21. Chapter 21
JAX
“Are you sure you’re up for Mason’s exhibition tonight?” Tristan asked as they drove into town. “You only saw the pain specialist a few hours ago.”
“Really, I’m good.” Jax patted his thigh. “He didn’t do any manipulation. He barely looked at my test results!”
As frustrated as Jax was, he had to admit that Tristan made this new attempt at healing a hundred times easier, and it extended far past that.
Living with someone who truly cared for him, who gave him doses of oxytocin in various ways, had Jax feeling slightly less pain on a regular basis. In a way, love was a hell of a drug.
“But he did say that your scans looked good.” Tristan stopped at an intersection, waiting patiently as a small boy crossed the street with his mom. The boy waved, and Tristan smiled brightly, waving back.
Jax’s heart twisted in the sweetest way. Yeah, Tristan definitely needed to be a dad again.
Jax still couldn’t believe that he’d so casually brought up marriage and kids, but in a way, he’d already known the answers and had only needed Tristan to confirm them.
Until recently, Jax had never thought about having a child, but now that he’d slowed down and worked on himself, he’d discovered that he did want kids, especially with Tristan.
“I already knew that.” Jax sighed as the car moved again.
“Not officially. And we can leave if you’re hurting too much.”
“I used to do twelve-hour shifts in worse pain than this,” Jax informed him with a raised eyebrow, but Tristan frowned in concern .
“Well, you don’t have to do that anymore.”
The way he said it, with the implication that he’d be by Jax’s side forever, had Jax falling even harder.
He’d always thought there was a limit to love, but Tristan was proving that wrong, intensifying their connection every day, and sometimes Jax felt like his heart was going to burst with happiness.
Thankfully, the gallery wasn’t far, and they were just about to walk through the door when two men deep in conversation almost bumped into them. Continuously on guard for other people’s rudeness, Jax moved out of the way and Tristan helped, putting himself between them.
“Please watch where you’re going,” Tristan said firmly, and both men stopped, their eyes wide.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry, we didn’t see you,” the first man quickly moved back, dragging his friend away, who mumbled an apology.
But it wasn’t Tristan’s reaction that surprised Jax the most, it was the fact that Jax didn’t want to unleash on them.
Tristan had been right on the money when he’d said that Jax had been grieving his old life, and it had combined with his frustrations and pain to make him a ticking time bomb, but Jax’s therapist had experience in treating people with chronic pain.
Sometimes Jax ended up crying or venting on Amir’s couch for the entire hour; however, the exercises became a little easier with each session, slowly pushing the beast into hibernation.
Right now, its voice was no more than a squeak.
And Jax hadn’t been the only one making progress. Over the last couple of months, Tristan had been merging his calm people-pleasing with Jax’s confrontational personality, creating a steel politeness that had Jax constantly flabbergasted and occasionally hard.
As the men vanished into the gallery, Jax stood on his toes, giving Tristan a thorough kiss.
“What was that for?” Tristan asked, touching his lips in a daze.
“You know what it’s for,” Jax winked, enjoying Tristan’s loopy smile as they went inside, heading toward Mason’s photos.
“Congratulations, Mason!” Tristan exclaimed as Rain immediately hugged him, and he looked down, patting Rain’s head. “Hi, kid.”
Now that Jax was finally close to the portraits, he ran his eyes over the collection. Last time, it had been all Rain, but now Mason displayed an array of people, including a very intimidating woman who was obviously a lawyer.
“These are incredible!” Jax stated, studying a photo of Rain looking out a window, his eyes shining, the hues of his emotions plain to see.
“Thank you.” Mason had warmed up to Jax since the brunch, maybe because they were almost in-laws. “This year has been good. I had trouble choosing which ones to show.”
“And I only have three pictures up this time,” Rain fake-groused as most of The Pointe arrived, and the next twenty minutes were a whirlwind of greetings and catch-ups.
Jax gave Marci and Angelo the latest news on next season’s menu, and they told him that everyone was already raving about the food. Proud of himself, Jax looked for Tristan, who was deep in conversation with Emma and Kate.
Studying him, Jax bit his lip. He didn’t know if it was therapy, or being in love, or finally being free of Eve, but Tristan had more of a lightness to him now, a shine, and Jax couldn’t take his eyes off him.
“I’ve never seen Tristan this happy.” Rain sidled up to Jax, a grin on his face. “But he deserves it. I don’t know who my biological dad is, but it doesn’t matter because Tristan is my dad.”
“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing,” Jax snorted. “When I found out about my sperm donor, I was disgusted.”
“But you got Finn out of it. And all of us weirdos by extension.” Rain hip-checked Mason as he walked up, and Mason gave him an alarming frown in return, but Rain just giggled, kissing him on the cheek.
“That’s true…” Distracted, Jax watched as Gideon walked in, giving Tristan a hug. The gang really was all here.
“You wanna look around?” Ollie appeared beside him, Liam in tow, and they offered up a few plates of hors d’oeuvres. Jax studied the food, mildly impressed.
“Sure!” There were fewer photographers for this exhibition, so the collections were larger, and the three of them slowly wandered from section to section, admiring and snacking, but by the last display, Liam had gone back to get more food, and Marci had called Ollie over to do a reel.
Jax glanced across the room at Tristan, who somehow sensed it and stopped mid-sentence with Winter, meeting his gaze and raising his eyebrows, silently asking if Jax was okay.
Giving him a nod, Jax winked back before focusing on the photos in front of him, liking them almost as much as Mason’s work. This artist’s eye was whimsical, and the portraits were drenched in bright colors, but what stood out to him was that some of the models had mobility aids.
Jax knew that he’d need one in the next few years, so he felt a kinship to the photos, and he studied them for a while before he realized that someone was staring.
Turning, Jax found a striking man in a wheelchair contemplating him, and it took a couple of seconds for Jax to make the connection that this was the photographer.
“Hi.” Jax extended his hand. “I love your work.”
“Thank you!” The photographer shook his hand and then grabbed a card from the low table beside him, handing it over. “I’m Stefan Fazel.”
“Jax Fiorelli.”
Stefan tilted his head, his green eyes curious. “Jax? Of Tristan and Jax?”
“Um,” Jax blinked, wondering if they were famous. “Yeah?”
“I’m a friend of Mason’s.” Putting a hand on his chest, Stefan let out a charming laugh. “Rain talks about you sometimes.”
“Oh,” Jax chuckled, shaking his head. “I thought we were on the news or something.”
Another patron got too close to Jax and he moved to the side as quickly as he could, feeling Stefan’s sharp gaze.
“Back pain?”
“I’d say you’re psychic, but it’s the way I walk, right?” Jax was able to talk about it more freely now, and he grinned when Stefan inclined his head in a yes .
“When I was made, they grabbed a spine from the clearance rack.” Jax shrugged with an expression that had Stefan grinning too.
He had to be in his early thirties, with dark blonde hair and sharp jade eyes, and his dark suit showed that he and Jax had similar builds.
“I’m trying another round of ‘let’s see what the doctors say’ but… ” He shrugged again.
“I know all about that!” Nodding at a few people who looked at his photos, Stefan turned back to Jax. “There are some great doctors out there, but finding them is difficult unless you get lucky.”
“Exactly. This time it’s easier on me because of Tristan, but a lot of people don’t have someone to make calls for them and take them to appointments. I know it sounds weird, but I think about that a lot.”
“That’s because you know how difficult it is to manage in a world that’s not built for us.
But it’s getting better, little by little.
” Stefan greeted someone who walked up, handing them a business card.
“The thing is, anyone can become disabled at any time, and most don’t understand that until it happens to them. ”
Jax nodded in agreement. “Tristan almost gets it because he had a knee injury and we live together. But it’s not the same.”
“It’s not.” Stefan tilted his head again.
“Jax, I have this group that gets together. We’re a gathering of like-minded people who help each other and our community.
Sometimes we run a charity bake sale, sometimes we volunteer, and sometimes we just hang out and play video games.
I think you’d fit right in. Would you like to join us? ”
A flood of dopamine-filled excitement sloshed through Jax’s veins, reminding him of his party days. Smiling, he nodded with enthusiasm.
“I am so in.”
They exchanged numbers, chatting until Marci stole Jax away for a group photo in front of Mason’s display, and after the picture bounced to everyone’s phones, Jax couldn’t help but stare at it.
Tristan and Jax stood near the middle, holding each other, surrounded by coworkers who’d become not just friends, but family.
If someone had told Jax a year ago that he’d be happy, hopeful, and in love, then he probably would’ve growled at them and walked away. But he was, and he couldn’t be more grateful that he’d rage-quit his job and landed at The Pointe, in Tristan’s arms.
“We should frame that,” Tristan said over his shoulder, twining their fingers together, and Jax smiled up at him.
“We should. By the way?” Jax rose on his toes, giving Tristan a short kiss full of promise. “I love you.”
Tristan lit up like a sunrise, as if Jax had given him the world. “And I love you, too, Jax. Always.”