Page 13 of Challenging Jayce

KENNEDY: Exactly and I happen to be very protective of my nephew. I don't allow just anyone into his life.

She almost dropped the phone when it suddenly started to ring in her hand. Why was Jayce calling her? She didn't take him for a man to talk on the phone.

It almost rang out before she finally got the nerve to hit the accept button.

"Hello?" There was no hiding the question in her tone, but if Jayce noticed it, he didn't say anything.

"I'm not just anyone. I'm Michael's father."

Looked like they were going to pick up right where the texts left off.

"A fact that has yet to be confirmed."

Jayce snorted. "He's a fucking mini me."

She sighed. "Okay, I'll give you that. But I don'tknowanything about you."

The answer to that was nothing but silence. In fact, it lasted so long that she pulled the phone from her ear to see if the call had become disconnected.

Nope.

The call was still active, so Jayce was just being quiet.

Any other time she would've filled the space with chatter. She wasn't the type of person who sat in silence very well. Actually, she hated it. So much so that it usually made her antsy, but she was determined to ride this out and see what Jayce had to say.

Either he hated silence as much as she did—something she didn't think was accurate—or Jayce finally figured out what he wanted to say. But eventually, he spoke first.

"I don't let people get to know me anymore. Especially not of the female variety."

Well, that was just sad.

"Not every female is as bad as Jasmine."

"Maybe not, but I don't have to find out the hard way if I keep everyone at a distance."

Okay, never mind. That was heartbreaking.

"Look, I know it's not proper to badmouth a dead person, and I get that she was my sister-in-law, but you won't find me defending Jasmine. She was a shitty person, and if she was my only representation of the female population, then I too would hate women, but I can promise you we aren't all like that."

"I know."

Wait, what?

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Jayce was quiet when he answered again. "I said I know. That's why I freaked out. You showed me in just a few minutes that not every woman is like Jasmine. I promised myself, when she left, that I would never lose myself in another female the way I used to with her. Then I did with you tonight and I couldn't handle it. But I couldn't let you think you did anything wrong either."

"That's why you texted?"

"Yes, it's why I texted you."

Speaking of …

"How did you get my number, anyway?"

Jayce chuckled and she vowed to do everything in her power to get him to do it more often because it was magical. Even through the speaker of her phone, it was the best sound she ever heard in her life. She could only imagine how it would transform his face in person.

"That's kinda my job."

---