Page 6 of What Happens In Vegas: Jessa & Jaxon
“Jaxon!” Her voice cuts through the howling wind. “You’re stalking me now?”
“Me? Never,” I reply easily, adjusting my grip on the paper bags already dampening from the heavy, wet flakes.
“What are you doing here?”
She pulls her light, inadequate spring jacket tighter around herself and shivers visibly, snowflakes clinging to her eyelashes and melting on her cheeks.
God help me, I want to kiss her just to shut her up.
“Well, I did try calling,” I explain, my breath forming clouds between us, “but I think your phone doesn’t work. I’m here to do a welfare check and to drop off a new device.”
JJ rolls her eyes, her brown skin flushed and her small button nose tinged pink from the cold. A particularly strong gust of wind whips her coils across her face, and she impatiently tucks them back. She glances down at the bags in my hands and makes a move to grab them. I take a step back.
“Give me my bags.” Her voice rises to compete with the wind. “I’m perfectly capable of carrying them.”
She lunges, her fingers latching onto the bag with a death grip, her breath coming out in short, frustrated puffs.
I don’t budge. Of course she fights me on this—she fights me on everything.
“Really, JJ?” My voice is calm, amused, but inside I’m aching to pin her against the nearest surface and bury myself inside her.
She glares up at me, breathless, stunningly furious.
“Let go,” she demands.
I take a step closer, forcing her to tilt her chin higher to keep glaring at me.
“No.”
She exhales, muttering something under her breath that sounds a lot like “egotistical jackass.”
“Careful, wife. That almost sounded affectionate.”
She rolls her eyes again, angry but smart enough not to argue further in the worsening weather. Snow is piling up against the parked cars, unusual drifts forming in the corner of the lot.
She closes her trunk with force, but the sound is muffled by the thickening snowfall. After retrieving her purse and computer bag from the back seat, she locks her car with a beep.
Before I can take a step, a sickening crack rips through the air. A split second later, an explosion of snapping wood and crushing metal.
JJ jerks back, eyes wide. I turn in time to see a massive pine tree atop my brand new car, crushing the hood.
“Holy shit!”
“Your car,” JJ breathes.
A chill that has nothing to do with the weather runs through me. If I’d still been sitting in the car waiting for her, I’d be dead right now. The tree had completely flattened the front half of the vehicle.
Fate has a strange way of intervening. If JJ had taken my calls, I wouldn’t be here. If I hadn’t gotten out to help her with the groceries...
“Looks like I’m not going anywhere for a while,” I say, keeping my voice even.
“Perfect,” JJ’s voice comes through the gloom, dripping with sarcasm. “Just perfect.”
Without another word, she turns and marches toward the building’s entrance, her boots leaving distinct impressions in the fresh snow. I follow steadily behind her, grocery bags secure in my grip, watching as she punches the elevator button with unnecessary force.
“So, Mrs. Jamison, why have you been ignoring my calls?” I ask as we step into the elevator.
The elevator doors slide shut with a soft ping, sealing us inside. The space feels smaller than it should, the scent of jasmine and stubbornness filling the air.
