“Stop being so nasty to me.” She pouted and batted her eyelashes. Jo and I had grown up together, and last spring after I’d had to much to drink she’d gotten naked and crawled on top of me and I’d made the mistake of screwing her. Ever since, she’d been acting different. I never liked the Hamptons. Like Jax, I had always preferred the Sea Breeze house. But the place in the Hamptons had been handed down to us from my grandfather. It would actually become mine in a couple of years. It was the vacation home Mother used when she wanted to be seen. Sea Breeze was where we always went when Jax needed to be hidden for a while.
Johanna was a part of the Hamptons life we had always known. The fact that she had ended up at the same university as me was my bad luck. She was hard to get rid of. At least nicely.
It was obvious Johanna had grown fond of this idea that we should get married and I should be a politician. It wasn’t happening. For starters, she annoyed me. Her giggling got on my nerves. She kissed like a fish and she was spoiled rotten.
I grabbed my books and headed for the door.
“Wait, what about Saturday night? When are you picking me up?” she asked, slipping her arm in mine.
“I already told you I couldn’t do it. Stop acting like you didn’t hear me,” I said.
She shrugged. “I know you’ll come. You won’t stand me up.” The cheeriness in her voice made her sound as crazy as the giggling did.
When I stepped outside the library, a voice called out from across the lawn. “Jason.”
I shook Johanna’s hold on my arm loose and walked away toward Morris.
“Where did you find the girl with you in the picture that you tweeted this weekend, and where can I get one? Because, dude,” Morris said, “she’s smokin’.” He gave me a nod, his eyes wide with appreciation. Jess did that to all men.
I couldn’t keep from smiling. She was mine, and damned if that didn’t feel good. No one knew the Jess I did, and that felt even better. “Yes, she is,” I agreed. “She’s fucking perfect.”
Morris followed me to my next class, and I got to talk about Jess. It wasn’t until later that evening when Jax called that I remembered the call that Jo had answered. Checking my recent calls, I saw Jess’s name at the time Jo had answered my phone.
“FUCK!” I roared, ignoring the people around me, and dialed Jess’s number. I needed to find some privacy. I had some explaining to do.
I called three times and it kept going to voicemail. I checked the time. She was still at work. There was a chance she didn’t take her phone in with her. I left her a message telling her to call me, then sent a text message saying I was sorry about earlier. If she hadn’t called in two hours, I was calling again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
JESS
He had called three times while I was at work. I had sent it to voice mail each time. His message said for me to call him. So did his text message. Why had it taken him so long to decide he needed to contact me and explain?
I pulled into the driveway and momma’s car was still there. She should have been at work by now. She hardly ever missed work. I climbed out of the truck and headed for the house quickly. My thoughts focused on Momma.
Opening the door, I started to call out for her when I saw her sitting on the sofa. The look on her face told me something was, in fact, wrong. Had Jason’s mother talked to her? Threatened her? No, Momma would be in jail, not sitting on the sofa missing work. She didn’t take shit from anyone.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, dropping my book bag to the painted cement floor and walking over to her. “Are you sick?” I asked, unable to sit down. I needed her to ease my mind. I had a million different scenarios going through my head.
Momma motioned to the chair behind me. “Sit,” she said.
I shook my head. “No. Tell me what’s wrong,” I demanded. The worry and concern had exploded into full-blown fear. This wasn’t right. The last time she had acted like this, my best friend in kindergarten had been hit by a car riding her bike and died. That alone told me something was terribly wrong.
“I got a lot to say, and you standing there ain’t gonna make me talk faster. So sit your ass down,” she said.
“Is someone dead?” I asked, needing to know that Rock, Trisha, and the kids were okay.
She shook her head. “No, ain’t no one dead. Now sit down,” she said, pointing to the chair again.
I noticed that the ever-present cigarette in her hand was missing. Had she lost her job? Surely not. They loved her there.
“I didn’t have no errands to run today. I had a doctor’s appointment,” she said, then cleared her throat. “It was my fifth one this month. About six weeks ago I noticed a lump in my breast when taking a shower. It was hard to feel since I have the implants, so it was pretty big when I noticed it. I got me an appointment and went in, and they had to run some tests. Today they got back the final results, that it is breast cancer, and ’cause it’s been there awhile it’s spread some. They’re gonna need to do a mastectomy, and I’ll need chemo treatments.”