Page 24 of The Devil in Blue Jeans
The clearing of someone’s throat grabbed Charly’s attention. She turned her head, meeting the jerk who was barely holding their gazes. “It looks like we won’t be needing those beers after all,” he said while placing four twenty-dollar bills on the bar counter. “This will cover those. Keep the change.”
Charly watched as the jerk and his friends left through the front door.
Eli rose and put on his cowboy hat, but his eyes were fixed entirely on Willow as he tipped his hat and then followed the men outside.
“You know,” Charly said to Willow and Aubrey once the door was shut behind him. “I take back my earlier statement.”
“What statement?” Aubrey said.
Charly smiled. “That I hate all cowboys. I don’t hateallof them.”
Willow started at the closed door. “Yeah, me neither.”
Even a hurricane couldn’t wake Jaxon, his father used to say. He woke the morning after what he thought was a spectacular night, however, to an annoyingly bright sun, a rash of mosquito bites on his arm and Charly sneaking out on him, which explained why he hadn’t felt her leave his arms.
Annoyance dug its nails into him. He reached for his cell phone, but instead of calling her, he composed a text:Beautiful mornin’, minus the part where I woke up and you weren’t in my arms.
He waited ten minutes before he admitted to himself that she ghosted him. Despite his declining mood, he cleared off the back deck before showering and getting dressed for the day. Though thoughts of Charly didn’t stray far from his mind as he worked through training two horses, updating paperwork in his office and checking in with the cowboys at the ranch. By nightfall there still wasn’t any word from Charly so his mood was darker than when he’d awoken.
Jaxon grabbed three beers from the fridge before returning to the porch, where his friends Eli and Gunner were waiting for him. Just as he was about to step outside, he noticed Lee’s truck driving up the driveway.
“What’s Lee doing here?” Gunner asked as Jaxon handed him a beer. He shrugged and gave one to Eli too.
By the time he set his beer down on the wooden planks of the porch, Lee parked beside the porch and Jaxon spotted Isabella in the back seat. He bounded down the stairs just as she opened her car door.
“You already made it out of the hospital?” Jaxon asked, swinging open her door.
She nodded, getting out of the car as Lee did on the other side.
“We’re driving home, but I wanted to make sure we came by.”
Jaxon offered her his arm for support, and she stepped closer giving him a hug.
“I can’t thank you enough for what you did,” she said, squeezing him tight. “I thought Lee was going to pass out.”
He laughed quietly, giving her one last squeeze before pulling away. “You’re welcome. I’m glad he didn’t faint. That I have no experience with.”
Isabella smiled, looking exhausted yet overjoyed at the same time.
“Here’s our Clementine,” Lee beamed, eyes aglow with pride. “Who we thought was going to be a Corey.”
He offered the baby to Jaxon, and Jaxon cradled the little one in his arms. She had dark hair just like her mom. “She’s adorable.”
“Thanks! We’re totally smitten,” Isabella replied.
Jaxon stared down at the sleeping baby, and he wondered if this would have been his life had he not thought he had all the time in the world in his younger years or devoted so much energy to getting his bar running. It always felt like his father would live forever, and while he was happy living freely in his youth, he didn’t look to the future much back then.
A sharp pang of sadness hit him in the chest. His father should have experienced being a grandfather. He would have been a great one. Jaxon attempted a smile and glanced up at Lee and Isabella, their arms around each other while they gazed adoringly at their child.
Jaxon suddenly felt...alone.
He had Gunner and Eli, but they weren’this. Chosen family, yes, but not something that belonged only to him.
“Thank you for bringing her by,” he finally said as he returned the baby to Lee. “I’m glad to see you’re both well and on your way home.”
Lee headed around the truck, returning the baby to the car seat, while Jaxon helped Isabella back into the car.
She fastened her seat belt and then grinned at him. “Did you ever think that after we broke up, you’d be delivering my baby on the side of the road?”
