Page 82 of Jax & Knox

We head to the kitchen. Jax starts the coffee while I lean against the counter, arms crossed.

"You good?" he asks, not looking at me.

"Yeah."

"Liar."

I exhale slowly. "Just thinking."

"About?"

"About how different things are now."

Jax glances over his shoulder at me, his expression serious for once. "Different how?"

"Different like… I don't recognize the man I was a month ago."

He nods slowly, turning back to the coffee maker. "Yeah. I know what you mean."

"Do you ever miss it?" I ask. "The way things were before?"

Jax is quiet for a long moment. Then he shakes his head. "No. Not even a little."

"Me neither."

He pours two mugs of coffee and hands one to me. We stand there in silence, sipping our drinks, both of us lost in thought.

"I used to think freedom meant not being tied down," Jax says finally. "No commitments. No responsibilities. Just doing whatever the fuck we wanted."

"And now?"

He looks at me, his green eyes steady. "Now I think freedom is knowing exactly where you belong. And who you belong to."

I nod. "She's it for me, Jax. For us."

"I know."

"I don't want that life back. The endless rotation. The meaningless hookups. I don't want any of it."

"Good," Jax says. "Because neither do I."

We clink our mugs together, a silent pact.

We're done being playboys.

We're done pretending we don't need more.

Ainsley changed everything.

And we're never going back.

Later that evening, Perdition is packed.

It's Friday night, and the bar is buzzing with energy, club members, Old Ladies, locals who know better than to cause trouble. Music pounds through the speakers, and the air smells like beer and leather and smoke.

We're here for couples night, something the Old Ladies insisted on after the chaos of the past few weeks. Ainsley deserves a night out, a chance to relax and just be with the people who've become her family.

Our group claimed a large corner booth near the back: me and Jax with Ainsley between us, Hadley sandwiched between the twins Weston and Wyatt, Tessa practically in Cole's lap, and Steele with his arm around Erica.