Dungeon Daddy by Golden Angel

Chapter 11

Jax

When Jennifer dragged herself downstairs, Jax looked up from where he was sitting, already on his second cup of coffee. She was wearing blue jean shorts and a tank top, her hair hanging straight from her center part on either side of her face. Typical, relaxed weekend clothes for her, but she didn’t look at all relaxed. Jennifer’s expression was full of suspicion.

“Did you make blueberry muffins?” she asked.

“Yes.” They were a house favorite, which they normally only pulled out for special occasions…. Oh. Crap. The scent and lack of special occasion had given him away.

“Where’s Mom?”

“She slept at Cyana’s last night after her girls’ night.” He thought it was an innocuous answer since he didn’t want to get into it before Daniel came down. If he had to confess his sins to his kids, he only wanted to do it once.

Jennifer crossed her arms over her chest. God, she looked more and more like her mother every day, especially when she looked at him like that.

“Pizza last night, blueberry muffins this morning, and Mom’s not here? What did you do?”

Inwardly, he sighed. Yeah, he probably should have known he wouldn’t be able to put this off.

“Go get your brother,” he said, rather than answering directly. He didn’t want to have to go over this twice.

Whirling around, she stomped to the bottom of the stairs.

“Daniel! Wake up and get down here!” she yelled loud enough the neighbors probably heard her.

“I could have done that,” Jax commented dryly when she turned around. “I meant for you to go upstairs and get him.”

His daughter shrugged an unrepentant shoulder. Creaks above them indicated Daniel was up and moving, so it had worked, which only made him want to sigh harder. No point in haranguing her with the clear evidence she’d been effective.

Keeping one suspicious eye on him, Jennifer went over to grab a couple muffins off the rack on the counter where they were cooling. Jax took another large swallow of coffee as his stomach twisted nervously. He had no idea how the kids were going to react.

Sitting down in silence, Jennifer cut one of her muffins in half and buttered it. Jax watched her out of the corner of his eye, fingers tapping nervously against his thigh under the table. All morning, he’d been waiting for them to come down so he could get this over with, but now he wished he had more time.

Daniel pounded down the stairs a minute later.

“I smell blueberry muffins. Why do I smell blueberry muffins? Did I forget someone’s birthday?”

Before Jax could answer, his daughter was on it.

“Mom’s not here. Dad messed up somehow, and she slept over at Aunt Cyana’s instead of coming home. That’s why we’re getting pizza and muffins.” Jennifer looked up from her muffin and glared at Jax. “Are you guys getting a divorce?”

“What? No!” Daniel was bewildered. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, he stared at Jax, looking as if his entire world was ending. Fuck, Jax knew how he felt. And he’d thought blueberry muffins would help make this easier?

“No one is getting a divorce,” he said firmly. Hell, Esther had thought he was cheating on her for months, and she hadn’t tried to divorce him. Instead, she got a makeover and started wearing lingerie. Yeah, he’d done a lot of thinking about that last night, too. There was no way he would let her go without a fight. She’d been fighting for him, for them, and he hadn’t even realized. “Your mom and I are having some issues, and we did have a fight last night, but we’re going to resolve them.”

Neither of his kids looked convinced, but Daniel seemed somewhat reassured. He relaxed enough to grab a plate and pile muffins on it, though his expression remained far from happy.

“I have something I need to tell you. I haven’t been working late.” His kids stared at him while he went through his explanation. Not that he told them he thought Esther would be jealous because she’d already been insecure about Suzie, just that he hadn’t wanted to tell her because he’d be hanging out with so many young women. Daniel nodded, though his expression was confused, and Jennifer rolled her eyes.

“Dad, that’s a terrible reason.” Seething, she was defensive and protective of her mother.

Jax didn’t blame her. Likely, she was placing herself in Esther’s shoes, wondering what it would be like if her husband did this to her. While she didn’t have a steady boyfriend at the moment, she was old enough to be thinking about things like that. Jax knew if he’d found out some jerk had lied to his little girl the way he’d lied to Esther… Yeah, he sure as hell wouldn’t have found that a good reason.

“It is?” Daniel asked, bewildered.

Crap. Yeah, definitely not the example he wanted to set for his kids. Despite the typical teenage rebellion, he knew in some things, Daniel still thought Jax could do no wrong. What a way to fall from that pedestal.

“It is,” Jax said firmly. The best example he could give both kids now was to fess up when he was wrong and take the metaphorical punches on his chin. “I should have told her, regardless, because lying didn’t make anything easier.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.” Daniel went quiet again.

Jax got the sense he was processing everything and possibly still worried about his parents divorcing. Leaning over, Jax put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, and he didn’t try to shake it off, confirmation his son was unsettled.

“Everything’s going to be okay, son,” Jax said quietly. “Sometimes, it’s easy to forget relationships take work, especially when you’ve been in a good one for a really long time. I made a big mistake, thinking I knew what was best and not communicating with your mom the way I should have. Now, I’m going to do whatever I have to in order to win back her trust.”

“Okay.” Daniel let out a long sigh of relief, and Jennifer looked mollified—and relieved. She was definitely mad on Esther’s behalf, which was understandable, but not so mad she wanted Jax gone, which might be the best he could hope for at the moment. Teenagers could be so volatile. He still vividly remembered the first time each of them had declared they hated him.

Fuck. He’d really underestimated the effect his absence had on his family. It had been just once or twice a week, which didn’t seem like a big deal, but clearly, it had been more of one than he’d thought. Or maybe it was because it had gone on for so long.

Either way, it was time to fix it.

“What are you going to do?” Jennifer asked, still skeptical.

“Good question. Got any suggestions?” He’d get some from his kids and some from his friends, all the people who knew and loved her best and had seen what he hadn’t, then make a plan from there.

* * *

Esther

Being at Cyana’s house without her was a little weird, but Esther didn’t want to go home yet. She didn’t want to face Jax. Didn’t want to face the kids and figure out what to tell them. Which wasn’t fair to them, but she needed a break. Like, a weeklong vacation.

“Want to go on a cruise?”

“What?” Leah looked at her as if she had two heads. To be fair, they’d been sitting on Cyana’s couch in silence for ten minutes, so it had come out of nowhere. Their hangovers were only marginally better. The sharpness of her headache had dulled, but her entire body felt sore, especially her joints.

It didn’t help that Cyana’s couch was one of those super comfortable, cushy couches that tried to eat people. Esther wasn’t sure she would ever be able to get up, although it wasn’t a bad plan. She could stay here and become one with the couch and not have to worry about husbands keeping secrets, her own bad communication skills, or the effect this would have on her kids.

“Esther.”

“What?”

“A cruise?” Leah prompted from the other end of the couch. She was propped up with her back against the other arm, facing Esther, with her legs on Esther’s lap.

Oh, right.

“I could use a vacation away from everything. Running away sounds nice right now, but I don’t want to have to take care of anything. On a cruise ship, they do everything for you, cooking, making your bed, and they have those cute little towel animals.” Esther loved the towel animals. The monkey was her favorite, but the elephant was super cute, too.

“That actually sounds really nice, but you can’t run away from this,” Leah said. “Maybe we can go on a celebratory cruise after you and Jax fix things.”

“If we fix things.” Scowling, Esther knew her tone was dark and dire, but she didn’t care.

“You’ll fix things… as long as you want to fix things. Do you want to fix things?”

Esther sighed. Ugh.

“Yes, but I also want to kick Jax in his naughty place.” There was a bit of plaintive whining in her voice she recognized. Her babygirl side. The side of her she’d been trying to suppress. The side of her that had been disappointed and mad when she’d stormed off, and Jax hadn’t followed, even though she would have given him hell if he had. The side of her that wanted him to wrap her up, hold her tight, and tell her everything was going to be okay.

She wasn’t so sure she liked that side of herself right now.

“I want to smack him upside the head.” Leah demonstrated with her hands, using one of them as a placeholder for Jax’s head. “I wanted to do that to Gavin a lot, and I had valid reasons to be upset with him. But he wasn’t all in the wrong.”

“Yeah, I know. Jax messed up this much.” Esther held her hands out in front of her. “I messed up this much.” She brought her hands closer together. Frowned. “Or maybe more. This whole blow-up could have been avoided if I had told him earlier the late nights were hurting me and that I wanted him home instead of being passive-aggressive. I mean, he knew I wasn’t happy about that, but we didn’t really talk about it.”

“This whole blow-up could have also been avoided if Jax had told you from the beginning what was going on,” Leah pointed out. “But yeah, I get what you’re saying. There were several points along the way where different choices would have changed the outcome.” She sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I definitely know all about that.”

Esther’s phone rang, the obnoxious buzz of its vibrations against the coffee table hurting her head. With a sound of frustration, she leaned over and snatched it up. The music filtered through her brain—the theme to the Addams Family—and she groaned. It was one of her kids. She so wasn’t ready for this, but waiting wouldn’t make her any readier.

“The kids?” Leah asked sympathetically.

“Yeah, Jennifer.” Esther sighed again and swiped to pick up. “Hey, sweetie.”

“Hey, Mom... Daniel’s here, too… Dad told us everything… Are you okay?” The words came out in a rush as if she couldn’t get them out fast enough, worry laced through them. Esther sat up straight... well, straighter. The couch didn’t exactly make ‘straight’ possible.

“He told you everything?” Her voice squeaked. What had Jax done? No, wait, of course, he wouldn’t have told them everything, but he’d taken on the burden of telling their kids what was going on by himself instead of waiting for her. Maybe she should be mad he hadn’t consulted her first, but at that moment, she was too relieved to be spared.

“Yeah, he told us about the game thing he was doing instead of working and how he lied about it. He apologized to us, and he said he’s going to do whatever he has to in order to earn back your trust.” Jennifer sounded skeptical. “I can’t believe he was off playing a game that whole time.”

“Mom plays the game, too.” Daniel’s voice wasn’t as loud, as if he was a little farther away from the phone.

“With their friends and Dad. She doesn’t play it with other people.”

“No, I don’t, though the fact he wanted to play wasn’t the problem.” Even if he had been right about her feeling insecure about him spending a bunch of time with a group of young women, it would still have been better than lying to her. Now, she felt insecure about everything. She decided it was best to steer the conversation to safer waters, though. “Yes, I’m okay. I’m with Leah, and we’re hanging out for a bit. I’ll be home before dinnertime.” Saying the words settled something inside her. Yes, she would go home tonight. See her kids. See Jax.

She was encouraged he’d told the kids the truth, apologized to them, and declared he’d win back her trust. While it didn’t take away any of the hurt, it counted for something. Just how much, she wasn’t sure yet.

“Okay. Love you, Mom.”

“Love you, Mom.”

Esther’s heart melted a little. Whatever she and Jax had done wrong with their relationship, they’d done something very right with their kids.

“Love you both. I’ll see you later.”

She hung up the phone and looked across the couch at Leah. Her friend was leaning back against the couch’s arm, head tipped back, eyes closed, one hand on her head.

“Leah? You still awake?”

Leah groaned.

“I am never drinking again.”