She was there at the funeral, too, hugging him so hard with those skinny arms of hers that he felt like his bones might pop, then hounding him constantly in the dark days afterward. We’re all hurting. Please don’t suffer in silence. Talk to me, sweetheart. I’m here for you, always. He loved Mrs. K, but she was the kind of mother you didn’t want as your own, needy and demanding and completely relentless. When he’d pulled back, when he’d stopped taking her calls and made himself scarce whenever she dropped by, she marched up the stairs and barged into his room.

“Jax Edwards, where the hell have you been?”

He shot upright on his bed, grateful he wasn’t naked or—Jesus, what if he’d been jerking off? It was bad enough that a pair of his underwear was stuck to her left heel. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off the damn thing.

“Here. Around.” He shrugged his shoulders up to his ears. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know.”

He shook his head.

Mrs. K sighed, a heavy, put-out sound, and moved closer, dragging the underwear for a few steps before she kicked it aside. “Your mother warned me this would happen. She asked me to look after you—did you know that?”

Nobody had ever told him as much, but Jax wasn’t surprised. Why else would Mrs. K be coming over here all the time? Certainly not because he was such great company. Hell, the only person besides Mrs. K who wanted to spend time with him was Paul.

She sank onto the edge of his bed, draping a hand over his knee. “She was so worried about you, sweetheart. About you doing exactly this. She always said you were the more sensitive child.”

The pity on her face brought tears to his eyes, but he blinked them away. He wasn’t about to cry now. No way. Not happening. Not with Mrs. K looking at him like that, like he might break apart or something.

“Uh, what am I doing?”

“Sitting up here all alone, punishing yourself for something that isn’t your fault. Pulling away from the people who love you most, pushing us away. Your family and Paul and me. We love you and we know you’re hurting, and we want to be there for you. Please let us be there for you.”