Fall in love with her, and then don’t you ever stop—although I will have an issue if you don’t make it over to watch The Bachelor with me. That’s when your love for Kennedy begins to cross the line.”
I laughed until I saw the stern look on her face. The daggers Joy was shooting me were enough to scare me straight.
I was determined to never miss an episode of The Bachelor with her for the rest of her life. Besides, it was our tradition. I didn’t have many traditions in my life; therefore, I was going to hold the ones I did have close to me.
Ever since I’d picked Connor up for the workday, he’d been smiling from cheek to cheek, staring at me as if I’d taken home an Olympic gold medal.
“Why do you keep staring at me like that?” I asked.
“You did it, didn’t you?” Connor mocked as we pulled up to our first job at Gary’s Café. “You put your lime in her coconut, didn’t you?!” he exclaimed, pointing a finger toward me.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I grumbled, shaking my head.
“I’m talking about you and Kennedy boning each other! I can tell by the grimace on your face.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “You can tell by my grimace that I slept with someone? That seems backward.”
“It might sound that way to the average person, but I for one am trained to know the grimaces of Jax Kilter—and this is a happy grimace! Plus! You let me get in your truck and put on the top forty radio station. You hate pop music, but I swore you were humming along to Taylor Swift.”
“It’s catchy,” I muttered.
“Holy balls, you just said Taylor Swift was catchy! The world is officially ending. So, tell me all about it.”
“I’m not telling you anything about it because there’s nothing to tell,” I said as I put the truck into park and climbed out. I headed to the bed of my pickup and grabbed my toolkit.
Connor hurried over to me with his cell phone in his grip and shoved it in my face. “Then what is this?”
I glanced at the photograph on the page and narrowed my eyes before snatching it out of his hold. “How did you get this?” I was staring at a picture of Kennedy and me kissing on the street the previous night. What kind of low-budget paparazzi did we have in this hellish town?
“It started circulating around town last night. And to think you said nothing happened.”
“Nothing did happen,” I repeated. Connor gave me a You are a damn liar smirk, and I rolled my eyes. “Nothing that I’m telling you about, at least.”
“Wow, that’s harsh. I tell you everything, buddy.”
“Yeah, and I kind of wish you’d stop doing that, if I’m honest.”
“Whatever. You love hearing my stories. So, tell me all about it. Was it everything you thought your first time would be?” he mocked. I was this close to cussing him out—except I couldn’t stop smirking like a damn fool. Connor played on my happiness, too. “Oh my gosh, I’m so proud of you, champ. I remember my first time like it was yesterday.”
“It probably was yesterday. Besides, we didn’t sleep together. We just…kissed.”
He paused his footsteps and raised a confused brow. “Wait—time out. You’re this happy because of just kissing a girl?”
I shrugged. “Yeah.”
He shook his head in disappointment. “I expected more from you, Jax. Come to me when you’re a real man.”
“Hey, Connor?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
“Okay, boss.”
The day passed by slowly, but we didn’t have any major plumbing issues to deal with, which made me happy. Nothing could ruin a day like pipes backed up with shit. After I dropped Connor off, I headed toward Dad’s nursing home to check on him. Truthfully, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Amanda, because I knew if Connor had the photograph of Kennedy and me kissing, it’d probably found its way to her, too.
Right when I walked inside, the daggers Amanda shot my way made me fully aware that I was right in my assumption.
“Just a friend, huh?” she sneered, rolling her eyes as she flipped through a magazine.
I walk to the front desk, and even though I didn’t feel as if I owed her an explanation about Kennedy and me, I knew she deserved it. Amanda had never been nasty while we were together. We just came from different backgrounds. We had differing beliefs. When she talked about kids, she talked about how she wanted to shape