Page 49 of Fierce-Jax

“Did I turn you off?” she asked.

Best to know that now.

Between how she acted on their first date eating her chocolate cake, to now, he probably thought she needed to see a shrink.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Not sure that is even possible.”

“If anyone can do it,” she said. “It’s me.”

“Seriously,” he said, laughing. “You do not know what other people see.”

“I know,” she said. “I try to push it off when it’s negative.”

Growing up wealthy with her father on TV and them driving high-end cars everywhere, having one of the nicest biggest houses in her area, and being a spoiled only child in many people’s eyes, she knewexactlywhat the world saw.

It was why she always walked away rather than put on a show.

It was better that way.

No reason to draw more eyes to her and it was why she raised her daughter the same way.

“I push off the negative too,” he said.

“Jax. Is that you?”

They both turned their heads quickly to see a woman standing by their table. “Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry. I can’t seem to remember you, if you can refresh my memory?”

He was even polite when he was telling someone he didn’t know who the hell she was.

Dillion didn’t know that she ever did that.

She normally played it off as if she remembered and then moved on.

“Bethany Dean. Well, it was Bethany Brown in school. I bet you don’t remember me. I look a lot different.”

“Oh,” he said, standing up. “Hey, no, I didn’t recognize you. You look great. How have you been?”

“Wonderful,” Bethany said, accepting the hug. “Perfect. I just wanted to come over and thank you. I don’t know how many times in my life I wanted to reach out and then stopped myself. Then I saw you sitting here and told my husband I was going to be rude and come over.”

Jax looked around the woman and saw a man sitting at a table nearby lift his hand up and shrug as if he was embarrassed.

“I’m glad you did.”

“I only wanted to say that I’ll never forget you sticking up for me in school. Kids are rough and I had no friends. But you were always nice to me. You made me not feel so alone. When I went away to college I made some changes and here I am. Better than ever in more than one way. I’m a teacher now and I’ll always remember how you were. I try to teach my students to do the same.”

“Thanks for sharing that,” he said. “But you did it on your own. You always had the ability.”

“See,” Bethany said. “There you are again. Seeing the best in people.” Bethany looked at Dillion. “He’s a great guy. Any woman would be lucky to be part of his life. I bet he’s only gotten better with age.”

Bethany grinned and returned to her table after that and sat back down.

“Care to fill me in about what caused all those wonderful things said about you?” Dillion asked. “And you’re blushing. It’s adorable.”

He leaned in. “Cute puppy in your bed adorable? I think I need something to restore my manhood here.”

She laughed. “Definitely that,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“That’s something at least,” he said, smirking. “I had no idea who that was until she said her name. She was this girl in class that got picked on for her size.”