“And you’re in the same good hands. I always thought that . . . you and Jackson would be perfect for one another. He’s a good boy. Yeah, a really good man. He loves strong and he cares, really cares,” she went on as I reached out, bracing myself by putting a hand on the back of the dining room chair. “He’s been good for the bar. He’ll take care of it like he has been.”

I drew in a sharp breath. “Jax owns the bar?”

Mom nodded and her hand tightened on the door handle. “I don’t want that kind of life for you. You’re going to be a nurse, right? You’re going to make a difference in people’s lives. Good things. That’s your . . . it’s your path.”

I blinked. Wait. What? “How did you know that?”

She opened her mouth and then her stringy hair bounced around her cheeks again. “I gotta go, baby. Be good. I know you will, but be good and . . . and be happy. You deserve that.”

Then she was gone, slipping out the door like a wraith, and I stood there, caught between too many emotions to even move. Mom was gone. She was really gone now, and before she’d left, she’d given me the world.

And she had also rocked a very large part of it straight down to its now-cracked foundations.

I felt like an idiot.

Gathering up the papers Mom had given me, I took them with me to the couch and picked up my phone off the coffee table. I wished I had my car. Since the back window had been shattered and there were a few unnecessary holes in the body of the car during the Pennsylvania version of the O.K. Corral, my car was in the repair shop for the second time around, and I doubted these repairs would be a freebie. None of that mattered right now, though. I just wanted to get out of here. I needed to do something, because my head was spinning and there was pressure building in my chest.

It was almost eleven. Jax should be home soon, and as I eased up my grip on the phone, I considered texting or calling him. Instead, I dropped the phone on the coffee table.

I was so damn unobservant and stupid.

All of it made sense now and I should’ve known that Mom hadn’t had anything to do with the bar anymore. The condition it was in, the way it was running smoothly, and all the legit paperwork in that office screamed that someone else was in control. And Clyde had told me that I didn’t need to worry about the bar. Obviously not.

Mom had sold it to Jax and he had never told me. Neither had Clyde, but I wasn’t sleeping with Clyde, I wasn’t in love with Clyde; therefore Jax’s lack of sharing on that minor little detail seemed way more important.

I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t even understand why he didn’t tell me, especially after the first time I was in the office going through papers thinking I had every right to do so when apparently I had no right whatsoever.

Scrubbing my hands down my face, I stared at the deed to my mother’s house—now my house, my ticket out of the debt Mom had forced me into. That fixed the major problem looming over my head, the one I never forgot but tried not to dwell on because it would drive me crazy, but now . . . now there was this.

Jax had lied to me.

I didn’t know what to feel about any of this and I was feeling too much, because Mom was here and she had left for good, and Jax had kept something so big from me. My trust was rocked. It was shattered, barely held together.

If he lied about this, if he kept this from me, what else had he lied about or kept from me? I didn’t think that was an unreasonable question. From past experience I knew that when people kept things from others, there was more hidden in their depths.

Hell, I was a prime example.

My gaze flickered to my phone as I lowered my hands, then I leaned forward, snatched it off the table, and did something that I’d never done in the past.

I kind of felt bad for calling Teresa, because it was way late and I was sure I might have interrupted some one-on-one time with Jase based on his wrinkled clothing and the current tangled state of her hair.

But like a true friend, she answered the call. Not only that, but she and Jase had driven back over to Jax’s house and picked me up, taking me back to the suite they were sharing with Cam and Avery.

It was past midnight, the suite door was open, and I was sitting there with them. Curled up in one those uncomfortable as hell floral armchairs, I told them what had just gone down.

Avery looked floored.

Cam, who was sitting behind her on the floor with his arm around her waist, his long legs cradling her body, looked none too happy with the latest revelations—the whole Jax owning the bar I thought would one day be mine part.

Teresa had a thoughtful expression on her face.

Jase was leaning against the headboard of the bed and his face was unreadable, but he was the first to really say something other than “what the f**k” and “holy shit.”

“People have their reasons for keeping some things a secret,” he said. “I’m not saying that justifies any of it or whatever, but you got to hear him out.”

Cam rolled his eyes. “Bud, that’s not something you keep a secret.”

“Yeah, I know all about things that shouldn’t be kept a secret.” The look Jase sent Cam had my radar going overboard. There was something in their exchange. “But people have their reasons. He seems like a pretty cool guy and he didn’t keep it from her her to just be a dick.”

“Jase is right,” Teresa said before Cam could respond. “I mean, it isn’t cool that he kept this from you. It’s important, but there has to be a reason.”

I nodded as my gaze dipped to my phone, which rested in my lap. About twenty minutes ago, Jax had called. I hadn’t answered, but I texted him back, and all I said was that I was with Teresa. He’d responded, but I hadn’t allowed myself to check it. He’d called again, and then I’d turned the ringer off. Not the most mature thing to do, but I still had no idea what to say to him, what to even think.

But Teresa and Jase had a point. We all had our secrets and we all told our lies. I was woman enough to admit that I had told some major lies to my friends and they’d heard me out and they’d forgiven me.

I just needed to get my head on straight. Too much had happened in too little time. I was doubting everything.

“He really cares about you,” Avery said, and my gaze moved to her. I wondered if she was a mind reader and a gorgeous redhead. “When you were hurt, he wouldn’t leave your side.”

“I know,” I whispered.

“No,” she said. “I mean, when you were out of it, we heard about how he acted from your friend Roxy. He threw a fit when they wouldn’t talk to him about your status because he wasn’t family.”

My heart turned over. “What?”

She nodded. “He almost got kicked out. It was one of his cop friends that finally got him calmed down and talked to the doctors. He really does care about you, Calla, so there’s got to be a reason for—”

A knock on the hotel door interrupted her, causing my back to straighten. It was way late, so this was odd. “You guys expecting someone?”

Cam disentangled himself from Avery and rose to his feet. “We’re not, but I’m willing to wager a kiss as to who it probably is.”

Teresa’s eyes widened on me, and my pulse started pounding. I unfurled my legs and gripped the arm of the chair.

Cam peered through the peephole. “Yep. I was right.”

Oh wow.

I started to stand, thinking I probably should’ve answered the phone or whatever, because now I had a sinking suspicion of who it was.

Cam opened the door and stepped aside, revealing who stood in the doorway and that my suspicions were totally correct.

Jax stood there, and the look on his face, the tension in the thin line of his lips and around his dark eyes, told me he knew that I knew.

That I knew everything.

He stalked into the room as Cam closed the door, muttering, “Come on in.”

Jax ignored him, his gaze fixed on me. “We need to talk.”

My heart was pounding as I stood, clenching my cell phone in my hand. “Yeah, we need to talk.”

“Am I the only one who is wondering how he knew she was here, in this hotel?” Cam asked as he walked back over to where Avery was.

“There’s not too many hotels around the hospital,” he replied, still looking at me. “And I have friends who can find shit out for me very quickly.”

“Well, that’s a little creepy,” Cam murmured under his breath as he extended an arm, helping Avery to her feet.

Jax’s shoulders were thrown back, tensed. “I know.”

I blinked. “Maybe we should—”

“I’m sure they already know, too, because you went to them and didn’t come to me, so they’re going to hear this, too.”

Oh double wow.

Cam and Avery stopped where they stood by their suite door, caught sneaking out of the room. A quick glance at Jase and Teresa told me they were wishing they had popcorn to share.

“Jax, we can go outside.”

“I came home and you weren’t there,” he said, and then he went on. “Considering everything that has been going on, that really f**ked with me. Yeah, I know we’re all cool, but still a text message or something giving me a heads-up would be appreciated.”

“Now. Wait,” I said. “I did tell you I was with my friends.”

“After I came home and I saw those papers on the coffee table,” he corrected, eyes flashing almost black. Damnit he had a point, so I kept my mouth shut, and he continued. “You saw your mom. So right off the bat, I know that’s got to have f**ked with your head and I also see that she left you the house. That’s good. I’m happy to see that.”

I glanced around the room, feeling my cheeks heat as my friends watched with avid interest, including Cam and Avery.

“But I know that’s not why you’re sitting in this hotel room instead of in my bed right now.”

Oh. My. God. My face went completely red.

Teresa pressed her lips together as her eyes lit up.

Time to nip that direction of conversation in the bud. He wanted to have this out in front of my friends, we were going to have this out. “You own Mona’s. You’ve owned Mona’s for over a year, and you never thought you should tell me this?”

His chest rose. “I planned on telling you. I was going to—”

“Is that what you were saying while I was in the hospital, about needing to talk to me about something? You’ve had time to tell me. Tons of time before that, like when I first showed up and was rummaging through the office!”

Jase’s head swung back to Jax, as in, the ball was now in his court.

He didn’t respond immediately, which was okay, because now I was gearing up for a whole onslaught of words and questions and maybe a little bit of cursing, but when he spoke, for the second time in one night my entire world was rocked.

“I’ve known you for over a year,” he said, and the tension drained out of his shoulders, as if some kind of weight were lifting off him. “I’m not talking about knowing you through what Clyde or your mom has told me. I knew you. I’d seen you before you even knew I existed.”

I opened my mouth as confusion poured into me. “What?”

“The first time I saw you was last spring, over a year ago. You were outside of your dorm, walking to class,” he said, and I suddenly felt like I needed to sit down. Everyone in the room had faded to the background. It was just him and me. “I was there with your mom. It wasn’t the last time. Every couple of months, when Mona would be sober for a day or two, she wanted to see you. So I would drive her down to see you, because I know . . . I know what it’s like to not get that second chance. You know that. So I’d bring her down. Once you were outside of another building talking to her.” He jerked his chin at Teresa. “You were there with another guy. The three of you until Jase showed up.”

Oh my goodness, my legs felt weak. My thoughts cycled back and there was a good chance he was talking about Brandon.

“The last time was in the spring. You were sitting on a bench by yourself outside what I think was the library. You were reading. And each time I brought your mother down there, she never followed through. She didn’t have the courage to try to make amends for any of the shit she pulled, but she wanted to. It just never panned out, because you always looked so happy.” He exhaled slowly. “You always looked so damn happy. Smiling. Laughing. Your mom didn’t want to mess with that.”

I took a step back, finding it hard to stand still.

“Each trip, she talked about you and it was real, you know? She wasn’t high or messed up. It’s how I knew about everything. It wasn’t Clyde and it wasn’t when she was drunk, even though sometimes she would talk about you then, too, but she really talked about you when she was sober. She found out you were majoring in nursing and she wasn’t surprised by that. She told me once that you’d grown close to the nurses when you were in the hospital.”