Page 30 of Love is a Drum Beat
Noah:Everyone already adored us, love.
Noah:Have you found the articles about Dax yet?
Jo froze. Melanie mentioned something about Dax, but she hadn’t wanted to believe it. She pulled up the internet again and scrolled through links until she got to one that saidJo Jackson’s mystery man.There was an image of them getting into Dax’s car in the parking garage. She wore her Batman mask, but her pink tipped hair peeking out was a dead giveaway.
And it wasn’t the only blog post mentioning Dax.
Friends tell all. Sources close to the couple tell us Jo Jackson’s new man is a doctor at the hospital she will give birth in.
Her brow scrunched. Dax? A doctor. She needed to talk to him, to make sure he wasn’t freaking out. Swinging her legs out of bed, she could practically hear his voice in her head.You need to stay in bed.
But she also needed to talk to him. She hobbled to the door on her injured foot. If she didn’t move awkwardly before with the ginormous belly, she did now.
She found Dax in the living room watching the news. Her eyes zeroed in on a clip of them in the parking garage.
Her phone buzzed, probably another text from Noah. Right now, she needed to talk to someone else. Gripping the back of the couch to stay upright, she tore her eyes away from the news. “Hey.”
He tilted his head back to look at her. “You should—”
“Be in bed. I know.”
Silence stretched between them. Dax, it seemed, had reverted back to his introspective and awkward self.
“So…” She didn’t know what else to say.
“So?” Dax’s eyes drifted back to the TV.
“Are you upset? I understand if you are. You were only photographed because you were with me, and I feel awful.”
Dax hesitated for a moment before switching the TV off. “It’s okay, Jo. Go back to bed.”
“No.”
He sighed. “My mom says you should only get up when it’s necessary.”
That made her pause. “Did you talk to your mom about me today?”
“I—I… yes. I wanted to make sure I was doing everything right to take care of you.”
That was… oddly sweet. Who knew Dax had it in him? “You really don’t care that you were on camera?”
“Of course I care, but it’s not your fault. They don’t know who I am anyway.”
But the unspoken truth now lay between them. They both knew the media would dig and dig until they got the answers they needed.
Jo needed to do these interviews Melanie was having sent over. She needed to make them forget about the guy she’d been with, about Dax.
She couldn’t reveal who was really the father, not now, but she also couldn’t let Dax’s entire life change because of one decision.
Because he’d been there for her.
* * *
OperationMake the world forget about random dudecommenced.
And she wasn’t in it alone.
Drew called her the day after she found the articles to see how she was doing. His mistake because now he had to help her.
