Page 47 of Nashville Cowboy
“Dig in!” Jackson said. “Linc, I hear you like to eat.”
“You damn right I do.” After all the guys had been helped to slices, Lincoln pulled Jackson aside in the kitchen. “Thanks for not gettin’ me a stripper. Didn’t want to start my marriage off with a lie.”
“Welcome.” Jackson took a soda can out of the refrigerator, popped it open and narrowed his eyes. “Speaking of lies. What about Eve?”
“What’s Eve got to do with any of this?”
“You didn’t think it was important for me to know about her hearing loss?”
Lincoln blinked. “How did you find out?”
“When I found her hearing aid on the ground. It fell out when she was chasing a mad gelding. Crazy girl.” He shook his head.
“When she was…what?”
Jackson explained. Tried his best to tell Lincoln about her wild-eyed look, how she’d frantically searched for it. Her obvious embarrassment when he’d located it first.
“She didn’t want me to find out that way.”
“Well, listen, you don’t know what she’s been through. And it’s not my place to tell ya.”
“Thanks for keeping me in the dark. Although I imagine that’s how Eve wanted it.”
“Wait.” Now Lincoln’s brow creased. “Shetoldyou how it happened?”
He nodded. “I wish I’d known because maybe I could have helped. But I’m done talkin’ about it.”
Lincoln whistled. “Gotta say, I didn’t expect you’d take it so well.”
“It doesn’t make her any less Eve.”
“Yeah, but I mean, even I wanted to kill the guy with my bare hands when I heard, and I wasn’t the one once engaged to her.”
“Wait. Whatguy?”
“What do youmeanwhat guy? The one who beat her and put her in the hospital. The reason she lost her hearing.”
Jackson heard a roar in his ears that grew louder as he tried to understand. His gut burned with fire. He was beginning to see everything in a haze and his stomach roiled and pitched. For a moment, he thought he would literally be sick.
“Oh, fuck,” Lincoln said as he hit the wall with a fist.
There seemed to be a growing buzz in the room that was taking up all the sound. Lincoln cursed once every few years only when the occasion warranted it. The last time Jackson heard him curse was years ago when he’d had to put his stallion down.
“I thought shetoldyou. You made it sound like she did.”
“She said she’d been very sick and hospitalized for weeks. Why would she lie to me?”
“Because of…this!” Lincoln spit out. “You!”
“Who is this guy? I want to know.”
“Calm down. He’s in prison where he won’t ever hurt Eve again.”
“Why?”
He knew Lincoln would follow his currently chaotic thoughts. The why didn’t matter but he still wanted to know. While he’d been out playing clubs and writing songs, hating her, meeting random women, drinking and chasing his dream, she’d been suffering.
“Did he—” Jackson couldn’t finish the sentence.
