After the birthday party, Jax didn’t see Alexa’s little sister until nearly six years later. She had apparently, two weeks after the party, been accepted into the prestigious Dame Agnes School for Girls in England. Jax assumed that had been her father’s idea, after the reactions the then-eleven-year-old Brenda had drawn at his party. It must have scared Harlan Barrett silly to see how his pre-adolescent daughter could command a room full of boys and grown men like that. All in all, Brenda was probably lucky her father hadn’t sent her off to a convent. Although the Dame Agnes School, run by nuns, might as well have been a convent.

     The fetching little Barrett girl had stayed in Jax’s mind on and off over the years, but anytime he would ask Alexa about her sister, Alexa would just sigh and divert his attention from that topic.

     All throughout college, Alexa had diligently pressed her romantic pursuit of Jax, whenever she got the chance to see him, which was not that often, since she attended Berkley while Jax went away to Yale. But Katherine had always been there to offer advice, encouragement and the tutoring of feminine wiles, while pushing Veronica slowly but surely out of the picture. Soon Alexa did not heed any of her mother’s advice about Jax, but took all of Katherine’s advice instead. While Veronica had encouraged Alexa to hold out on becoming lovers with Jax until she had an engagement ring on her finger, Katherine had suggested that by becoming lovers, Alexa would create a new level of intimacy with Jax that could only serve as an asset in keeping her on his mind when he was tempted by other girls at Yale, and would also be an asset in gaining a commitment from him in the near future.

     And so Jax and Alexa had become lovers the second Thanksgiving holiday he’d been home from school, and now at the age of twenty-three, Alexa was feeling quite confident that she could, in fact, secure a marriage proposal from the man of her dreams. Not that Jax was really giving her any reasons to be confident or even really hopeful, but Katherine’s pep talks always assured Alexa that Jax was interested even if it didn’t seem that way. And at least she did not know of any other women whom he was interested in.

     Katherine was in agreement that Jax merely need some serious pushing to consider the idea of marriage and make the offer. To that end, she thought they might have to make Jax jealous and make him see how sought-after Alexa was, in order to put him in a frame of mind to want to scoop her up for himself before he lost her to another. Katherine had hoped for the engagement by the time Jax was 21 and the marriage a year later. But Jax was 23 now, and was not accommodating her plans so far. Neither was he accommodating her political plans for him in the way she would have liked.

     True, he had been a wildly popular and successful class president at the University, just as he’d been in his high school. But politics seemed to hold no real interest for Jax. He was as fascinated with numbers and financial schemes as their father had been, and as musically and artistically gifted as his mother had been. And Katherine feared that Jax would pursue a future in corporate raiding, like their father, or in the arts, like his mother. Neither was what Katherine wanted for him, and she intended to make sure the path Jax followed was the one she charted. Alexa would be a great asset in this endeavor, once she was wed to Jax. Her influence on him and her loyalty to Katherine would be an invaluable combination that pleased Katherine greatly.

     With Christmas fast approaching, Katherine was full of plans, both for her brother’s love life as well as his career, and it had her in a fine holiday mood. She was on the phone with a Senator she was persuading to offer Jax a job, when Jerry walked into the den, glaring at her.

     “Whatever you’re plotting now, forget about it,” Jerry told her.

     Katherine finished up her call and then hung up the phone, shooting her brother a look of pure irritation.

     “Jerry,” she said with a sigh. “What are you doing home? I thought you were inclined to spend the holidays with Uncle Ian at Sherring Cross, this year?”

     A smile touched Jerry’s lips as he walked over to the bar and fixed himself a drink. “What I was inclined to do, sister dearest, was to make sure that whatever you’re concocting for Jax fails. So you see, he is on his way to Sherring Cross, as we speak, to spend the holidays with dear, lonely Uncle Ian,” Jerry announced, his smile widening with glee as he saw his sister’s face pinch up in outrage at his announcement.

     “Damn you, Jerry, how could you do that! I... I need Jax here, damn it! It’s imperative!” Katherine vented.

     “Why?” Jerry asked, placing his drink down and crossing his arms as he stared at her. “Were you perhaps intending to sabotage another meeting between him and the board of Jacks Enterprises?”

     “Oh, Jerry, don’t be an complete idiot!” Katherine said, waving an arm at him in a dismissive gesture. “I am not trying to sabotage anything, silly boy. You know perfectly well that Jax is far too young to run Jacks Enterprises. It’s a ridiculous fantasy on his part, and I only saved him from making a fool out of himself by putting the request to the board. Milt Barrymore is doing an excellent job as CEO."

     “Milt Barrymore is not a Jacks.”

     “Uncle Milt was Dad’s best friend,” Katherine reminded him. “Dad wanted him to run the company.”

     “No, Dad always wanted one of us to run the company after he was gone,” Jerry corrected her. “It did not happen only because you had no interest, and Jax and I were both too young.”

     “Jax is still too young,” Katherine said.

     “He is twenty-three-years old, Kat. He’s not a child!”

     “He is barely twenty-three,” she argued.

     “And you are not his mother.”

     “How dare you,” Katherine dismissed. “I raised him ever since he was ten. I raised you both.”

     “Yes,” Jerry conceded. “You did. And that still doesn’t give you the right to orchestrate our lives and plot and scheme to get us to fall into line with your vision. Have you any idea how brilliant Jax is, Katherine?” Jerry asked her. “How imaginative, how cutting edge? He was born to run this company and you bloody well know it! And I won’t have you standing in his way, while you chase your pipe dreams of putting him in the White House and leg-shackling him to Alexa Barrett.”

     “You’re babbling, Jerry.”

     “Jax will not be home for Christmas,” he told her. “So, as I said before, whatever schemes you’re concocting, you can just trash them.”

     “Oh, he will be home,” Katherine said with a smug smile, as she picked up the phone. “I’m going to invite Uncle Ian to spend the holidays here with us. Jax and he will be on the jet and at our doorstep before you know it,” she said with smile as she dialed.

     Jerry glowered at her, longing to snatch the phone out of her hands.

     Jax and Uncle Ian were having dinner at the home of Mavis Tillery, a friend of Ian’s, whose passion was cooking and trying out her fare on her dear friend, Ian. Her dining table, this snowy evening, was filled with guests, several of whom were young ladies, most of whom were choosing to stare at Jax, instead of eating Mavis’s fantastic seven-course meal.

     “Why, Ian, I do believe your nephew is quite ruining my dinner,” Mavis tittered. “I should have warned you that I’d have several young girls here this evening. They’re from the Dame Agnes School, you see. Those who were not able to get home for the holidays are taken in by members of my St. James Church Ladies Club. I’ve got eight girls with me for the two weeks encompassing the Christmas and New Year’s vacations, and then they go back to the school. I dare say they’ll all be dreaming of Jax after the two of you leave this evening.”

     Ian laughed. “Oh, yes, this lad always causes a ruckus wherever he goes. ‘Tis that damned face o’ his, Mavis. ‘Tis both a blessing and a curse, I wager,” he added with a wink.

     “Is there any lucky young woman at home waiting for you, Jax dear?” Mavis inquired.

     Jax heard every word they were saying but was distracted from adding to the conversation by the fact that a rope was suddenly dangling from the outside of the large picture window, on the opposite side of the dining hall. Then into view came a pair of expensive, black hiking boots. And then soon after followed a pair of shapely legs, clad in what appeared to be a snug pair of black velvet pants. Jax blinked as he watched the legs kicking about frantically a bit and then steadying. His eyes remained riveted to the window in disbelief as the legs lowered down the rope to reveal a short silver-gray parka, hood up but precariously close to being blown off by the wind, covering the most beautiful face he had ever seen.

     His heart slammed in his chest, and he knew who she was instantly. Who she surely had to be. Even after all this time, his memory told him that that face could belong to only one girl. Not to mention the lunacy of dangling from a window - only one girl would do such a fool thing, too.

     Apparently she noticed him noticing her, as her eyes widened in shock and in the next instant she lost hold of the rope, and Jax saw her fall to the ground below.

     He nearly choked on the spoonful of rice he’d slid into his mouth and flew up out of his chair so fast that everyone at the table was startled.

     “What in tarnation is the matter, lad?” Uncle Ian asked, staring at Jax.

     “You’re not choking are you, my dear boy? Oh, my lord! Heimlich!” Mavis Tillery commanded. And all the teenaged girls at the table eagerly raced to Jax, grabbing him and trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him.

     “No, I’m fine, really,” Jax said, trying to disentangle himself from the jungle of female arms trying to grab him and save his life. “I just… I thought I saw… never mind. I think I just need some fresh air. I’ll be right back.” And with that completely baffling explanation, he raced out of Mavis Tillery’s house.

     Once outside, Jax made his way quickly over to the picture window. And he saw her. She was lying in the snow, atop some thick shrubbery, which had, thank god, broken her fall. She looked a bit stunned, which he assumed the fall was responsible for, but otherwise unharmed. He knelt down over her.

     “Are you all right?” he asked, his eyes scanning her for any signs of broken bones or cuts or bruises.

     She nodded slowly and tried to sit up as he assisted her. She would act as if she did not know him, she decided. Oh god, what was he doing here anyway?! In England? And at Miss Tillery’s house, no less! Did that mean that Alexa was here, too?

     “Thank you… sir,” she said, as he helped her to her feet, and then she immediately turned to leave. He was not having any of that. He reached out and grabbed hold of her hand.

     “Do you mind if I ask what the hell you think you were doing?” he shouted at her. “You could have bloody well killed yourself!”

     “Don’t be silly. It wasn’t that far of a drop. I’m perfectly fine. Thank you for… checking. Good night,” she said, again attempting to flee in case he recognized her. But how could he, she thought? She had been eleven years old the last time she saw him. He wouldn’t recognize her now.

     Suddenly his hand was tugging off her hood and her face was being cradled in warm, strong hands. She shut her eyes. If he remembered anything it would be her eyes, she realized. They were unusual enough to remember. She felt his thumb running slowly along the length of her jaw.

     “It is you, Brenda, isn’t it?” His voice was soft, stunned, and yet quite certain.

     So she gave up the pretense of not knowing him, and opened her eyes. “If you’re Jasper Jacks, then I’m Brenda Barrett,” she confessed with a smile. Because the truth was, she had always liked him and he was her friend, and she wasn’t exactly unhappy to see him, if her rapid heartbeat was any indication.

     A smile touched his lips. “Well, I’m definitely Jasper Jacks,” he said, extremely pleased that she both remembered and recognized him. His eyes roamed languorously over every breathtaking inch of her face. “God almighty,” he whispered in amazement.

     He had known that the bewitching eleven-year-old would turn into a ravishing beauty, but even he had not been prepared for this. At seventeen she was exquisite beyond words. He gazed into her eyes - darkly beautiful, with sparks of gold. Yes, those eyes could only belong to one person.

     “Is my sister here with you?” she asked, feeling her body melting under his deep, intense gaze. Not that she’d ever forgotten what a sinfully attractive boy Jax had been, and not that she hadn’t expected him to turn into the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life. For he was exactly that. But… She hiccuped. She was not quite ready to deal with reacquainting herself with such male perfection, while standing around in the freezing snow.

     “No,” Jax said, his voice soft and distracted as he continued to stare at her.

     His stare began to bother her. “Please stop doing that, Jax, all right?” she said, placing her hands over his to try to remove his hands from her face.

     “Stop doing what?” he asked.

     “Looking at me. Staring at me,” she said.

     “I can’t,” he murmured. She was bedazzling to behold. He couldn’t stop staring at her if his life depended on it, he realized.

     “What?”

     He shook his head. “Brenda, what are you doing here?” he asked her. “And why the bloody hell are you sneaking out through the window?”

     She gazed at him then. “Aren’t you cold, Jax?”

     He realized then that he’d raced outside without his coat, so shocked had he been to see her; so scared had he been to see her fall.

     “Good point. Let’s go inside,” he said, taking her hand.

     She yanked her hand out of his and backed up. “No thank you. I’d rather be leaving. You feel free to go back inside though, all right? Happy holidays and all that. It was lovely to see you again.”

     Jax gazed at her. God, was she beautiful.

     “Why aren’t you home?” he asked suddenly. “With your family?”

     “I’m on my way there,” she explained.

     “I see. And so you have to climb out of a window to go home?” he asked, grabbing ahold of her waist with lightning speed, sensing that she was about to flee. Which she had been.

     “All right, here it is. My dad is at a doctor’s convention in New York, and I’m not sure if he’s going to make it back home in time for Christmas. And my mother,” she began, “she just must have forgotten to send my ticket. So they - the people at school, that is - they thought since no ticket was sent and nobody came to get me, that I was to stay here for the holidays, Jax, but I’m not! I have a family. I don’t need sweet Miss Tillery’s charity. All I have to do is just… I have to call my mother and remind her about the ticket. She must have forgotten, that’s all…”

     Jax knew that Brenda didn’t believe a word of what she was telling him. She knew her mother did not particularly want her home and that with her father not there to force the issue, her mother would be pleased to have Brenda remain in England for the holidays and not come home at all. Jax’s opinion of Brenda’s mother has not been very high when Brenda was eleven, and it was even lower now when Brenda was seventeen and desperately trying to convince herself that her mother had not deliberately not sent a ticket for her to get home for the holidays.

     That feeling of hating to see Brenda unhappy, Jax realized, was as prevalent inside him now as it had been when he was seventeen-years-old. Stronger now maybe, if that made any sense. Which it didn’t.

     “You don’t have to feel sorry for me,” she said quickly, feeling embarrassed as she saw the tender look that was creeping into his gorgeous blue eyes. Eyes which were very much a becoming sparkling blue-gray in the snowy darkness of the night. “This is no big deal. I’ll be fine once I get to the airport.”

     “Oh, really? And what do you intend to do once you get there? Hitchhike on the runway?” he asked her, unconsciously pulling her closer.

     “I won’t have to do that, Jax. I’m-seventeen-and-a-half now, not eleven, you know. I can take care of this. I’ll just… I’ll call my mother… She’ll send the ticket for me - You know, one of those electronic tickets that I can use right away. This will all be straightened out.” She knew it was a blasted lie, and it was all she could do not to cry. But as always, her feeling of sadness over her mother’s lack of interest in her turned into defiant anger in the next few seconds, and it put a halt to any idea of shedding tears over the likes of her mother.

     “She won’t,” Jax said what they both knew to be true. “Because,” he added, “you see I was sent to get you,” he improvised, determined to rid her of that unhappiness. “That’s why I’m here.”

     Brenda looked up at him in startled surprise. “You were?” she asked hopefully, and then decided it was not possibly true. “You were not.”

     A heart-fluttering smile touched his lips. “Are you asking me or telling me, my bonny sprite?” He pulled her closer still. She hiccuped several times. Nerves, she decided as she gazed up at him. My, he had gotten tall - she barely reached his muscular shoulders. His good looks had also now gone into the realm of being illegally gorgeous - but, no, he had always been that, she confessed. “I’m here for the holidays to spend them with my Uncle Ian. You remember him, don’t you?” Jax was saying.

     Brenda nodded and smiled, and Jax was momentarily dazed by that flash of irresistible dimples that he remembered so well. “I do remember him. I liked him very much.”

     Jax nodded. “You’re going to spend the holidays with him. And with me. So you see I am here to get you, Brenda,” he told her.

     Brenda thought that sounded quite unlikely. And yet, here he was, in Miss Tillery’s house, where she was staying. And he was alone. No one from her family or his was with him. Except his Uncle Ian, of course.

     “I’m going to stay with your Uncle then?” she asked, still skeptical of these plans. He had to be lying, of course. He hadn’t come here for her. But if he were willing to take her with him now, she thought it might be fun to stay with him and his Uncle Ian. She’d really liked his uncle when she’d met him at Jax’s seventeenth birthday party. And then of course there was Jax. Whom she certainly liked a lot, too.

     “Yes. But I’ll be there, too. He’s got a great place in the countryside of Edinburgh.”

     “As in Scotland?” Brenda asked.

     Jax nodded, and then he smiled at her. “No need to look so adorably perplexed, sprite. It’s actually not all that far from here. It used to belong to my father, and it’s called Sherring Cross. You’ll like it,” he predicted.

     Brenda knew her mother and sister did not want her home for Christmas, and she had no idea if her dad would make it home in time to send for her. Better to be where she was wanted. And Jax wanted her - somehow she just knew that was true. And he was practically family, in a way. Her sister was going to marry him. Or so everyone back home kept swearing up and down.

     She took a step closer to him, stood up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I know you didn’t come here for me, Jax. But thank you for saying you did. And if you’re serious about your invitation, then I think I would love to spend the holidays with you and your Uncle Ian.”

     He didn’t say anything, just gazed down at her in a most disconcerting way that made her start to hiccup again.

     “Would you give me a boost back up?” she asked, nodding in the direction of her bedroom window.

     “Why?” Jax asked her, not once taking his eyes off her. She really would have to remind him how rude it was to stare, she decided.

     “So I can get back inside,” she explained. “Then you can come in and get me, and I’ll just come down the stairs like a normal person. And then Miss Tillery will never have to know that I climbed out of her window. I don’t want to cause her any real distress or anything. She’s really very nice, you know.”

     “You’re not climbing back in,” Jax said. “I’m sure there has to be a back entrance or something.”

     “Jax, I just need a boost,” she insisted. “Look, it’s not that far up, see? It’s that room right there with the light on.”

     “No,” Jax said.

     “No?”

     “If you think I’m about to let anything happen to you, you’re crazy, all right?”

     “Nothing is going to happen to me.”

     “Oh, like ‘nothing’ happened to you on the way down? Now, come on,” he said, taking her hand and casing the back of Miss Tillery’s house.

     “This is ridiculous. You know you’re freezing to death,” Brenda told him. “And we’re just wasting time looking for another way to get me inside when there is a perfectly good rope waiting for me to climb back up it. I can climb it, you know,” she muttered.

     Jax just laughed and suddenly stopped and drew her into his arms, giving her a hug. “I had forgotten how bloody stubborn you were, bratling,” he said.

     Brenda hugged him back, realizing how happy she was to see him. He’d been so kind to her when she was a child. He had really been her friend, even in the short time they had known one another before she had been sent away. And she remembered how much fun he was, too. She also remembered the major-league crush she’d had on him, but looking at him now, that was certainly a very understandable affliction, she decided.

     “Does this mean you’re going to give me a boost up?” she asked him.

     Jax slowly pulled out of the hug and gazed down at her. He looked at her in that way that made her heart flip over. “No. Or had you forgotten that I was even more stubborn than you are?”

     And with that, Jax found a way in through the basement window and got Brenda inside the house. “Now go upstairs and pack your things. I’ll see you in a few minutes,” he said. And then he disappeared back outside, while Brenda scrambled up the stairs, suddenly feeling that she would have a very happy holiday indeed.

     When Jax came back in through the front doors, everyone was staring at him.

     “Did the fresh air cure what ails you, lad?” Uncle Ian asked, a puzzled look upon his face.

     Jax nodded. “Yes. Perfectly. Might I have a word with you, Uncle Ian?” he asked, beckoning his uncle over.

     Ian excused himself and went over to Jax. “All right, lad, what in the blue blazes is wrong with you? And don’t try ta sidetrack me ‘cause I’m meanin’ ta know,” Uncle Ian demanded in a whisper.

     “Brenda is here,” Jax said.

     “Brenda?” Uncle Ian repeated blankly, and then the memory hit him. “Oh, lordy, surely you don’t mean the wee dark-haired lass, who took every man’s livin’ breath away at that party o’ yours way back when? The one you were always callin’ your bonny sprite?”

     “The very same. And I’ve invited her to come back to Sherring Cross with us,” Jax added quickly. “Apparently her mother has decided she doesn’t want Brenda home for the holidays and left her to stay here in England, which Brenda isn’t exactly taking too well. I actually found her climbing out of her bloody window in an attempt to get to the airport and from there do only god knows what. She could have killed herself!”

     Uncle Ian was amused and intrigued by Jax’s anger at the thought of harm befalling the lovely young lass. “I take it she’s fine though?” Ian drawled.

     Jax nodded. “You don’t mind, do you? Brenda coming with us?”

     Uncle Ian shook his head. “Why, of course not. I thought she was a darlin’ lass. Although, my goodness, I can only imagine what the lass is lookin’ like now! She’d be, how old now?”

     “Seventeen,” Jax said absently. “And-a-half,” he added recalling Brenda’s habit of being amusingly specific about the extra six months. Even when she’d been eleven, she’d constantly remind him abut the “and-a-half” of her age at the time. “So it’s settled then, Uncle Ian? Brenda will leave with us?”

     “Yes, m’boy. I’ll go have a word with Mavis and fill her in, so she’ll know the girl will be in good hands. You go and collect the little miss, and we’ll be off.”

     When Jax came down twenty minutes later, carrying Brenda’s suitcase, with Brenda directly behind him, her hand warmly encased in his, all the other girls simply stared in disbelief. They all pretty much hated Brenda, whom they dubbed the “ugly American.” It was the fact that she was so very beautiful and so very lusted after by the boys at Drew Marsten Academy that inspired the envy and ill feelings. They were simply speechless to see her standing at the foot of the stairs, ready to leave… with arguably the most magnificent male specimen they had ever laid eyes upon.

     Brenda thought that the girls were all staring at her because she was standing next to Jax, who was so magnificent to gaze upon that one could not help but stare. But then she thought they might be staring because Jax was holding her hand as if she were a child. She tried to inconspicuously pull her hand out of his, but he didn’t feel like letting her go and only tightened his hold on her when he felt her trying to pull away. She gazed up at him, bewildered and slightly irritated by his behavior, but he wasn’t paying her any attention. He was talking to Miss Tillery, asking her if his uncle had explained about what was happening.

     “Oh, yes,” Miss Tillery said, and then turned to Brenda. “So it appears you are leaving us, my dear. To have a wonderful holiday with your sister’s fiancé and his family in Scotland. Ian has told us all about it, and we’ll miss you here not sharing the holiday with us, dear, but you will doubtless have a much finer time with your in-laws-to be. Holidays are the time for family, and you most certainly should be with yours.”

     For some reason Brenda was quite irked to hear all this fiancé business. Why hadn’t Jax told her? For that matter, why hadn’t any one in her own family told her of such news? Not even her father or grandmother had told her. A quick phone call, a letter, an e-mail - was it too much to ask for? She was really tired of everyone always wanting to exclude her from everything. What exactly was the point in having a family if you never felt a part of them?

     “Thank you, Miss Tillery,” she managed to get out. “For your hospitality and everything. Merry Christmas,” Brenda murmured, giving the woman a hug, as the other girls continued to stare at Brenda in astonishment, most of them unable to meet her eyes. Undoubtedly, the fact that Jax was going to be her brother-in-law had shut them up, Brenda decided, wanting to laugh.

     “To you, too, dear; to you, too.” Miss Tillery hugged her warmly and then also hugged Jax, and then hugged and kissed Ian before they finally were able to leave the Tillery house.

     Once they were outside Jax turned to his uncle. “Uncle Ian, why did you have to tell her that Alexa is my fiancée?” he asked in exasperation. “Jumping the gun much, are we?”

     “Well, now, lad, just you simmer down, please. You dinna think she was just goin’ ta up and hand Brenda over ta the care o’ strangers, now did you? No, not my Mavis. She takes takin’ care of these girls seriously. Now, me passin’ us off as practically family of Brenda worked much better! Besides, it seems ta me that if your sister is determined ta have her way, then you’re likely goin’ to be marryin’ the woman sooner or later, so what’s the harm in a wee white lie or a bit o’ presumption?” Uncle Ian said with a grin, and then he turned to smile at Brenda, ignoring Jax’s scowl of displeasure over his uncle’s words. “Well, hello there, lass. My goodness, but you’re a sight for sore eyes,” he beamed. “And as I suspected, you have indeed grown into a treasure rare and surely to be coveted by every man in the land, I say! You are as bonny as they come, you are,” he said, opening up his arms to her for a hug.

     Brenda smiled at him and gave him a big hug. She felt better that Jax wasn’t really engaged to Alexa yet, so she hadn’t been excluded from the news, after all. “Thank you so much for taking me in for the holidays, Mr. Jacks,” she said. “I know Jax must have just sort of sprung it on you. But please don’t be mad at him, he was just…”

     “Nonsense,” Ian shushed her. “I never get mad at this lad. And I’ll have you know that I’m happy as a clam ta have you stayin’ with us, darlin’. But I must ask that you call me Uncle Ian. If my bullheaded niece has her druthers, we are likely goin’ ta be family one o’ these days, you surely realize,” he said to Jax’s exasperation.

     Brenda managed a pretty smile, although the idea of Jax and Alexa getting married gave her the absolute worst stomachache. She hadn’t gotten one of these weird stomachaches since she was a child.

     “Ah, what a bonny lass,” Ian said again, shaking his head in wonder. “Your father will be likely killin’ his poor self tryin’ ta keep the fellas away from your door. Got a special young fella in your life now, do you?” Ian asked.

     Jax had about had enough of this conversation. “Are we going to stand out here freezing to death all night?” he asked. “Let’s go home.”

     Ian and Brenda both looked at him, caught off guard by his sudden moodiness.

     “Home it is then, lad,” Uncle Ian agreed, gesturing Jax ahead to open the car, while Ian wrapped a fond arm around Brenda and began to ask her all about how she was doing at school.