Page 15 of Shared By Her Brother's Best Friends

“Damn it!” I exclaim. I try a few more times with no success.

In the end I do the only thing I can think of in this situation and call Jax. When he picks up, I breathe a sigh of relief as my words come out in a rush, “My car’s broken down, I’m not gonna be able to get Max, I can’t get in touch with the school, what am I gonna do?”

His voice is calm, “Don’t worry, just tell me where you are, and I’ll come with my truck. We’ll go get Max and the guys can arrange for your car to be towed. Just drop me a location pin, okay? I’ll be there in fifteen.”

Ending the call, I quickly sent him my location and sat on the verge waiting. I tried calling the school again, but I got nothing but the engaged tone. Thankfully, Jax turns up in record time and I jump in his truck.

“What kind of mother almost forgets her own son, a son who is already in danger, to have sex with three guys she barely knows? This is my punishment, isn’t it?”

“Don’t say that,” Jax says softly, and I realize that I’d spoken the thought out loud. “I’ve seen you with Max, you’re a great mom.”

“That’s sweet of you to say, but I don’t see how you can possibly think so, given the circumstances.”

He glances at me before returning his concentration to the road. “Emma, you’re allowed to have fun, to have a life and desires outside of being a mom. That doesn’t make you a bad parent. You didn’t forget him, you left in plenty of time, no one could have predicted your car would break down. I get theimpression you’ve been putting Max and everyone else around you first for so long you’ve forgotten what it’s like to think about what you want. You shouldn’t punish yourself for being human.”

“Jax, someone is trying to kidnap my son. I don’t have the luxury of a life outside of that right now. Damn it!”

“What?” Jax asks.

“I still can’t get in touch with the school to tell them I’m running late.”

“You said yourself that the school won’t let him go home with anyone who’s not on the approved list. He’ll be there waiting for you. Anyway, if the school was concerned, don’t you think they’d have called by now? Surely no news is good news?” he reasons.

“I guess so. But I still feel like the world’s worst mom,” I reply glumly.

“Emma, trust me when I say this, I know what a bad mom looks like, and you are not it.”

He says this with such force of conviction that I don’t press the point. I sense there is something personal behind his words. He leans forward to absentmindedly rub his back, trying to scratch an itch he can’t quite reach.

“Let me,” I say without thinking, lifting up his shirt.

I gasp when I notice that his back is riddled with scars, deep straight lines, like those formed from a belt as well as small circular ones. The meaning behind his words then becomes clear.

“Oh my… Jax did…?” I don’t know how to ask, nor do I know if I should ask, how he got them.

“Yep, courtesy of dear old mom and the sick fucker she made me call Daddy gave me those. The cigarette burns are mom’s handiwork, my stepdad favored belts,” he says bitterly.

“Oh Jax… I’m so sorry,” I utter, imagining what he must have endured.

“It’s okay, it was a long time ago.”

“Still, you don’t just get over something like that,” I say gently.

“No, you don’t,” he agrees, “But you can let it make you stronger. I don’t hide my scars. When I was a kid, Mom always made me cover up, even on a hot summer day by the pool, so no one could see that she wasn’t the good Christian woman she pretended to be.”

“So that’s why you’re topless a lot,” I say, surprised I hadn’t noticed them before now.

“Well, that and my killer bod,” he says with a cheeky grin, making me laugh and relieving the tension.

“Thank you for confiding that in me,” I say earnestly.

He shrugs, “Just don’t call yourself a bad mom again.”

“I won’t,” I say with a small smile.

Somehow, Jax has done the impossible and made me feel like all of this isn’t my fault. That maybe I’m not doing so badly with Max after all.

The horrid tightness in my chest dissipates slightly and I feel grateful that Jax is here with me. I’m still terrified for Max, but I hope that Jax is right, and my fears will prove to be unfounded.

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