Page 46 of Fierce-Jax

He frowned. “I hope he’s not like Roni’s ex.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” she said, forcing out a smile. “He wasn’t a jerk or anything. He didn’t treat me badly. I’m just saying he wasn’t nice and friendly like you. Not to people he didn’t know. He didn’t talk a lot with anyone and kept to himself and it took time to get close to him.”

Jax nodded. “You got close,” he said. “I’m going to assume that is Gianna’s father?”

“He was,” she said. “We’d been dating about eight months and I found out I was pregnant. Trust me, it was unplanned.”

“I wouldn’t have thought it was,” he said. “Unless you’d been married and you said you weren’t.”

She laughed. “Even if I was married, it wasn’t in my plan to have a child until right about now. A few years into my career. Not that I thought I’d own a practice either.”

“Plans change,” he said.

“I’m willing to bet you knew what you were going to do all along,” she said.

“I had goals. I went to school for social work. Got my masters at the same time. So the four-five program.”

“Which would make you an easier hire right out of college,” she said.

“Yes. I worked my way up. I think my personality played a big role in it, but I knew the right people who were willing to take a risk on me at a young age. My superiors encouraged me to apply for this job when I wasn’t sure I was ready.”

“Someone believed in you,” she said. “Everyone needs that. And I can see that you do that with people you meet and think have potential.”

He did.

Always.

“I do,” he said. “No one knows what is going on in another person’s life. What is driving or influencing their decisions.Sometimes a kind word or friendly smile can make someone’s day without even knowing.”

“It can,” she said. “I can tell you more about that too. But I’ll go back to Alec. We were scared and nervous.”

“Scared?” he asked. “How old were you?”

“I had just turned twenty-eight,” she said.

“So he was thirty-three and scared to be a dad? A highly educated person. An adult. We aren’t talking about an eighteen-year-old with a minimum wage job living at home with his parents.”

She snorted. “See, you get that. My parents didn’t care for Alec all that much. My father more than my mother. But I’m digressing here. He had a lot of debt, which is normal after med school. I didn’t. I said we’d be fine, but I’d need help in terms of time and care for the baby. I never gave him a chance to bring up ending the pregnancy. It was never a thought in my mind.”

“Was it in his?” he asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I didn’t give him the chance, as I said. And it was my choice, not his.”

Jax nodded. “As it should be,” he said. “You had to carry the child while you were doing your residency. If you thought you could do it, then he should be there to support you.”

“That was my feeling,” she said. “I didn’t ask for much from him. We had a good relationship. I felt if I could do it on my own, which I would have done if I had to, then he didn’t need to do all that much more than be a lending hand. I mean it’d be more than if I was on my own, right?”

“I hadn’t realized how independent you were,” he said.

“Is that a problem?” she asked.

“You’ve met my sister,” he said, laughing. “I’ve lived with Ms. Independence for years.”

“I can tell by the look on your face and the reaction to her ex that you didn’t always agree with her though.”

“No,” he said. “There were times she was too nice and didn’t fight back when I would have.”

Which was funny for a guy that normally didn’t fight back much.