Chapter Four #3
As he usually did, Jason followed her up to her apartment.
Dylan moved automatically, turning on the soft lamp in the corner, kicking off her boots, tossing her keys into the bowl by the door.
Jason toed off his own boots near the entryway without a word.
He made it clear he was here for however long she needed him.
“Anything you want for dinner?” he asked, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
“Anything but pizza. I think I’m turning into a slice at this point.”
He grinned. “Burgers and fries, okay?”
Dylan nodded, her chest easing just a little. “Yeah. Thanks.”
While Jason ordered takeout, Dylan sank onto her worn couch, pulling a blanket loosely over her lap even though the apartment wasn’t cold. She wasn’t shivering from the chilly night.
When he finished ordering, Jason moved into the kitchen, grabbed two sodas from her fridge without asking, and brought one to her.
Settling into the chair across from her, the space between them was wide open, but the connection was unmistakable.
He just cracked open his drink, waited. And somehow, that patience made it easier.
Wrapping her hands around her soda can, drawing slow circles against the condensation, she took a deep breath and found her voice.
“So tonight,” she said quietly. “My uncle came in with some guy. I don’t know who he was.
But he was --” She shook her head. “Rich, obviously. Someone important. Types like him don’t come into Ned’s. ”
Jason nodded, his gaze locked on her.
The words came easier to her now. “At first, they were just talking, keeping their voices down. I brought them their drinks, and…” She hesitated, taking a breath.
“That rich guy grabbed my wrist. Not hard. But he didn’t let go right away.
He --” Her hands clenched tighter around the can.
“He said I didn’t belong in a place like that.
That my uncle wouldn’t mind if I went somewhere else.
It was like some kind of inside joke or something. ”
Jason visibly tensed but kept listening.
“And Eli,” she continued, her voice cracking slightly, “he didn’t say anything. He didn’t stop it. He didn’t even look at me.”
Her gaze dropped to her lap, her face burning with anger and shame. For a long moment, the only sound was the soft hum of her fridge kicking on.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Dylan,” Jason said firmly. “You didn’t invite that, and you didn’t deserve it.”
Tears stung her eyes at his words. She wanted to believe that.
Leaning forward, Jason rested his forearms on his knees, his voice gentler now. “And I know you don’t want to hear this,” he added, “but maybe it’s time to think about finding another job.”
Dylan nodded. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Maybe.” But deep down, she knew it wouldn’t be that easy.
Not when the place, and apparently her uncle, were tangled up in things she wasn’t supposed to know about.
Still, for tonight, she didn’t have all the answers.
She just needed to breathe and to hear someone say she hadn’t read too much into what happened. That she wasn’t overreacting.
When their food arrived, Jason rose smoothly, pulling a few crumpled bills from his pocket. Locking the door behind him, he carried the order over to the coffee table, tossing a wrapped burger into Dylan’s lap with a wink. He joined her on the couch, and they ate for a couple of minutes.
But it didn’t last long. Dylan set her half-eaten burger down and wiped her hands on a napkin. Nerves made it impossible to eat anything else.
“My uncle,” she said quietly. “I just…” Dylan stared at her hands for a long moment before finding the words.
“I know my uncle’s not perfect,” she said, voice low.
“And he’s always had that rough side to him.
I never thought he’d act like this. I don’t understand what he wants.
Or what I did wrong.” She blew out a breath, tried to push past the tension.
“You know he looked right through me, like I wasn’t even worth acknowledging. ”
Some emotion flashed in Jason’s eyes.
“He’s the only family I have left.” She shook her head, feeling stupid. “I always thought that even if he didn’t like my choices, he cared. That somewhere under the biker persona, he still saw me. You know, he was there for me when my mom passed. And now?”
Jason slowly sets his food aside and leaned forward next to her.
“You’re not nothing,” he said, voice rougher now, like it cost him something to say it. “Not even close.”
When her gaze met his, she saw it again. Anger held in check, protectiveness he didn’t voice. The tension in her body eased. Even if her uncle had forgotten who she was, Jason hadn’t.
“Is it just your uncle?” Jason asked. “Or is there an aunt? Cousins?”
Dylan blew out another breath. “There wasn’t an aunt. Just a baby mama, my cousin’s mother. Not sure I ever even met her.”
“You know your cousin?”
“Jared?” Dylan nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times. He’s really intense. He became a biker like his dad, but he ran off somewhere a couple of years ago.”
“Did he?” Jason asked.
She shrugged. “I heard something about gambling debts. Probably a good thing he moved on, really. Him and Eli didn’t get along.”
The silence stretched between them for a long moment. Dylan tucked her legs up under her, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She studied Jason, really studied him now -- the quiet strength, the patience, the way he never looked away when she needed him most.
It was then that she noticed the scar on his neck.
It was long and pale, twisting beneath his jaw.
It wasn’t really obvious unless you were close to him, in the light.
Now that she saw it, looking away was hard.
It didn’t look that old, but it had healed.
The skin around it looked tight in places, uneven.
What happened to you? But she wasn’t going to ask.
Instead, she looked back into his eyes and softened her tone, like maybe if she offered him trust, he’d offer her the truth one day.
“You’ve seen your share of bad, haven’t you?” she asked quietly.
Jason’s gaze held hers, a shadow behind his eyes now.
And even though he didn’t say it out loud, she saw it clear as day.
Yes, he’d seen bad. And maybe done worse.
It wasn’t her right to ask what it was or how close it had come to killing him.
She couldn’t help but feel that whatever left that scar on his neck didn’t just tear skin.
It took something else too. Something he hadn’t gotten back.
She traced the rim of her soda can with her fingertip, her voice hesitant. “Can I ask you something?”
Jason’s mouth twitched at the corner, almost a smile. “You can ask,” he said.
“Who are you? Really?”
His gaze didn’t waver. But something in his posture stiffened, a barely-there tension she wouldn’t have caught from nights spent together. “Someone who knows what it’s like to look around and realize the people you trusted the most… aren’t who you thought they were.”
Her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t the full answer, but it was enough for tonight. “Okay,” she whispered.
Jason leaned back against the couch, one arm draped over its back. “You don’t have to figure all this out tonight,” he said. “I’m not telling you what to do but I’d think really hard before I walked back in that bar.”
There was an underlying warning to his words. Instinct told her that maybe he was right.
“But whatever you decide to do, I’ll be right here,” he said.
Dylan let herself believe it, just for tonight. Let herself believe that not everyone would look away when it counted. Moving closer to him on the couch, she snuggled into his side, and he just held her. When she closed her eyes, the darkness didn’t feel so lonely.