The way he presents himself oozes authority and power and I can’t help but be a little fearful. This time he’s the first to pull me into a hug and swing me around, he laughs as I squeal. He puts me down and I can see everyone else’s faces look surprised at what he just did. From the way Jax talked about his father, I thought he was an uptight, strict emotionless zombie but he seems fine to me.
His mom is next to hug me, she also is so beautiful but she has a tanner skin, she’s tall with long dark wavy hair.
She whispers in my ear, “I’m thrilled to finally meet you; Jackson has told me all about you. My boy is quite obsessed with you my dear and I can see why, you are absolutely stunning!” she beams.
“Yes it’s good to finally meet you Alexia, you are Jackson and his friends talk about so we had to meet you! I’m very pleased that we could put a face to the name now.” Frankie smiles at me as Jax comes up behind me.
“Dad please doesn’t embarrass us.” he teases giving me a quick hug.
“I’m very happy to meet everyone as well. I don’t know why they were hiding me from you, you aren’t embarrassing at all! Jax, you wana see embarrassing? Come live with me for a while!” I smile and they laugh as if they know what I’m talking about.
“Lexi you can keep him, take him with you, I beg!” his mom jokes and I laugh and pat his arm.
“You look beautiful baby...” he whispers and kisses my cheek as we walk to the table and sit down. I smile at him and thank him, I notice his mom and dad looking at me with big smiles on their faces obviously they witnessed and heard what Jax said.
“Damn! Finally I get to you!” Drake dramatically sighs as if he’s out of breath and sits in the chair next to me.
“You had a crowd around you and I couldn’t make my way to the front, even Donny said hello before me!”
Just then Donavon comes running to me and lifts himself onto my lap and puts his arms around my neck and kisses my cheek.
“MY girlfwend Dwakey, MINE!” Donavon yells at Drake next to me. I can’t hold in my laughter as he says this and apparently neither can the rest of the table as they all erupt laughing hard.
Jax is hunched over the table with tears falling from his eyes he’s laughing so much.
“How about we share her Donny?” Drake asks his brother in a softer voice.
“Hey! Don’t I get a say in this?” I ask Drake. “There’s only one boy I want! And that’s you!” I poke Donavon’s tummy and he giggles, I tickle him then let him go eat his dinner.
“Drake your brother is adorable.” I say as we eat our dinner. “Dah…he’s related to me! Of course he’s cute.” Drake chuckles.
The parents make small talk with me about how I like “their” town and how I’m enjoying school. It reminds me of Alex and Johnny’s pack, it’s as if they are one big happy family. I learn that Ronny’s mother was killed in an accident when she was still a baby and her father preferred to be single so he never remarried. Everyone is quite close and friendly, apart from Jax with his father, there was some tension and I don’t know if any of the others noticed this.
“Jax, how’s things going at school? You doing better in your classes? I don’t see you that often so thought I’d ask while you’re around.” Frankie asks Jax, I knew Jax was battling with Mathematics but he seemed fine in his other classes that we shared. I wasn’t aware it was such a big issue that it had to be brought up in front of everyone during dinner as if he was trying to belittle Jax.
I see Jax’s shoulders slump in the corner of my eye as if in defeat, “I’m passing most of my classes, I’m still battling with math’s…” he trails off as if he doesn’t want anyone to hear him announce this.
“Make sure you sort that shit out! You WILL pass do you hear me Jackson?” Frankie’s voice booms over the chatter of the table and I feel Jax tense next to me and nod. I didn’t understand why his father is acting this way trying to embarrass him like that in front of everyone, I had to do something and make him feel better.
I put my hand gently on top of his leg under the table, I feel his body relax, then he slips his hand under threading his fingers with mine.
“Jax, I’ll help you with your math’s okay?” I whisper so only he can hear me, he looks at me and smiles and mouths thank you.
I look back to see Jax’s mother smiling at me, she should’ve said something to her husband instead of sitting there and letting him humiliate her son.
“Jackson why don’t you invite Alexia over to our house this weekend and all of you can enjoy the new theatre we built? Maybe put it to use?” Frankie says as if trying to break the tension at the table and put Jax in a better mood, the whole table goes quiet and they stare at him in confusion. Maybe they don’t want me at their house…