Page 19 of I'll Carry You

After peeling his shirt off his head, Jason balled it up and threw it on a pile on the floor. Triple, then. TJ knew he had the upper hand. It was feeling like everyone did. “Fine,” he called back out the door. “But you’re not staying with me.”

He pushed open the shower door and started the shower. Of course, the damned thing would remind him of Jen now. She’d been so irritated with him when he’d called for service in the middle of the night. Of course, if he’d known she was the one at the desk, he would have waited until someone else was working.

Or taken a cold shower.

Of course, that reminded him of the other time he’d showered quickly after waking up with a massive hangover and having slept with someone he wanted to avoid.

He fisted his hand, wishing there was something he could punch nearby. He had never intended to get back into bed with Amanda. They’d beendonefor a long time.

But he’d been drinking too much the day of his grandfather’s funeral. And she hadn’t seemed so unappealing then. In fact, the entire episode had been one of their more pleasant interactions recently. And it would bother him less if he could be certain that he’d reached for that condom because he’d been expecting the pregnancy claim. Access to all of his grandfather’s wealth?

It was too good of an opportunity for her to pass up.

But he couldn’t quite remember. He’d had way too much to drink. His celebration of finally being free of that old bastard.

A paternity test might take care of Amanda’s claim if it wasn’t his, but she’d played her cards well. She knew the ninety-day limit as well as he did. And determining what constituted a legal heir could very well end up in court.

He stepped into the spray of the shower and grabbed the bottle of shower gel he’d brought with him. Normally showers were a refuge for him. Even as a teenager, whenever things got bad enough, he could hide in the shower and step away for a while. Showers let his brain shut off the thoughts and memories that the therapists hadn’t been able to help with. It was the only time he enjoyed being near water.

But not now. Now all he could think about was how to get the upper hand.

And if he had to pick between Jen and Colby—Kevin’s actual son—and Amanda, the choice was no contest.

At least Jen appeared to be a decent human being. Maybe she was hiding a more nefarious side. Some people who did religious or charity things were the biggest hypocrites he’d met. Then again, those tended to be the ones who liked to talk about it. People like Jen—who demurred when talking about it—were the ones who usually actually meant it. Of all the people involved, she might be the most reasonable.

But what would involving Jen mean?

He let the water run off his face. He hadn’t shaved for a couple of days, and the temptation to let the hint of a beard come in was strong. Maybe he’d fit in better here. He chuckled at the absurdity of it. How had Kevin slunk his way through this town? The whole of it was the antithesis to everything he knew of his brother.

Kevin had loved loud parties, fast women, and even faster drugs. The overdose hadn’t surprised Jason.

But the woman Kevin had a kid with . . . she was a surprise. Unless she was hiding something.

Now he really sounded like his grandfather.

He slammed his hand against the spigot, shutting off the water. He didn’t want to involve Jen in this. Each person involved made things more complicated. If it weren’t for the damned Powells, he’d be able to breathe, but they were strangling him, making the whole thing more tenuous for the people of Cavanaugh Metals he actually cared about.

People he’d known all his life. People who had comforted him after the deaths of both his parents. They were the reason he had stayed in Chicago for so long—to absorb the blows his cantankerous grandfather delivered as he’d grown increasingly more unstable and deluded about who was out to get him.

If it weren’t for the people in the company, he’d wash his hands of it. Walk away like Kevin had.

He could almost hear his grandfather’s smug laughter. “Yeah, right, Kevin. You’ll come back with your hand out. Neither you nor Jason could survive five minutes out there without my money.”

He grabbed a soft towel and stepped out of the bathroom, toweling off as he went. He had to talk to Mildred. Find out what had really happened to Kevin when the money ran out. Kevin hadn’t come to Brandywood by accident, that’s for sure. But what it all meant had broader implications than he allowed himself to consider before.

ChapterEight

Yardley’s was entirely too packedfor this.

Oddly enough, Jen had been dumped at Yardley’s before, by her first boyfriend, at age fifteen. But she hadn’t expected to be dumped tonight by three-date Brad, of all people.

God.She’d shaved her legs tonight.For this?

Could she even be dumped if they’d only gone out three times? They weren’t an official anything. Which was exactly why she shouldn’t have signed up for that baking competition without asking him.Shit.

Jen tried to focus on Brad’s moving lips, her brain going to the sound of live music in the bar beside the main dining room. She squeezed her eyes shut briefly, trying to unscramble her thoughts, which had dulled by the two glasses of wine she’d had during dinner, then looked back at Brad.

“So let me get this straight. You brought me out to tell me you don’t want to keep dating me?” She stabbed her cheesecake with a fork, though she had lost any appetite she had for it. “You couldn’t have told me by text? Before you spent the whole evening talking like nothing was wrong?”

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