Page 132 of Fierce-Jax

“You did what!” Jax yelled hours later.

Her mother had picked Gianna up at Pre-K and then brought her to their house to spend the night.

“My mother and I met with Alec’s mother today for lunch.”

“I heard you the first time,” he said, pacing around her house.

Here he thought they were going to have a nice quiet evening together. Instead she was confessing her sins and he was pretty sure the neighbors heard him yelling.

“Then why did you ask again?” she asked.

“Because I’m completely stunned you’d pull a stunt like this.”

She opened the fridge and was slamming ingredients on the counter. “A stunt? Gianna ismydaughter.”

He ran his hands through his hair. “I know she is,” he said. “But I love her like she’s mine.”

She stopped and turned. “You’ve never said that before.”

“I didn’t think it needed to be said,” he said. And she thought he was clueless at times?! “I would have thought you could see it by my actions with her.”

“You also seem so uncomfortable when she wants a kiss or wants you to tuck her into bed at night.”

“Because I’m a man that isn’t a relative and I’m very cautious of those things. I know and see a lot of the world out there and how easy it is for a child to misunderstand something or say the wrong thing. I don’t need her going to her school saying I bathe her or kiss her, however innocent it is.”

“That’s ridiculous,” she said.

“Is it really?” he asked. “Because I can assure you it’s not. Social services take things like that seriously. Almost every one of my employees is a mandated reporter. If it was said to them by a child or another adult brought that to their attention, by law, they have to report it for an investigation at the very least. You know that. I take my image and reputation seriously, not just for my career but also for those I love.”

“I do too,” she said. “But I hadn’t thought of it either. Not when I hear things like what Alec’s father did to him and nothing ever happened to Luke.”

“And let’s go back to that. What the hell is going on? I thought you were going to let the attorneys deal with this. There is no way your father knew what you did today.”

She ground her teeth. “No, he didn’t. My mother did and she went with me. I’m not stupid enough to go alone. We got there early. I made Martha drive three hours so that if she decided not to come alone, they wouldn’t take two cars. My mother and I got there early and waited for her arrival. She was alone, but I wasn’t.”

“And she could have reacted to you not being alone,” he argued.

“We were in a public place. I’m not an idiot,” she argued.

He wanted to say it sounded it to him but was trying hard not to make this fight bigger than it was.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Are you going to listen to me calmly or do you need to scream and yell some more to get it out of your system?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” he said.

“Then decide while I start dinner,” she said, turning her back on him.

“I can’t believe you’re acting this way,” he said.

“I’ve had more time to digest what happened today,” she said. “And I’m calm about it mostly. You’ve said repeatedly that you will support me and my decisions so that stands to reason that you trust me enough to not put my daughter at risk.”

Her lips were twisting and her nose scrunching in frustration. “You know how I feel about this. How I feel about you and Gianna. The proof is my reaction right now.”

They’d talked so many times about how he only lost his cool when it had to do with those he loved.

She walked up to him and put her hand on his cheek. “Kiss me and calm down or go for a walk and do it. I’m not sure what you need to do and don’t care. I’ll answer all your questions. I’m not hiding anything.” She put her hand up when he went to say she hid this. “I didn’t know if I was meeting with her or not, so there was no reason to tell you in advance.”