Falling for the Billionaire's Daughter - Lori Ryan Page 0,59
residual limb, not to mention the loss of a natural knee.
Jax slid fried eggs and buttered toast onto a plate and dropped the plate onto the table in front of Leo. He sat opposite and dug into his own meal before realizing Leo wasn’t eating.
“Something wrong with your food?”
"I, uh, wanted to give you this." What looked to be six or eight twenty dollar bills, folded in half, landed on the table. Leo turned to eat like it was nothing for him to have that amount of money.
Jax knew full well it was a lot more than nothing to the man who'd been homeless only six months ago. If Leo hadn’t let Jax help him pay the security deposit and a little of the rent, he’d still be living on the streets.
“What the hell is that?” Jax stared at the money. He'd known it would be hard to get Leo to take money from him, but he figured once he got him into the apartment, the man wouldn't worry so much about it. He’d never in a million years intended for Leo to pay him back.
“A man pays his debts.” Leo didn't look up as he spoke. Just kept shoveling eggs in his mouth.
“You don't have a debt. And even if you did, it's not one I would ever ask you to pay.”
"I'm just saying a man pays his debts that's all. I fully intend to pay you back everything you've given me."
"Not necessary,” Jax said. He was starting to get pissed. “Use the money for something you need. Clothes, medical care—there has to be something.”
“Nah, I got what I need. I get medical care from the clinic and what the hell do I need with more clothes? More to wash, that’s all that does. What I do need is to make sure my friend is paid back.”
“Where'd you get it?” Shit. Jax clenched his jaw, trying to bite down on the words, even though it was too late to call them back.
He hadn’t meant for that to come out. He had no business—no right—to question where Leo got anything.
The older man pretended the question wasn’t out of line. “Turns out, when you got a place to sleep and shower, a little food in your belly, it's a lot easier to get work. I've just been picking up day work, that's all.” A shrug accompanied the words. Jax could see Leo was leaving something out of that story, but he wasn’t going to push it.
There was no way he’d win this fight. He picked up the money, split the pile in half and pushed one half back toward his friend. They’d have to compromise.
“You go to that happy hour last night?” Leo asked as he scowled at the money.
Now it was Jax’s turn to grunt his response. He did so at the same time he cursed himself for ever mentioning the stupid Thursday after-work tradition at Sutton Capital. He liked the people he worked with, but he just wasn’t ready for hanging out in a bar where he had to talk to strangers. He’d tried. It had sucked.
“You didn’t, did you?”
Jax ignored the question, filling his mouth with enough toast that he couldn’t speak around it. He wasn’t going to talk about this. If anyone should accept the fact that he wasn’t cut out to hang out with civilians, it should be Leo.
“You should make more of an effort.”
Apparently not. “Why is that?”
“So you don’t end up like my sorry ass, dick head.” Leo never bothered to pretty up his language for Jax. “You want to end up lucky as hell to have one friend in this jackoff world? Keep it up.”
“Dick head? Really?”
Leo just laughed and went back to his food, but Jax knew he would continue to pester him about it.
He’d made the effort, though, just like he’d said. He tried going out for drinks with everyone after work. The only problem was, he ended up angry and annoyed more often than not. If he had to listen to one more person bitch about waiting three hours for the cable guy to come hook up their effing television, or the fact that they couldn’t find the right color shoes to match an outfit—this from a guy, for fuck’s sake—he’d lose his shit.
His friends at work weren’t the problem. In fact, he liked the team he worked with a lot. Many of them were former military, too. Others had married former military. It was the other people they’d meet