Page 40 of The Last Second Chance
If he was going to be someone, something, it would have to be beyond this cozy community where history and blood defined you to everyone. If he didn’t leave, he’d always be known as the kid who replaced the principal’s car with a hay wagon on the last day of school. Or the ninth grader caught ditching school to fish and drink pilfered beer with a leggy junior in daisy dukes and an El Camino.
Or the fuck-up who almost killed Joey Greer.
When he tallied up his sins, sometimes he wasn’t sure he made the right call coming home.
His phone vibrated at his elbow and he opened a text from Carter. A close-up of Clementine’s demonic goat face filled his screen.
Your girlfriend misses you.
Jax’s response was succinct.
Asshole.
But he grinnedas he tossed his phone back on the desk.Maybe it wasn’t so bad to be home,he thought. Being here to see his brothers settle into married life? Watching his mother shed the grief she’d carried since his father’s death? It was good for the soul.
But waking up in the bed that he’d spent the majority of his life fantasizing about Joey Greer was an entirely different story.
It was time to stop dreaming. He wasn’t going to think about what would happen if his plan failed. Just like with a script. He’d give it his all, do his best. And if Joey never forgave him…well, that wasn’t going to happen, so he wasn’t going to waste any energy on that possibility.
The screen of his phone lit up again. He yanked out the ear buds and with them the 80s monster ballad that had cycled to the top of the playlist on his laptop.
“Nero’s Pizza. You want anchovies on that?” he answered in the thickest Jersey accent he could muster.
“Very funny, favorite son of mine.” His mother’s voice carried a thread of easy affection that had the uncanny ability to untie his knots.
“I bet you say that to all your sons,” he teased.
“Only the handsome ones.”
Jax grinned and shook his head. “You’re buttering me up for something.”
“You’re not only devastatingly handsome, you’re also incredibly astute,” Phoebe cooed, laying it on thick.
Staring out into the dark of a winter evening, Jax could imagine his mother in his mind’s eye pushing her glasses up her nose, an open book in her lap. “Uh-huh. How about you just come out and say what you have to say and we’ll save the compliments for later?”
“Okay, so it’s two things. First thing is, can you change the oil in Franklin’s SUV? The garage is all booked up and I don’t want him to forget about it again.”
“Sure—”
“And since you’re saying yes to things, would you mind being the guest of honor at the Blue Moon Movie Club tomorrow night?”
“Mom—”
“We’re screeningAwake in the Night, which my deeply talented and model-worthy son wrote,” Phoebe plowed on. “So it would only be the best thing ever if you were our guest of honor so Frieda Blevins will stop gabbing about her niece taking a selfie with that damn vampire actor.”
“Mom—”
“I mean seriously, it was a selfie in a bar. They weren’t on a date, they weren’t working on a movie together, she just stood in front of his table and made duck lips. Now, you actually write movies and you won’t have to do a thing. Just show up and smile. Maybe wave. Say you’ll do it, please?”
Jax waited for a beat to make sure her word volcano was done erupting. The last thing he needed to add to his To Do list was a night out with his mother’s friends so they could nitpick a movie—and potentially him—to death.
“Mother?”
“Jackson?”
“No.”
“I refuse to accept that answer. And let me tell you why…”
