Page 36 of Anyone But Me

I was woken up the next day to the feeling of Jax’s lips against mine. When I opened up my eyes, she was staring down at me. “Good morning, beautiful.” She tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows. “Was it okay to do that? I know we didn’t really establish any rules for this fling.”

I wrapped my arms around her neck and pulled her down to kiss her again. “What if, just this once, we say, ‘Fuck the rules?’”

Jax’s smile grew and her cheeks turned the slightest bit pink. “It turns out, that’s my favorite thing to say.” Jax kissed me again.

Each time one of us pulled away, the other would lean in for another kiss, until it kind of became a game and we both ended up breaking down into a fit of giggles. I wanted every morning to be like this and hoped it would continue when we got back to New York.

It was perfect. Lounging around. No responsibil- Wait. Shit. I sat up so quickly that my head smashed into Jax’s.

We both flew apart and rubbed at our heads. Jax was the first to break and start to laugh again, and my laughter followed.

“Where’s the fire?” Jax asked through her laughter.

“Speck! I totally forgot he was here. We left him downstairs when we came up to have sex last night.” I was such a bad dog mom. I couldn’t believe it.

“Could you repeat the last part of that?” Jax asked, not looking the slightest bit concerned.

“Which part?”

“The part about having sex. I love the sound of those words coming out of your mouth.” She pulled me close to her. “I also love some other very specific things about that mouth.”

I playfully pushed her away. “I’m trying to be serious right now. I feel awful.” I pushed my bottom lip out. “I can’t believe I forgot about my baby.”

Jax sighed before leaning against the back of her bed.

“I was going to try to convince you to go for another round before skiing, but I have a feeling you’re not going to be able to relax until we make sure Speck is okay.

Even though I’m sure he’s fine and probably getting a ton of attention from my parents right now, I will sacrifice an orgasm to prove that to you.

” She put her hand against her chest and cringed as if this was a huge sacrifice.

Honestly, with the way her naked body felt next to mine, I had to agree with her, but that also didn’t change my mind. “I know. It’s so very noble of you. I will be sure to make it up to you later.” I added in a wink that I was sure wasn’t anywhere near as sexy as hers for good measure.

Jax blushed again. That’s definitely new.

I had never known Jax to get embarrassed, especially with women.

It was empowering knowing that I was the one who had caused it to happen.

It made me even more convinced that these feelings probably weren’t one-sided.

Be patient , I reminded myself once again.

If I was going to spill my heart to Jax, I wanted to make sure the chances of her breaking it were as close to zero as possible.

Jax recovered quickly and wiggled her eyebrows at me. “I can’t wait to find out what that means.” She held her hand out toward me. “But for now, we need to go check on our son.”

Definitely am not going to overthink the fact that she called him our son. Nope. No big deal.

I took Jax's hand and followed her out of the room. She held onto mine tightly until we came to the stairs. Even though I figured it would happen, it didn’t stop the stab of sadness that hit my heart at the loss of her touch and the reminder that this wasn’t real. At least, not yet.

As soon as we made it downstairs, we found Speck in the kitchen with Jax’s parents. Right when he saw us, he got up from where he was lying in between her parents’ legs and ran over to us. I knelt down and immediately began to pet him, relief rushing through me that Jax was correct.

When I stood back up, both Bobby and Joy were smiling over at me. Bobby looked down at his watch and back at us. “I hope you girls can get ready fast. We’re already running behind, because you slept in.”

“Late night?” Joy asked.

Even though I knew she didn’t mean it in the same way I was taking it, I couldn’t stop my face from turning red. “Jax convinced me to go swimming with her. Your indoor pool is gorgeous, by the way.”

Shit. Did I just say too much? Were Jax’s parents going to figure out what happened between us?

Jax put an arm around me and pinched my side before letting her arm drop back down to her side. She had definitely just read me like a book. From the way she was looking at me, I could see in her eyes that I had nothing to worry about.

“Thank you,” Joy said, her smile never wavering. “I’m glad you two went in. It definitely doesn’t get enough attention now that Jax doesn’t live here anymore. We went from having dozens of kids over every weekend enjoying our pools to nothing. I’m so happy you’re here.”

Just like Jax, both of her parents had a way of making someone feel special. When they said things, it was easy to believe that they meant them. I already felt comfortable around them even after just meeting them for the first time the night before.

“And sorry about sleeping in.” I pointed at myself. “That was my fault. I’m not used to a ton of physical activity, and after swimming, I was exhausted.”

Jax snorted out a laugh beside me, and I smacked her playfully in return. They might not have figured it out yet, but I didn’t want Jax to give away that we were doing much more than swimming.

Joy narrowed her eyes at her daughter, but the smile remained on her face. “Be nice.”

Bobby laughed. “Yeah, not everyone was born with more energy than they know what to do with.”

Jax put her hands in the air and took a few steps back. “Fine. You’re right. I’m just worried that if last night tired out Carter, I don’t know how she’ll handle all of the activities we have planned for today.”

I swore I could feel the blood moving through my veins from the excitement of this conversation.

There was something exhilarating about having this secret conversation in front of Jax’s parents.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be just fine. I won’t have any trouble completing all of the activities you have planned for me. ”

My heart raced and my center throbbed as I thought about said activities. If the look on Jax’s face was anything to go by, she felt the exact same way.

“We better go get ready,” she said, a squeak to her voice that her parents might have missed but I certainly didn’t.

She practically ran out of the kitchen, and I followed closely behind her.

She didn’t say another word until we were back in her room with the door shut behind us.

She pushed me against it in the same way she had last night and kissed me hard.

She shoved her tongue into my mouth as if she was desperate for air and this was the only way for her to get it.

I let myself give in to the kiss and pulled Jax closer as my tongue collided with her.

When she pulled away, her chest was rising and falling rapidly and there was a fire in her eyes. “Who the hell are you?” she asked breathlessly.

I knew the smile that spread across my face was different than my usual smile. I could feel the confidence, bordering cockiness, to it. How could I not smile that way? I had surprised Jax in a way I never thought possible.

I put my hands on her waist and held her up against me. “That depends. Do you like it?”

Jax bobbed her head up and down. “I fucking love it.”

“In that case,” I pushed Jax away slightly and held my hand out toward her. “I’m Carter Miller-Cooper. Nice to meet you.”

Jax shook her head, her eyes glued to mine and a wide grin on her face as she did. “You never cease to amaze me, Miss Miller-Cooper.”

*

Somehow, Jax and I were able to keep our hands off of each other long enough to get ready for our ski trip.

Even though I was dying to touch her in any way possible, I kept my hands to myself as we rode in the back of her parents’ car to the resort.

Luckily, since I was hopeless at skiing, Jax had a lot of excuses to touch me while she patiently tried her best to teach me.

By the time we went into the resort to eat lunch, we still hadn’t made it off of the beginner’s slope that was filled with kids much younger than me, but Jax didn’t seem to mind one bit.

After we were done eating and Jax’s parents headed back out to the slopes, Jax asked if I wanted to sit by one of the many fireplaces with her. When I agreed, she chose one that was off to the side, in an area that wasn’t littered with nearly as many people as the rest of the lodge.

Jax sat down first and stretched out her legs, motioning for me to sit between them.

I instinctively looked around, and Jax laughed.

“If you’re worried about homophobes, you don’t need to be.

This is Vermont. On the off chance a bigot somehow snuck into the state, someone else would stick up for us before we even had to. ”

I nodded as if that actually was what I was worried about and sat with my back against her. When Jax’s arms wrapped around me, I instinctively leaned back against her. It was so natural, there was no way I could stop myself even if I tried.

Jax hummed and rested her chin on my shoulder. “What do you think of your first skiing experience? Think you’ll do it again?” she asked with a laugh.

“That depends. Do you think you’d be willing to bring me again?”

Jax sighed. “Any time you want.”

Her words caused butterflies to flutter through my stomach.

Jax always knew the right thing to say. It came so naturally to her.

This was different though. I could tell she wasn’t saying these things just because she thought it was what I wanted to hear.

I could feel it deep in my bones that she meant every word she was saying.

Jax really was the whole package, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t realize it for all of the years that she and Olivia had been friends.