Chapter Three



   Brenda, who was slated for a late lunch at one o'clock, thought the morning would never end. Since her fainting spell earlier and the revelation that she and the new owner of the Miner's Point Hotel had met before, everyone seemed to be eyeing her curiously. When it became clear that she wouldn't - or couldn't - answer any of their questions about the new boss, her fellow workers finally backed off - at least, verbally anyway. But their questions were still obvious in the looks they continued to give her.

She glanced up at the huge clock that graced the wall opposite the front desk and saw that it was nearly one o'clock. She had everything entered and tabulated and in order at the front desk, ready for even the most discerning inspection. Faith had come back a few minutes early from her own lunch, so Brenda was hoping that she could slip quietly away before Jax came out of his office. Just then the ornate front door swung open and a beautiful, young woman, with long, dark hair and electric blue eyes, and carrying a baby pack on her back, entered the front lobby, smiling and waving at Brenda.

Brenda smiled and waved back. Lois was her best friend, as well as her sister-in-law, and seeing her was always a welcome diversion. And Lois's son, nine-month-old John Harlan Barrett was Brenda's only nephew, and she thought he was adorable and doted shamelessly on him. Maybe this day's looking up, she thought, as both Lois and the baby smiled happily at Brenda.

Lois reached the registration desk and leaned her elbows on the counter, fixing a bright smile on Brenda. "Hi, sweetie," she bubbled. "Jared's off at the feed store and then he's got to get a tire fixed, so Harlan and I thought that if you hadn't had lunch yet…" But she stopped short in her invitation, her gaze lifting and her blue eyes widening as they settled on something - or someone - standing directly behind Brenda.

Brenda knew who it was that had caught Lois's attention, even before she heard his voice.

"Miss Barrett has a prior engagement," Jax announced, in a voice that brooked no room for argument, as his hand tightened on her elbow.

"But-" Brenda tried to shrug out of his grip without creating a scene, but his hold on her was too firm.

"If you'll excuse us," he said, as he whisked her around the counter and out the door before Brenda could offer a hardy protest.

On the sidewalk out front, she finally managed to shake free of him. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "That's my sister-in-law you were so rude to in there. You can't just… just impose yourself on me this way."

"Touching you is imposing?" His laugh sounded cynical. "You didn't used to call it that."

"Jax..." She was at a loss as to how to respond to that, and she suddenly felt vulnerable to him, just as she had on the cruise. But on the cruise, her love had made her vulnerable; now she supposed it was her guilt.

He took her arm again and she steeled herself not to react to his touch, but a shiver rippled through her anyway and she silently cursed her body for betraying her.

"Come to lunch, Brenda," he ordered icily, "unless you want to cause a scene…"

A scene? No, thank you! And with the father of her child, no less? She'd avoid *that* at all costs. No one - not even Jared and Lois - knew the identity of JJ's father. They didn't even know that JJ's middle name was 'Jasper" after his father. And for his part, Jax had no idea Brenda even had a child, let alone that it was his child. Looking up into his handsome face - the same face that was mirrored in their son's - Brenda realized that Jax had far more with which to coerce her than he could even imagine. Her heart plummeted at that thought. "All right," she finally relented.

"But can't we just have lunch right here in the hotel's dining room?" She frowned as he shook his head at her suggestion. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to be interrupted during this lunch, and if we stayed here at the hotel restaurant, we surely would be," he countered, as he scanned up and down the street for another place for lunch. "We'll go someplace where we can have a little privacy."

"Where?" she asked suspiciously, stubbornly planting her high-button shoes on the sidewalk and refusing to move.

Fire leapt into his sparkling, blue eyes. "Where?" he parroted softly, through clenched teeth, "…Any place I say, Miss Barrett. This little talk is long overdue, and we *are* going to have it - whether it's today or a year from today - so you may as well accept that and stop delaying the inevitable." Grabbing her by the hand, he hauled her down the sidewalk toward a small café on Bennett Avenue, walking as fast as her old-fashioned, high-buttoned shoes would allow.


******************


Jax closed his menu. "I'll have a buffalo burger and a glass of iced tea," he told the waitress, and then he leveled his gaze at Brenda: "How about you?"

"I've *had* buffalo burgers," she answered tersely, angry that he was treating her as if she were a child.

"Have you had escargot?" he asked, smiling slightly at the memory it evoked in him.

She felt a blush climb steadily up her throat and across her cheeks at his reference to her reaction to being served snails on board the Immortal. Her incredulous reaction had not been what he expected from the sophisticate that she'd been pretending to be. "I've had escargot as often as I care to," she countered grimly, feeling totally humiliated now.

"Good," the waitress interjected sarcastically, "because we're all out of that."

Biting her lip, Brenda quickly returned to studying her menu. Who was she kidding? She wouldn't be able to eat with Jax sitting across the booth from her. She glanced at the waitress, who appeared to be waiting patiently for her order but who was more likely enjoying being next to the handsome, new owner of Miner's Point. "I'll just have a salad, Rosie," Brenda finally decided. "Ranch dressing on the side, please - and iced tea."

"You got it, Brenda." the waitress answered as she scribbled the order on her pad and then scurried away. "I'll bring the teas right away," she called back over her shoulder.

They were once again alone. Now what? Brenda wondered, twisting her hands into a knot in her lap. She risked a glance at Jax. He appeared to be staring at her with a combination of anger and hatred. What reason did he have to be angry at her, she wondered when he was the one who…

"So what have you been up to in the last five or six years?" he asked suddenly, his tone caustic. "Been on any good cruises lately?"

"No, I haven't been on any more cruises - good or otherwise. After what happened the last time, you don't think I'd-" She stopped, appalled at his callous attitude. She suddenly realized that he didn't seem to have any idea as to what she was referring. " I… I haven't had time," she continued lamely. "I'm a working girl, after all."

"For the moment, at least," he retorted, his gaze pinning her to her seat.

"W-what's that supposed to mean?" she asked uneasily. He suddenly had her completely off-balance and struggling to keep up with his shifts in conversation. How had she once thought him the easiest person in the world to be with?

He traced a scratch in the tabletop with a well-manicured thumbnail. "Somebody was late to work this morning. I didn't hear any names tossed about, but process of elimination leads me to conclude it was you."

She didn't respond, merely hanging her head guiltily, unable to offer up her reason for being late once again: his son, JJ, could be slower than molasses when he wanted to be. "I'll try not to let it happen again," she murmured weakly.

"Try hard. Clarence Grover grudgingly admitted that you're late, on average, at least three days a week. Of course, he also insists you're a model employee once you get there - the best he's got, in fact." He paused in his diatribe, waiting until Rosie served their drinks and departed before continuing, "Perhaps his lax attitude with his employees is the reason he couldn't make Miner's Point more profitable. The hotel has everything going for it and should have been a great success before this."

"That's not the reason at all," Brenda countered. "Besides, his attitude isn't lax; it's…it's considerate. He takes extenuating circumstances into account when dealing with his employees."

"What extenuating circumstances?" Jax demanded, his eyebrows raised.

That hard blue gaze pummeled her. She bit her lip, knowing that she couldn't very well tell him that Mr. Grover understood how difficult it was for a single mother to hold down a full-time job.

He continued to press for an answer. "I'm waiting. What extenuating circumstances would there be - besides too many late hours and too much high living?" he asked caustically.

He was pushing too hard, making her angry. She lifted her chin and glared at him. "Look, *Mr. Jacks,* you can fire me if you want, but you can't sit here making assumptions about my life and giving me the third degree. If that's why you dragged me here, you've wasted your time."

"I doubt it that it's been a complete waste. I expect that you got my message, Miss Barrett: three strikes and you're out. Is that clear?"

"Quite clear." Her jaw was beginning to ache, it was set so stiff.

"And you've already got one strike," he pointed out acidly.

Before Brenda could tell him what he could do with the other two strikes, Rosie plunked down Brenda's salad and his burger.

"Dressing on the side," Rosie announced, as she placed a small bowl before Brenda. "You folks need anything else?"

"Not at the moment," Jax cooed, flashing Rosie a brilliant smile. Brenda looked away, feeling that familiar ache deep in her heart at the sight of that smile.

"Anytime, Mr. Jacks," the waitress grinned. "And welcome to Port Charles. Your kind is always an asset to our fair city!" Giving him a broad wink, she sashayed away.

Jax laughed at Rosie's antics, and the sound of his sweet laughter tore at Brenda's heart. That was the laugh that she remembered: an indulgent and approving sound that sent a warm shiver down her spine. Heaven help her, he was a charmer - at least when it suited his purposes.

While he devoured his buffalo burger, Brenda poked at her salad and pretended to eat. She hadn't begun to come to terms with his sudden appearance, and she knew she wouldn't be able to even begin sorting out her feelings until she could be alone. And since she was late to work once again this morning, she'd have to work a half-hour later tonight to make up for it, which meant she'd be even later getting home to JJ and her own thoughts. Fortunately JJ's sitter had no problem with her erratic hours; and JJ seemed unfazed by them also. That's when it hit her: JJ… What would Jax's sudden appearance in town mean to him?

Jax quickly finished his burger, wiped his mouth and fingers with the paper napkin, and dropped it beside his plate. He glanced at her barely touched salad and gave her an amused look. "Do you plan to eat that or just play with it?"

Brenda had had all of the sarcastic barbs she could stand for one day. She unceremoniously dropped her fork and glared at him. "May I be excused? I'd like to go back to work now."

"You may not," he answered stubbornly. "I brought you here to-"

"Correction: you *dragged* me here!" she interrupted angrily.

"For a purpose," he continued, ignoring her annoyed outburst.

"Yes, and I know what that purpose is - to humiliate me. Well, you've already done that quite nicely - so if you have no further objection-" she moved to stand, but he reached out his hand to stop her.

"I'll have no objection after you answer just one question," he said firmly, his hand holding her arm firmly; his eyes riveted on hers.

She sucked in a deep breath and pressed her lips together, waiting.

"Why didn't you call when you said you would?" he asked quietly.

At last - there it was, right out in the open - straight to the point, no beating around the bush or dodging the real issue. She was grateful that he'd finally laid his complaint on the table. Her answer should have been straightforward, but instead she stammered: "Well, I was sick when I got back to New York, and when I got off the plane, Jared took me-"

"Jared?" Anger flashed in his eyes at her mention of a man's name.

"My brother," she clarified. "That was his wife you insulted back at the hotel."

"I see," he nodded, relieved that Jared was her brother and not a lover. "Please go on. You were saying you had a cold-"

"I had more than a damned cold, Jax!" she retorted, angry that he underestimated the events that had kept her from calling him when she'd promised. "I had some awful, tropical virus that completely flattened me. In fact, Jared took me straight from the airport to the hospital, where I was flat on my back for ten days."

"And then you got well, because here you are," he answered, still unmoved by what fate had handed her back then.

"Then I went to my brother's for two more weeks…" she continued, trying to ignore his pointed insults.

"This brother doesn't have a telephone?" he interrupted sarcastically.

"Of course, he does. But I didn't want your number on his telephone bill because he would have asked a lot of questions that I wasn't prepared to answer," she tried to explain

"I see," he said, but he didn't look as if he did. His expression was just as hard as it had been since they'd arrived at the restaurant. "And after that?"

She bit her lip. "I... lost your number," she said quietly.

He gripped the edge of the table so tightly that the dishes jumped. "Give me a break!" he roared. "You *lost* the number?"

"Well, I *did!*" she protested weakly. "But then I-"

"Give it up, Brenda," he broke in angrily.

"You asked!" she shouted back at him, her eyes flashing.

"Okay, I take back that question," he conceded. "I don't need to hear any more. All you're offering are excuses - and pretty lame ones at that. You never intended to call. You were leading me on-"

"I never did that!" she objected. "I meant everything I said; everything I did!"

"If that were true, you wouldn't have given up on me so easily. Why are you feeding me this line of-"

"Just stop it, will you?! I finally gave up because I know *everything!*" The anguished look on her face spilled over into her voice. "I finally found that number you gave me. It had slipped through a tiny hole in a seam of my jacket pocket, and I practically had to take the jacket apart to retrieve it…"

"Oh, *really?*" He sounded bored, but he didn't look it; he looked furious.

"Yes, *really!*" she spat out through gritted teeth.

"Funny, I don't recall any messages from you - or even hearing you'd called," he shot back, insulted that she was continuing this farce of an explanation.

For a very long, very tense moment they both just glared at one another, before Brenda finally shattered the silence. "You mean your *wife* didn't mention it?" she blurted out, as she broke away from his hold and stormed out of the café before he could even catch his breath.


To be continued.....


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