“Yeah. But of all the amazing Greek gods there are, why the hell would you call yourself after the god of trickery and manipulation?”
I blink at him. He knows Greek mythology too? Of course he does. Jax is the smartest man I’ve ever met. Could he be any more perfect? He stares at me and I realize I haven’t answered his question. “Well it kinds of fits his gamer persona. And isn’t most people’s online presence all about deception and trickery?”
“You like him?” He narrows his eyes at me.
“Not like that. He’s smart though and fun to hang out with,” I shrug. Dolos is a huge gamer and has zero interest in me that way. In fact, if a woman isn’t pixelated, then he doesn’t even notice her. “Which Greek god would you be? Zeus I suppose?”
He winks. “No. Heracles, obviously.”
“Ah, of course.” I smile at him.
“And you’re definitely not dating Archer?” Jax fakes a scowl when he says his name.
“Nope. He would be more interested in you than me.”
“Yeah, I kinda got that.” He chuckles softly and I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during that particular interaction. Archer Henderson is one of my best friends from college, and he is fun and smart and sexy as hell, but he is only interested in guys.
“You should be flattered. Archer is hot.” I grin at him. “And he usually only goes for other young hot guys too.”
Jax is taking a swig of his Coke and he almost spits it back out of his mouth as he laughs. “You saying I’m not young and hot?”
“Hmm.” I bite on my lip as I consider him. “I mean for an old dude, I guess you could say you’re handsome.”
“Handsome?” He shakes his head. “I’ll have you know, I am in my prime, Lucia Montoya.”
Damn right you are!“Well, that’s certainly open to debate,” I say instead and he laughs softly before taking another drink and leaning back against the sofa.
“You remember the very first time I met you, you bought me pizza?”
“I do,” he replies with a nod. “I remember when you came into the hallway and gave me the stink eye. You looked me up and down like I was a vacuum salesman.”
I laugh out loud at that. “I did not.”
“You did,” he laughs too. “I thought you were a spoiled brat. Standing there with your hand on your hip while you decided whether I was worth your time.”
“Well, lucky for you, I decided that you were, isn’t it?” I pull a face at him.
“Hmm. When I came here looking for Alejandro, I didn’t expect to find some pregnant kid here instead.”
For some reason the way he says that makes emotion well up from my chest and into my throat.
“Shit, Luce,” he says with a frown. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”
I shrug. “It’s fine. I was just a pregnant kid.” I shrug.
“You were neverjustanything. I’m an asshole though.”
“You’re not.” I shake my head. “It just hurts to think about who I was back then, you know?”
He stares at me but he doesn’t speak, allowing me to go on talking without feeling the need to interrupt or make me feel better.
“I was so messed up. I can hardly believe it was just four years ago. Sometimes if feels like it was yesterday and sometimes it feels like it was another lifetime and she was a different person. Does that sound crazy?”
“Not at all.”
“I worry that I’ll wake up one day and it will all go away. Like it won’t have really happened or I don’t really deserve it. I mean what happened to me is kind of a fairytale, right? Having Alejandro and Alana adopt me. So, why me?” I feel a tear running down my cheek and wipe it away quickly. I hate crying.
Jax shuffles across the hardwood floor until he is sitting close to me. “You went through enough shit to last four lifetimes before you wound up here, Luce. You deserve nothing but happiness. And they adopted you because you were an amazing kid.” He bumps his shoulder against mine.