Page 92 of One Good Crash

I tried to smile. "Sure. I mean, he must, considering all the favors he's done for me."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't mean as a friend."

It was a happy thought, but it still made me frown. "That can't be true," I said, "because if it was, he'd make a move or something."

"What kind of move?" She gave me a wicked grin. "The naked kind?"

"No." I sank deeper into the couch. "Okay, well, maybe not at first, but he could at least ask me out or something."

Even as I said it, I marveled at my own stupidity. He was a billionaire, and I who was I? Just a waitress.

Oh sure, I'd taken a semester of community college, but I hadn't gone back, not because I didn't like learning, but rather because so many of the classes seemed completely at odds with what I'd ever use in real life.

Plus, there was the debt. My friends who'd continued were absolutely drowning in it. Some of them hadn't even finished, and yet theystillhad the debt hanging over their heads.

And the ones whohadfinished? Most ofthesefriends were working jobs that paid peanuts compared to what their degrees had cost.

Even Allie – one of the smartest people I knew – had decided to skip the whole college thing in favor of jumping out into, as she called it, the real world.

Now, sitting in the nearby armchair, Allie asked, "Wanna know whatIthink?"

"What?"

She smiled. "I think he likes youtoomuch."

Okay, that made zero sense. "What do you mean?"

Even though we were alone in our apartment, she lowered her voice. "Well, from what I hear at the office, he's pretty down on relationships."

Instantly, I thought of Morgan. If Jax's last relationship had been withher, this attitude made sense. I said, "Why? Because of a bad breakup?"

"No," Allie said, "because of the thing with his parents."

Nowthatwas odd.Until now, I'd never really thought of Jax ashavingparents. And yet, unlike me, he apparently had two of them, double my total.Go figure.

I said to Allie, "So I take it they're not together?"

She nodded. "Exactly."

I felt my brow wrinkle in confusion. "But lots of people have divorced parents."

"Yeah, but their divorce was weird."

Was there such a thing as anormaldivorce? I had no idea.

Allie was saying, "They don't even live in the same state."

"You mean his parents?"

"Oh yeah." She leaned forward. "And get this. Half of the family hardly talks to the other half. It's like they don't exist or something."

I gave her a perplexed look. "I'm not sure I get what you mean."

"Well," she said, "there's likefivebrothers—"

"Five?"

She gave a solemn nod. "Yeah. And really, it's six if you count the half-brother, too."