Dare To Play (Dare Nation #3) - Carly Phillips Page 0,52

began to pound as she pushed herself up from her seat. “Come on, Hannah. You had to know there would be punishment.”

“Not if I lived with Mom!” she yelled back, hysterical.

“Your mother is putting on an act. Showing you what you want to see. It wouldn’t be the same if you lived with her, trust me.”

“You’re just jealous that I have a mother.” And with that shot, Hannah ran for her room and slammed the door.

“She didn’t mean that.” Jaxon rose and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him.

“For the moment she did.” And it had been like an arrow to her heart. “And when I make her clean up the rest of this room, she’ll have some other choice words for me.”

“Part of parenting, or so I’m learning,” he said with a chuckle.

“Regretting our marriage?” she asked into his chest, not wanting to see his face.

He waited a beat before answering. “Not for a minute.”

At his words, tears that had filled her eyes fell and dampened his shirt. He was so easy to like and would be even easier to love. If only he could trust her not to hurt him the way his ex-fiancée had. But he’d been clear about his intentions going into this marriage and with women in general. She wouldn’t push or hope for more than he was willing or capable of giving.

She stepped back, glanced at his shirt, and winced. “There’s makeup all over you.”

“That’s what dry cleaners are for. Come on. Let’s get to sleep. Things will look better in the morning.”

As he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and headed for the bedroom, she hoped he was right.

* * *

Jaxon woke up first. He knew how long it had taken Macy to fall asleep, and she’d tossed and turned for hours. He wasn’t sure which part of last night upset her more. The party and Hannah’s betrayal, calling her mother and not Macy when things got out of hand, or that Jaxon might take the brunt of the information that had gone viral. Probably all of it.

He wasn’t thrilled, and the end result definitely was contrary to the reason they’d gotten married in the first place—lying low, staying under the radar, chilling out by having a family. But Jaxon did think his coach, having teenagers himself, understood. The owner? Coach would smooth things over or Jaxon trusted Austin to call and talk to him today. Jaxon definitely didn’t blame Macy. He’d had plenty of parties behind his parents’ backs when he was a kid.

He glanced at her asleep beside him and felt a sense of peace. The feeling was as foreign to him as the calmness he experienced having both Macy and Hannah in his home, prior to last night’s antics. The three of them eating a rushed breakfast before school, the hum of music from the room that was now Macy’s office, someone to come home to after working out, it was all better than he’d anticipated.

He studied her profile and admitted to himself that he was falling in love with her. Everything about their relationship had been rushed, but because of Macy’s honest personality and how deeply she drew him in, the feelings were genuine.

Panic set in as he realized he didn’t know if he was alone in his emotions, and he knew how difficult it was to trust another woman with his heart. Even Macy. He pulled her into his arms and she didn’t wake up. He used the time to stay calm and remember Macy’s comments about how youth might have colored both his emotions and Katie’s reactions. He was an adult now, he and Macy were married, and he had time to build a foundation with her before admitting his growing feelings.

The thought relaxed him and he must have fallen back to sleep, because the next thing he knew, Macy was standing by the bed, shaking him awake.

“What’s wrong?” He pushed himself to a sitting position.

“Hannah’s not in her room. She’s not in the house and she’s not taking my calls.” She ran a hand through her hair, messing it up as she continued to work herself into a frenzy.

He narrowed his gaze. “I set the alarm before we went to bed.” And he’d given both Macy and Hannah the code in case they came home without him or needed to leave. “We would have heard the beeps if she unset it.”

“Well, she did unset it and neither one of us woke up!”

He rubbed his