Page 137 of The Last Second Chance
Joey hazarded a guess that they were in line for Carter’s lunch seeing as how no one else in their right mind would willingly put that crap in their mouth.
Except maybe Jax who had just bitten off half of one of said eggrolls. Well, if he was eating garbage that meant he too was suffering from their latest break up. That made her feel marginally better.
God, he looked good. And the three of them together made quite the picture. Jax in his fitted long sleeve t-shirt. Carter in his flannel. And Beckett sporting his usual crisp button down.
Joey realized Gia and Summer had stopped next to her to admire the picture the Pierces presented.
“Damn,” Summer sighed happily.
“Yeah, we have really excellent taste,” Gia agreed.
“I’m gonna go find Mrs. Penskee,” Joey said, pulling Waffles with her before she could be drawn in by Jax’s sexiness like a tractor beam.
She finally found the woman in front of the stage. Mrs. Penskee was wearing some kind of bellbottom pantsuit decorated with paisley pineapples and a matching headscarf. She was barking orders into a headset.
“I understand that he crawled under the bleachers himself, but that doesn’t mean we can just leave him there…Well, then send a skinny ten-year-old in after him.”
Between her tight, graying curls and her wire-rimmed glasses, she was a shoe-in for Mrs. Claus and always rode shotgun to Ernest Washington’s Santa in the holiday parade.
“Those Higgenroth kids,” Mrs. Penskee sighed. “Little Wahlon crawled under the bleachers and won’t come out. There’s got to be an easier way to raise money than this.”
“Sounds like Wahlon’s parents should have invested in one of those handy child safety tethers,” Joey said.
“Next year we should handcuff all the kids together and give their parents two hours of peace and quiet.”
Joey was fairly certain Mrs. Penskee was joking, but the woman made a “hmm” noise and pulled out a little notebook from her back pocket. “Handcuff the children,” she muttered to herself as she wrote.
“So, where would you like Waffles?” Joey asked, distracting Mrs. Penskee from a potential felony.
“Oh, up on stage, please.”
“Now?”
“We can do our little announcement and ceremonial kickoff now and distract everyone’s attention while someone fishes Wahlon out from under the bleachers.” Mrs. Penskee ushered Joey and Waffles up the stairs onto the raised stage. Joey instantly felt conspicuous and she could tell the exact second that Jax spotted her by the way her nipples came to attention. She saw him making his way through the crowd toward her, a shark scenting blood in the water.
Her pulse ratcheted up another notch as their eyes met. Waffles’ tail thumped happily on the stage.Traitor, Joey thought. Jax climbed the stairs and Joey’s heart was thudding out of her chest. Shit. This wasn’t just anger. This was deep in the bone, ‘til the day I die love. And it hit her like a well-placed hoof to the heart.
She loved Jax. But when in their history had that ever been enough?
“Hey,” he said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“Hey yourself,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Waffles did his seated wiggle so he could lean lovingly against Jax’s leg.
“Hey, buddy,” Jax said, leaning down to ruffle Waffles’ fur. The dog dissolved into a puddle of happiness and flopped over onto his back so Jax could rub his belly. “I missed you and your mom.”
“Hemayhave noticed your absence,” Joey said grudgingly.
“What about you?”
Joey shook her head. “No, it’s been party, party, party for me. Didn’t even realize you weren’t around the past few days.”
His gray eyes warmed at her sarcasm. “Same with me. Too busy partying to miss you.”
“You’re missing me right now,” she shot back.
“Okay, if the rest of you can just fill in behind them,” Mrs. Penskee interrupted with a clipboard and a microphone. She directed Phoebe, Franklin, Carter, Summer, Gia, Beckett, and the kids to line up behind Joey and Waffles.
“Great. That’s perfect. Ladies and gentlemen, if I can have your attention?” She tapped the microphone, which let out an ear splitting shriek. Waffles buried his head in his paws and gave a short, sharp yip.
