Page 73 of Bourbon Breakaway

But Jolie’s cell rings out. Three times I reach her voicemail because she’s in the clinic today, and we talked about how those days she rarely even comes up for air. And if I don’t touch base with her now, it’s pretty much never today. I can’t leave a voicemail about this. What the hell am I going to say? Even if I leave a message, she probably won’t listen to it anytime soon.

I need to text her. Something short. Digestible. I openup my messages and think of how I can summarize the drama that might be sitting on a plane right now headed to Starlight Canyon. Then again, I don’t know for sure, but I can’t do nothing.

ME

JOEY—I WILL ALWAYS PUT YOU FIRST.

Chapter Twenty

Ashton’ssweet but dramatic text landed funny today of all days. On a day when I know a serious conversation is coming, something that would normally make me swoon came across cryptic. Adding to that message he also called multiple times, leaving no message? My stomach gurgles on my drive back home, despite me having zero appetite.

I can’t wait for tonight’s game to be over. He’ll get back, and we’ll talk it out. I pull up the long winding drive to my house, bummed that I can’t go to games on clinic days, but trying to be grateful that it was a good day. Itwasn’t without struggle, but I did feel a little better about the challenges today and am proud of myself for setting limits. It’s a positive start toward feeling better about my job.

I squint up the road… Is that a car in front of my house? Apart from me, everyone is away for the Scorpions game. Delivery? Have I ordered something? No…

I get closer, and the view sharpens. A white Jeep I don’t recognize at all, with Mavis rental plates, is parked in front of my house. I can’t make out the face of the female driver, but intuition creeps up my spine and tells me to be on guard. What worries me even more is that I get out of my car, walk to my door, and unlock it before the person in the vehicle gets out of hers. If it’s a delivery, surely she’s been waiting for me and wants to get on her way?

I take one last look at my cell to see if I have another message from Ashton. I don’t. By the time I throw my keys on the console table by my door and turn around to see what she wants, she’s gotten out. The woman doesn’t have a package in her hand. And, it’s not just any woman.

It’s Chloe.

I recognize her from all the pictures of her and Ashton over the years and all the B-rated movies I sat through in masochistic agony, wondering what kind of woman got to marry my Ashton Dane.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, because this traitor doesn’t deserve a hello.

She smiles, and boy does it send a spike of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

“I was hoping to see my husband.” Her perfect lips and straight white teeth beam at me with the most patronizing grin in the world.

“Ex-husband.” I correct her.

“Oh, sorry. We were together for so long. But you know,ex. Husband. Ex-husband. In my mind he was mine all the same.” There’s a menacing twinkle in her voice.

“I highly doubt his memory reflects the same fondness. And I’m going to need you to leave. If you adored him the way you say you do, you’d know he has a hockey game and his parents’ ranch is four miles down the road. You won’t find him here.”I hope you never find him.

I’m proud of myself for keeping my composure. For not allowing the secret Ashton asked me to keep from slipping and tell this woman he’s mine now.

Unfortunately, holding back is taking every bit of my self-control, and expletives are at the tip of my tongue. As she sways forward, clearly not leaving and appearing completely unthreatened by me, she somehow looks down at me even though I have four inches on her. My jaw clenches. I’m already starting to lose it. I’ve never been a calm person, and her steady steps and condescending features have my heart beating relentlessly. I swallow a hard, dry lump.

Her tone and everything else is haughty. “You see, Jolie… youareJolie? Aren’t you?”

I don’t answer, because this woman already knows who I am.

She continues. “You see, I think I will find him here, because after me, Ashton went for the low-hanging fruit.”

My temperature spikes. My cheeks flush. “Low-hanging fruit? It doesn’t get any lower than you. I know what you did to Ashton. It’s his prerogative if he wants to let you get away with painting him as the villain, but if you think I value the opinion of someone with zero integrity, you’re wrong.”

“Oh, he told you everything, did he?” she sneers.

“Yes, Chloe. I know you were the cheater. You let himtake the fall in the media. You took more than your fair share and you don’t even need the money. What’s wrong with you? Have some decency.”

“Decent?” She laughs. “That’s cute. You think your little boyfriend is decent?”

I should correct her but don’t.

“Was it decent of Ashton to make me out to be a goddamn fool running home to get with his childhood sweetheart?” Her smile twists into something sinister. Her nostrils flare slightly, and her mask falls. Her fake sweet tone has melted into something more like the voice of a bitter witch. “Rumors of his indiscretion flood the gossip pages one minute, and the next second, the world sees Ashton tongue-fucking his lifelong crush back home in sweet little Starlight Canyon. Once an adulterer, now the beloved hockey boy has flipped the narrative in an instant, and the whole country is rooting for the friends-to-lover’s story.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

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