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Now I get to finally stand up for myself.

“What?” She sputters in my face. “You little—”

“Leave us the hell alone, okay? You didn’t want anything to do with us after Dad died, so why don’t you keep it that way.”

I turn and walk towards Summer and Jax. Summer looks up at me with the biggest grin on her face. She looks at me like I’m walking away from an explosion in an action movie or something. Remember what I said for absolutely too pure for this world?

“Time to go,” I say, softly, under my breath.

“I’ll ruin you!” My mom screeches, but we just walk towards Jax’s car.

“Well, that was certainly something,” Jax says, opening the door for Summer to climb into the car. He smiles down at her as he takes her bag and puts it in. “My name’s Jax, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Summer,” she answers. “Are you my sister’s friend?”

“Well, yeah, I’m also her fated mate, which is pretty cool.”

“Whoa! Really?” She says, her eyes going wide as she climbs into the car. “Did you also knock out George?” ”

“Yup, now get buckled in, kiddo. We’ve gotta scram.”

“Oh my god, that’s so cool!” She says.

I glare at him as he shuts the door, leaving the two of us standing outside his car.

“Hey, what’s that look for?” He asks me, a small smile on his face.

“You know very well what that was for. I didn’t want to tell her yet.”

“I mean, what would hiding it from her do?”

“I don’t want her to get attached if you’re just gonna up and leave us. She’s a kid. I’ve worked my fucking ass off to give her some semblance of stability.”

This man. This fucking man. He boops me on the nose again.

“I’m not leaving, Liv,” he says softly.

My breath catches in my throat and I swallow hard, his firewood scent the only thing I can think about.

He opens my door for me. “Let’s get going,” He says.

“Yeah,” I say.

He extends his hand to help me into the car and I take it. His hand is warm in mine and I feel the rough callouses against my softer skin and it makes my brain fucking short-circuit.

He closes the door with a smile and heads over to his seat in the car.

I see Summer on her phone in the backseat.

“What’re you up to?”

“I’m letting Allison and her brother know that I’m leaving Mom’s house.”

“They’ve been helping look after you, right?”

“Yeah, Allison’s brother would drive me to and from school. Their mom also lets me sleep over on the weekends,” She says.

“That’s good. I’m glad you had somewhere to go.”