A Hidden Truth

Thursday Finished

[Juniper]

    Jaxon took me to the car and helped me in. Once he was in his seat, he handed me the bag he was carrying and fished out his keys. I relaxed in my seat and breathed deeply.

    “Are you actually okay?” He asked as we drove to the ranch.

    “Shaken. Hank got angry about me going to Idaho with you. I hadn’t realized that was a plan. She showed up before the panic got too bad and I did something stupid. I hate feeling like I need to apologize for living my life. Can you stay with me for a while? Just until Teddy’s home.” I sniffled. Hank had upset me more than Madeline Shaw.

    “Yes, sweet. I’ll stay with you until Teddy’s home. Sorry I didn’t talk to you about visiting my parents. My mother is fairly insistent that you come up and meet her and my dad once exams are done. She’s already bought the tickets. I got the confirmation email while I was shopping.” He chuckled.

    “Getting pretty serious if you want to introduce me to your parents. At least she thinks I’m cute.” I scoffed.

    “That woman was jealous. You’re much prettier than her or her daughter, and you don’t even have to put any effort into it. Oh, there’s a bottle of hair stuff in the bag for you. Your mom said you should pull your hair back and leave your curls natural for the dance. She said you just use that stuff after you shower.” Jaxon smiled. “I’ve never seen your curls.”

    I blushed. “I straighten my hair. It makes it easier to manage. Do you like curly hair?” I asked quietly.

    “I think you’ll look beautiful no matter what. But I’d really like to see it curly.” He murmured, reaching for my hand and sliding his fingers between mine.

    My heart jumped up to my throat. I didn’t feel the urge to try and go any further. It was freeing. I could just enjoy being with Jaxon without the itch. Maybe it was best that we were spending more time apart.

    “Are you coming to book club tomorrow? I know you said you’d stay away until Saturday, but I forgot about the club.” I said.

    “Yeah. I’d planned for it, but wanted to check if you thought it would be okay. I don’t want to mess up again.” He smiled tightly.

    I messed up as much as he did. I’d been mortified when I lost control last night and tried to take his pants off. But, Jaxon saw it as his mistake, too. He’d gotten me worked up by touching me like he did. Too much of our time had been spent alone. I thought that was what was causing my troubles. I rarely had the urges when we were around other people.

    “We both messed up. It’s tempting to anyone when they know the other person wants them, but is resisting. I think it’s why I keep after you. That and the fact that you’re extremely sexy.” I purred.

    “Not nearly as sexy as you, sweet. Let’s change the subject, though.” He suggested.

    I told him about my plan for school and what my goals were with my computer science degree. Jaxon told me a lot of STEM majors had trouble with writing reports and stuff. He suggested a technical communication minor as well. It was actually nice to talk about something other than my family or my mental issues.

    We pulled up to the house and he opened my door to let me out. Tammy was coming to study and train me a little before my study group came. I was excited to be able to spar without as much padding. I’d walked the backyard barefoot to make sure there wasn’t anything sharp that could hurt us.

    Jaxon followed me into the house. I had him sit on the couch while I went to change. I uncoiled my hair and took the braid out so I could rebraid it entirely and pin the coil again. I pulled off my clothes and put on a black sports bra and boy shorts followed by black yoga pants and a tight dark blue tank top that went down to the tops of my thighs.

    Teddy was going to go pick up Chinese food for supper. I was excited, he always got my favorites. Plus, not making supper would be a huge relief. I could focus entirely on helping my students.

    I walked out into the living room and pulled my book from the bag. I only had a bit further to go. Tomorrow, I could get something planned for the conversation. For easier books, we had fewer in depth discussions. I decided I’d have Mr. Paulson pick the next book to see what he was thinking they could handle.

    Jaxon was on the couch reading from his tablet. There was still about an hour before Tammy would arrive. I sat in the cool, quiet living room, my boyfriend across from me, and read about the Dashwood sisters fates. I wondered if living in Austin would be like this all the time. That would be amazing.

    We read quietly for a while. I finished the book and closed it, setting it on my lap and leaning back with my eyes closed to process it. Finishing a book always made me feel a sense of euphoria, rather than a sense of loss. I’d reached the authors intended goal. The place where the characters moved into their happily ever after.

 ****

    I hadn’t realized I’d dozed off until there was a knock at the door. It pulled me out of the darkness of sleep. No dreams were better than my very active ones. I climbed out of the chair and opened the front door. Tammy was wearing her workout clothes, too.

    I led her into the dining area and we set up her computer. Today, we were just going over a little of everything. My study group tonight was a mix of civics and history. I only had four students for each so I combined the groups.

    “Holy shit.” I heard Jaxon mutter.

    “Is something wrong?” I asked as I bent over to type the Wi-Fi password into Tammy’s laptop.

    There was a camera shutter noise behind me. I turned and saw Tammy putting her phone away.

    “Seriously, Tammy?” I laughed.

    “Sorry, Juniper, you know I couldn’t let that ass go undocumented.” She winked.

    “Can you send me a copy of that?” Jaxon asked. “I need it… for… reasons.”

    That made me laugh even harder. It was nice to have fun again. Maybe I’d just needed to normalize a little. Jaxon seemed to be great at keeping me grounded. Talking to him about school earlier felt really good and natural.

    Tammy and I got to work. We covered a lot of information in a relatively short time. She only had a few things in every class she wanted to be sure of or understand better. Jaxon was still sitting on the couch, reading. I wanted to go sit with him and rest my head in his lap while he read. It would have to wait.

    After about an hour, we started packing Tammy’s things away. She brought out some wrist and shin guards along with some lightly padded gloves and helmets. I grabbed my mouth guard from my room and we headed to the back door. Jaxon put his tablet away and followed us, sitting on the patio furniture as we exited the screened in area.

    “You ready, tiny?” Tammy scoffed as she put in her mouth guard and tightened her helmet.

    “I’m not gonna be too padded to move. You might be in trouble this time.” I warned as I put in my guard and started mimicking her movements.

    We danced around each other for a while looking for an opening. When the fight finally started, I felt unbound. My movements were smoother, my speed faster, and I was able to actually hold my own against Tammy. The fight went on until one of us was down… it was me. Not surprising, but Tammy congratulated me on going for as long as I did.

    She worked with me on technique and where I went wrong during the fight. We ran through some fighting sequences and throws. When we were done, I was less sweaty than I’d been last week, but still not comfortable enough to try and tutor like that. I told her about the men at the café and she said my assessment and decisions were good in the situation.

    I cut up some fruit and cheese, then grabbed a glass of ice water for each of us. We went to the porch and sat with Jaxon. He was gazing out at the back lawn. I handed him a water and it seemed to break him out of his trance.

    “You okay, honey?” I asked.

    “You two looked like you were having fun. I guess I just got all fuzzy brained from watching it.” He responded carefully.

    Shrugging, we ate our snack while I talked with Tammy about our schedule for Friday. School let out an hour and a half early since it was the last day before exams. I would have time to come home, get dinner started in the crockpot, grab my book, and get to the library. Garrett would be driving me.

    We would head back to the house after and my first tutoring session at five-thirty. Supper would be at seven and my next group would arrive at eight. They’d be done by nine and the girls would be at the house by then. We’d get ready to go out and hit the all ages club downtown.

    The club wasn’t much, but it was fun. A couple of my friends who I used to take dance lessons with were usually there on Friday night. I always enjoyed dancing with them.

    On the weekend, it was busier than the week days. There was a capacity limit on the bar side that was a lot lower than on the soda side. We went often in the summer and on the weekends when we stayed with Tammy or Kelly. Hank didn’t seem to know I would go out. I knew he’d have had a fit if he found out while I was living there.

    Our night was planned to end at midnight or one o’clock. After that, Tammy would drive us home and we would sleep in my room. The next day, everyone would leave by noon. We’d meet up at the bistro around six-thirty for dinner before we headed to prom.

    “If you want, Red told me he’d paid for a limo for Clayton and Becca. He offered it to us. We could pick everyone up.” Jaxon offered.

    “Amber would love that!” Tammy grinned.

    “Let’s do it then. I’ve never been in a limo before.” I said.

    Jaxon pulled out his phone and texted Red. This was going to be a pretty cool night. Tammy messaged Amber that we’d pick her up from her house. She wanted to make it a surprise. I thought it was adorable.

    When we finished with our snack, Tammy headed out. I sat with Jaxon for a while on the porch. He asked about the training and it led into the workouts we did. I hadn’t been running all week. I resolved to go in the morning.

    “I’m gonna go shower and change.” I told him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

    “I’ll head back in soon.” He responded.

    I grabbed the clothes I was wearing earlier. There was no reason to get another outfit, since I was going to bed after my group was gone. I went into the bathroom and started the shower. The hot water felt great on my sore muscles.

    Once I was clean, dry, and dressed I went back out to start setting up for my later group. Jaxon was reading on the couch again. I sat next to him and leaned against his shoulder. He always smelled amazing and I wanted to enjoy it for a while longer. I hadn’t realized how much my training would take out of me after nearly a week of not working out. Soon, I was sleeping again.

[Jaxon]

    I was reading when I noticed Juniper had fallen asleep again. I worried about her. Last Thursday, she hadn’t seemed nearly as exhausted. She’d said Tammy had been training her, but I never imagined anything like the fight they had in the yard. It was sexy as hell to see her going all out. This was a day of revelations when it came to my sweet Juniper. I couldn’t get the image of her bending over in those yoga pants out of my head.

    Tammy sent me the picture she took along with a few others. Juniper stretching in a gym of some sort, her chewing on a pencil’s eraser while she was working on something, chewing her lip while she read a book, and sleeping while curled up with Kelly.

    She seemed to have a lot of cute pictures of my girlfriend. When I asked, Tammy said she took pictures of Amber and Kelly like that, too. Because they were just too good to pass up. It was understandable. Juniper did the same thing with pictures of me and her brothers.

    I read with Juniper sleeping against me until Teddy came home. Gary was with him and they were carrying bags that looked like they contained Chinese food. The scent confirmed it.

    “Hey, Jax. Didn’t expect you to be here.” Gary said.

    “She was feeling nervous after seeing Hank. Becca Shaw’s mom came and started yelling at them while Marie-Rose and I were in a shop across the way. There was a lot of other stuff. By far, the most eventful outing of my entire life.” I laughed.

    “That woman is a f*****g terror.” Teddy groaned.

    “Your mom invited the four of us to supper on Sunday. I told her I’d see what you wanted to do.”

    “The four of us? You mean Gary, too? My mother ignores the fact that I’m gay. She was always talking about how I need to get out and meet a nice girl.” Teddy scoffed.

    “When you came out, what did she say?” I asked.

    “Nothing. She just got up and went to her room. It hurt like hell.” He responded. Gary put his arm around Teddy’s shoulders and squeezed.

    “Today, she said ‘Teddy’s gay and we’re proud of him” when she was destroying Mrs. Shaw. Maybe she just needed to process and when you decided she was upset, she decided to wait on you to make the next move. Until then, she was probably treating it as if you hadn’t come out. Or she could’ve been hoping you’d change your mind and she changed hers when she heard you were with someone who made you happy.” I told him.

    Teddy shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. There’s too much room in that house to keep an eye on Juni and Hank at all times.”

    “What if we offered a compromise? A barbecue at Bobbi and Beau’s. We were talking about ways to get Buck and Remy to stop fighting. I can talk to Bobbi when I get home and we can do all the necessary research tomorrow. Kenny and Morgan will be here by early afternoon or late morning. I told Red I’d be taking tomorrow off. So I have the time to set everything up.” I said.

    “Who are Kenny and Morgan?” Teddy asked as he pulled containers from the bags.

    “Kenny’s my best friend from college and Morgan’s like her shadow. He likes being around her. We all hang out a lot. Kenny’s bringing my suit. She put it and my shoes into a carry-on, so it wouldn’t get lost.” I explained.

    Juniper had started waking up. She stiffened when I started talking about Kenny. I hoped that would change soon. Once they met, I knew Kenny would start working her charm.

    “I should get going. I don’t want to miss supper with the family. Have a good night, sweet.” I told her as I patted her hand.

    “Will you kiss me?” She murmured. “Please.”

    I turned to her and caressed her cheek. Juniper moved closer. Lowering my lips to hers, I gently pressed into her. She sighed and pushed back against my mouth. I pulled away before my body forced me to do more.

    “Drive safe, Jaxon.” She said a little sadly.

    “I’ll see you at book club tomorrow, sweet girl.” I whispered and got up to leave.

    I knew she was worried. There was nothing I could do about it until later. Right now, all I could do was tell her I loved her and try not to mess up too much.