Page 58 of Extra Dirty

I scoff and pull away, but he holds me in place.

“Your grandfather happened to agree.”

I suck in a shocked breath and turn to look at him. “What?”

He’s staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought. “It’s the grains.” He chuckles. “Your grandfather didn’t want to believe me.” He sighs and gives me a nudge. “I see where you get your stubbornness from. But when faced with facts, he didn’t shy away from them. We had plans…” He trails off. And just when I think he’s run out of things to say or he’s not ready to get into this with me, he continues. “Your brother will figure it out.”

Jay tilts his chin down and regards me. His expression is soft, open. So I take the time to study him, really look at him, and in my heart, I believe he’s telling me the truth.

Color me shocked. He and my grandfather were, what, friends? Seems crazy after everything Pa told me all those years before.

But even then, I knew he was hiding something.

The truth is that none of it matters now. I’m thankful for this time, this summer, to finally get what’s eluded me for so long.Closure.

That’s all we can have. Chloe is coming to live with me, and despite how at home I feel with this man, he turned his back on us, and I’ll never force her to endure that.

“Thank you,” I sigh.

His brows are pinched as he scrutinizes me, but I force myself to get the words out.

“I don’t know why you left or why you came back, but I’m choosing to let that go. It doesn’t matter. I’m just thankful we’ve had this time.”

Jay scans my face silently, the intensity in his expression making it hard not to squirm under his scrutiny. “Why does it feel like you’re saying goodbye?”

“Because I am.”

He jackknifes to a sitting position on the mattress. “Cat,no. Please.”

“You promised me anything,” I remind him, tugging the sheet up to cover my breasts and propping myself up.

He sags in defeat. “I did.”

“This is what I need.”

Licking his lips, he glowers at me. “You and I both know that what you need is me.”

“No. What Iwantis you. What Ineed—what I’ve needed all this time—is closure. And now I have it. So please, if you love me as much as you say you do, let me go.”

With Chloe’s move closing in, that is truly what I need. Even if I die a little inside knowing this is the last time I’ll ever feel at home again.

Jay closes his eyes, and a look of anguish crosses his face. I take the opportunity to kiss his jaw one last time. Then I slip out of bed, toss on my dress, and run.

28

CIRCLES BY POST MALONE

Jay

“Ineed you to do this for me, Jay,” my brother says over the phone.

With a grunt, I run my hand across my chin. I’m tired. It’s been a week since Cat left me in the club, shattering any hope I had that I’d win her back.

To top it off, we’re officially competing with James Whiskey for a deal that Theo and I put in place before he got sick. It was supposed to be the union of our two companies. A new beginning so that Cat would never have to choose between her brothers and me.

But since Cash isn’t privy to the plan, he’s now going after the deal by himself. He’s trying to win over Charles Landry, a businessman from his hometown, and if I don’t counteract the situation, it could cost both my brothers a lot of money.

I don’t want to be the one fighting with the Jameses, though. We’re supposed to be brokering this deal together. It feels like a betrayal to do this while Theo can’t protect his company. And if I could find a way to sit down with Cash—to fill him in on the plans his grandfather and I made—maybe we could work it out.

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