Page 173 of One Good Crash

"What kind?"

"The kind you don't enter."

I smiled. "So you arranged for her to win a fake contest?"

"Pretty much."

I was glad. I'd only seen Darla a few times, and it was pretty obvious that she didn't like me. But I knew why and tried not to take it personally – at least not yet.

I said, "That must've been pretty awkward, with you dating her daughter."

"You're telling me," Jax said. "Dumbest thing I ever did." His voice softened. "But she's not all bad. You know, she's not Darla's natural kid any more than I am?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"How'd that happen?" I asked.

"The same way it happened with us – except it was a couple of years earlier."

I wanted to ask more, but wasn't sure that I should pry, at least not about Morgan, since they'd once been an item. And besides, there was something else that I was more desperate to know.

"Back to your brothers," I said, "is that why you guys don't get along? Because you never went back home?"

"That's part of it," Jax said. "But the other part is, well, Jake said some things that I didn't wanna hear."

"Like what?"

"For one thing, he called our mom a whore."

I tensed. "To her face?"

"Knowing him? Probably. But that's not what I meant. I meant, that's what he told me when he showed up in Florida."

"So he came looking for you?"

Jax gave a hard scoff. "No. He came looking for his car."

"Oh, come on," I said. "That couldn't’ve been the only reason he showed up."

"Wanna bet?" Jax said. "Shit, he even told me."

The more I learned, the more my heart went out to him. "But there's something I don't get," I said. "You said that Jake called your mom, well, something not very nice, and you said you didn't like it, but…" I wasn't quite sure how to put this.

"But I called her a skank?" He shrugged. "I guess I'm no angel either."

"You're wrong," I said. "You are."

When he made no reply, I couldn't help but recall what he'd calledmymom a couple of months earlier. At the time, it had seemed so out of character, but now, I thought I understood.

Obviously, he was dealing with family issues of his own. When another minute passed in silence, I leaned closer to him and said, "You've beenmyangel, anyway."

At this, he looked almost horrified. "Angel, huh?"

"Well, I mean, you've been really wonderful—"

He stood. "That's it."