more than me.” I laugh as Dax loads his suitcase and another small bag onto the baggage cart by the luggage belt.
“It’s just some work things I need to go over with Daisy when I get to LA.”
“Right. Not you being a secret over-packer, then? Do you have a bunch of British food in there you can’t live without or something?” I arch a brow at him, earning myself a chuckle as he wraps one arm around my waist, pulling me into his side, so he can plant a kiss on my neck.
“The only thing I can’t live without eating is you.”
I giggle as he growls in my ear and turns my chin to kiss me on the lips. We pull back as an elderly lady unwrapping a bright pink candy passes us, grinning at our open display of affection.
“You’ll get us banned from entry for inappropriate behavior,” I scold with a smirk as Dax releases me.
We are at JFK airport, fresh off a flight from London. Dax had a business trip to see Daisy Anderson in California to talk about Aunt Iris’s Blend, and suggested I come with him and visit my family while he’s there. He insisted on getting off here in New York with me, before catching a connecting flight to LA rather than traveling separately. He wouldn’t hear of us getting different flights. And despite reminding him that I flew to London by myself only a couple of months ago, I’m glad he insisted. Because flying over with him was fun. We traveled in business class and had two giant seats next to one another by the window. I spent most of the flight with my legs draped over his lap, watching movies as he worked on his laptop, one hand stroking my calves the entire time.
Jasmin is right. Dax is good. He has a good soul. I always knew it. I don’t care what some people might think about his criminal record and the way his tattoos might make him look. To me, Dax Silver is the most caring man I’ve ever known.
I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him in for another kiss, that’s over far too quickly.
“Go on through. I’m going to use the restroom quickly.” Dax inclines his head to the customs area we need to go through to make it outside to the taxi stand.
“I can wait.” I smile.
“No. Go on, I’ll catch up.” He places one hand on the small of my back and sends me off with the cart, his eyes flicking to a grumpy-looking customs officer, then back to me. “Why don’t you smile at Mr. Fun and see if you can cheer him up?”
I narrow my eyes at Dax as he smirks and walks off toward the restrooms. Then I push the cart, grinning brightly and saying good morning to the terse-looking officer as I pass. His face transforms into a warm smile and he tips his head in greeting. “Good morning.”
I bite the inside of my cheek as I walk through and wait for Dax, a warmth spreading in my chest as he appears a few minutes later. His lips curl into a smile as he reaches me and pulls me in for a kiss with one hand gripping the back of my neck.
“Thanks, Sunbeam. Now let’s get you in a cab.”
“I’m telling you; she’ll be my date for the wedding.” Brett grins across the dinner table at Harley as Mom chuckles.
Reed tips his chin at Brett. “I’ve already got her name on the seating plan.”
Brett leans across the table and fist-bumps Reed as Harley rolls her eyes.
“Does this poor girl know what she’s letting herself in for?”
I laugh as I tear a chunk off my bread roll. “I think she would have moved states by now if she had any idea.”
Mom chuckles again as Harley fist-bumps me this time, her eyes gleaming as she smiles at me.
I smile back, before looking down at my bread and eating a chunk. Coming home has been much better than I anticipated. The time away seems to have removed the usual tension in the air when my family are together. It’s… nice. Great, actually. It’s like it always used to feel with us all together. Laughing, joking. Making fun of Brett and his latest love interest. Although, I’ve never seen him quite so enthusiastic about anyone before. His new physical therapist, Lena, must be special.
Me, Harley, and Mom even went wedding dress shopping yesterday after I arrived from the airport. I think they secretly used it as a ruse to get me drinking champagne in a confined space so they could grill me about England. Harley asked a lot of questions about Dax, which makes me wonder if she’s been messaging Jasmin. It wouldn’t surprise me. Ever since she started planning her wedding to Reed, she’s been obsessing over who I can bring as my plus one. And the fact that he’s coming by tomorrow to meet everyone before we fly back has got Mom excited. It’s weird. I keep catching her smiling at me with this knowing look on her face when she thinks I’m not looking. And I get it. I must seem happier than the last time she saw me… because, well, I am.
“I’ve booked Vienna’s for tomorrow.”
I snap my eyes up from my plate. “What?”
Mom glances around the table, her eyes meeting everyone else’s but mine. Vienna’s is the restaurant we always used to go to whenever we had something to celebrate. We haven’t been since—
“It’s time.” Mom finally meets my eyes. “Your father loved going there.”
I force down the lump of dry bread that’s clogging up my throat. Next week would be Dad’s birthday, if he were still here.
If we’re going tomorrow for lunch, then that means Dax will be coming, too. Our flight back to London is a red eye, so it’s a late check in.
“Okay.” I manage to get the bread down and offer Mom a small smile. Her shoulders relax and her face softens with relief.
“Good. Well, I’m looking forward to meeting your friend. I hope he has an appetite. I’m told the portions are still huge.” Mom busies herself clearing the plates from the table as Brett makes some comment about feeding his super biceps.
And just like that, my family start chatting and joking again.
Dad’s been mentioned, and it hasn’t ended up with Mom crying, or me feeling like I’ve let everyone down.
Maybe time really can heal.
I lean into Dax’s side, my hand glued to his thigh beneath the table as we have lunch with Mom, Brett, and Harley. Reed had some mayor thing on, so he couldn’t make it. Mom keeps flicking her gaze to us every few minutes from across the table, and Harley’s not even trying to hide the giant grin on her face as she grills Dax, just like she did to me yesterday.
“I can’t believe you got my sister to go to a gong bath. It sounds amazing.”
“They’re really great for slowing down, taking time out, re-balancing. They help me relax.” Dax smiles at her as he sits, happy and relaxed in the seat next to me, his fingers interlaced with mine against his thigh.
They all love him.
To the point where, given the choice, I believe they would seriously consider trading me for him.
Despite everything that’s happened the past three years, I’ve always loved that about my family. They’re open and welcoming. Never judgmental. Dad always said he just wanted us all to be happy. He wouldn’t have cared about Dax’s past or his tattoos. He’d have just interrogated him until he was satisfied he wasn’t out to hurt me.
“I’m heading to the restroom,” I whisper to Dax.
Mom watches us like a hawk as he turns and smiles at me. “All right, Sunbeam.”
I glance in Mom’s direction again. She’s smiling as I get up and leave the table. I head to the restrooms, which are on the other side of the restaurant, passing the open kitchen on the way. I go in and take time after fixing my hair and makeup, then walk back out into the long corridor that leads back to the dining area.
“Rose?”
I freeze at the familiar voice as the man comes down the corridor toward me.
“Gareth?”
He looks different to last time I saw him, three years ago. His deep brown hair has been cut close to his head, and he seems shorter, if that’s possible. But his eyes are the same light brown. The same warmth in them as he says my name. The same friendliness that acts like a mask, hiding what’s going on behind.
I never could tell what he was thinking.
“Wow. You look great.” His gaze drops over my short black dress and chunky heeled sandals.
I stare at him as he brings his eyes back to my face and politeness wins as I give him a small smile. “Um, so do you.”
He grins at the compliment. “I heard you got a new job in England.”
“You did?”
“Mom told me.”
“Oh.”
Gareth’s mom still lives locally, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she knew about me going to England because my mom sees her around town. But the thought of him knowing anything about my life now feels strange, considering I know nothing about his. I’ve never asked. I didn’t want to know how great he was doing while I felt like my life had stalled.
“And you? You’re—?”
“Head of sales over at Logify. Youngest in the company’s history.” He lifts a brow, a self-satisfied smile taking over his face. Modesty never was his thing. He was always the first to boast about his achievements, even if that meant raining on someone else’s parade to steal the limelight.
An awkward silence stretches between us as he looks me up and down again.
“Great. Well, take care.” I step around him, eager to avoid a trip down memory lane, but he catches my wrist in his hand and stops me.
“Rose. Wait.” He lets go of me and studies my face. “It is good to see you. You look… you look happy. Last time I saw you…” He exhales, his brows pulling together. “I’m sorry about how things ended between us, is what I’m trying to say.”
I jerk my head back. Gareth’s admitting he was wrong?
“It was a long time ago.”
Relief settles over his face as he nods at me. “I’m glad there’s no hard feelings. Listen, are you back in town long? I’m staying with Mom a few days. I’ll take you out for dinner. We can catch up.”
Nausea swirls in my gut. Everything about this feels wrong. Gareth is my past. He’s not my present. My present is—
“Hey, there you are.”
A warm body envelops mine as Dax curls one hand around my hip, extending the other to shake Gareth’s hand.
“Hi, I’m Dax.”
Gareth frowns, his brow knitting as I lean into Dax’s side.
My nausea vanishes like magic.
“Hey, I’m Gareth. You’re British?” Gareth stares at Dax as he shakes his hand. “Do you work with Rose over there?”
“Yes, he’s—”
“Dax what?” Gareth ignores me and studies Dax, grimacing as he eyes the bird neck tattoo.
“Silver.” Dax straightens, tightening his grip on my hip.
“Right.” Gareth’s face clears with understanding. “You’re the boss. Well, I hope you don’t mind me borrowing Rose to take her for dinner. She and I have a lot of shared history.” He looks at me and his lips curl into a smile.
“Boyfriend.”
“Sorry?” Gareth snaps his eyes back to meet Dax’s.
“I’m the boyfriend.”
I suck in a subtle breath at the casual way Dax delivers it. But there’s no mistaking the undertone. It’s the same one that came out when that guy grabbed me in the bar. When Dax called me his girl and then slung me over his shoulder.
I shouldn’t like the territorial dominance seeping from Dax’s pores, but I can’t stop heat firing low in my belly, making me need to clamp my thighs together.
No one has ever claimed me as theirs so blatantly. Gareth certainly never displayed even a hint of the passion Dax does toward me.
My eyes ping-pong between the two of them as Gareth straightens up, noticing Dax’s hand curled around my hip.
He laughs, then looks between the two of us. “You’re not her type. Nice try though. You one of Brett’s friends? Is this a joke?” He looks behind us as if expecting my brother to appear, telling him it’s a ruse.
“Maybe her type changed away from selfish pricks.”
My eyes bug in my head, and I look at Dax, whose jaw is ticking as he glares at Gareth.
Shit. Why did I have to tell him about Gareth and what he did? I should have left it at ‘my ex took a new job and moved away,’ not ‘my ex tricked me into losing my virginity to him, at the same time as planning how he was going to dump me.’ Because now Dax looks ready to squish Gareth like a bug.
I wrap my hand around Dax’s tense bicep. “Let’s go back to the table.”
“Who are you calling a prick?” Gareth squares up to Dax, faltering briefly as he has to tilt his head to look up.
“Dax.” I tug on his arm, but he’s unmoving.
“She won’t be going to dinner with you. Not now. Not ever. She was always too good for you. Accept it.” He turns, placing his hand on my lower back to lead me away.
“Rose? You cannot be serious. He looks like he’s out of jail after robbing a bank!” Gareth’s incredulous voice slams into my back, and I halt, glancing at Dax. He catches my eye, and I shake my head. Ignore him.
His jaw ticks before he looks at Gareth over his shoulder.
“GBH, actually.”
“What?”
“GBH,” Dax repeats. “I got out of jail after beating the shit out of another prick.”
Gareth’s mouth drops wide, flapping like a fish. If the tension in the air wasn’t making my stomach twist with impending dread, then it would be comical. But the heat radiating from Dax has my defenses on high alert. I know he has a temper. But I don’t want my idiot of an ex being the reason he gets in trouble with the law again. They’ll be harder on him because of his record.
“Dax.” I plead with my eyes as he drags his penetrating stare from Gareth. His eyes soften as they meet mine, and he strokes my lower back, walking again.
Gareth snorts behind us. “Fine. But watch out, Rose. He’ll probably give you a disease. They all fuck each other in the ass in jail.”
Dax rushes Gareth faster than I can blink and has him pressed against the wall with a tense forearm across his windpipe, pinning him in place. Gareth’s toes dance against the floor as Dax leans closer and whispers something in his ear.
Gareth’s eyes widen.
Then Dax drops him as fast as he grabbed him and is back at my side, leading me away. I glance back at Gareth. He’s white as a sheet and rubbing his neck.
“What did you say to him? Dax?” I hiss when he doesn’t answer.
He lowers his voice as we weave our way back through the tables of diners. “I told him I got let out early for good behavior. But for him, I’d consider going back in… and that’s if I get caught.”
“You can’t say things like that,” I splutter, jabbing him in the side as our table comes into view.
“Why?” Dax smiles easily at Mom, who grins back as we approach.
“Because… because… you can’t go back to jail, okay? You can’t get in trouble. I need you.” I stop and turn to him, not caring if my family’s watching. Not caring if the whole damn restaurant is watching. “I need you.”
His eyes glitter, and he strokes a strand of hair away from my eyes. “You’re strong, Sunbeam. You don’t need me. But if you want me, then I’m yours.”
I nuzzle his palm. “I do. I want you. I want this. You and me. Always.” Then I reach up and plant a kiss on his lips, ignoring the stifled shriek of glee Mom makes over at the table as she says, “I knew it.”
After the Gareth incident, we have a really fun time. Dax relaxes immediately once we get back to the table, and Mom starts to ask him all sorts of questions about Jasmin, the business, and what the estate is like. I watch him, answering her questions with an easy smile, his eyes lighting up as they laugh together. She even asks about his tattoos, and he tells her the story of the first one he got, when his mom was with him. The same story he told me. Only he doesn’t elaborate much on her being gone now, and Mom doesn’t pry.
We head back to Mom’s house. We’ve got an hour before Dax and I need to leave for the airport. An hour to say a long goodbye and for me to pack my bag. But the second we pull up at Mom’s house and there’s a blue sedan parked along the curb; I wish we had gone straight to the airport instead.
“Rose!” Casey jumps out of her car and runs toward me as I climb out onto the sidewalk. She stops suddenly a few meters away as she looks at my face.
Every emotion I’ve felt since finding out she is the reason the man who knocked Brett down was speeding in the first place must be rushing out of my face, my eyes, my body language, my pores. Spilling out like the blood from a slit throat over an abattoir floor.
Casey takes another step toward me and then abruptly backs up again. Her face crumples as her eyes meet mine.
“I told you I never wanted to see your lying face again!” I scream, adrenaline flooding my veins as my chest heaves with shuddering breaths.
What is she even doing here? How did she know I was coming?
Mom, Brett, and Harley are on the sidewalk behind me, and Mom says, “You should go. It’s too soon,” in a soft voice, a sympathetic voice.
I round on her as Dax appears next to me.
“Why are you being nice to her? She’s a liar.” I begin to shake, pointing at Casey as I glare at my family, who stare back at me like I’m the one in the wrong. “She let me think Brett’s accident was my fault. When really, it was hers.”
“Rose.” Mom looks at me with the same sad eyes I’ve grown so used to over the last three years. The sad eyes that I was beginning to hope were gone since arriving yesterday. But now Casey has ruined that too.
Sourness creeps over my tongue like a disease. They told her I was coming to visit. They must have. Even they want to forget what she did. They think we can all what? Move on and play happy fucking families?
“You lied.” I turn back to Casey, overwhelming grief clawing at my chest and making it hard to get in a full breath as I look back into the tear-filled eyes of my ex-best friend.
From sandbox to casket.
“She lied.” I whip my head between her and my family, who are silent witnesses to my breakdown. “I hate you!” I spit toward Casey, who’s now sobbing.
“I’ll call you later. Go on home,” Mom says to Casey gently.
“Why are you defending her? Why are you calling her?” My vision blurs, and I clutch at my chest as my head spins. Their voices swirl around me, taunting me like a haunted merry-go-round.
“Call you later.”
“She’s still hurting.”
“She’s not ready yet. She needs time.”
“She just needs more time.”
“Give her more time.”
Time.
Dax wraps me in his arms seconds before I hit the floor, holding me against his chest. His lips find my forehead as he cradles the back on my head in one large hand.
“Breathe.”
My fingertips tingle as I suck in a breath, and with it, the scent of him beneath his black shirt.
“Breathe, Rose,” he repeats. His voice is so calm, so steady. The only static thing in a world that is twisting and canting out of control around me.
I ball the fabric of his shirt up in my fists, screwing my eyes up against the heat of his chest as he kisses my forehead, whispering to me.
“What can you hear?”
I suck in a breath, laying my cheek against him and reaching past the sound of rushing blood in my ears to focus on what he’s asking me. “Your voice. Your heartbeat.”
“Good girl,” he breathes, kissing me again and taking my wrist in his hand, stroking over my pulse with his thumb. “Now tell me what you smell.”
“Your skin.” My voice shakes. “The mint you ate before we left Vienna’s.”
“Good girl.” He sounds like he’s smiling.
God, I love his smile.
“Now tell me what you see, Sunbeam.”
I inch my eyelids apart and blink, looking up at him and ignoring everything and everyone else around me.
Deep brown meets light blue.
“I see you, Dax. I see you.”
