Page 89 of Love Me, I Dare You

“After he defiled you and made a mockery of me and this family.”

“How did you?—”

He scoffs, setting the now empty glass down with a loud thud before approaching me. “Please, sweetheart. Your mama and I were quite aware of your obsession with the boy. I’d even warned Jase about bringing him around. Nothing good would ever come of his friendship with him, but your brother is as stubborn as they come. He trusted him, swore he'd never betray his trust and try anything with you because he’d made him a promise he wouldn't. I should have told your brother then that a promise made by a Bishop is as good as broken.”

Shock riddles my brain as I try to make sense of what my father’s insinuating. “Jase made Nash promise to stay away from me?”

“He did more than that. He warned him away after he found out what he’d done. Jase was the one to exile him from town. All I did was ensure he stayed gone.”

I always suspected it was the truth, but hearing it straight from my father’s lips is something I wasn’t prepared for.

Tear well in my eyes at the betrayal I feel of the two men I’ve loved my entire life. “How could you? You had no idea what I felt for Nash or what he felt for me. You played with my feelings, my life and future, like it was some game to you. I loved him.”

There's no sign or remorse on my father’s face, nothing but the certainty he made the right decision, playing with my life and emotions like it was his right to.

“You were eighteen, Bailey. You had no idea what you wanted to do with your life. Sweetie, you could barely decide what dress to wear to school, let alone decide about your future. Nash Bishop was no good for you, and I knew you wouldn’t listen. So your mama and I did what we had to do to protect you and our family’s reputation.”

“It’s always about that, isn't it? To protect the King family’s image over the happiness of its members.” Full-fledged tears are streaming down my face like salt water rivers threatening to drown us both. “I loved him, daddy. For ten years, I thought of him and nothing else. You had no right. Regardless, you didn’t achieve your goal of making me forget him and move on. If anything, you made me obsess more about why he’d left without saying goodbye.”

But deep down, I know my father isn’t the only one to blame.What could have been so bad that Nash chose not to stay and fight for me, for us?

“What did you threaten him with? Nash wouldn’t have left me, not like that.”

My father’s anger subsides as a sneer, smirk teases his lips. Whatever it was he knows I won’t forgive Nash for, at least it’s what he’s trying to make himself believe.

“You won’t like it, darling, because it didn’t take much. The boy was desperate and money hungry, just like the deadbeat asshole Franklin. I warned him, told him if he knew what was good for him and his brothers and sister, he’d leave town and stay away for good. The difference between Nash and his brothers was that in him, I saw Franklin. He’s just like his father, careless, impulsive and reckless. That is not the kind of man I want anywhere near any daughter of mine.”

“What did you do?” My voice is louder this time. “No bullshit response. I want the truth.”

“One hundred thousand dollars. I wrote him a check for a hundred grand and told him to stay the fuck away from my baby girl.”

I gasp, my entire being trembling as the words leave my father’s lips. Shaking my head, my heart stammering in my ears, I try my best to fight away the panic attack ensuing. “I don’t believe you, Nash wouldn’t.”

“Baileycakes,” he says, calling me by my nickname that feels dirty now as he says it after confessing how he tried to ruin my life out of his own selfish reasons. He reaches for me, but I back away. “How else do you think the boy managed on his own? He was eighteen, left town on nothing but his motorcycle and the clothes on his back. How else would he have survived jobless and penniless on the road?”

It all makes sense, but I refuse to believe it. I know Nash. He isn’t the kind of person to put money over anything. He’s nothing like his father. It’s one of his biggest fears, to one day become his father. I won’t believe it, not without hearing Nash’sside of the story. If I’ve learned anything in all these years, it’s that miscommunication is our biggest enemy.

“It’s true, sweetheart,” my mama says, joining us in the room, having witnessed our entire exchange from the shadows. Lurking in the darkness instead of standing front and center, assuming accountability for her actions, just like everything else Magnolia King has ever done. “I was there. I saw everything. I’m sorry he isn’t the man you thought, Bailey. But it’s best this way.”

“You can’t say that and try to blame it on having my best interest at heart.”

“Look at the woman you became because of him. He left, and you turned into this…” she pauses, biting her tongue for a second before she says something rather unladylike. “Someone I don’t recognize. No daughter of mine would tarnish her body the way you did, turning yourself into a godforsaken coloring book. No daughter of mine would parade around town like some harlot, dressed the way you dress, or work in that sinful hellhole you own.”

“For once in your life, mama, stop hiding behind your self-righteousness and phony Christian values. Thou shalt not judge or condemn and shall forgive. Where’s your humility and compassion for others? You blame him for who I’ve become? I blame you for never treating me the way I deserved to be treated. Not because you needed me to be the perfect daughter you accepted, but for who I was. For once, accept who I am because you love me, because I am your daughter. I love Nash Bishop. I did then and I still do now. There’s nothing the two of you can say or do that will make me think anything less of him. Because I know the man that he is, and it’s not who the two of you see.”

I march out of the room, not waiting to hear their responses because it won't change the way I feel. Nash loves me, and he’d never be capable of trading my love for money. I just have toprove to my parents that they don’t know him the way I do. If only I’d known I didn’t know them either.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Bailey

Ispent the entire night tossing and turning, and didn't manage a single wink of sleep. I couldn’t. Not when every lie my parents confessed replayed in my mind on a loop, forcing me to lie helpless in bed with no answers. I couldn’t call him. Couldn’t have Nash ease my anguish by assuring me none of it was true. This was a conversation that needed to be had in person, but I’m afraid to look him in the eye and listen to him tell me every single thing they said is the truth.

I’m unbelievably exhausted. My head is throbbing, my eyes burn from how sleepy I am since waking up at five in the morning. Not even the three lattes I’ve had in the last five hours have helped. Monroe, Billie, Brynn and I have been baking for hours and finished over twenty dozen batches of cupcakes.

Early this morning, Jase, Camden and Jake went over to Honeybees and loaded his truck with all the ingredients—twelve pounds of flour, six dozen eggs, nearly four pounds of butter for baking, and another two for the buttercream frosting, plus all the other essential items—I had stored there for the occasion.They dropped them off back here at my family ranch before heading out to set up the beer garden downtown.

The town square, from Main Street down to Sutton Creek and back around, will be blocked off, leading out to the plaza park by city hall. The Crossroads Annual Harvest Festival is one of my favorite events’ in town. Think of it as a large outdoor farmer’s market that not only celebrates the small business and farms in town, but brings the community together during the most special time of the year. From local family-owned restaurants, large, to renowned apple orchards and my favorite maple and pecan farms—the two wondrous flavors in my cupcakes—all of Crossroads and a few neighboring towns, come together to celebrate the bountiful harvest of the year and hope for another year of plentiful crops.

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