Page 8 of The Last Second Chance
Jax sighed with relief. Franklin, Blue Moon’s most successful restaurateur, had volunteered to help the brothers set up for the opening. And thank God for that because Jax was just starting to realize that they were dangerously close to being in over their heads.
“Morning,” Franklin greeted him from the center of the chaos.
“Morning. I thought you’d take a few hours off this morning to recover from the festivities last night.” Not only had he walked Gia down the aisle, but Franklin also sang a convincing Sinatra tune with Fran’s band.
“I’ve been thrown out of my own house,” he lamented with a chuckle, signing the delivery slip. “Eva and Emma commandeered Phoebe and the kids.”
“Poor Evan,” Jax said, thinking of Gia’s twelve-year-old son trapped in a house full of women. “I’ll have Beckett swing by and pick him up before he comes in this afternoon.”
“My grandson will be eternally grateful.”
“Yeah, especially if I let him hang out with Joey for a while today,” Jax said, whipping out his phone and firing off a quick text to Beckett.
Franklin chuckled. “He’s got good taste. Seems like you do, too.”
“All of us Pierce men do,” Jax said evasively.
“Do what?” his older brother Carter said strolling through the downstairs door.
“Have good taste in women,” Franklin grinned.
Carter lit up as he always did at the thought of his wife. “You know, I seem to recall Jax and Joey disappearing from the reception right around the same time,” he said stroking his beard.
Franklin’s eyes sparkled. “That’s right. The photographer was looking for you two for the countdown to midnight.”
Jax looked at his feet. He sure as hell wasn’t about to give his family any ammunition over him and Joey, not when he finally felt like he had a shot.
“What are you doing here so early?” Jax asked Carter, ignoring his brother and Franklin’s speculation. “Shouldn’t you be hovering over Summer for launch day?”
Carter shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “She kicked me out. Said I was driving her nuts. She’s being eerily calm.”
The brothers knew from experience that a calm Summer was a dangerous Summer. It meant she was burying all her stress and pretending everything was just fine. Jax decided then and there that he’d swing by Summer’s office a little later in the morning to see for himself how close to the deep end his sister-in-law was.
“We still on for the celebratory dinner tonight?” he asked Carter.
“Yeah. I was thinking maybe we should have it here? Kind of a family-only grand opening.”
Jax nodded. “I like it.”
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After helpingwith the feeding and turning out the horses, Joey was feeling marginally better. Not good enough to tackle the thirty pounds of paperwork that had piled up while she helped Gia and Summer wrangle wedding plans—did anyone really care what color the napkins were on the damn table? You were just going to smear food on them anyway. So as long asstorm cloud grayabsorbed cake the same waypewterdid Joey couldn’t understand the fuss.
She decided to pay Summer a visit to see how the launch was going. Joey found her friend in her office on the second floor of the farm’s smaller barn. Clad in leggings and a thick sweater, she was obsessively hitting refresh on her screen.
“Load, damn you!” Summer yanked her blonde hair back into a low ponytail with a frown.
“I was going to ask how the launch is going, but judging from your angry face, it sucks and you’re going to have to find a day job.”
Summer snorted. “I’m just trying to look at the web traffic stats and the idiotic, moronic, freakishly perverse page won’t load.”
“I’m glad to see you’re handling stress so well during your pregnancy,” Joey quipped.
Summer shoved back in her chair and took a deep breath. “Fine. We’ll try patience and see where that gets us. Now, distract me from my obsession.”
“You can take me to pick up my truck this afternoon,” Joey offered.
Summer came out of her chair awfully fast for a woman nearly six months pregnant with twins. “Did you go home with someone? Oh, my God! Did you go home with Jax?” She paused and Joey could see her wheels turning. “Wait, Jax was home last night. Did you go home with someone who isn’t Jax?”
