Page 119 of One Good Crash

"The real dad?" I bit my lip. "I don't know."

Again, he frowned. "She never told you?"

"Oh, she told me." I shrugged. "What she knew, anyway."

I went on to tell Jax that, as best my mom could recall, my real dad was some hot roadie who'd charmed the pants off her, literally.

Jax said, "This roadie? You ever get a name?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Why not?"

"Well, um…" I cleared my throat "…because my mom didn't ask."

Yup, that's me, the product of a quick coupling in the back of some semi.

But I wouldn’t be sharingthatdetail with Jax. In fact, I was kind of sorry I'd heard it myself.

He gave me a serious look. "And your mom kept you?"

"As opposed to what?" I said. "Leaving me on the side of the road?"

"No," he said. "As opposed to adopting you out to a regular family."

I couldn't even imagine a regular family. My mom was an only child, and her parents were long dead. Apparently, my grandmother had been pretty wild herself. And as far as my grandfather, he hadn't been the kind to stick around.

I sighed. "Yeah, well, there were complications with the birth."

"So?"

"So my mom can't have any more kids, meaning it was me or nothing."

"Yeah?" His voice hardened. "Well maybe it should've been nothing."

I drew back. "What?"

"I'm just saying, she should've found you a better family."

"Hey, it wasn'tthatbad."

Jax gave me a look, but said nothing.

Isowanted him to understand. "I'm not saying it was all wonderful, but there were times she was really fun, and besides, even adoption is a crapshoot, right? I mean, there's no guarantee of happiness with that either."

As I spoke, I studied his face, searching for clues as to how he was taking this.

He wasn't happy. That much was obvious.

But I couldn’t decide if he was unhappy because he felt sorry for me or because the whole story made him want to run for the hills.

When I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer, I said, "So, are you horrified or what?"

He was still frowning. "I've heard worse."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Hell, I'veseenworse. But that doesn't mean I like it."