Page 57 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
“Why are guys such idiots?”Leah asked Kelsey. We were sitting on my back porch smoking a joint. Or at least, I was smoking a joint. My ears were still ringing from a cheap shot to the head from Chad Fucking Miller, and I was contemplating all the ways I could fuck him up and finish the job.
“It’s in their DNA,” Kelsey said. “Too many Y chromosomes.”
I passed the joint to Leah, who was sitting next to me, hugging her knees to her chest.
Walker aimed a scowl at me from his spot against the railing. “Leah doesn’t smoke.”
He’d always been so overprotective of Leah. I’d never understood it. But as he said, I’d never been in a relationship.
Leah took a hit and held the smoke in her lungs before coughing it out and passing it back to me. Yeah, Leah wasn’t a smoker.
I held the joint in my good hand and leaned my head against the wood shingles with my legs kicked out in front of me.
Troy shook his head, eyeing my hand. “You really fucked that up good.”
Even after icing it, my hand was still red and swollen and twice its usual size. Not sure how I’d move 50-pound barrels at the brewery, but I had the next two days off so hopefully, it would heal by then.
“You need to stop that shit,” Walker said. “You can’t play ball with a busted hand. I’m gonna have my hands full trying to keep you in line for the next four years.”
“Where’s the love? I got in that fight for you, asshole.”
“Ridge just loves a good fight,” Kelsey said.
I couldn’t tell for sure, but I think she was still slightly bitter that I’d rejected her earlier.
Walker eyed me. “But he kept fighting for a different reason.”
That was bullshit. I didn’t even know the story when we were at the party.
And I hadn’t confided in him about Evie because hello, I was a guy, and I didn’t pour my fucking heart out, not even to my best friend. But he still should have told me what Chad Miller did.
As it was, I hadn’t gotten the story until we piled into Troy’s car and hightailed it out of there before the cops could get hold of us. If I’d gotten the story at the party earlier tonight, I would have waged war on Chad Miller, and he wouldn’t have been able to walk away on his own two feet.
I leveled Walker with a look. “You should have fucking told me.”
“We didn’t know for sure,” Leah said, immediately jumping to Walker’s defense.
Walker glared at her. “Why the fuck were you with him?”
“I don’t know. He was…” She lowered her eyes to her clasped hands and took a deep breath. “We ran into each other when I visited UT in the spring. He showed me around campus, and we exchanged numbers. I didn’t really think he’d call me—”
“Why the fuckwouldn’the call you? Have you looked in the mirror lately, Leah? You’re…” He dropped his head against the railing and let out a weary sigh. “Fuck it. I’ve told you a million times how beautiful you are. You just never believe me.”
“You’re biased.”
“Yeah. Whatever.” He exhaled a frustrated breath and roughed his hand through his short dark hair.
Leah had always been insecure, and Walker used to knock himself out, trying to prove his love. It was fucking exhausting for everyone around them, so it had to be even more so for him. I wasn’t exactly an expert on relationships. Still, I did know this: Walker and Leah were entirely wrong for each other.
From what I saw, Walker had done all the work, and all he’d gotten in return was a shitload of grief. Don’t get me wrong. I liked Leah. Just not for Walker.
“So you were looking for something different, huh?” he asked. “Guess Chad Miller fits the bill. Why be with a nice guy who loves you when you can be with an asshole who makes a bet that he can fuck a freshman?”
My jaw clenched so tightly I was surprised my molars didn’t crack. I flexed my hand and stared at my busted knuckles. Before tonight, I hadn’t even known who Chad Miller was, but now I wanted to kill the motherfucker. Chop off his dick and force-feed it to him. Skewer his balls and throw them on the barbecue.
“We don’t know for sure what happened,” Leah said. “I heard the rumors, but I thought it was just idle gossip.”
“Rumors usually start for a reason,” Troy pointed out.
