Eternal Bond : (The Cursed Series, Book 3) Page 28

  “What do you love?” he asked. “What is it you couldn’t imagine living without?”

  Trent. But I didn’t say that because it would unnecessarily hurt Jax’s feelings. Instead, I said, “I’m not sure I’ve figured that out yet. I mean, I’ve always wanted to see the world, so maybe I could be a tour guide.”

  Jax scrunched up his face and shook his head. “That doesn’t suit you.”

  “It doesn’t?”

  “No. You love your family too much to be away from them like that,” he said.

  He stated it as a widely known fact, like he knew me better than I knew myself. After the momentary shock wore off, I realized he was right.

  “What else?” he asked.

  “I love kids. I could be a teacher. Or maybe work in a daycare,” I said.

  If I never had kids of my own, doing work like this would give me the chance to at least be around children. It wasn’t the same, but it would suffice.

  “I could see you as a teacher,” he said, nodding. “But younger kids. Kindergarten maybe.”

  “Preschool,” I said and smiled.

  “Nope. You’re fading.” He waved his finger around my face and head. “The idea doesn’t excite you.”

  Sighing, I grumbled under my breath. “You really need to stop doing that.” I crossed my arms.

  Jax chuckled. “Then stop trying to lie.”

  The waitress showed up with our food, and my stomach rumbled. She set a plate of French toast in front of me along with a small container of real maple syrup. She then set a plate of fried chicken strips and fries in front of Jax.

  “Anything else I can get you two?” she asked.

  “I’m all set,” I said, glancing at Jax.

  “Me, too. Thanks,” he said, flashing her a smile.

  Blushing, the waitress hurried off, and I shook my head. Both him and Trent had that effect on women everywhere they went. It was unsettling.

  I drowned my French toast in syrup and took a large bite. Closing my eyes, I groaned; it was so good. Not quite as good as Jax’s, but it was close. Not that I’d tell him that. His ego was big enough already.

  “I can’t believe the culinary snob ordered chicken fingers.” I stuck my tongue out him.

  He laughed. “What can I say? It’s a guilty pleasure.” He swirled a piece of chicken in ranch dressing and popped it into his mouth. Chewing and swallowing, he said, “These are actually pretty good. I thought they’d be too dry.”

  We ate in comfortable silence—it was always like that with Jax, though; we could share a meal and not have to fill it with small talk. There was never anything awkward about it.

  Finishing the last bite of my French toast, I pushed my plate away and took a drink of my chocolate milk. For the first time since Trent and I broke up, I’d managed to eat and not immediately feel sick afterward.

  “So.” Jax wiped his hands on his napkin and pushed his plate away. “What do you want to do next?”

  I shrugged. “There’s really not much to do around here, is there?”

  “Not really.” He waved our waitress over and asked for the bill.

  The bell above the door jingled, and I glanced up. Gina and Tonya walked in, and their gazes met mine. Fear glued me to the chair, and my eyes widened.

  It wasn’t surprising that they’d shown up—almost the entire high school was here—but being caught with Jax wasn’t good. And I knew they’d end up telling Ellie, who would probably tell Abby, who would then most definitely tell Whitney.

  “What’s wrong?” Jax twisted in his seat to see what I was staring at; then he turned back to face me. “Looks like your friends are here.”

  “Yeah,” I croaked around the lump in my throat.

  “Chloe!” Gina waved and rushed over to our table, Tonya right behind her. “Hey, what’re you doing here?” And then she noticed Jax. “Oh.” Her eyes were as large as my now empty plate. “I didn’t realize…”

  “We’re just friends,” I blurted.

  “Right,” Gina said, but from her tone it was clear she didn’t believe me.

  “Here’s your check.” The waitress handed the slip to Jax. “You two have a good night.” And then she disappeared into the crowded restaurant—if only I could disappear, too.

  “I’ll go pay this and meet you at the car,” Jax said, standing. His gaze lingered on me a moment too long, and then he was gone.

  I blew out a breath.

  Gina slid into Jax’s empty seat. “What are you doing with him?” she hissed under her breath. “You and Trent literally broke up like a week ago, and now you’re out with his brother?”

  “Yeah, Chloe,” Tonya said with a hint of sympathy. “This doesn’t look good.”

  “I know, but trust me. It’s not what you think.” My gaze darted helplessly between them. “Trent left town, and I was just trying to figure out why. And if he’s coming back.” Tears clogged my throat. “That’s all. I swear.”

  They had to believe me. I wasn’t completely lying. Gina and Tonya shared a look I couldn’t decipher, and my stomach twisted; all the food I’d just eaten threatened to come back up.

  “I’m sorry Trent left,” Gina said, and she sounded sincere.

  “Yeah, me too.” Tonya frowned.

  “But maybe don’t be hanging out with his brother?” Gina scrunched up her face. “Especially if you want to get back together with Trent.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I sighed.

  They were right about that, but Trent wasn’t here, and even if he was, he knew a lot more than they did about what was really going on.

  I stood and wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. “Could you two not tell anyone about this?” I asked.

  “Yeah, of course we won’t,” Tonya said.

  “Thanks.” I walked away, but I’d barely made it more than a few steps when I heard Gina say, “I don’t believe her, do you?”

  Ugh. If they didn’t believe me, no one else would, either. Was I really that bad of a liar? The knot in my stomach tightened, making every step hurt. I pushed out the door and found Jax standing near his car, one hand tucked into his pocket, the other resting on the roof of the car.

  “Let’s go,” I said without looking at him.

  He was in front of me before I could make it to the passenger door. “I heard what happened in there.”

  “Of course you did.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Are you really worried about what they think?” He narrowed his eyes, and they darkened a shade. “Are you that embarrassed to be seen out with me?”

  “What? No.”

  Jax was a good guy, and I had a feeling a large part of Gina’s concern was nothing more than jealousy. Abby had said Gina still talked about her kiss with Jax. Maybe Gina hoped something more would happen between her and Jax.

  “But they’re right. It doesn’t look good that I’m out with you when less than a week ago I was with Trent,” I said.

  “Who cares? It’s no one’s business what you do.”

  I crossed my arms. “This is a small town. People talk.”

  “Oh, so that’s what this is about? You’re worried people will assume you and I are together? Or are you more worried about Trent finding out you’re spending time with me?” He crossed his arms, too, mirroring my stance.

  “He already doesn’t trust me around you,” I half whispered, half shouted.

  Jax shook his head, defeat and frustration falling from him in waves. “You can’t keep doing this, Chloe.”

  “Doing what?” I moved to the rear of the car and leaned against the trunk.

  It didn’t offer a ton of privacy from the people inside the diner, but it gave me enough so I didn’t feel like I was on display. Jax rounded the car and stood next to me, close enough that our shoulders touched. A shiver wiggled down my spine.

  “When Trent is around, you avoid me like you can’t stand the sight of me. But when he’s not?” He sliced a look in my direction. “You can’t seem to stay away from me.”

&nbs
p; “I don’t do that,” I said defensively.

  His only response was a raised brow.

  Hanging my head, I kicked at pebbles on the ground. “What do you want me to say, Jax? You know I love Trent, but I’m drawn to you. It’s not like there’s an instruction manual laying around for how to deal with something like this.”

  “I know.” He sighed. “C’mon.” He pushed off the car and dug his keys from his pocket.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m going to teach you how to lie.” He grinned.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE:

  Teach Me to Lie

  “YOU’RE GOING TO TEACH ME TO lie?” I asked, positive I’d misheard him.

  “Yup.” He opened the passenger door and nodded for me to get in.

  I did and hooked my seat belt. There were so many questions racing through my mind, but I had no idea where to even start. Why was he going to teach me to lie? And why was I happy about it? I hated lying.

  Jax slid in behind the wheel, started the engine, and then pulled onto the road. He drove for about fifteen minutes before pulling off onto what looked like a dead end street. Sure enough, the road abruptly stopped.

  I scrambled out of the car, eager to see what was over the cliff. The far edge of town stretched below me, the buildings nothing more than tiny pinpoints against the vast greenery.

  “It’s mostly quiet up here,” Jax said, coming to a stop next to me. “Sometimes, at night, teens will come up here to… you know.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a teasing grin.

  “This view is amazing.”

  “Yes, there’s that, too. Peaceful and pretty,” he teased.

  I playfully smacked his arm, the feel of his skin beneath my hand sending a tremor through my body. Touching him in any capacity was a horrible idea, and I needed to remember that.

  “Ready to learn how to lie?” he asked.

  “Yeah, so, why are we doing this?” I glanced at him.

  His face was relaxed, but there was a deep torment hiding behind his eyes—a torment I was positive I’d caused. Was I destined to hurt everyone I cared about?

  “It’s a useful life skill to have,” he said, mocking Mr. Gordon’s tone.

  I laughed. “Okay, but seriously. Why are you teaching me to lie?”

  “Because there will come a point in your life when you need to tell a convincing lie. Your life could quite literally depend on it. And, well, you’re terrible at it, so someone needs to teach you how it’s done.” He shrugged, but the expression on his face told me all I needed to know—he loved that it was him who got to teach me.

  I hopped up to sit on the hood of his car. “All right, show me how.”

  “Every person who lies has a tell, something they do that gives them away, and most of the time, they don’t even know they’re doing it. It’s automatic,” he explained and sat beside me on the hood.

  “What’s my tell?”

  “Your voice drops. Not a lot, but it does. And you never look at the person you’re lying to until after you’ve spoken the lie,” he said.

  “No, I don’t,” I said, and then immediately noticed how my voice dropped an octave toward the end. Frowning, I leaned back, propping myself on my hands. “Okay, so, if these tells are automatic and people don’t even realize they’re doing them, how do you stop?”

  “You have to learn to be conscious of them.” He leaned back, too, and the muscles in his arms bulged with the effort of supporting his weight.

  My fingers itched to run down the length of his arm, to feel his soft skin as I traced each and every muscle. I cleared my throat and forced myself to focus on the reason we were here, which was not to fantasize about touching him.

  “How am I supposed to do that?” I asked.

  “I’m going to ask you questions that I know the answers to, and I want you to lie to me, okay?”

  I nodded and sat up straight, tucking my legs in front of me so I was cross-legged.

  “What’s your name?” he said.

  “Abby.” I looked over at him.

  “See? You didn’t look at me until after you lied.” He sat up and angled his body toward me. “Focus. Think about what your body’s doing, not just about what you’re saying.”

  I nodded again. “Ask me something else.” I was determined to prove that I could tell a convincing lie, not just for his sake, but mine, too.

  “Where do you live?”

  I hesitated, my mind suddenly blank. “Um… Florida,” I said and then cringed.

  He laughed. “That was bad even for you.”

  “I wasn’t expecting that question.”

  “Exactly. Typically, when people lie, it’s because they’ve been put on the spot, and so they have to think quick. All right. Let’s try something else.” He shifted and tucked one long leg under him, the other rested on the car’s front bumper. “Tell me a lie. About anything.”

  “Okay.” I took a deep breath, wracking my mind for something to say. And then a thought struck me. “Wait. You have a really unfair advantage. You can just read my aura and know if I’m lying or not.”

  His lips twitched with an almost smile, and his eyes brightened—and it was that look right there that made my heart race and made the urges almost too strong to resist. This was the Jax I’d gotten to know during all those afternoons at the bookstore, all those mornings in the cabin, and all those long days trapped in that room. The funny, caring Jax who loved me, who wouldn’t ever let anything happen to me, who was never afraid to be brutally honest with me.

  “I miss you,” I whispered, my voice an even tone as I maintained eye contact with him. “I miss the way we used to talk, how you made me laugh even though we were in a really crappy situation.”

  Jax was silent a moment. “I told you to tell me a lie.”

  “Sorry.” Looking down, I picked at my fingernails.

  I shouldn’t have said that to him, not when we both knew they were empty words, but something had possessed me to be as honest with him as he’d always been with me. For reasons I didn’t understand and couldn’t explain, it was important to me that he knew I cared, that I hated how I was hurting him.

  “Sometimes, I wish we were still Ivy’s prisoners,” I said.

  “You can’t be serious,” he said, his tone rising with disbelief.

  I grinned. “Looks I can tell a lie.”

  “Okay, that was unfair.” He waved his finger at me, but there was a proud smile pulling at his mouth. “You can’t throw me off by saying you miss me and then hit me with a lie like that.”

  I laughed. “Why not? You never said I couldn’t do that. And you can’t just make up rules as we go.”

  “I’m the teacher. I can do whatever I want.” He winked, and heat rushed up my neck and over my face. “Okay, try that again.”

  “I’ve been thinking about moving back to California to live with my dad.”

  The muscle is Jax’s temple throbbed, and his jaw clenched tightly. “Why?”

  “Things were simpler there.” I twisted my shoelace around my finger. “I was kind of happy.”

  “No, you weren’t,” he said with a hard shake of his head. “But nice job with that lie.”

  With a frustrated sigh, I slid off the hood of the car and wandered toward the cliff so I could see the world moving on below me. “It wasn’t a lie, Jax. For a while, before I got my memories back, before you told me I knew you, I was happy.”

  “Because of Simon?”

  I jumped at how close his voice suddenly was and placed my hand over my racing heart. “He was part of it,” I admitted. “So were you. I looked forward to the days I’d tutor you, to just talking to you and hanging out.” I paused. “And why do you and Trent hate Simon so much? He was the only person in that school who was ever nice to me.”

  “Yeah, because he wanted to get in your—”

  Whirling on Jax, I held my hand up to silence him. “Don’t,” I warned. “It was never like that with Simon. Ever.”

  “
Hey, okay.” Jax held his hands up in a show of surrender. “Sorry.”

  I shoved my hands into my pockets, an unwanted sadness settling over me. Like everyone else in my life, I’d hurt Simon, and I never got the chance to make it up to him, or even properly apologize. If I went to visit Dad for Christmas, I’d make it a point to see Simon. Hopefully, we could try to remain friends.

  “There’s nothing wrong with Simon,” Jax said after a moment. “He’s actually a good guy. Pure. But Trent and I didn’t like how close you’d gotten to him. I’m sure I don’t need to spell out why.”

  “No,” I said, wishing I’d never brought this up.

  Moving back to California would crush Aunt Beth, and I wouldn’t do that to her; I couldn’t, not after everything she’d done for me. And so what if Trent and I weren’t together. Yes, it hurt, almost as much as my mother’s death had hurt, but I’d survive.

  “Try again.” Jax nodded at me.

  “I agreed to go to the Fall Ball with Isach because I’m going to ask him for a favor.” I licked my lips. “I’m going to beg him to let me change.”

  Jax’s eyes widened, then narrowed.

  I fought to keep my face expressionless, and I crossed my arms, brows raised, waiting for him to determine if I was lying. A second later, his gaze darted quickly above my head, then back to my face.

  His lips curved into a smile. “You’re lying.”

  “And you totally just cheated!” I shouted, smacking his chest. “You read my aura.”

  “No, I didn’t.” But he couldn’t even say the words without laughing.

  “Yes, you did. You have a tell, too, y’know? Your eyes always dart above my head right before you tell me what color I am, and they did it just now. You cheated!” I laughed.

  “I guess you just passed the class. Good job.” He clapped.

  Rolling my eyes, I shook my head, but the smile on my face wasn’t going anywhere. “Thanks for teaching me to be a liar. I’m sure it will come in very handy when I don’t want you to know things.”

  “Oh, no.” He laughed. “You’re not allowed to use this new skill on me.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” I turned back to admire the view over the edge of the cliff. “You’ll just keep cheating by reading my aura anyway.” I shrugged.