Page 55 of Taming Grumpy Dr. Beast
Chapter Sixteen
Jaxon
“What are you doingin here? Where’s Lily? Dinner’s getting cold.” Ms. Ketill entered my dark office.
I took another sip of whiskey, enjoying the way it burned down my throat. “Who fucking knows? Packing maybe.”
“Packing? She’s not in her room and her stuff is still there.” Her voice grew quiet. “What did you do, Jaxon?”
“What did I do? It’s what she did. That lying, conniving—”
“I’m going to stop you right there, young man.” She held up her hand, letting me know a counter argument would not be entertained. “I know Lily, and she is none of those things.”
“I always thought you were a better judge of character,” I waved my half empty glass at her. “I thought I was, too.”
Ms. Ketill grabbed the drink from my hand, carelessly sloshing some of it over the rim. “Hey, that’s a $500 bottle of whiskey.”
“Do you think I care?” She slammed the glass down. “Tell me what happened.”
“She’s probably sulking.” I propped my feet up on the ottoman in front of me.
She knocked my feet off the ottoman and sat down.
“Stop acting like an asshole and tell me what happened.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “She lied about her father. He’s not sick, at least not in the way she described.”
“Did you ask her why she lied?”
“Does it matter?”
She rubbed at her forehead. “Yes, Jaxon. In this case, it does.”
I stared at her. She knew something and hadn’t told me.
A soft sigh left her mouth. “You know sometimes I really hate the screwed up way your parents, especially your father, treated you. It clouds the way you interact with other people, and how you choose to withhold your trust instead of giving it freely or giving good people the benefit of the doubt.”
I grunted. I didn’t see how my parents and my relationship with them had any bearing on this conversation.
“Lily doesn’t know that I overheard her conversation with her dad’s home health aide.” Ms. Ketill looked away.
