“Good, she’ll be in soon. Who’s your friend?” he asks, dipping his head towards Ellie, who is looking over the menu while simultaneously trying to hide behind it.

“This is my girlfriend Ellie,” I announce, watching a few heads in the room swivel my way as she hisses, “Jax,” while kicking me under the table.

“Baby, this is Jones, the owner,” I say, ignoring the look in her eyes that promises retribution.

“Nice to meet you,” she says, plastering a smile on her face.

“You too, beautiful.” He smiles then laughs as Ellie tries to kick me again, narrowly missing my junk.

“I told you you’d be the first to know if I had a girlfriend,” I remind her.

“I’m too hung over and haven’t had enough coffee to even contemplate how the hell I ended up in this situation,” she murmurs, taking another sip from her mug.

“Fate, baby…this is fate,” I tell her seriously, wondering how crazy she would think I am if I told her about the Boom.

“Jax?” Pulling my eyes from Ellie, I groan, seeing Felicia walking toward our table. Felicia has been one of my regular hookups for the last year. Unlike what my family thinks, I don’t sleep around with just anyone. Most of the women I’m with are people who don’t have time for relationships or just don’t want one. Which was perfect for me—that was, until Ellie. “You haven’t been returning my calls,” she says with a fake pout while crossing her arms under her chest.

“I’m off the market,” I tell her with a shrug, hoping she gets the point and moves along. She’s a nice woman, who is very intelligent when it comes to books, but common sense, not so much.

“I saw Mellissa at the nail salon and she told me you two were back together, but I honestly didn’t believe her,” she mutters as my teeth grit and Ellie’s body grows stiff in front of me, her fingers wrapped around her coffee cup turning white.

“I’m not with Mellissa,” I growl, annoyed that I fucking have to call her and make clear the status of our relationship. That being we don’t fucking have one.

“Oh.” She tilts her head. “Who are you with?”

“I’m going to the restroom,” Ellie says, standing suddenly, causing Felicia to jump back from the table and me to stand with her, trying to grab her arm, which she pulls from my grasp.

“Fuck,” I clip, watching Ellie rush across the room and out of sight.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” Felicia says as I scrub my hands down my face. “It’s okay, but I’m serious. I won’t be calling you again,” I tell her, hating that I feel like an asshole, but knowing I need to make it clear to everyone, not only her, that I’m off the market.

“Sure, I understand. Take care, Jax,” she says, turning to leave, but not before I catch something in her eyes that sets my nerves on edge and has me instantly on guard.

“You’re gonna have your hands full, my friend,” Jones says, pulling my eyes from where they were glued on the bathroom door and turn to look at him. “You know I love you, man, but some of the girls you’ve been with are,” he rolls his finger around his ear, “muy loco, and that girl…your girl looks scared of her own shadow.”

“She’s been through a lot,” I tell him, and he points the spatula in his hand at me.

“I know, and that’s why I’m telling you to close down shop on these bitches, so they don’t think they have the right to fuck with her. ’Cause, homie, whether you want to face it or not, they will fuck with her, and until your relationship is solid, you can’t have that shit.”

“I know, man.” I let out a deep breath then stand when Ellie comes back to the table.

“You okay?” I ask, pulling out her chair again.

“Yeah, fine, sorry,” she mumbles, picking her menu back up.

“You know what you want, beautiful?” Jones asks, and I try not to let it annoy me that he’s calling her beautiful, but it still does.

“What’s good?” she asks him, setting down the menu, turning her body toward him.

“Everything, but if you trust me, I’ll make you something special,” he says, giving her the smile that had women dropping panties left and right before he got married to Sylvia.

“Sure.” She shrugs.

“You want your usual?”

“Yeah, man,” I say then look at Ellie, who has her eyes on her coffee cup in front of her. How the hell I’m going to prove to her that she’s it for me, I have no idea, but I know there is no fucking way she won’t be mine.

*

“You may now kiss the bride,” the pastor says, and Wes bends July backwards over his arm, kissing her in a way that I’m surprised Uncle Asher doesn’t get out of his seat, storm up the aisle, and take her from him.

“Oh, God,” my sister sitting next to me cries, and I look down at her as she wipes her eyes while wrapping her arm around mine. “They are so perfect for each other,” she says then looks at me, smiling before standing up when everyone else does.

“Ax,” Hope calls from my other side, and I pull my eyes from my sister and hold my breath as Hope smiles up at me.

She looks like her mom…her mom, who has taken up my every thought since meeting her.

“What’s up, sweetheart?” I ask softly, still unsure of what to do with a three-year-old little girl.