16. Tanner
Tanner
“ Y ou were kissing,” Jodie said. Her eyes were getting a good workout between looking at me and then Jax.
“We can explain,” Jax said. I was glad because I certainly couldn’t see how we could explain anything.
“You can explain why you were eating my fiancé’s face like it’s Thanksgiving?”
Jax let out an exasperated sigh. “For fuck’s sake, Jodie. You have to end this insanity. Tanner isn’t your fiancé. This is a stupid idea, and I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but my phone rang way too loud, making me jump.
I was going to silence it when I saw the Vegas number on the screen. I'd called them a few days ago in a desperate attempt to find out if Jax and I were still married so I had an excuse to back out of the wedding with Jodie.
“Is that?” Jax asked.
I shrugged and answered the call.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hello, am I speaking to Mr. Tanner Beckett?”
“Yes, this is him. I mean, me.”
“Mr. Beckett, I’m calling from Chapel of Love as a follow-up to your call a few days ago. I’m afraid I owe you both a huge apology.”
I leaned against the window frame, trying to ignore the images of Jax fucking me against it only a few weeks ago.
“It’s not a problem,” I said, keen to get off the phone. Admittedly, I’d been disappointed when we’d checked the records and weren’t listed, which meant our marriage certificate hadn’t been filed.
It was what we’d hoped for, right?
“I can guarantee you, Mr. Beckett, that we pride ourselves in giving our couples the best experience. Now that your certificate has been filed, you’ll see it in the public records in a few days?—”
“I’m sorry, what?”
She cleared her voice. “As I said, your marriage certificate has been filed. I’m so very sorry it was late. To compensate for this, we would like to offer to host your vow renewal at no cost should you want to celebrate it in the future. Your information is in our records now, so all we’ll need is a date, and we’ll be happy to accommodate you.”
“Um…okay…” was all I could get out as I looked at Jax’s expression, totally oblivious to the bomb I was going to drop as soon as I got off the call.
“Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Beckett. Have a great day.”
I put the phone down, my hands shaking.
“What’s going on?” Jodie asked.
“Tanner?”
I circled my temples to find the strength to stand up to my best friend and not lose the man I’d been in love with most of my life.
“Jax, we’re still married. That was the chapel. They apologi?—”
“You’re fucking what?” Jodie asked in a raised voice.
I put my hands on her shoulders. “Jodie, honey. I’m so sorry, but you and I can’t get married. You deserve to find someone who loves all of you, not just your heart. You will always be my best friend, and I will always love you to the moon and back, but I also want to spend my life loving someone who can give me their heart, body, and soul.”
Her voice was surprisingly steady when she replied. “I’m really confused. You said you were married.”
“Well, that’s a different story altogether. Jax and I went to Vegas and ended up getting married. When we contacted the chapel to ask them not to file the paperwork, they said they’d lost it. That call was them saying they finally found and filed the certificate. So another one of the reasons I can’t marry you is because I’m already married to Jax.”
She turned to Jax. “Is this true?”
Jax nodded. I went over to him and placed my hands on his waist. “Did you really mean what you said earlier? Before the kiss?”
“Every single fucking word.”
“Manners, Jaxon,” Jodie chided, and I bit back a smile while Jax rolled his eyes.
“That thing you feel when you’re close to me? I feel the same way about you, Jax. I’m so stupidly in love with you, and I’m tired of hiding it. Tired of pretending that I’m happy doing the casual thing and not talking about what it means. I want to talk about what it means and tell you that every kiss from you lights up my soul.”
Jodie made a gagging sound that I ignored.
“What do we do now?” he asked.
“We go on dates, we have all the sex, and in a year, if we’re still together, we can renew our vows in Vegas for free.”
Jax’s arms tightened around me, and he pressed his face into the crook of my neck. “God, I fucking love you so much, Tan. This has all been a mess, but I can’t bring myself to regret it.”
“I feel the same way.”
He gave me a short kiss on the lips that carried more meaning than any other kiss we’d had before, but when we parted, his eyes went over to his sister.
Jodie sat on the couch with her hands covering her face. Her shoulders were shaking. Jax sat next to her and held her.
“I’m so sorry, Jodie. We didn’t mean to hurt you.” He kissed her head. “Wait—are you laughing?”
She raised her head and her eyes filled with tears.
“Jax, can’t you see she’s crying?” I kneeled in front of her. “I’m so sorry, boo. Please tell me what we can do to make this better for you. We didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Oh, I’m not hurt…but I’m…” She wiped her tears and leaned back on the couch. “Time for a little confession of my own. I’m kinda pregnant.”
“You’re what?” Jax and I said in unison.
“It wasn’t exactly planned, but it happened, and I’m kinda over the moon about it. Okay, it sucks that I’m going to be doing it on my own—” She raised her hand when I opened my mouth to speak. “Don’t you even dare suggest what I think you’re about to suggest.”
She touched her belly, which was still very flat. “I’ve always wanted to be a mom, career woman, wife, everything, but it wasn’t until this little blip came along that I realized I’d been working really hard at just one of the many things I wanted and neglecting the others.”
“I don’t know what to say, Jodie. I’m happy for you,” Jax said. "We can decorate the spare bedroom so it's peaceful and cute for you two."
She blushed. “Hmm, I appreciate the offer but tomorrow, I’m signing the lease for a new office space with an apartment attached. It’s just outside Cliffborough and the area is perfect to raise a child in. When I found out about the pregnancy, I didn’t want to go through the whole thing alone, and I knew you’d kill me if you couldn’t see your nephew or niece.”
“Damn right,” Jax said. “So you’re really moving here for good?”
She nodded, her bottom lip trembling a little.
We surrounded her in a bear hug until she squirmed, begging for air. Then she grabbed my hands. “There was never going to be a wedding, Tanner.”
“There wasn’t? Now I’m confused.”
“Let’s just say it was a little setup to push you two together. I just didn’t think you’d already gotten there on your own.”
“You staged this whole thing hoping to push Jax and me together? Honey, maybe you’re watching the wrong rom-coms, but that’s not how it works.”
She laughed. “Blame the pregnancy hormones. I’ve always suspected Jax had feelings for you, and when you came out and we broke up, I wondered about your feelings too. I know we were slooow on the uptake, but you always really liked Jax and hung on every word he said.”
Jax touched my cheek, and I allowed myself to lean into it. “Can you blame me? Your brother is seriously hot, okay? And I’m only made of flesh and blood.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “I tried my best to find out if you two had connected when Jax moved here, but neither of you was talking. You both avoided talking about the other so hard that I suspected something was up. I hadn’t exactly planned on coming out with the wedding hoax, but when I saw Jax the first night, I knew something was up, so I went ahead with it.”
“I’m not sure if I want to hug you or strangle you,” Jax said.
“Hug. Definitely hug. I’m a little emotional these days,” she said.
We hugged and then went down to the bar when Jodie declared she was super hungry. Apparently, it was a rule that she had to have as many wings as her pregnant body could take in.
Every time Jax’s eyes met mine, we shared a smile. There was still a lot we needed to talk about.
“Oh my god, these are the best wings I’ve ever had. I vote that you have these at your wedding,” she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin and rubbing her belly.
“We’re already married, remember?” I said.
“Wedding, vow renewal, same thing.” She leaned forward. “Hey, Tanner, who’s the hot guy behind the bar. He straight?”
“That’s Matt. Yes, he’s straight.” I sighed. Pointing out that she was pregnant and probably not in the best position to be hitting on anyone, let alone a member of my team, was what I should have done, but Jax put his hand on my leg and my brain shifted gears immediately.
“I’m going to talk to him.”
Jax grabbed her hand. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“No harm in a little flirting before all people will see when they look at me is a huge belly. Besides, you two should go on up and fuck each other’s brains out. I’ll head over to your place in a bit.”
And with that, she went over to the bar and sat on the stool opposite to where Matt stood.
“That wasn’t the worst of her ideas,” I said.
“What? She absolutely should not be flirting with anyone. She’s a mother, for goodness’ sake,” Jax said.
“Aww, baby, you’re so sweet, but that’s not what I was referring to.”
“Then—oh! Yeah, let’s go.” He grabbed my hand, and as we walked behind the bar toward the stairs, he gave Matt his card to pay for the wings and told him to inform the team that I was indisposed for the rest of the evening.
“Very subtle, Doctor Mitchell,” I said as I locked my apartment door behind us.
Jax pushed me against the door and buried his face in my neck. I groaned as he sucked on my heated skin. There was no way he wouldn’t leave a mark.
I wrapped my fingers around his short hair to keep him in place. I would wear Jax’s claiming marks with pride.
“I need to be inside you so bad, Tan.”