Page 85 of Puck You Very Much

For some reason that made Dax even angrier. “Yes, damn it, of course! You let her down, too.”

Jack stared at him for a few seconds with his mouth gaping. Then he started laughing. “Did she tell you that? Shit…I understand why I should keep it to myself, but that she…” He swallowed. “No…unbelievable…”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Dax snapped. He’d had enough. His fists tingled, his feet tingled. Everything in him prepared for a fight…when a warm, thin hand grabbed his.

Confused, he looked over and saw Lucy’s face. She squeezed his fingers silently. Didn’t tell him to calm down. Didn’t ask him to forget it. Was just there.

Maybe because she knew it was the only thing she could do for him right now. And he was so grateful to her for it that his eyes burned. However, his focus was needed elsewhere.

“She was the one who sent me away, Dax!” Jack snapped, standing up too. “So forgive me for being surprised that she cried for me! I know I screwed up. I should have stopped stealing presents for you. I was old enough to know better. But we had nothing. Your shitty father gambled away all the money, and you had turned sixteen. And you wanted new skates…and, shit, I didn’t see why you shouldn’t have them just because Temple Senior was such an asshole. So I stole them the night before your birthday.” He made a jerky gesture as if stealing were the most natural thing in the world. And, shit, back then, it had been. “But I wasn’t paying attention. They caught me. Temple Senior answered when the police called…and Mom came to pick me up. They dropped the charges because the guy at the store felt sorry for me. But it was my last warning. The next time they would search our house for stolen goods and whatever…so naturally, Temple Senior panicked. Because if they came by they would see all his illegal betting slips, his bookies would get nervous…and…” He laughed mirthlessly. “Honestly, I think he was just fed up with me.” He shrugged. “Just like I’d had enough of him for years. So he kicked me out. No, that’s not true.” He frowned. “He gave Mom a choice. Either I go—or he did. And you can guess three times who she chose.”

Dax’s heart dropped into his stomach, and for several heartbeats he was speechless. His brain tried to process what Jack was saying, but failed. “No,” he finally said coldly. “No, she would never have…”

"But she did, Dax! And I know that’s no excuse. I know I should have talked to you about it. But, shit, I was so angry. And you were better off without me anyway. Less trouble, less reason for your father to yell at you.” He ran his hand through his hair, annoyed. “Then Mom got sick, and I wanted you to remember her healthy and remember the good times. Not the bad times and the anger I carried with me. So, yeah…I ignored you. Yes, I was an asshole, but I was young, angry, stupid, and didn’t know any better! Then she died, and both of you moved out of Temple Senior’s house, and I thought… I thought now we could start over. Alone. Without her.” A cynical smile spread across his face. “I should have known that you wanted nothing to do with me.”

Dax was dizzy. Jack’s face was blurring in front of him. His heart was going into overdrive. His head was one big, heavy mass, yet still too small to contain all the information he had just received.

That couldn’t be the truth. It didn’t excuse anything!

Or did it?

He didn’t know. He only knew that it was too much. That he couldn’t handle it right now—didn’t want to handle it. Yet another of his birthdays had gone wrong.

“No,” he stated simply, and then turned and left.

Chapter 24

Lucy’s heart pounded painfully in her chest and her eyes burned because she knew Dax was suffering, too. She could tell it had been too much for him, that he had become too used to one truth—hating Jack—to accept another now and forget his anger.

She swallowed and rose from her chair, shaking. “I’d better go after him,” she whispered. “Thank you very much for the invitation… Well, no, it wasn’t an invitation. Thank you anyway.” She raised her hand and saw the tears in Anna’s eyes, the resigned expression on Jack’s face, and her heart broke a little more.

“It will get better,” she murmured and squeezed Anna’s shoulder. “Really. He just needs to…process it. He has a bigger heart than he is willing to admit.” She looked apologetically at Dax’s sister and Jack before hurrying after Dax.

“She’s not just his PR consultant, is she? She’s his girlfriend,” she heard Anna say.

And with Jack’s “Yep,” the door slammed shut.

Girlfriend.

The word haunted her as she hurried down the stairs, and she shook her head. She wasn’t his girlfriend. She was…something, but not that.

She pushed open the gate to the street and was surprised to see Dax leaning against his car, waiting for her.

“You’re still here,” she said in surprise and hurried toward him.

“I couldn’t just leave you here, could I?” he answered tersely. He shifted his gaze and gritted his teeth, his face was a poster for summer vacation in hell.

“Dax…”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

She swallowed, wrung her hands, and nodded. Then she hugged him tightly. She did it because he looked like he needed a hug, and because she needed a hug herself.

She wrapped her arms around him, stroked the back of his head, felt him swallow, and buried her nose in the crook of his neck.

She said nothing, afraid there was nothing she could say. So she just held him tight, stroked his neck soothingly, and breathed in unison with him. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, he pulled away, took a deep breath, and nodded.

“Let’s go,” he murmured and got into the car.

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