The Ruckus

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “That’s the thing. We don’t need anyone’s permission or understanding or blessing. But it sure would make things a lot easier on all of us if we had it.”

“Okay,” Axel nodded. “I think we should go ahead and visit my mom. We can make decisions later, but at least we’ll know where we stand with my family.”

A wave of uncertainty hit me, but I did my best to hide it. After all, I’d been sort of pushing for the same thing, hadn’t I? To get everything out in the open and get past the feud between our families once and for all?

But now that there was a possibility of it happening, I wasn’t so sure it was the best idea to spring it on Axel’s mother all at once. I didn’t know Tanya Stevenson well enough to predict how she might take the news that her son had planned on shacking up with a Bailey girl.

Still, I could take a pretty good guess about what her reaction would be.

“Are you okay with this, Jasmine?” Axel asked, threading his fingers through mine and giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “We don’t have to do this today if you don’t want to, but we will have to do it eventually if we really are going to be together.”

The implications were clear. We would either move forward together or... nothing. We’d move apart. And lord, the thought of not knowing when I might see the two of them—my guys—again was almost more than I could handle. I already sensed the hot sting of tears starting to well up in my eyes.

“Yeah,” I answered, hoping my voice didn’t sound too shaky. “I think we should do it today. I’m ready.”

I absolutely was not ready. But it needed to happen, and I would have kicked myself if I chickened out before finding out whether Tanya Stevenson would accept me in her son’s life.

“Okay,” Axel said. “That’s what we’ll do. I’ll let my mom know we’re coming. Then we’ll shower, get dressed, and... and get this settled for good, one way or another.”

The part he didn’t say out loud—the part he didn’t need to say out loud—was how badly we all needed it to go well.

Chapter Twenty Two

Jasmine Bailey

I might have been overly dramatic, but the drive over to the Stevensons’ house seriously felt... well, bad.

Like we were speeding toward a confrontation that none of us really wanted to have, but we all understood was necessary.

As nervous as I was for myself, I was ten times as anxious for Axel. He was the one caught in the middle this time, just as I would have been if my mother hadn’t been so surprisingly willing to bury the hatchet.

We would have to make everyone else see that it was the only way, the only reasonable thing to do. That was what I’d been telling myself, anyway.

And I’d been doing my very best to ignore the nagging little voice in my head that kept wondering why nobody had done the reasonable, right thing before if it was as easy as all that.

Which, of course, only fed the rest of my fears. Because making peace wouldn’t be easy. Not much in life was easy, I’d found out. The families, the commuting, the impossible choice between being in L.A. and advancing my career or being in Covington and deliberately slowing that advancement.

Yeah, that was all going to be hard. But one thing at a time, right? And right now, that one thing was Tanya.

“Are we ready?” Axel asked under his breath as Micah pulled the truck into Axel’s parents’ driveway.

“Are you ready?” Micah shot his lifelong friend a sympathetic glance.

“I think so,” Axel nodded, but I noticed the color draining from his face as Micah turned off the engine. “I mostly just want to get it over with. I know that sounds bad, but... that’s what I want.”

“It doesn’t sound bad,” I said, reaching over to take his hand. “I totally understand that feeling.”

“Yeah,” Micah said. “I get it, too. Remember, we’ve got your back. We’re all here for each other no matter what happens, right?”

“That’s right,” I said without hesitating.

Axel nodded slowly. “That’s right,” he repeated as he opened the passenger door and stepped out of the truck. “No matter what...”

Once we were all out of the truck, I gave each of them a quick hug and reminded Axel that it would be okay. I hoped I sounded more convincing than I felt.

Tanya Stevenson opened the front door just as the three of us made it to the front porch steps. “I thought you’d be here before now,” she said in place of a greeting, her eyes flicking from her son to Micah and finally to me. “I guess you should come inside.”

Axel and Micah each took one of my hands as we walked through the door. Maybe I was the one who needed the extra support after all. That welcome—if it could have even been called a welcome—made one thing perfectly clear: Mama wasn’t happy.