Page 79 of Undeniable Love
“Okay, but it can’t hurt either,” she reasoned before glancing in Juliette’s direction. “Right?”
“It’s always better to be in the press for something positive, Jax.” She stood. “So…are you in? Because this is the perfect time for us to get some fun, family videos and pictures. We can make it Instagram official to get the ball rolling.”
He looked at Lucy again. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I’m in, Jax. Whatever you need, I’m in.”
Part of him knew he was the only one benefiting from this, but he silently vowed to make it up to her, no matter what it took.
Letting out a long breath, he said, “Okay. I guess let’s create some content!”
Chapter Thirteen
It started out awkward, but once the entire family got into it, taking photos and videos was actually kind of fun. They did multiple outfit changes and then Lily had the idea that they should cook dinner together as a group and take photos of that as well.
Chaos was the only way Lucy could describe it.
Still, they ended up with a bunch of misshapen-but-delicious homemade pizzas that had turned into a fierce competition between the three couples.
According to Lily, the Wylder brothers thrived on competing against one another and Lucy had to explain to her she was well aware of that kind of behavior since she had three brothers of her own. Then they laughed and laughed and laughed while ultimately Simon and Juliette’s pizza reigned supreme.
Hours later, Jax was still fuming about it.
“He totally messed with our pizza.”
Lucy was crawling into bed and was done having this conversation. “Jax, it was just a pizza. They were all delicious, but Simon’s was just freaking stunning to look at. Seriously, it was like a work of art. Deal with it.” Laughing softly, she leaned over and kissed him. “Now, can we please change the subject and stop talking about pizza?”
Normally they always had something to talk about, but you could have heard a pin drop in that room and considering this was the first time they were truly alone all day, she kind of had a feeling it was going to be like this.
“So, um…we really haven’t had a chance to talk privately about…you know…everything,” Jax began after a minute. “Jules is gonna share those pictures on all of my social media accounts tomorrow and you’re supposed to too, and…”
“And the shit’s going to hit the fan,” she finished for him. “At least, that’s what I’m expecting.” Since she’d been so distracted all afternoon, this was also the first time she was allowing herself to think about all the ramifications of what they were about to do.
Beside her, Jax was leaning back against a pile of pillows shaking his head. “We can totally tell Jules that we changed our minds. It was unfair to put you on the spot like that and…”
“Jax!” she huffed before he got carried away again. “Look, I knew exactly what I was doing, and this is my version of just pulling the bandage off, you know? There’s never going to be a great time to tell my family we’re dating. They’re going to be shocked and have like…a million questions, but ultimately, they all genuinely love you. If anything, they’re going to be worried about you.”
“Me? How do you figure that?”
It felt like they were beating the proverbial horse, but she supposed she needed to say it again. “You have no idea the grief and the lectures I got when I called off my wedding. My mother was relentless for a solid week until I stopped taking her calls and refused to go for family dinners. When she finally chilled out and we could just talk, she told me how disappointed she was that I would consider marrying someone I didn’t love and how the whole mess was on me.”
“Holy crap…” he hissed.
“Tell me about it. So I’m already bracing myself for the call where she’s going to tell me…well…basically what Blake said that day in the elevator. No one’s going to take us—me—seriously. I know the public won’t know all of this, but…”
It wasn’t until Jax pulled her into his arms that she realized she was crying.
She let him hold her until she could compose herself, and when she could, she looked up at him. “So here’s the thing, Jax, I get what you’re going through. You made a bad decision and you owned up to it and yet you’re still being punished and the people you trust are still taking the other person’s side.” Sighing, she wiped away some wayward tears. “My brothers were there for me and willing to fight just like yours are, and you mean so much to me that there was no way I wouldn’t help.”
Tenderly, he caressed her cheek. “For what it’s worth, I don’t care about anything that happened before that day I saw you again in the pub. No one in this world can say that they’ve never made a mistake. I just hate that my mistake is crashing into our time together.”
“That’s how I felt about our weekend at the beach.”
Nodding, he placed a kiss on her forehead. “It’s your call, Luce. Hell, I’ll call Tyler right now and tell him everything so he can freak out on me before everything goes live on social media tomorrow.”
“You don’t need to do that. We’re all adults and we’ll all deal with it no matter what.” Resting her head on his shoulder, she added, “But thank you. I kind of love that you were willing to throw yourself on the grenade.”
She thought she was being light and funny, but when Jax tucked a finger under her chin and gently forced her to look up at him, his expression was fierce.