Page 5 of Love or Tequila in Unexpected Places

“All right, I’ll consider it,” she said, laughter bubbling up. “Thanks, guys. Really. I thought I was going to have to face this alone.”

“You’ve got us,” Leopold said. “Just…next time, maybe try a little less ‘letting loose,’ okay?”

“Or at least remember the guy’s name!” Fred added with a laugh.

With her brothers rallying behind her, Allison finally felt a sense of hope in the whirlwind of chaos. “Okay, then. Let’s do this.”

One

ALLISON

When she was six, Allison drowned.

Okay, she didn’t really drown, since she was still alive and all. But, she nearly did.

She had been running on a pier, wanting to reach the pretty boats floating a few miles away. And before anyone could see her, she jumped.

Into the water.

Without knowing how to swim.

Yay brain.

It was like a scene straight out of a cartoon—arms flailing, water splashing everywhere, and the lifeguard sprinting over as if he were auditioning for Baywatch. By the time she was hauled out, she looked like a soggy cat that had just discovered what a bathtub was for.

She didn’t go near any body of water for five years.

But this? Oh,thiswas the most traumatizing event of her life.

“Allison Pink Lockwood!” a gruff voice boomed from outside her apartment. Allison winced.

He used the full name. I’m in deep fucking trouble.

She approached the door as one would approach a scared baby deer. Taking a deep breath, she opened it.

“Hello, Father,” she greeted him with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, which admittedly wasn’t much.

“Explain. Now.” He stormed inside, ordering her around in her own house, and she obeyed because her father was not a patient man. He had been the CEO of Lockwood Inc. for so long that he demanded nothing less than perfection from everyone. Even his children.

Especially me.

“Hi, Allison, how are you? Oh, I’m good, Father, thanks. How about you? Good, good,” she mimicked the polite conversation they should have been having, instead of the interrogation that was about to begin.

“Do not test me right now, daughter,” her father continued, standing,of course. “Frederick called me last night. He mentioned something that I thought made no sense. Because I knowmy daughter.” She winced. That was his favorite jab.

“But Frederick is not the kind of man who would lie to his father. Do you know how I know that? Because I raised him properly, just as I believed I did with you. Therefore, I need you to explain yourself immediately,” he finished, likely improvisingthe speech on the spot, as was his style after years in business. Or his style, in general.

A wave of betrayal crashed against her at the thought that her own brother had snitched to their father. It was as if she’d been stabbed in the back with a giant “World’s Best Brother” trophy. She could practically hear the theme music from a soap opera swelling in the background, complete with dramatic camera zooms and all.

Her brothers’ relationship with their father had always been strained, and for good reason. As she’d grown older, Allison had learned that their father had been cold and distant, leaving the child-rearing to their mother. But that was nothing compared to how he had treated Allison. To him, she was a constant reminder of what he had lost—his wife. She had killed her mother just by being born, leaving her father a widower and her brothers motherless.

Allison had missed her mother every day of her life, as both a fragile child and a growing woman. Her brothers had known their mother—they’d had her love, her warmth, her gentle touch. And Allison could never forgive herself for taking that away from them. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t meant to, that it wasn’t really her fault. The guilt was still there, a constant companion.

She took a deep breath. And a second one. Then a third. Then she left her red-faced father in her living room.

I need some juice.

By the time she returned to the living room with her orange juice—with the pulp—and her father’s scotch neat, he had whipped out his phone and started calling her brothers. Judging by his tone, he was currently speaking to—

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