Page 20 of Undeniable Love

“Charlie FaceTimed with us too, and we all had a good time.”

Still nothing.

Leaning in menacingly, he added, “Even the dog liked me.”

This time she rolled her eyes even as her lips twitched. “Barkley likes everyone. You’re not special.”

This was getting him nowhere, and honestly, he didn’t have a lot of time. Tomorrow, he was on a flight back to Wichita and he had hoped to have everything settled so he could go back home and talk to Declan and Travis about it.

“What is it you want me to say here?” he asked with his own huff of annoyance. “I’ve apologized to Tyler and your folks. We’re all good. And it seems to me if they’ve all accepted my apology, then you should accept that.”

Now her eyes went wide. “Wow. You are unbelievable.”

He was smart enough to know it wasn’t a compliment.

“It doesn’t matter to me if my family was foolish enough to forgive you,” she snapped. “But I don’t, okay? You were gone while my brother was crying in pain every day. You were gone when he had to re-learn how to walk. And you were gone when he had to come to grips with the fact that everything he had been working for his whole life was gone. You all left and went to college and onto greater things. Meanwhile, back here in crappy old South Creek, we almost lost our house because of all the medical bills. My mom used to cry all the time because she had no idea how we were going to live. Wyatt had to drop out of college, and I didn’t get to go away to any of the ones I wanted to because we couldn’t afford it.”

Damn. That was…a lot.

“Okay, but…”

“No!” she interrupted. “No buts. Because of you and your father, my family was nearly destroyed. We were happy and had a great life until grad night! You ruined so many things and you got to walk away and have a glorious life, Jax, while we were robbed of ours. My parents are still paying those medical bills!”

“Wait…what? That’s not…”

She held up a hand to stop him. “So I don’t care what kind of charity project you come up with to clear your conscience or to clean up your image. It doesn’t matter to me. Do whatever you want, just like you always do. But leave me out of it.”

Jax was too stunned to speak.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, Gemma and I had plans tonight, and I’d like to text her and get on with them.”

The polite thing to do was to step aside, apologize, and thank her for her time.

But Jax wasn’t known as the polite Wylder.

“You know what, Lucy? You’re standing here spouting off all the bad things that happened. Things I can’t change, and believe me, I wish to God I could! You see Wyatt having to drop out of college as a bad thing, but he’s a successful owner of a construction company and he seems incredibly happy. I hung out with your parents today, and they told me about the trip they just took to the Grand Canyon and how they’re taking salsa lessons. They looked and sounded happy and in love, even after almost forty years of marriage. And Ty? Yeah, that one’s going to haunt me until the day I die, but you know something? He’s a fighter and he’s living his life and is very successful in everything he does.”

“He would have been successful in the NFL too,” she said snarkily.

“He very well might have,” he told her. “But we’re never going to know. I get that, okay? I know plenty of guys who had career-ending injuries. None of us are guaranteed anything! Ty’s a freaking awesome person; he’s probably one of the greatest people I’ll ever know! He’s not sitting around wallowing in self-pity, but that’s probably because you’re doing that for the entire family.”

And with his own look of disgust at her, he turned and walked away.

“Hey!” she shouted before coming after him. “Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that? You don’t get to turn this on me! This is all your fault!”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jax knew this was getting them nowhere. Lucy had been a great kid when they were growing up, but had also been a major pain in the ass at times.

And apparently still was.

“I’ll tell you who the hell I think I am,” he said firmly, facing her. “I’m the guy who’s only willing to stand here and take so much abuse from you. You have no idea about half of what you’re even talking about! So maybe instead of hauling all kinds of accusations at me, check your facts first.”

“What…?”

* * *

It would have been easy to set a few things straight, but he wouldn’t. For some reason, she had a certain view of the way things were and the way things were currently. So he’d let her stew on that for a bit.

“I know the facts,” she countered defiantly. “I was there. Unlike you.”

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