Reckless (Mason Family #3) - Adriana Locke Page 0,4
everything I own and am boarding a plane to Hawaii in a week.”
“Do you have family there?” I poke.
“No. Libby is the only family I really have. I have a half sister who’s … God knows where.” Her gaze pulls from mine and settles on an empty juice container. “I haven’t seen her in a long time.”
There’s a hint of a hollowness to her tone that bothers me.
“That must be hard,” I offer, thinking about how much it would suck if I didn’t see my family. “But what do I know? Not seeing my four brothers for a while might be nice.”
She looks at me again. “You have four brothers? I can’t imagine.”
I hop up on the counter. As soon as I sit, my phone begins to ring in my pocket. I flip it to silent.
“Yeah. They’re a pain in my ass,” I tell her, motioning to the phone. “That’s one of them now.”
“I always wished I had a big family. I used to beg my mom to adopt kids, but she refused.”
“I begged my mom to give my brothers away, and she refused too.” I hit the side button on my phone to stop it from vibrating. “See? That’s probably a different brother.”
She cocks her head to the side. “That actually sounds nice to me.”
“What does?”
“Having people want to talk to you like that. If someone calls me, they want something.”
“Oh, they want something too. Trust me.”
The air between us calms and settles into a comfortable ambience. Jaxi leans against the counter like she’s done it a hundred times before.
“I really am sorry I broke into your house,” she says.
“It’s no big deal. Apology accepted.”
Her lips twist into a smirk as she looks around the room. There’s a humor in her eyes that makes me smile without thinking about it. It’s instantaneous.
“If I’m being honest,” she says, her gaze—still sparkling—lands on me again. “I’m kind of relieved this isn’t Libby’s.”
“Why is that?”
“Because if she were this messy, I’d have to reassess everything I thought I knew about her.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask as she begins to laugh. “This isn’t bad.”
“You have an absolutely beautiful home, and it looks like a frat house.”
My jaw drops as I turn to look around the kitchen. An empty juice container sits next to the toaster that I’ve never used. A pyramid of used K-Cups is lined up next to a pile of beef jerky wrappers and a yellow, sticky ring from an overflowed glass of lemonade highlights a dusting of lemonade powder that didn’t make it into the pitcher.
She’s not wrong. But I’m not going to admit that.
“It does not look like a frat house,” I contend. “Have you even been in a frat house?”
“Yes, I have. And, yes, it does.”
“Then I need to fire my housekeeper.”
She turns her head sideways and peers at me through the corner of her eye. “You do not have a housekeeper.”
“Yes, I do.” I nod emphatically. “Her name is Janey, and she’s a gem.”
“A gem as in she’s buried in the earth and doesn’t come to work?”
I try to stay stone-faced, but the twinkle in her eye breaks me quick.
Our laughter mixes together. The stress in my shoulders melts away, and I find myself getting a plan together to ask her to grab some dinner with me. Before I can think it through, she turns toward the doorway.
“Where are you going?” I ask, scrambling off the counter.
“Apparently, I need to break into Libby’s house now.” She looks at her elbow as she walks. “I think I’ll aim for a lower window this time. I had to jump a little to get into yours and sliced my arm.”
She pauses in the doorway to inspect her wound. I reach out and touch her wrist without thinking about it. Our eyes snap together at the contact. Slowly, our lips spread into smiles.
She rolls her arm over. Red, angry scratches mar her soft, otherwise smooth skin.
“Your window ledge is super sharp,” she says softly.
“Probably because it’s not made for people to climb in and out of.”
With a solid dose of hesitation, I drop my hand. My palm still tingles from the contact with her warm skin as my gaze flips to hers again.
“I’ll help you get into Libby’s,” I tell her. “No more climbing.”
My phone buzzes. Again.
I pull it out and see a list of texts from Coy. The previews get increasingly more hostile. Before I can hit reply to any of them, his name flashes as an incoming