It was only after he entered the gazebo and took a seat directly across from me without so much a word to me did I notice another figure coming through the door. It was a woman, and a very pretty one at that. She was tall, dressed in black tights and a long, tight grey knit sweater that stopped just below her bum, amply hugging every soft curve. She was pulling out her ponytail, and sorting through her long beautiful blonde hair as she took a seat next to Jaxon. She smiled a dazzling white teethed smile at me, and I attempted a rather pathetic upwards move of my lips that most likely had me looking more constipated than happy.
“Did you seriously have to invite the rest?” I heard Lucinda groan.
“You told me to,” Jaxon replied casually. “Said there was a big dinner tonight, and yet I don’t smell that turkey roast you promised coming from the house.”
“Well, I kind of got side tracked if you hadn’t noticed.” Lucinda openly gestured to me.
“We can just order pizza then or something,” the blonde bombshell piped in.
“Yeah, alright, you’ve got the number in your phone, Jaxon. Go at it, then.” When she gave him an expectant look, I heard the sound of his phone dialling out the number.
Loud ruckus of men came through the door amidst his large order of pizza. There were three men, and one other woman, but she wasn’t nearly as pretty as Jaxon’s girl. Oh, God. Did I seriously just label her as his girl? My stomach tightened, and the numbness I’d been happy to wear was slowly fading away.
I looked down at the tray in front of me, feeling awkward and out of place. The others flooded in through the gazebo and took their seats. One guy took the seat to the side of Jaxon and me, and I attempted another weak smile at him. He was large too, and had on a leather jacket with the word “Ghouls” in white thick ink etched on it. Quickly looking around at the other two men I noticed they too wore the same leather black jackets. They weren’t as big as this guy, though.
I refused for the longest time to look in the direction ahead of me. When everyone was seated and chatting up a storm, I was silently listening in and praying for time to pass so I could get the fuck out of there.
“This is my darling daughter I never had,” Lucinda suddenly announced to them, and they fell silent to listen to her. Man, I hated introductions. “She’ll be in Gosnells for a little while. Her name’s Sara.”
“Hey Sara,” they all piped in. By all I’m obviously excluding Jaxon of course.
“Hey,” I weakly responded, looking up at each of them.
“We’ve got Ashley over here with the red flaming hair and her partner Bugs – don’t ask me why they call him that.”
“Because I like bugs!” he cackled.
Lucinda chuckled at his remark and moved on from the thin built blonde haired man who had scary tattoos of spiders crawling up his neck. His girlfriend Ashley was seated beside Jaxon’s girl, and Bugs was on the end. “On your side we have Kurt and on my side we have Josh.”
Kurt and Josh looked very much alike. Same bronze hair, big brown eyes, and heart shaped face. You could tell from a mile away they were brothers, except Kurt was less built than his giant brother Josh.
“And over here,” Lucinda gestured to the blonde tanned beauty beside the man I will never have again, and paused for a second, knitting her brows together in thought. “We have… Cindy, was it?”
I caught the tone in her voice that this woman wouldn’t know to catch. Jaxon caught it too and rolled his eyes. It was a condescending tone filled with mockery, yet it came out all question-like with a tiny hitch at the end that gave it away.
“Christy,” the girl corrected with an easy smile. She brightly looked over at me and extended her hand over the table. “Nice to meet you, Sara.”
I awkwardly bent over the table and took her warm and soft French manicured hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you too,” I replied. I tried not to look at Jaxon, but my eyes deceived me. He was still glaring at me, oozing a kind of hate that, if it had any chemical effect in the air, I’d have choked on it.
Jaxon looked away from me and his hand extended out and held Christy’s hand. His long fingers entwined through hers, tightly grasping them as he ran his thumb over her knuckles. She smiled widely, looking at him with even brighter green eyes. He caught her look and broke into a lopsided smile that, I swear, could have melted any girl’s panties off.
It did horrible things to my heart.
I stood up from the table. “I forgot my phone in the car,” I told Lucinda as I made my way out. I felt her eyes on me before I disappeared into the house and then back out front to my car. I opened the door and was half tempted to start the car and leave, never ever to return again. Only I couldn’t do that. I’d been cruel before, but I was a different person now.
I grabbed my purse and pulled out my phone. I was miserable, and needed to turn to the only person who could make it better right now.
I texted Lexi. He’s here.
She would know what I meant.
Opening my blush case, I looked in the mirror and winced. I looked terrible. The one day I decide to be a lazy mess has to be the day I see my ex-boyfriend in front of his gorgeous upgrade, I thought with disdain.
After a quick breather to calm my rattled nerves, I returned and took my seat back down. Josh had moved his chair to the other side so he could sit and converse with Bugs and Ashley. There were three different conversations taking place, so I turned in Lucinda’s direction and listened in on the one was she was participating in. Ten minutes later the pizza delivery man had arrived. Plates were handed out, and like auto pilot I smiled, grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza and nibbled away on it. I still hadn’t digested my damn Chinese food, and I was feeling it really bad in my gut, but the pizza smelled too good to pass.
The sun dipped down below the horizon, and night time inched its way overhead. Soon, it was dark and the lights around the patio were on. The warmth of the patio heaters rained down over me, pillowing me in comfort as I reached over for a second slice.
My phone rang in the midst of my reach, and I dug into my pocket to retrieve it. When I saw Daniel’s name flash up, my miserably dead heart sprang back to life.
“Hello,” I cheerily answered, blocking the free side of my ear with my other hand to listen in.
“Hey, booty call,” he chimed in his comedic voice.
I laughed. “Hey yourself.”