Page 91 of One Good Crash

Damn it.I should've thought of that.

Allie persisted, "And seriously, why would you do that, anyway? This could've changed your whole life. Why would you throw it away?"

At this, I laughed through my tears. "I didn't throw it away. I would've sucked at that job." I gave an epic eye-roll. "Especially now that I know it's for Jaden. God, can you imagine?"

She gave me a look. "Yeah. I can actually."

"Oh. Right." I winced. "I guess you can."

"I'm not worried about that," she said. "I can handlehimjust fine." She sighed. "It's just that, well, you haven't had a lot of good things in your life, and I hate that you gave it up."

I shook my head. "You're wrong," I told her. "Ihavehad good things." Suddenly, I couldn't help but smile. "You, for example."

On impulse, I reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. "And I wasn't lying. I would've been terrible at that job, even if ithadbeen working for Jax." Under my breath, I added, "As opposed to his douchebag of a brother."

She was almost laughing now. "You aresucha liar."

Again, I shook my head. "Are you kidding? That guy? Jax? He distracts the hell out of me."

"Yeah, I could tell."

"Really?" I hesitated. "Do you thinkhecould?"

"No. And you wanna know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I thinkyoudistracthim, too."

Chapter 39

Allie's words haunted me over the next few weeks as we settled into our new apartment, not to mention new routines for each of us.

As far as the apartment itself, it was everything Jax had indicated and then some. At least once a day, I thanked my lucky stars that he'd pointed us in that direction with the help of a local realtor.

The place was an eclectic two-bedroom unit that took up the whole second floor of a stately old Victorian house – the kind with all kinds of turrets plus our own private balcony. Best of all, it was located just a block from one of the prettiest beaches I'd ever seen.

By some miracle, I'd gotten a job almost immediately, working as a waitress at a beachside bar and grill located within walking distance of our new place. I didn't even need a car, which was a good thing, since I'd sold my prior car back in Nashville and couldn't yet afford a replacement.

All in all, things were surprisingly okay – for me, anyway. As far as Allie, she still felt way too guilty about the whole job fiasco and kept urging me to reconsider.

Of course, it was ridiculous. Not only would I never change my mind, I could only imagine how thrilled the brothers would be with yet another switcharoo.

Plus, I knew that Allie was surely exceeding all expectations, which granted, couldn't've been terribly high, given the nature of that initial interview.

Still, it was pretty obvious that she likedthisjob a lot better than her last one, even if Jaden was, in Allie's own words, the most annoying person she'd ever met.

I couldn’t argue with her there.Ithought he was pretty darn annoying, too. But it wasn't thoughts ofhimthat kept me awake late into the night. No. It was his brother, Jax, who'd become my dark obsession.

And I do mean dark, because thoughts of him kept creeping in while I was huddled alone in my bed. Sometimes, I wondered what he was doing andwhohe was doing it with. Other times, I imagined him doing those things with me, which made me feel slightly awkward every time I ran into him.

It was strange, too, because when I left his place on that Sunday afternoon, I never expected to see him again, in spite of Allie working for his company. After all, I never saw Allie'spreviousemployers. And besides, she worked for Jaden, not Jax.

And yet, during the last few weeks, Jax had been turning up in the strangest places – outside the bar where I worked, in the coffee shop where I bought my morning latte, and once, even at the door to my own apartment, when he stopped by to drop off some paperwork that Allie had forgotten.

By now, I might've called him a friend, except my feelings for him went beyond simple friendship or even obligation, because let's face it, he'd been my own personal savior right from the beginning.

One Thursday night, I was pondering all of this with Allie in our living room when she said, "You know he likes you, right?"