“Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t listen to the conversation between Nick and Paxton.”
My toes slid from my flip-flops when I hit the soft sand. “They talked? About what?”
“I don’t know. I just told you, I didn’t listen.”
“But you’re hiding something. I can tell, Mi. You suck at lying.”
“I’m not lying. I swear. Nick just asked me if I have talked to you. He said Paxton had a confession. That’s all I know. He didn’t tell me what it was.”
I shook my head, calling her bluff. “You know your voice rises a few decimals when you lie, don’t you.”
“Did the girl’s tell you that I called? I want to take them to the movies tomorrow. You know, while you do your home visit thing.”
I smiled and let her slide. She’d done enough for me. I wasn’t about to shove her under the bus again. Not to mention, that was super sweet of her, and I was glad someone thought of that. I mean, it wasn’t like they wouldn’t be asking a million questions. My girls weren’t the run along and play type. They were nosey, and had to be right there, afraid of missing some important information. A movie with Mi was perfect.
The mess that Paxton had made over the past twenty-four hours wasn’t as bad as it looked. He helped get everything cleaned up, and then grilled veggie burgers on the grill. All things considered, we had a great day, ending it with a story outside on the cabana bed. That’s why I didn’t pressure Paxton with information I knew he kept hidden. I didn’t care. I cared about this. About the tangled arms and legs, the magic stones, recharging their powers, this dysfunctional tangled up mess. My family. That’s the only thing I cared about. And of course. Vander.
Thirteen
“I’m tired, let’s not get into anything deep tonight. I just want to sleep,” Paxton confessed as we climbed the stairs together.
I was okay with that, we had a long day, cleaning and getting everything ready for the next day. What I wasn’t okay with was the distance I felt between us ever since his talk with Nick. I couldn’t really put a finger on it because he played a good part. He was just a little out there.
“Are you okay?”
Paxton spun me toward him when I hit the top landing. “Why do you have to say shit like that? You never asked me if I was okay before.”
I looked down to the grip he had around my arm and opened his fingers. “Okay, we’re not doing this. Sorry, I asked. Let’s just go to bed.”
He let me walk away, but he didn’t stop. He kept it up until it turned ugly, badgering and saying mean stuff just to start a fight.
“What? I’m not supposed to wonder who the fuck you are? I’m not the one that changed, Gabriella. You are.”
“Paxton, I don’t even know what you’re all bent out of shape about. I asked you if you were okay. Shoot me dead in the head next time. My God.”
“Maybe I’m just tired. It’s not like I haven’t worked my ass off for you for the past two days.”
That pissed me off, and Paxton got what he wanted. A fight. “I never asked you to do any of that.”
“No, Gabriella you didn’t. This wasn’t my fucking plan. I was going to let you get that kid, help you do it, and dangle it over your head to get you to go back to being the way it was. Before all of this bullshit.”
“Is that what you want, Paxton? You want me bow down and kiss your feet.”
Paxton snorted and shook his head. “What the fuck are we doing?”
“You started it.”
Paxton walked away with a confused expression and pissed off wife. “I’m going to shower.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, groaned from frustration and whiplash, and walked outside with my phone. I talked to Mi for a good fifteen minutes before I heard him come out, and plop to the bed. We didn’t really talk about much, the girls, Vander, the movie, and our stupid little fight. The one that fell from the sky like an asteroid. No warning whatsoever.
Paxton didn’t move when I entered the room. He stayed still, laying on his stomach with his arms above his head. I didn’t say anything either. I left him on top of the covers in sexy, boxer briefs and no shirt. I loved Paxton in tight white briefs, especially next to his tanned complexion and defined back.
I showered, thinking about Paxton’s outburst over nothing. I knew it was more than nothing, and the conversation with Nick was my first guess for the cause, but why?
Paxton hadn’t moved a muscle since I’d left him. I watched him sleep, feeling stupid, heart fluttery things when I looked at him. His eyes were closed and his breaths were deep and relaxed. Like he was in a deep sleep. I brushed the hair from his forehead and kissed his warm skin.
“Will you rub my lower back?”
I smiled and straddled his butt, digging the tips up my fingers into the tight muscles in his back. “Why don’t you talk to your parents?”
“I do sometimes. They call once a year or so.”
“I’ve never heard you.”
“They haven’t called this year yet.”
I laughed a little with a short puff of air. “It’s almost September. You’re running out of year.”
“I don’t care.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, Gabriella. We’re just not close. Lots of families aren’t close.”
“I was close with my family.”
“You don’t even remember your family. You have amnesia, remember?”
“Shut up. I still loved them. I know I did.”
“Well, I didn’t. My old man drove a truck, hauled oranges up and down the west coast. My mom was a slut. She cheated on him for as long as I could remember, and he either stayed gone or drunk. That was my childhood. You’re not the only person on earth that grew up with a fucked up life. It happens every single day.”
I dug my thumbs into the tight spots, right above his hips. “I know. I never said it didn’t. It was always just you? No brothers or sisters?”
“I had a sister. She died.”
My fingers stopped moving for a second while that one sunk in. “What happened?”
“She got hit by a truck her first day of kindergarten.”
Again my fingers stopped and I hid a gasp. “I’m so sorry Pax, that’s horrible.”
“I was two. I don’t even remember her. I never knew her.”
“Yeah, but don’t you think maybe that had something to do with your mom’s behavior, and your dad staying drunk? People deal with things in their own way.”
“Yeah, and they still had a kid. I was still there.”
“I’m sorry that was your life, Paxton, but you know what?”
“Hmm?”
“Mi says there’s a cause and an effect for everything. Maybe you had to live like that in order to be a good dad for Rowan and Phi.”
Paxton lifted his body and rolled to his back, leaving me straddling the front of his waist.
“Well, if that’s the case. I’d do it again.”
“Me too.”
“I’m sorry.”
My fingers glided over deep fingernail marks engraved in his chest. “I’m sorry, too. Jesus, did I do that?”
“You don’t have to be sorry. I fucking loved it. It’s the strangest thing ever, baby. I’ve spent all this time telling you to be a slut, you lose your memory, and bam, you’re a—”
“Watch it, buddy.”
“It was a kudos.”
I raked my red painted nails over his stomach and frowned at him. “Why do I feel like I should be offended?”
Paxton ran his hands up and down my bare legs, staring up to me like he cared, like he really cared, like he loved me. “I fucking exploded when you did that last night. Your body twisted into some fucked up position, your nails dug into my skin, and your entire body orgasmed. And blow jobs. Pfft, you’re a dirty, bad girl, and I fucking love it.”
“I’m not a dirty, bad girl.”
Paxton shifted his hips to get my attention, and I looked up. “It’s a compliment. Say thank you. I rather like the connotations to the blow jobs you give. It’s like you enjoy it as much as me.”
I stared at him briefly, contemplating something else, not blowjobs. “Don’t you ever think I don’t appreciate how hard you work for us? I do. Very much. And I am grateful for what you’re doing to get Vander.”