Page 55 of The Devil in Blue Jeans
Sara nibbled her lip. “Yeah, but it’s more than that. Jaxon said that day that he wanted to buy the bar back. I know you want to see the good in him, and heck, maybe there is a lot of good in there, but he is also the same guy that would have found any way to buy you out if you hadn’t done what he wanted. That’s the guy he is. That’s the guy he’s always been.”
Charly felt her blood turn cold.
Willow asked, “Are you sure you’re not mistaken about what he was talking about?”
Sara shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not. I’m sorry, Charly. I wouldn’t ever get involved in something like this, but I refuse to watch you get hurt when your bar is doing so much for the people in town. I’m not sure what his intentions are with you now, but I know at first, they weren’t good ones.” She paused. “People can change, yes, but can they change in mere weeks?” She hesitated to shrug. “I don’t know.”
With the room spinning around her a little, Charly swallowed her pride and her emotions crawling up her throat and nodded. “Thank you for telling me. I really appreciate you looking out for me.”
Sara shrugged again. “We ladies need to look out for each other, right?”
“Yeah, we do,” Charly agreed.
She sat in stunned silence, watching Sara return to the table where her friend sat. Again, a man betrayed her, and it tasted bitter on her tongue. But more than anything, she couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to be controlled...again. This bar, this pact, was to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and to build something just for them...and Jaxon wanted to steal that away to whathisvision had been?
“Oh, Charly,” Willow whispered.
She glanced toward her best friends, hating the pity on their faces, but loving them for it all the same. “It’s okay,” she managed to say. “Like I said, I need proof before I jump to any conclusions.” She rose, sliding the stool back under the bar.
“Charly, talk to us?” Aubrey said.
Charly reached over the bar, grabbing Aubrey’s arm and Willow’s. “I’m all right. Honestly.” She gave another forced smile. Though she knew they could read right through her, as she’d been able to read through them growing up too. “I’ll be back in a few.”
Neither stopped her as she left through the front door. Rain poured from the sky, a mirror image of what her heart wanted to do. She jogged down the street, not caring how soaked she got. She didn’t stop running until she reached the front door of Billy’s real estate office.
Out of breath, she entered the door and noted Sara’s empty desk. Regardless that she hadn’t made an appointment, she walked inside, strode past the desk and entered his open office.
Billy sat behind his desk and was eating a sandwich. “Charly,” he said, clearly surprised by her arrival. He set his sandwich down and wiped his mouth. “What can I do for you?”
She was sure there were a million ways to broach this, but she wasn’t about to sugarcoat any of this. She needed answers. “After our grand opening at the bar, did Jaxon come in here angry that the girls and I ruined his bar?”
Billy’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I cannot talk about another client with you,” he said firmly.
“Fine,” Charly said. “You can blink.”
Billy frowned. “I can blink?”
“Blink once if he didn’t come in to see you. Blink twice if he did.”
“Charly.”
She crossed her arms and glared. “I have the right to know.”
He blinked twice.
The ground began to feel shaky beneath her feet. “Did he suggest that he was going to do whatever he had to do to make sure I didn’t ruin his bar? And if I didn’t listen, he’d stop at nothing until he bought the bar back?”
She was sure she was ready for the answer, but when Billy blinked twice, she realized she wasn’t ready at all, not because she didn’t understand that Jaxon didn’t want his bar ruined, she did understand. The tightness filling her chest came from knowing that she couldn’t imagine Jaxon would ever do something so low.
“Thank you, Billy,” she said, heading for the door.
“The bar meant everything to him,” Billy said, coming to Jaxon’s defense.
She stopped in the doorway and glanced over her shoulder, giving a smile she knew held no warmth. “I know it did. It means a lot to many people.” After leaving his office, she stepped outside, lifting her head to the rain and letting it fall on her face, wishing it could wash away the emptiness filling her.
The heavy feeling weighing down her chest came from the knowledge that she couldn’t believe Jaxon would do something so cruel. That wasn’t the guy she knew, andthatscared her. It reminded her that her judgement about people was off. It was off with Marcel. It was off with herself. And now she wasn’t even sure if she knew Jaxon at all.
Sixteen
