Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

“We’ll be fine,” Jax said to him like he picked up on that too, and nodding, Royal left and went with the other guys.

I got right to it.

“Look, I know you don’t want to be here knowing that I’m here,” I started, and he didn’t even grant me with his attention. He stared off. Like he was done with this, done with me. I crossed in front of him. “I know you don’t like me and that the last place you want to be is here with me, but I’ll stay out of your way. I’ll do that if you do the same.”

I didn’t want to be around him either. The last place I wanted to be, and since I was over this conversation too, I started to leave.

He wouldn’t let me.

In fact, he grabbed me up so quick I basically got whiplash, my braid hitting my chest. His irises flared to an ultra green, his lips pursing.

“You ever think for once,” he stated, his fingers biting hard into my flesh, “that not every goddamn thing in my life is about you?”

He made it seem that way, like his driving force in life was about me. Ruining my life.

He let go of me so fast I nearly fell, having to actually catch myself on my sandals. He shook his head. “You stay the fuck out of my way, because no. Not everything is about the goddamn Girl Scout all the time.”

His voice cracked on the end there, like literally cracked as he looked at me.

He stalked away without another word, and I followed his back all the way to the pro shop. His friends had been waiting there, right at the entrance. He passed them with a shake of the head, and they didn’t wait before going after him. They went with him like large sweeps of the ocean. He moved, and they moved.

I guessed I needed to do the same on my end.

Chapter Thirteen

Jax

Around the third hole, I’d managed to keep my mouth shut. My buddies had gratefully done all the talking during lunch, and that kept up on the course. But then Rick spoke directly to my friends.

He spoke about me.

“So you boys have been friends with Jaxen long then?” he asked, casually because he honestly didn’t know. He didn’t remember. He didn’t care and asked the question like he’d never met any of them before. These guys had been friends with me basically my whole life.

He didn’t remember.

He was too busy with his sickeningly perfect family, in his sickeningly perfect house, and with his sickeningly perfect job. I knew this whole weekend would be bullshit. I fucking knew, which was why I didn’t even want to go. I had to admit, Rick talked a good game, wanting to hang out with just me for three whole days…

I knew that shit was fucked, and instead of going with my instincts, my gut, I allowed my friends to convince me to go. Even then, I refused. It was only after they’d offered to come down here too and back me up I even entertained the weekend at all. I let them get in my head. I let them push.

When I should have listened to number one.

I knew the real man here on the golf course today, the liar. The cheat. I’d only been foolish for a half a second to think something else.

Well, he checked my ass in the end, didn’t he?

I started to open my mouth, respond to his idiot-ass question myself, but like a pro, Royal peeled in. He’d been doing that, they all had. My friends didn’t even give me the seconds to think about interacting with my biological father.

Mostly, because they knew what would happen.

Royal’s arm came around my shoulders, the one who did the most talking today. I wasn’t surprised, I supposed. He was always the cool and calm one whenever any of us were in our feelings. He patted my chest. “Uh, yes, sir. Since elementary school. Right, buddy?”

So many things in Royal’s eyes, so many unspoken words. I got the same from both LJ and Knight on the other side of my father. They were speaking to me without really speaking.

They were warning me.

But all this, today, was all their goddamn fault anyway. I let them get in my head, let them allow me to believe for even a second that this man…

That this man cared.