Page 43 of Riding Jamie

“Honey, I’m so proud of everything you do,” she says. “I’m glad that you tried something new, even if it didn’t work out the way you planned.”

Hearing her say that takes the weight of the world off my shoulders, and I let out a shuddering breath as I wrap my arms around her waist. We stay there as I fight off grateful tears. When she pulls back, I see genuine happiness on her face, and it cements my decision. I’m doing the right thing.

“Thank you,” I say softly. “I promise I’ll work hard, and I’ll talk to Uncle Ricky about starting a branch out here once I graduate.”

My mom ruffles my hair, grinning, as my dad tucks back into his sandwich.

“Let’s start with filling out an application before we talk about graduation,” she chides me, laughing.

“I’m actually going to meet Phoebe for lunch and then head back to her place so I can put my application in before the deadline for next semester.” I stand, pressing a kiss to my mom’s cheek and then to my dad’s before heading for the door. “I’ll see you tonight for dinner?”

“Be home by six!”

“Yes, ma’am,” I promise as I grab my bag and keys from the hook by the door.

My mood is light as I hop into Bo’s truck, and I roll the windows down for the drive into town. The air is crisp with the cool of winter. I sing along to my favorite songs from high school, enjoying the comfort of being back home again.

The streets are pretty quiet, but it’s the middle of the day, so that’s to be expected. I pull into a parking spot on the street about half a block away from the diner, planning to get some fresh air and enjoy the scenery.

Almost as soon as I step onto the sidewalk, Shane pops around a corner. His face splits into a wide smile, and he pulls me into a quick hug.

“Oakley! I just texted you asking to meet up, what a coincidence,” he says, laughing as he releases me from the hug.

“Oh, sorry, my ringer isn’t on,” I say. “I’m actually on the way to meet my best friend for lunch, but let’s hang out another time?”

Shane waves my words off with one hand as he reaches into his backpack with the other, rotting around.

“I won’t take your time up, promise, but I wanted you to have these.” He pulls out a stack of papers, handing them over to me. “My aunt Tammy is a lawyer, she deals with blackmail and fraud. I told her I had dinner with you and your parents and your boyfriend, and she was upset to hear you were still with Jamie.”

I stare at Shane wordlessly, so confused I don’t even know what to do. What does his aunt have to do with any of this? He presses the papers into my hand, smiling sympathetically.

“I thought he seemed like an alright guy, but I guess his dad and your dad have issues,” he continues. “Anyway, she pulled these up from when your dad was considering pressing a case against him, and it was worse than I expected. I just…I thought you should see it. I don’t want you getting wrapped up in anything dangerous.”

My brows cinch together in pure bewilderment, but I glance down at the papers. I know my dad and Jamie’s butt heads a lot, but neither of them have ever made it seem like there was serious bad blood between them. I’ve never heard anything about blackmail, or a criminal case being pressed. There are more pages than I expect, and I rifle through them awkwardly on the sidewalk.

My confusion mounts as I skim over them, anger bubbling in my gut. I may not understand everything, but what I do know is that it doesn’t fucking look good.

Does Jamie know about the kind of shit his dad gets up to?

Does he know about all of this?

“I—sorry, I have to go,” I choke out, disoriented and furious. “Thanks for this, Shane.”

He calls something out behind me as I turn tail and dash back toward the truck, but I’m too focused to pay any attention to what he says. I shoot Phoebe an apologetic text telling her that I have to bail, promising to explain everything later.

I need to get back to Jamie’s place and get some answers about all this, fuckingnow.

Chapter Twenty

JAMIE

I ignorethe sound of the front door slamming open. My dad has been in a rotten mood since he realized my injuries would wind up with me retired instead of in a coffin. There was about a day where he was glad I was alive, and then it shifted to cold, sniping anger since I can no longer ride the circuit.

I damn near jump out of my bed when my bedroom door is pushed open so hard the hinges squeal in protest.

“Oakley?” I ask, baffled. “What’s wrong? I thought you were going to lunch with Phoebe?”

I hiss in a pained breath as I push off the bed, the muscles in my shoulder twinging. Oakley is red in the face and shaking, staring at me like she’s never seen me before in her life. I step forward, holding my good arm out to her.

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