Page 35 of The Last One You Loved
Ryder’s grin was wiped away. “I’m going to show up unannounced in Knoxville and knock heads.”
“I think one of the ones coming with her on Monday is the boyfriend, so you won’t have to drive to Knoxville. We can toss him into the lake and threaten his balls right here in Willow Creek.”
Ryder nodded approvingly. “Bring your badge and your gun. We’ll make sure we make him pee his pants.”
It brought the first grin to my lips that I’d had all day.
“Shit,” Ryder grunted. When I looked at him, he had his eyes trained on the door, and when I glanced in the same direction, my stomach lurched.
McKenna had entered the bar in a pink sweater dress that clung to her frame and put her body on display. She’d never been an overly curvy teen, but the material showed off every one of them and hinted at newfound muscles. The dress ended mid-thigh where a pair of thigh-high boots accentuated long legs. Her hair was down, curling around her shoulders and down her back, and I was suddenly filled with memories of how soft it had been tangled in my fingers while I plundered her mouth with mine.
Even sad and exhausted, she was more beautiful than I remembered, more beautiful than in my dreams, and it ripped open the scabbed wounds of loneliness I’d felt ever since losing her. I’d missed her?not just the woman I’d made love to for the first time, but my best friend.
“Fuck.” The quiet word escaped me before I could hold it back.
She was drawing looks, whispers spiraling through the room. She looked exactly like who she was—Sybil’s daughter. The dark shadows under her eyes were a little less visible than they had been the night before. I didn’t know if it was rest or makeup that made her appear a little less harrowed.
The tiny spark deep inside of me, that had rejoiced on seeing her yesterday, flickered back to life before pure panic filled my chest.
When her eyes found me, there wasn’t sadness there anymore. Now, there was anger. Anger that she didn’t have a right to. I was the one who deserved to be angry. She’d left me. Pushed me away. Fucking gotten engaged to some other man when she’d known there was only one person she should ever belong to. That thought pushed the hurt I kept buried most days back into the light, but she didn’t deserve for me to feel anything for her?anger, hurt, or love. I just needed her to leave so I could keep my daughter at my side.
She stormed across the bar, and if we’d been in a cartoon, there would have been smoke coming from her ears. She stopped in front of me, and for a second, I thought there were two of her. I hardly ever drank more than a single beer in a sitting these days. It wasn’t good to have the sheriff drunk in public, so when I did drink, it hit me hard.
“What the hell is going on, Maddox?” she demanded.
My brows drew together in confusion as I glanced from my beer and the empty shot glass, to Ryder with his beer, and back to McKenna. Her lips were bow-shaped, and I remembered, as if it was just yesterday, how they tasted when I’d kissed her. Like devouring MoonPies.
“I’m having a few beers, that’s what’s going on.” I was pretty sure my words were slurred, and I hated that she was seeing me this way. Slightly out of control.
“You owe me an explanation,” she said, hands going to her hips.
On the job, I was cool and collected. I rarely let anyone or anything rattle me, but drunk and faced with the idea of losing my daughter all because of the one woman I’d never gotten over, I couldn’t keep the fury that flew out of me. “I oweyouan explanation? I don’t think I owe you shit. You made it clear you wanted nothing to do with me. Your fiancé’s feelings were way more important than mine.”
“Really? You kept her from me out of spite? Revenge? That’s what this is?”
My heart fell as her words registered in my inebriated brain. Fuck. She knew. How the hell did she know? The full-fledged panic returned, squashing away any flicker of relief at seeing her.
“Who told you?” I demanded. “You can’t know. You can’t. She’ll tell him. She’ll…” I swayed on the stool, my chest tightening until I couldn’t breathe. Ryder propped me up.
McKenna’s anger turned into wary confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Go away, McKenna. Go back to your dreamy life, and your dreamy fiancé, and your medical career. Leave us alone. We don’t need you. We don’t want you,” I stormed. “You’ll ruin everything.”
Behind her confusion, hurt piled in before she locked it away, and I couldn’t help feeling a bit remorseful because her mama used to say McKenna had ruined her life. And yet, it was also the truth for me. McKenna had ruined me for other women. She’d ruined me for love. But she’d also brought me the biggest gift. She’d brought me Mila.
All those thoughts muddled together in my hazy brain, making it hard to think clearly. I shook my head, trying to shake off the cloud of alcohol.
“I think you should leave.” It was Ryder who said the words to McKenna because I was still full of panic, but it eased my heart that my brother was glowering at her, protecting me. “Being here isn’t going to help.”
“Nice to see you, too, Ryder,” McKenna said, her voice full of sarcasm. “And I’m not going anywhere until I hear the truth. Until I know exactly why my sister is with Maddox, and why the hell no one contacted me.”
“I did call you!” I growled. “You hung up on me and then changed your number to make sure I couldn’t call you again.”
She had the decency to look chagrinned, cheeks flushing, but then she crossed her arms over her chest, tipped her chin up in defiance, and said, “I told you not to call me as Maddox, my ex-boyfriend, but not as the sheriff who had my sister.”
“I didn’t know for sure she was your sister. Not right away. Not for weeks.”
“Please. All you have to do is look at her and know.”
