Page 132 of Forgive You

Even if I assume the men in my life will act before they think as soon as I tell them all the nitty-gritty issues I’ve been facing, there’s at least one person who wouldn’t.

Who’s the epitome of calm and sensible, even when she has every right to bite back. She’s the one who can help me.

I hurriedly wolf down my breakfast, then get dressed in some jeans and a sweater in record time before I drive the Jeep back to the other side of town.

Walking up the front porch, I’m nervous, my hands shaking a little, but when I ring the doorbell, I straighten my spine, focusing on the relief it will bring me when I get all this shit off my chest.

“Hey, babe!” Charlotte smiles in surprise when the door flies open.

I glance inside, wondering if I need to steal her away, since what I’m about to tell her isn’t exactly PG-13. “Where are the kids?”

“Hunter took them to the park. You alright?” She frowns, and my heart starts to race.

I step inside, rubbing my sweaty palms together, not allowing myself to back out now. “There’s so much I haven’t told you.”

37

This beer tastes like piss.

But I doubt anything else will taste much better considering the mood I’m in so it’ll do.

I take another sip.

“You really think she’s still fucking Jacob?” Jordan sits beside me on the bed of my old truck, strumming on his guitar.

“Pfft, I don’t know.” But then that comment makes my insides shrink. “No. But there’s something going on with them and she won’t tell me what. How am I supposed to trust her when she won’t be honest with me?”

“I don’t know? You just do?”

Her hurtful expression from last night is etched into my brain. It’s gutting me, it really is.

But I also have to protect myself.

In the past ten years, she went back to Jacob more than once. How can I trust that she’s really committed to us, tome, when he’s still standing between us?

He isn’t just a ghost from the past; there’s something that still has her connected with him, and I don’t wanna deal with that if she won’t open up.

A deep roar rumbles into the clearing, a truck parking next to us before Hunter pops out. He eyes the bottle in my hand, then looks up at the sun. Squinting, he shoots me a look.

“Are we into day drinking now?”

“Yup.”

“Huh.” He nods, then pulls something from the passenger seat. “It’s a good thing I brought beer, then.”

His grin is wide, holding up a six-pack before shoving me aside to sit on my left.

Jordan sets his guitar behind us, making a little room before he eyes the beer cans. “It says zero percent.”

Hunter arches an eyebrow. “I’m a dad and I’m driving. I ain’t mocking fate.”

“God, you turned into such a dork,” Jordan chuckles.

Hunter rests his back to the side of the bed, one leg cross legged and the other dangling to the ground as he eyes my brother before his judgy expression falls on yours truly.

“Don’t even care.” He opens one of the cans. “I’m assuming we’re bitching and drinking about the blonde who hijacked my wife?”

My curiosity is spiked instantly.”

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