by Lucy Score
Forrest didn’t look so sure of his stance now. “I’d send you away and forbid you from attending Centenary.”
Jax saw Joey take the words like a well-placed blow. She curled in on herself for a second before her spine snapped her back. “You had no right. You threatened to sue the Pierces, take everything they’ve worked for, unless they gave up one of their sons because a deer ran out in front of a car that I was riding in? What in the ever-living hell is wrong with you?” The calm was gone and in its place was the storm.
“It wasn’t an accident. It was his fault.” Forrest was pointing his meaty finger again at Jax and Jax was half tempted to break it.
“I can’t believe you. You knew that I loved him and you chased him away. You threatened his family—a family that has been nothing but kind and generous to me from day one. You knew what Centenary meant to me and you threatened that. How could you do that?” Joey’s hands were in her hair.
“You always were more loyal to that family than your own,” Forrest spat out. “Even now.”
Oh shit. Jax almost felt sorry for Forrest. The man was waving a red flag in front of a charging bull. No one questioned Joey Greer’s loyalty and lived to tell the tale.
“You do not get to choose who I share my life with. You do not get to threaten a family because I got hurt. You do not get to make threats about me toward someone who loved me. You do not get to make decisions for me and expect me to go along with them.”
“You were better off without him! I did you a favor that you weren’t strong enough to do yourself.”
April slapped her hand on Forrest’s arm. “Forrest!” she said sharply.
“I am not weak. I am not stupid. And I am not disloyal,” Joey said, her voice shaking with rage. “What I am is your daughter and that does not give you the right to do what you did. It was my life then and it’s my life now. And right now you are unwelcome in it.”
“You don’t mean that,” Forrest said, waving her words away. “You were better off without him. He already had one foot out the door. John knew it wasn’t worth trying to convince him to stay.”
“John knew?” Joey whirled on Jax now. “Your dad was involved?”
Jax felt his brothers stiffen beside him. “He was part of the conversation,” he said quietly. And just like that, the three men Joey had loved the most fell from grace. Jax could see the betrayal she felt written plainly on her face.
“You’re just upset,” Forrest said. “Once you calm down, you’ll see why he had to go.”
“Oh, I’m upset all right. I’m freaking furious. You don’t call the shots in my life anymore. And you,” she said, turning to face Jax. “You left without a word. You could have come to me, could have told me what was happening. I could have fixed it. But you didn’t. You just left. You used it as your excuse and you got out. Turned your back on all of us and just left.” Joey’s voice broke and with it, Jax’s heart.
But she reeled it in, took a steadying breath.
“You two took it upon yourselves to make decisions for me and I tell you now, that will never happen again. As far as I’m concerned you both can go to hell. Now get away from my stables and don’t come back.”
Jax made a move toward her and Joey shut him down with an ice-cold look. Carter laid a hand on his shoulder.
She wrenched open the stable door and stormed inside.
April shot Forrest and Jax a stern look and skirted around Beckett to follow Joey inside. But Jax beat her to the door. “April, I just need a minute with her.”
April crossed her slim arms over her chest. Her dark hair and eyes had been handed down to both daughters. But where Joey was a warrior, April was a peacemaker.
“Fine. But I’m going to be on the other side of this door and if I hear anything I don’t like, I’m coming after you with a pitchfork.”
“Understood and well-deserved,” Jax said.
He charged through the door, momentum carrying him to where she leaned against the window of her office. Joey swiped an arm over her face.
“Baby.”
“Don’t say anything to me. I can’t even look at you.”
Jax went against his better judgment and wrapped her up in his arms, forcing her head against his shoulder. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs and Jax felt like the lowest human being on the planet.
“I’m so sorry, Jojo. I’m so, so sorry.”
She pushed away from him, shoved him back a step. “You made me think there was something wrong with me. That you left me because I wasn’t enough. I didn’t deserve to spend my life thinking that, feeling that. You owed me more than disappearing in the middle of the night when I needed you most.”
“I’m so sorry, Joey,” he said again. “I was scared. I thought my dad could lose everything because of me. I thought your dad would ruin your dreams. I screwed up and you and my family were paying the price.”
“He wouldn’t have done it. I would have talked to him and he wouldn’t have done anything. No lawsuit, no sending me away. But you didn’t even give me the chance. You decided everyone was better off without you and you abandoned us all.”
“Joey, it was the worst fucking night of my life. You almost died and I thought I’d destroyed everything my family had spent years building.”
“It was the worst night of my life, too. When the men that I believed in, men that I loved decided I was too weak to make my own decisions. I’ve never been weak. But I may have been stupid.”
“You’re not stupid.”
“I let you back in without knowing the truth. It never occurred to me that my father pulled any strings to get you out of my life. And I never had a clue that your dad knew and kept your secrets. So maybe I’m stupid.”
“You’ve never been stupid a day in your life.”
“I need you to do something for me,” Joey said, crossing her arms.
“Anything. Name it, Jojo.”
“I need you to leave me alone.”
He was already shaking his head. “No. Absolutely not.”
“I can’t face you or him right now,” she said, jerking her chin toward the door that separated them from her father.
He grabbed her arms. “Joey, I love you. You are my life. I’m not walking away again. Not even if you ask me to.”
“I need time.”
“Jojo, I can’t do that.”
“You have to,” she said, shrugging out of his grasp. “This time I’m the one walking away.”
She didn’t go far, but when she shut the office door behind her, he felt her shutting the doors of her heart.
He reached for the doorknob.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” April unzipped her baby blue parka.
“She needs to listen to me.”
“Jax, sweetheart. She’s not going to hear anything you say right now.”
“I love her, April. I’m not leaving her again.”
“I know you’re not. But you’re not going to get through to her right now. Any convincing you try to do is going to come across as you trying to make decisions for her again.”
Jax kicked at the wall, frustration and fear curdled in his blood.
“I’m not going to lose her again.”
“Let me talk to her.”
“If she needs to fight it out, I will. I’ll fight for her. Hell, I’ll fight her for her.” Panic licked at him. What if she couldn’t forgive him?
“Just give her a little space right now, okay? We’ll work this out. And then I’m going to murder my husband.”
“My money’s on you,” Jax said.
“And mine’s on you.”
* * *
“I suppose you were in on this, too?” Joey snapped at her mother even as she poured April a cup of coffee.
April accepted the mug and leaned against the desk. “Your father never said a word to me. And for that he will pay.”
Her long denim-clad legs tucked into waterproof boots in a cheery purple. She wore her hair to her shoulders and
rarely bothered with makeup. She’d spent her adulthood raising her daughters and working part-time as a bookkeeper for a car dealership. At home, April ruled with a martyr’s manipulation. Joey had no doubt her mother could make her dad’s life miserable.
“How could he have done that? Why does he hate Jax so much?”
“Joey, your father thought he’d lost you that night. Can you imagine what that was like for him? For me? When we knew you were going to be okay, his only thought was to protect you from anything like that ever happening again.”
“So you smothered the crap out of me and he threatened to take Pierce Acres away from John.”
“I’m not saying he did the right thing. In fact, I’m saying he did the stupidest thing he could have. But he did it because he didn’t want to lose you.”
“Well, guess what? He lost me anyway.” Joey stared morosely into her coffee.
“It doesn’t need to be this way,” April prodded. “You and Jax seem so happy together. Why can’t you go back to that?”
“Because.”
“He’s worked so hard to win back your trust.”
“There’s one thing that he should have done from the beginning, not leave. He should have stormed into my room and told me what Dad said to him. Barring that, when he came home he should have fucking told me why he left. But he didn’t. He tried to distract me with presents and sex instead of telling me the truth.”
“You’re right. They both should have been honest with you long before now.”
That shut Joey up. She sank down in the chair behind the desk. “So what do I do?”
“Do you want to be with Jax?”
“I honestly don’t know. It was one betrayal that I had to live through twice. Maybe that means something.”
“Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. So what does your gut tell you?”
“My gut’s confused,” Joey admitted. It was. She felt twisted up and hung out to dry. For the second time in less than a decade, her life had been turned upside down by the same man.
“What does your head say?”
“Kick their asses and leave them both hanging for a while.”
Her mother smiled at her and sipped her coffee. “I think that’s a fair decision.”
* * *
The minute Forrest and April drove off, his brothers dragged Jax up to the brewery and cornered him outside the keg room.
“That’s why you left? Because your girlfriend’s dad scared you off with a lawsuit?” Carter said from his perch on an empty keg, his finger and thumb pinching the bridge of his nose.
Jax nodded.
“Jesus. I thought you just felt guilty over the accident and couldn’t face Joey again,” Beckett said, adding his two cents.
Jax paced a tight line from door to cooler. “How can the same damn thing fuck everything up twice?” He shoved his hands through his hair.
“When you’re not honest about shit, shit comes back to bite you in the ass,” Carter preached.
“Thank you, Mr. Philosophical.”
“We could have fixed this.” Beckett shook his head.
“That seems to be everyone’s opinion.”
“Why didn’t you come to us?” Carter demanded.
“You weren’t home,” Jax shot back. “You were in the Guard. Beckett was busy with his internship. And Dad was involved.”
Carter and Beckett shared a look.
“I don’t understand why Dad would have just let you leave,” Beckett said.
“The three of us were in the hall. Forrest had dragged me out of Joey’s room. He told us that he was going to give us a choice. Either I left town immediately or he was going to sue us for everything we had. The farm, the house, everything. And that he’d send Joey away, refuse to pay for Centenary so she’d have to go somewhere else away from me.”
“And Dad was fine with giving you up to potentially avoid a bogus lawsuit brought by a guy who wasn’t thinking straight?” Beckett the lawyer was itching for a fight.
Jax shook his head and resumed pacing. “It wasn’t like that. Dad took some convincing, but Forrest was dead serious. I’d almost killed his daughter and the only way he could think to protect her was to get me out of the picture.”
“So you left,” Carter said quietly.
“So I left. I was scared shitless. I was eighteen and just watched the most important person in my life almost die in front of me. And it was my fault. How was I supposed to live with that? And if Dad had lost the farm because of me? Family loyalty shouldn’t be expected to go that far.”
“A. It wasn’t your fault, dumbass. And B. How did no one ever tell Joey?” Beckett wanted to know.
Jax shook his head. “It was part of the deal with her dad that I not contact her again. She thought I was just an ass who got scared and left town.”
“Well, if she can forgive you for that, hopefully she’ll be willing to cut you a break for the real reason,” Carter sighed. “I also hope you’re done with the whole ‘I almost killed her’ bullshit.”
“I’m getting there,” Jax answered. He was. Slowly. It had been an accident, one with dire consequences. But an accident all the same.
“Good. I’m glad you’re getting less stupid in your old age,” Beckett said.
Jax could always count on his brothers for a well-timed put down to cheer him up.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this. She’s not going to get over this and it won’t be just me that she cuts out this time. It’ll be her father, too,” Jax told them.
His brothers nodded.
Jax stopped pacing and leaned against the wall. “I got her a ring.”
“Shit,” Carter sympathized.
He looked around him. His brothers’ faces were dark and broody as they shared his pain. Their connection had deepened since he’d come home. Equals. Partners. He wasn’t just the youngest Pierce anymore. He’d built something here. This very brewery existed because he came home for a new beginning. In the last few months, he’d laid the groundwork for a new life, the life he’d always wanted. This was not going to be all for nothing. He’d fix this.
“So what are you going to do? You’re sure as hell not going to quit now,” Beckett said, trying to rally the troops.
“I’m gonna fix this,” Jax said, lacing his fingers behind his head.
“How?”
“I have no fucking idea.”
28
Jax put in a full day on the farm and a full night in the brewery. He didn’t know whether to be grateful to or pissed off at Carter and Beckett for taking advantage of his current predicament by burying him in work. It kept him physically preoccupied, but his mind and his heart never wavered from Joey.
He trudged in the front door well after midnight and was greeted by Meatball’s soft “woof.” The dog’s white tipped tail thumped a lazy rhythm against the floor.
“What are you still doing up, buddy?” Jax whispered, shucking off his coat and stuffing it in the closet.
The beagle slowly worked his way up to his feet and wandered over for scratches. “Come on. Let’s have a snack,” Jax said, leading the way back to the kitchen. He pulled his laptop out of his bag and set it on the island before peeking into the fridge. He grimaced at the disgusting tofu scramble leftovers that Carter and Summer had for dinner. Vegetarians, he thought with distaste.
He settled on a mixing bowl of cereal and shared some—minus the milk—with Meatball in his food dish. Jax settled on a barstool and reached into his bag for his charger, but his fingers brushed an envelope instead. He pulled out the folder that held the stack of his father’s short stories.
It seemed every time he read one of his father’s essays, some nugget of truth resonated with him. And he could really use his father’s words of wisdom now more than ever. Unwinding the red string, Jax slid the stack of stories out. He’d been slowly shuffling the essays he read to the bottom of the pile.
He paged through, until his father’s still familiar handwriting scrawled a
cross the paper caught his eye.
There was no title, only the opening line…
Today was the hardest day I’ve ever endured as a father.
Jax knew without a doubt what day his father was talking about and guilt simmered in his gut. He and his dad had never spoke of what happened that day and there was part of Jax that didn’t want to expose himself to his father’s take and pain on the accident.
But there was a louder part, the writer in him who needed to know. Needed to peel back the layers to look at the whys. So he read on. It wasn’t a carefully crafted story like the rest of his father’s writings. This was a stream of consciousness, a purging.
Today was the hardest day I’ve ever endured as a father. A typical day was followed by a typical evening. Phoebe and I were washing up the dishes after a late dinner. Beckett was out with the girl-of-the-month, as we’d come to call his dates, and Jax was due back from his date with Joey any minute.
And then the phone rang.
Phoebe answered it with her cheerful “Hello, Pierces.”
And I saw the color leave her face in an instant.
“I didn’t know which son it was. But I knew it was one of them. No other news delivered could make my wife’s heart stop like that.”
Was it Carter in Afghanistan? His first deployment was a source of pride and terror. He’d been gone long enough that I’d stopped being afraid of the telephone ringing. But it all came back now.
“It’s Jax,” Phoebe said, her face white as the clean sheets she’d just put on his bed that afternoon.
The phone tumbled from her grip and I took it. Who? What? Where? I peppered the police on the other end with rapid-fire questions.
Alive. Jax was alive. That’s all they would say and they were even cagier on Joey’s condition. Yes, she was in the car. Yes, she was going to the hospital with Jax. But that’s all they could say.
We grabbed keys and were out the door in a heartbeat. Silence reigned in the car, but we’d known each other too long to not hear the unasked questions that echoed in the other’s head.
How badly were they hurt?
How had it happened?