liking
someone. I don't even really know how to do that. I've never had interest before, so the fact that I'm even considering things like this is a total trip."

"What do you like about him?"

"I don't know. I guess his personality is what it boils down to since I can't really see his face."

Mary
gave her a curious glance. "Why do you say that?"

"Because he's got a beard." Jax gestured at her chin to indicate that it was about yay long. "I can see
a lot of his face, though, and he's really handsome."

"What's his name?"

"Cole."

"
What's he do?"

"I know he's here to try to be a singer, but I think he has another job. He was sort of vague about it, but I think it's part-time landscaping or something
. He grew up on a farm in Iowa."

"A singer, huh? Have you heard him?"

Jax looked at Mary as if it were the first time she even thought about asking Cole to sing for her.

"No actually.
But I like his speaking voice if that counts for anything."

"You should ask him to
sing sometime." Mary gave a shrug. "He might be good." Mary walked off singing a tune of her own, and Jax left for the day not long after that.

Her last final was scheduled for eight o'clock Friday morning. She was done with it by nine-thirty, and had the rest of the day off before she went to work at Bing's that night.
She thought about texting Cole since technically she was done with school, but realized she'd left her apron at work. She almost called up there to get it, but decided to wait until she went to work that evening. She'd waited this long, how hard was it to wait a few more hours?

Now that she was thinking about getting in touch with him, she was pretty sure she would do it tonight or tomorrow at the latest. She thought about his handsome face and decided she could do with a little distraction now that she was done with school.

Jax took a little extra time getting ready for work that night. It wasn't that she wanted to be noticed because guys in bars were horny enough as it was. It was just that she had extra time after finals and was bored enough to play with her hair and makeup a little. She ate a light dinner and showed up to work fifteen minutes early for her shift, which started at 7PM.

When Jax pulled into the employee parking lot out back, she saw something that had her
stomach tied in instant knots. Cole's old Chevy was parked near the far side of the lot with several spaces between his truck and the back door. Jax passed the door and the several open spaces before pulling in right next to Cole's truck. Part of her thought he might come see her tonight at work, but she never dreamed she'd see him in the parking lot. By the time she walked around the front of her car, he had climbed from his truck and closed his door.

He leaned against the side of his truck with his arms crossed, taking her in with a serious, unreadable expression. "I'm not gonna lie,
" he said, shaking his head and wearing a half-smile, "I fuckin' hate that you don't call me." He paused for a second. "I'm sorry if it's weird for me to show up here like this. I just didn't know how else to talk to you."

"I
wanted
to talk to you," she said offering him a gentle, reassuring smile. "I was going to text you today, but your number was still in my apron."

He wanted to say it seemed like for-fucking-ever since he'd seen her, and why did she just think of
texting him
today
when it'd been a whole week. But he thought that might come across too strong. He reached out and pinched her shirt, giving it the slightest of tugs before letting his hand fall to his side again. The gesture was clearly asking her to step closer to him, and he honestly had no idea if she would respond. He'd only done it because it was literally impossible for him to keep his hands off of her, and that little tug was the least offensive thing he could think to do.

She stepped closer until they were standing just inches apart. She leaned against
the front fender of his truck just as he did.

He sighed. "I have to leave town tomorrow morning and
won't be back for several days."

She laughed.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"I'm leaving next week
to go on vacation with this family I rent an apartment from. They go to Destin every year, and Kate and I usually go with them."

Cam knew from previous conversations that Kate was her little sister
. He knew they'd have fun catching up, but he was upset that he'd have to wait so long before seeing her again. There was nothing he could do shy of pout about it, and that wasn't his style.

"When do you get back?"

"I think it's like the 28
th
or something. Whatever that Wednesday is." 

He sighed, not wanting to let on how bad he thought it sucked that he wouldn't see her for so long.
"When are you leaving?" he asked.

"Tuesday."

"Eight days?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Why so long?" He cursed his photo shoot and her vacation, and whatever else kept them from being in each other's presence.

"I'm sorry I didn't call sooner," she said, seeing that he was disappointed
and loving it for some reason. "I wanted to go ahead and get finals out of the way." She didn't tell him that it had been really hard to ignore him, and she thought about calling him many times during the last week.

She looked up at him with her gorgeous dark eyes.
They naturally had a bit of a squint, which looked especially cute when she smiled. She had a wide smile that crooked up on one side in an adorable smirk. Her face was his definition of perfection and he looked at her thinking about how beautiful their babies would be. Cam wanted to own her in every way possible—possess her as if she was something that could be bought and sold. It was all he could do to keep from reaching out and grabbing her in that parking lot, and he had to make himself rein it in.

"Can you please text my phone so I can have a way to reach you," he asked, way more patiently than he felt. "Otherwise, I'll have to keep bugging you at work."

She unzipped the little purse that hung on her hip and pulled out her phone. She stared down at it for a second, pressing a few buttons before looking up at him. "What's your number?"

Cam took the phone out of her hand and typed his phone number into the space provided. Faster than Jax knew what was going on, he
sent himself a text, feeling an instant sense of relief that he finally had her number.

"Did you send it already?" she asked, glancing at the screen when he handed it back to her.

"You bet your ass I did."

She smiled up at him a little shyly. "I better get going inside. Are you coming in?"

He wanted to, but he had to get home and get the beard off in time to meet Neil and the photographer to get the rundown on the trip tomorrow. "I can't, but I'll be in touch."

"Okay
," she said. She flinched as she was taking off in the direction of the bar, but he reached out and grabbed her shirt before she could turn.

"Come here," he said.

His voice was so sweet that Jax found herself feeling like she could just melt. Unable to refuse, she stepped closer until their bodies were touching. His big arm wrapped around her waist and he pulled her even closer. She took an unsteady breath that made it apparent she was flustered, which pleased him down to his bones.

"I hope you miss me," he whispered. He bent and placed a
soft, slow kiss on her cheek before releasing her.