Page 34 of Somewhere Only We Know (Healing in Cincy #4)

NATE

PRESENT DAY

“ R emind me why we booked our flights for the asscrack of dawn?” Bryce asks with a yawn.

We’re at the airport before six AM again and it really is a question for the masses.

“So that we can get home before traffic?” Kamryn poses.

“Sure,” Bryce agrees, “because traffic is my biggest concern right now.”

We’re all in the waiting area seats of the airport. You’d think this one wouldn’t be so busy. But Vegas is proving to prove me wrong at every turn. My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out.

Bee: So about this date…

I flick my eyes up and see she has the perfect poker face in place as she continues to scroll through her phone.

Me: Considering we’re still on the mend. I propose, you, me, and a classic movie night.

Bee: Your place or mine?

Me: Your place. At six.

Bee: Can’t wait.

The announcement to board our plane comes and wearily we all gather our things and head to the gate.

We’re far from the lively bunch when we first arrived.

But the fun we had here will be briefly remembered forever.

The saying is ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’.

I always found that saying cheesy, because there is no way the things that you did, don’t follow you back.

Like, getting married. Oh yeah. That’s absolutely following me back.

At six o’clock on the dot, I knock on Jax’s door with a box of pizza and sparkling apple cider in my hands.

Her wreath with lights signals that she’s already decorated for Christmas and hopefully the inside will reflect the same because I know how much she loves this time of year.

Barking and nails tapping on the floors brings a smile to my face.

And when the door unlocks, revealing the only face I’ve dreamed about for the last eight years, my heartbeat goes into overdrive.

“Hi,” she says sweetly and is almost pushed over by Sully. “Ugh, Sully. Get back in here. Come in.”

I sidestep her into the house and the sound of the door closing is instead the opposite. It’s like opening the door to a new us.

The inside definitely reveals she’s decorated for Christmas. Holiday decor is tastefully placed with her classic tree in the front room and if I look past her, I see her balcony decorated with white lights.

“She won’t stop until you give her some attention.” Jax notes and takes the pizza and cider from my hands, then walks to the kitchen.

I drop to my haunches to get up close with Sully and give her chin a good scratch.

“Thanks, for the good word with your Mom. I think it went better than expected.” Booping her on the nose, I toe off my shoes and head towards the kitchen.

My steps slow as I look at some of the pictures she has framed on the wall.

Mainly of her family, a few from what I’m assuming is Kamryn’s wedding, and a group photo with her girls.

But in them, I don’t see the Jax who’s in the kitchen.

This version of her looks like a ghost. There’s no color in her complexion, no joy in her eyes, and she looks almost sick.

Like whoever she was dating shamed her for what she looked like so she changed herself to make him happy.

“I wish I could go back.” Jax says as she comes next to me. I look down at her and see her main focus on the wedding photo. That’s where she looks the least like herself.

“What happened?”

“I guess we’ll have to talk about this sooner than later, huh?”

“Oh, yeah.” I tell her and turn to her. “I want all of it. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.”

A blush covers her face and I like this side of her a lot.

“Can I tell you while we eat? Because I’m hungry.”

I nod and take a step until I’m wrapping her in my arms and walking forward with her backwards steps and laughter sounding like music to my ears.

The sound of Jax’s laughter is less innocence like it was when we were in college.

It has a husky undertone to it that adds to the allure of who she is as a woman now.

I kiss the top of her head and release my hold on her to wash my hands.

“I met my ex right after I finally moved on from you, or so I thought I had. Which took me about three years,” Jax starts when we’re both settled at the table.

“I was leaving Kamryn’s office one day and my purse spilled on the sidewalk.

” I snort and she smiles. “Total cliche right? I was blinded by his kindness and after leaving a meeting with Kamryn that left me frustrated, I think I needed that. I needed a light to show me that I made it through the darkest part of my life and he was that.”

Jax takes a bite of her pizza and I follow suit. For a simple pizza, the flavors explode on my taste buds and I don’t come up for air until I finish my slices.

“So how did you two…date?” The word tastes like acid on my tongue.

“He gave me some line about how he’ll help me clean up all my messes. Somehow that worked on me. I blinked and three years had gone by.”

I hook my thumb over my shoulder towards the hallway with the pictures. “And how did you get to that?”

“The comments would start little—” a red haze covers my body as I fear this story is going to take a turn “—until they weren’t. Comments about my weight and how come I don’t look like this fake Instagram model or if I ate less and worked out more, he could lift me effortlessly.”

“I’ll kill him.” I say and mean the words entirely. To hell with baseball. Any man who makes a woman feel less than for the curves on her body deserves a life of misery.

Jax smiles softly and surveys me with careful eyes then points to my face. “I like this look on you. ”

“What look? Charming, chivalrous, possessive?”

“Yes, yes, and yes.”

The look that passes between us is loaded. It’s more than the small dreams we had as kids. This is the look where we realize our dreams we made is now the future that we dreamed it could be.

“So movie,” I say, shaking myself out of my daydream. “What’ll it be?”

“I basically have all the apps, so our options are endless.”

We clean up from dinner, reminiscent of college, then shut off the lights and head to the living room. Jax turns on the battery operated candles, the strip lights on the back of the TV, and then joins me on the oversized couch.

I flip through the apps before picking one and doing another scroll before landing on Pitch Perfect .

“Seriously?” She asks with a teasing lilt in her voice.

“Kayla is obsessed with it and you can’t deny it’s a funny movie.”

We lay back and the beginning credits begin, covering our eyes when Aubrey throws up on stage and laughing when Amy does the mermaid on the ground.

“How are we going to work?” Jax asks when the auditions start on the movie.

“Like the dating part or the married part?”

I still get tingles when I remember that Jax and I are legally married. At least one of us is thinking clearly, because I’m clearly thinking with my heart.

“The married part,” she clarifies and reaches for the volume remote to turn the TV down.

“I should probably alert my agent and publicist that I’m married. Along with my accountant and lawyer.”

“So many people.” Jax groans .

“Yeah,” I say, “we could have fun with the publicist part.”

“Are you suggesting we tell Sarah we’re married?”

I pull back and look at her. “Do you not want to?”

“I do.” Jax says and I smirk at her word choice. She gently hits me on the chest and sits up. “I thought I would tell my sister first, but knowing her she would blab about it in our group chat before we had a chance to tell anyone else.”

My eyebrows lift as I watch Jax run herself into a panic. “Bee, breathe.”

She does her deep breaths and relaxes. “Okay, I’m good. I want us to tell Sarah. Your team should be ahead of this before the media anyways.”

“Good plan. I can’t wait to date my wife.”

“How long have you been wanting to say that?”

I do the math and tilt my head, looking up at the ceiling. “About nine years.”

“You know, with dating comes other things…” Jax says coyly and draws a random pattern on the couch.

I grab the remote and pause the forgotten movie. “You’re right.”

“This marriage is off to a great start.”

I throw a pillow at her face, muffling her laughter. “Okay. Let’s talk about it.”

Jax drops the pillow from her face and pushes her hair back. “You first.”

“Zero,” I tell her. “Not since before you.”

“What?”

I hold my hand up in a zero for my silently repeated answer.

“How is that…what about the cleat chasers in every city?” Her beautiful face scrunches up as she tries to understand .

“They tried. E for effort on their part.”

“But you have needs.”

I hold up my hand again as if that’s explanation enough.

Yeah, it’s pathetic now that I’m in this moment.

I haven’t had sex in over ten years. Have I missed the act?

Of course. But having it to have it with a random hookup never appealed to me.

I’m a relationship man through and through and the only person I’ve wanted is right in front of me.

“I got by. Enough with me and my celibacy.”

Jax adjusts, folding her legs under her and sitting on her feet. “Just my ex. But not as much as he wanted.”

“He didn’t…” If she says he forced himself on her, I will find him and make him wish he was never born.

“Force himself on me? No. Was any of it enjoyable? Also no.”

My body is throwing a malfunction code. The man in me wants to throw her over my shoulder and show her what she’s been missing.

But I fear that would come off as retaliation and that’s not how I want mine and Jax’s first time to be.

Plus, I’d come after two seconds and that’d be more embarrassing than admitting I haven’t had sex in over a decade.

“What a prick.” Is what I settle on.

“I don’t miss him. So I don’t ever want you to question that.”

“It never would have crossed my mind.”

Jax snorts and repositions on the couch, settling into my side. “Now that that’s settled, we’ll tell your team first. Can we do that sooner than later?”

“Yeah.” I tell her because I want that too.

“Monday?”

“You really do want people to know,” I tease her.

“I just want to date my husband out in the open. ”

“Fuck I love those words falling from your lips.” I groan and grab my phone with Jax laughing at my hurriedness.

Me: Hey. I need to see you both on Monday.

Me: It’s important.

Sarah: Woah. Yeah. I have time at ten. Does that work for you Mallory?

Mallory: I’ll have to video chat in. I’m in California for the next week.

Me: That’s fine. See you Monday.

“Done.” I state and toss my phone to the side.

“Good. Now press play. They’re at the riff-off.”