CHAPTER21
JAX
“So how long are you here for?” Shannon asks as I watch Lucia walk out the door.
“A few days, maybe longer,” I reply absent-mindedly.
She was upset. I should go after her. But then what would I do, because I was about two seconds away from fucking her right here in the stables before Shannon walked in. It seems like I’m always just moments away from fucking her. One word from her would be all it would take, but this was the closest I’d come to just taking her anyway.
Fuck!
“Well, it’s good to have you around,” she goes on. “Lucia seems nice.”
I shake my head and focus on Shannon. “Yeah. She is.”
She pops one eyebrow. “Something going on with you two?”
“No,” I shake my head.
“Jackson Decker. You can’t fool me,” she laughs as she pats Bastian on the nose. “Don’t you break that girl’s heart, though.”
“What?” I blink at her.
“She is so in love with you. Don’t tell me you can’t see that?”
“What? No. She likes me, yeah, but it’s like a crush.”
Shannon smiles at me. “I was only in here for a minute with you two and that was way more than a crush.”
“How is Ed anyway?” I ask, changing the subject.
She lets out a long, slow breath. “That man. He is wonderful. I damn well adore him.”
I smile at her. “I’m happy you found someone, Shan.”
“I know that you are,” she grins back at me. “And I would be for you. Because we really do just like each other. But tell me, Jackson, how would you feel if your friend’s daughter found someone else?”
“Fuck you.” I shake my head and she laughs again.
“Hey. If you’re intent on hiding your feelings, how about you help me give Zena her injection?”
“She hates those,” I frown at her.
“Exactly. And I’m the poor soul who has to give them to her once a month. I was going to do it tomorrow, but as you’re here now?”
“I ain’t distracting that crazy horse while you stick a needle in her ass.”
“She is not crazy,” she says with a hand on her hip. “She’s just cranky because she gets sore eyes sometimes. And you have a way with her.”
“Now I know you’re fucking with me.”
“You do,” she laughs. “You get it from your daddy.”
“Shan!” I warn her.
She shrugs. “Like it or not, he has a gift with animals. You do too.”
“Yeah? It’s a pity that gift didn’t extend to his wife and son, isn’t it?” I snarl.