Page 90 of Unstoppable Love

“Exactly. Because he’s always been that man. Yours and mine both work hard, and don’t get me wrong, Dad pampers Mom in his own way too, but I noticed that about your dad tonight. It was such a small thing, but your mom cooks. He does the heavy lifting. She prepares and preps and plans and does all that, and he’s the first to start cleaning. My dad walks in, sits down, eats, and usually leaves. It was different, something I hadn’t noticed.”

Perhaps because Isaiah and I were always the last ones to the table, the first to dip when everything was done, to avoid Connie’s blasted kitchen rule.

“Huh. I’d never thought about it, but now that you mention it…” Her worried, pinched line was back between her eyes, and she shook her head. “Never mind.”

“Not never mind. What?”

“It’s about Kip,” she said with a warning tone, and I forced my jaw not to tighten. “So it doesn’t matter.”

As much as I hated to say it because I didn’t want to know anything about Kip, I replied, “He was a part of your life, Ava. I don’t want to hear specifics about anything special, but you can talk about him.”

“It’s silly, but until you said that, I never understood why I’d get annoyed with him at dinner. He’d do things if I asked, but it felt like it was a hassle, so I stopped. I guess I never realized it was because my dad just did them.”

I had a feeling Kip hadn’t done much of anything to make her happy but didn’t point that out. Not my business. And since she was mine now, what he didn’t do didn’t matter anymore.

“Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“No.” I grabbed a beer and took a long drink. “Talked to your brother when I left your place last week, and I know you know that. But when I was talking to him, he brought up Jimmy Jr.”

“Oh.” Color faded from her cheeks, and she cupped her glass with both hands. “What about him?”

“You hear about him drying out in the drunk tank?”

“Yeah. Of course. It was the talk of town at Jumpin’ Beans the next morning. Someone said he was hitting on Alexis, and Brant had a problem with it.”

“How’d hearing that make you feel?”

She frowned and pulled back from me, but her cheeks were still getting paler. “What do you mean?”

“It means that night at Tom’s when he was bothering you, that wasn’t the first time he scared you.” She’d already admitted it but refused to talk about it further.

“I’m not sure why we’re talking about this.” Her voice was shakier than it usually was, and there wasn’t a hint of her sass or fire in sight.

“Because Ava.” I reached out and dragged my fingers along the back of her neck. “You told me you came to me scared all those years ago. That you were afraid someone was going to take what you weren’t willing to give.”

“So?”

“No one has ever pressed charges or filed an official report about Jimmy. Until women start doing that, he’s going to keep doing what he’s doing. And someday, a woman is going to be seriously hurt, if he hasn’t hurt them already.”

Ava was shaking her head, looking at me, but it didn’t appear she saw me. Something flashed in her eyes. “He didn’t hurt me,” she finally said. “Not like that…”

God, I fucking wanted to let this go. Move on to more enjoyable parts of the evening, but that was out the window until this was sorted. And even then, I wasn’t feeling it.

“Not like what, Ava? How’d he hurt you?”

She took a drink and closed her eyes. “This is dumb to be talking about.”

“It’s not dumb. Not if he marked you in some way. Not if he hurt you.”

“He didn’t mark me,” she snapped, and there was anger there, but there was also fear.

I leaned forward, forced down my billowing rage and rampant desire to shove my fist in Jimmy’s face for the fun of it, and kept my voice calm, my fingers soft against her neck. “I’m not your enemy, Sunshine. I want to help, but I know you’re scared of him, and I want to know why.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you, and I have no doubt if he doesn’t already know we’re together, he will, and I’m concerned that’s gonna make you a target for him. Mortons hate us. Always have, probably always will, unless they bring someone decent into this world, but I can’t always protect you from Denver, so for me, I at least gotta know what worries you. He walks around, trying to prove he’s better than his old man even though I think the shit he does makes him worse, but nothing is going to make him feel like a bigger winner or man than if he can take something that belongs to me.”

“He’s Jimmy. He’s always mean to girls. Women. Always has been. He doesn’t get the word no, and he’s handsy, but as far as I know, it hasn’t ever gone further than that.”

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