Page 149 of One Good Crash
"What do you mean?"
"Withyourluck in drivers?" she said. "I’m surprised the guy wasn't drunk or belligerent or something."
I cleared my throat. "Yeah, well…for your information, he was perfectly sober."
And yes, just a little bit belligerent.
But there was no way I wanted to admitthat,so I launched into a side story about how Jax and Jaden were the ones who mugged Dominic outside my mom's apartment.
I finished by saying, "Except they didn't really mug him, because they didn't steal anything."
Allie frowned. "Well, that's unfortunate."
"Oh, so youwantedhim robbed?"
"Definitely," she said. "And roughed up, too."
I gave her a look. "Well, heisin the hospital, remember?"
She brightened considerably. "Oh yeah. I almost forgot."
I had to laugh. "Well, aren'tyoublood-thirsty."
"Hey, he had it coming," she said. "But back to Jax, did he saywhythey did it?"
Yes. He did.And it all boiled down to one simple thing. "He said he didn't want that guy near me."
Allie gave a slow nod. "Good." She glanced toward the apartment. "But come on, tell me the rest."
A few minutes later, sitting in our living room, I filled her in on the rest of the story. Apparently, the night before Jax and I were scheduled to pick up my things, he'd driven by my mom's place to get familiar with the layout.
While checking out the exterior, he'd seen my mom walking Dominic to his car and overheard them talking about me coming out there the next day.
The way it sounded, Dominic was planning – in Jax's words – a nice little sales pitch just for me. And my mom was doing nothing to discourage him.
Allie said, "Wait,wherewas Jax when he overheard this?"
"In the van, supposedly."
"Supposedly?" she repeated. "You don't believe him?"
I recalled what Jax had said, that he'd never lie to me. But sometimes, as I'd learned firsthand, he wasn't always terribly forthcoming.
Still, Ididbelieve him, and I told Allie so, adding, "but it's so strange. I mean, why would he do that?"
"I'll tell you why. He's crazy." She said this like it was a good thing. But then, her tone grew wistful. "Love makes you do crazy things."
I could definitely relate. I'd been feeling crazy for weeks now.
I went on to tell Allie that the two brothers had gotten together and decided to have an anonymous talk with Dominic beforehecould have a talk withme.
I concluded the story by saying, "And apparently, the talk didn't go too terrific, because it ended with Dominic in the bushes."
"And?'
"That's it."
"I know that's theendof the story," she said, "but you left out a whole bunch of stuff in the middle."
