Free Your Heart to Keep: Holly and Jax by Amanda Mackey

Chloe’s boyfriend was? I heard there was a bit of a disturbance at the hospital, understandably due to the pain he must have been in.”
    The woman’s voice perked up a bit, the angle of the conversation being drawn away from her own grief. “He’s been doing pretty rough. He blames himself for the accident.”
    “But it wasn’t his fault, was it?”
    “Oh no. Just a terrible accident. We don’t blame him at all but he’s got it into his head that being the driver of the vehicle, he was responsible.”
    “Would it help if I talked to him?” I didn’t know how on earth I thought I could help when he more than likely resented me right now for having something of his girlfriends. “Maybe try and explain to him that despite such a tragedy, there has also been a blessing?”
    “I…uh…I’m not sure that would be a good idea right now. You seem like a really sweet girl but Jax…well, he’s a tough nut to crack. Nice guy and treated Chloe like a queen but I don’t think they ever saw eye to eye on the subject of organ donation.”
    Jax. Huh. Not the name I imagined him having but as I bounced it around in my head, I began to feel a trickle of something familiar oozing over my senses and for a moment I was lost.
    “Holly? Is that what your name was?”
    “Oh! Yes, I’m sorry. What did you say?”
    “I really have to go. I still have family here that came for Chloe’s funeral last week. It was lovely to talk to you.”
    “Of course. Thank you for your time and again, I’m sorry for your loss.”
    “Thank you dear.”
    We hung up and I felt lighter. She seemed like a lovely lady and already I had so many questions about Chloe. What did she look like? Did she have lots of friends? What was her favorite color? What sort of car did she drive? It hadn’t been the right time to ask. I hoped that one day in the near future I could speak with her again and gain a better picture of the girl who gave me her heart.

Chapter Ten
    Jax
     
    It had been eight days since Chloe’s funeral. Micah sat on my bed in Mom’s trailer, checking his Facebook messages while I did a round with the punching bag.
    After the service and burial, Micah had driven me back and slept the night on the sofa in the lounge room. Mom had arrived not long after us in her car but had to head out to work a couple of hours later where she put in some hours serving drinks at a local bar called Heat. I hated her working there and always worried about her walking out to her car late at night with drunks and thugs loitering around. Sometimes I stayed up to go get her and other nights I made sure one of the bouncers walked her to her car.
    Now without my wheels, I wouldn’t be able to. I needed to get my shit together and sort out what was happening with my car.
    Mom looked pretty good for her age as far as moms went. She had my dark features. Brown eyes and hair, slim figure around five foot ten. I could see why men might look at her and want a piece which is why I worried about her working at the bar. During the day, starting at 7am she worked as a receptionist until 2pm so I didn’t get to spend much time with her because I sometimes didn’t get home from the work until 6pm. An hour tops and then she was gone again.
    Since my mother had been working at the bar, I must say, she’d earned some decent tips and had been stashing it away so she could move out of the trailer park and into a nice apartment. She almost had enough to start looking.
    I lived about ten minutes away in my own small house. It wasn’t much but it was all I could afford on my mechanic’s wage. It was two bedroom, one bathroom with a decent kitchen considering the size of the house itself. I’d asked Mom to move in a few months ago but she’d refused, knowing that a guy my age really didn’t need to be living with his mother. Plus, Chloe had stayed over most nights and I was sure my mom didn’t want to hear us going at it like rabbits.
    Today being Saturday, Micah was