Page 102 of Fierce-Jax

“It was a small article. Nothing more. I don’t even know if they caught who did it. It’s not something we’ve talked about.”

“You haven’t brought it up?” Roni asked. “Or she hasn’t?”

“Both,” he said. “I think it’s one of those things she has to do in time. She was upfront early on so that I knew there was no ex. I know she wouldn’t have been able to do it without her parents.”

He wouldn’t say financially. There was no reason to add that part. It was almost a given.

Emotionally was more important to him.

“I wouldn’t have been able to without you and Mom and Dad,” Roni said. “On a lot of levels. I don’t know how I would have had the courage to leave Jeff if I didn’t know I had a place to land.”

“Dillion always knew she had a place to land.” Even if she and her father butted heads a lot.

He lifted his hand when he saw Dillion looking at the three of them talking.

Eli had come running over and left Gianna in the swing set buckled in so he went to get Dillion’s daughter when she called Eli back.

“I wasn’t done yet,” Gianna said.

Jax laughed and gave her a little push. “I think he might have been getting tired,” he said. “You have to let him play with things he wants to do too. Don’t you do that with your friends at school?”

“Yes,” Gianna said. “But he said he liked pushing me. So he can still do what he likes.”

Sometimes a child’s logic was so simple and accurate at the same time.

“It doesn’t mean he wants to do it for hours,” he said, giving her another push.

“Mommy,” Gianna yelled when Dillion walked toward them.

He loved seeing her so relaxed in her shorts and T-shirt, sandals on her feet. “I’ve got to pee.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” he said, stopping the swing and getting Gianna out. She was hopping on the ground around her mother and holding her hand between her legs.

“You have to know to ask,” she said. “I realized it’d been a while since she’d gone. Come on. Race you.”

“I’ll take her,” he said, running to catch up with Gianna, then scooping her up under her arm to walk faster.

“She’s going to wet herself on you laughing,” Dillion shouted, so he slowed down to everyone’s laughter.

He put her in the bathroom and shut the door.

Dillion was next to him by the time the toilet was flushing, then opening the door to help her daughter wash her hands.

“My underwear got a little wet,” Gianna said. “Jax was jiggling me.”

He cringed. “Sorry,” he said.

“I’ve got a change of clothes in my car. I’m always prepared.”

“Just my underwear,” Gianna said. “I like this outfit better.”

“Heard,” he said, “little Ms. Fashionista.”

“No,” Gianna said. “I’m Ms. Cannon. I don’t like having a different last name as Mommy. Why can’t we all have the same last name?”

Another one of those questions he had no intention of answering because he was positive Dillion might not be ready for what he had to say.

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