Chapter 16
Jax
As soon as we made it to the bottom of the stairs, Olivia was waiting for us with a shit-eating grin on her face. I should have known she would love this way too much.
“Santa’s not the only one coming for Christmas, huh?” She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. “Why aren’t you ever that poetic with me, Jax?”
“I hate you.” I tried to keep a straight face, but I couldn’t help but laugh. What else was I supposed to do in such a ridiculous situation?
“This is your fault, you know,” Carter lectured. “If you hadn’t said anything, it wouldn’t have turned into such a big scene.”
Olivia put a hand on her chest. “Sorry for being shocked at seeing an old woman massaging her back with something meant for a vagina.”
I chuckled and shrugged at Carter. “It is pretty shocking.”
Carter put her hand over her face. “God. I still can’t believe that happened.”
Olivia nodded excitedly. “Oh, it happened. You should have seen Ronan’s face. He might not ever recover.”
A sick feeling settled in my stomach. Not because I actually cared about Ronan seeing our vibrator, but because it reminded me of the other people in the room.
“I just hope my parents are able to recover. Having them hear about my wishes to make my girlfriend come was not on my bingo card for this Christmas.”
Olivia lifted her eyebrows and smirked. “Given your track record, maybe it should have been.”
“Did I mention that I hate you?” I again tried, and failed, to glare at Olivia.
“Except you don’t.” Olivia blew me a kiss and sauntered away from us.
“My sister certainly knows how to make people feel better,” Carter said sarcastically.
“I don’t know. I feel a little better,” I said with a laugh. I wasn’t sure how true that was, but at least she had made me laugh before I had to face my parents.
We walked down the hallway to find my parents in the kitchen cleaning up dinner. I squeezed Carter’s hand before dropping it, and gave her a smile before walking toward my parents. I felt bad because Carter looked even more nervous than me.
Both of my parents had their backs turned, so I walked up behind them and put a hand on both of their shoulders. When they turned to look at me, I gave them my most angelic smile. “I just want you both to know, I’m very sorry about that.”
My dad furrowed his eyebrows at me. “Sorry about what?”
Wait, what? My dad was a smart man. There was no way he also thought that was a back massager. When he smirked and winked at me, I finally understood.
“Ah, gotcha. Pretending it didn’t happen. Perfect.”
My dad leaned in like he was about to whisper to me, but spoke loud enough for Carter to hear him from across the room. “Could you please tell your girlfriend she doesn’t need to be afraid of us? We were once your age too, you know.”
TMI. “Ew. I appreciate that you’re being cool about this, but yuck. I don’t want to think about that.”
My dad chuckled. “It looks like we’re even, then.”
Well played.
My mom turned and held her arms out toward Carter.
“Get over here.” When Carter accepted my mom’s hug, my mom squeezed her tightly.
“We love you. Nothing could ever change that okay?” She pulled back, but continued to hold on to Carter’s arms. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to our daughter.
You really think one little mishap is going to change our opinion of you? ” She scoffed. “No way.”
I hugged both my mom and Carter. “I love you both so much.”
My mom kissed the top of my head. “And I love you too. You’ve been keeping me on my toes from the day you were born, but hey, that’s motherhood. You’ll understand some day.”
I really hoped that day was sooner rather than later, but that meant I needed to get this proposal figured out so I could finally marry Carter.
“Carter! Jax! I need to speak to you!” Carter’s grandma yelled from her bedroom in the den.
I gave Carter a questioning look, and the look she gave me in return didn’t help to ease my concerns. I really hoped her grandma hadn’t figured out what she had actually been massaging her back with. If that was the case, I might have to move out immediately.
I reached my hand out for Carter’s and we slowly (and hesitantly) walked to her grandma’s downstairs bedroom together. Her grandma was sitting up in her bed, holding an envelope in her hands.
As we approached her, she held the envelope out toward us. “This is an extra Christmas present for you girls. Do with it what you will.”
When I opened this envelope and pulled out the papers that were inside, I realized the top read Final Will and Testament.
Well, this took a dark turn.
I tried to scan over the words on the page, but there was so much legal jargon, I had no idea what I was looking at. I handed the paperwork to Carter, who read over it for a minute before looking up at her grandma. “Does this mean…?”
Her grandma nodded. “Previously, my will stated to disperse all of my assets evenly between my kids and grandkids. That didn’t feel right given everything you two have done for me these past few months, so I am leaving my house to you.
Like I said, do with it what you will. Sell it, keep it as an extra home, or what I really wish for—raise your own family here.
” She waved a hand at us. “This isn’t a bribe or an ultimatum.
Those days are behind me. I’m just being honest with you. ”
Raise our own family here. My heart warmed at the thought.
I pictured going into the bathroom to take a pregnancy test. I imagined walking through the front door with our new baby.
I could hear the sound of faint giggles in the hallways.
It all seemed perfect to me, but I wasn’t so sure that Carter felt the same way.
I watched as Carter chewed on her bottom lip and stared at her grandma. With the way her eyes were glistening, I was pretty sure she was trying to hold back tears, but I didn’t actually know if they were happy tears or sad tears. “Wow. Are you sure? You want it to go to us?”
Carter’s grandma nodded again. “I know that no matter what you two decide to do with it, that the decision will be given more care and attention than anyone else in this family would give it.”
The smallest smile parted Carter’s lips. It was so slight, I was sure anyone else would have missed it. “Well, thank you so much for trusting us with this decision. I know how much this house means to you, and I won’t take this decision lightly at all. I love you, Grandma.”
Carter reached out and pulled her grandma into a hug. Her grandma smiled contentedly and laid her head against Carter’s chest. “I love you too, sweet girl.”
The moment was so sweet, I almost regretted yanking the vibrator away from her.
I should have let the woman enjoy her vagina back massager with the perfect handle which definitely wasn’t meant to curve in just the right way to hit the g-spot.
Honestly, part of me wanted to run upstairs and get it for her right now, but I was pretty sure Carter might kill me if I did that.
The last thing we needed was for Grandma Miller to show up to high tea with a vibrator and brag to her friends about how her granddaughter gave it to her.
Carter’s grandma let us know that she was ready to go to bed, so we helped her into her pajamas and into her sleeping position. After that was done, we joined our families in the living room, where they were all sitting around chatting and watching a Christmas movie.
I tried to contribute to their conversations as much as I could, but my mind was elsewhere. It was no longer on the vibrator incident, but instead on the very big news Carter’s grandma had just dropped on us.
When it was time to go to bed, I wanted to bring it up, but was a little scared to breach the subject. Instead, I picked up the vibrator from where it was laying on the bed. “Want to use your Christmas present?”
Carter bit back a smile and shook her head. “I’m sorry. That’s a really amazing gift, and I’m sure it wasn’t cheap, but there is no way I am ever going to get the picture of my grandma massaging her back with it out of my head. I’m afraid that will have to be retired before it even gets used.”
I twirled the vibrator in my hand. It was a shame an object in such perfect condition was going to go to waste, but I also understood where Carter was coming from.
No matter how good this vibrator was, it would probably be very hard to get in the mood with it given the circumstances.
“Maybe I can donate it. I’ll make sure to say it was only used as a back massager for an old woman.
” I cringed when I realized how weird that sounded.
“On second thought, maybe we should just keep it as a memory.”
Carter laughed. “I think I like that idea.”
I took a deep breath and blew it out. “So, do you want to talk about it?”
“The vibrator?” Carter laughed again. “I think we’ve talked about it enough at this point. Might want to let that story rest for a while.”
I put my hands in the air. “Completely understandable.” I brought my hands back down and put on a more serious face. “But I think we both know I wasn’t talking about the vibrator. How do you feel about your grandma’s gift to us?”
Carter closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then blew it out. “I meant what I said to my grandma. I’m not going to take the decision lightly, which is what makes this all so hard. I know it’s what my grandma wants, and I know it’s what you want, but-”
I put a hand up. “Stop. Don’t base any decisions on what other people want.”
“Not even you?” Carter tilted her head slightly as she stared into my eyes as if she was searching for something. “You’re my partner, Jax. I should base my decisions on you. That’s what you do when you love someone.”
“There’s one little problem with that.” I brought my thumb and forefinger close together. “I love you and want to base my decisions off of you.”
“Quite the predicament we have, isn’t it?”
“Could be worse. At least we have each other.”