Page 24 of Knockout (Whiskey Dolls 2)

“I really misjudged you,” he said, remorse tinging his softly spoken words.

The face I made screamedduh. “Yeah, you really did. But you shouldn’t have judged me in the first place.” I raised my eyebrows. “Or anyone for that matter.”

* * *

Jude

Shame infused my blood at the shrewdness glinting in her fiery gray eyes as she stared at me. I’d never had anyone put me in my place so effectively, not even Gram. But this knockout sitting across from me had managed with hardly any effort, and I felt a sudden sense of admiration swelling deep inside my chest.

“You’re right.” There was no point in denying it, so I didn’t bother. And I could see by the look of shock flitting across her features she hadn’t been expecting that. I would have been lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me—okay, maybe not so small—that got off on being able to surprise her. I nearly smiled at that knowledge, until she asked the next question, sucking all the humor from the situation.

“Then why did you? What is it about me that rubbed you the wrong way the first moment you laid eyes on me?”

There wasn’t a good answer to that. The truth made me feel like a real dick, and that was only fair, because I had been. But I owed her honesty at the very least. After what she’d shared with me about her past, what I’d been through seemed downright laughable in comparison. She was so much stronger than I was, that much was crystal clear.

“It wasn’t about you. It was my own shit I was dealing with.”

Layla let out a snort at that confession. “What a cliché. ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ Are you really breaking up with me three quarters of the way through our first date?” She placed a hand on her chest over her heart. “I can at least get to a second or third date most times.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I shook my head. “Smartass,” I muttered with humor. “You want to hear this or not?”

She held her hands up in surrender. “Sorry. Please continue.”

“Since you already know about my broken engagement, I’m guessing you know what happened to end it.”

She tried to mask her small flinch but wasn’t able to hide it completely. “I may have heard something about it.”

“So you heard about—”

“Your cousin, yeah.” Her mouth pulled into a wince. “I’m sorry. I didn’t pry or anything. You know how people talk.”

“It’s fine.”

“That was all I really heard though. She left you for your cousin...”

“Chandler,” I supplied.

She’s been taking a sip of water as I provided my cousin’s name, and immediately began to choke. Her face turned red as she coughed and tried to pull air into her lungs. “Chandler?” she finally sputtered, her voice full of incredulity. “My God. Did his parents set him up to get his ass beat on a regular basis on purpose? They had to have hated him since conception to give him a name like that.”

My head fell back on a bark of laughter loud enough to draw the attention of the people at the tables around us, but I didn’t give a damn about the stares. It had been way too long since I laughed like that, andChrist, it felt fucking great.

“You’d think, right? His parents were assholes who raised their kid to be an asshole too, so the name kind of fits, I guess.”

She looked up and to the side, as if giving that some thought. “True enough. Chandlerdoessounds like the name of an asshole. At least in my opinion.”

“Yours and everyone who doesn’t have the last name Kingsley, aside from my grandmother and me. We’re the sane ones in the family. We know him for what he really is.”

Her eyes went wide. “Sounds like there’s a story there.”

She had no idea.

Lifting my glass to my lips, I threw back the last of my scotch, savoring the burn before finally diving in about Leah. “So, we’ve concluded that my cousin is an asshole.” She nodded in agreement. “But the truth is, my ex wasn’t all that great either. Looking back, the red flags were there, I just chose to ignore them.”

Layla’s face grew soft with understanding. “We all do that when we love someone.”

Truth was, now that it was all said and done, I wasn’t sure I ever really loved Leah. I think I liked the idea that I didn’t have to date around anymore. My business was taking off, and in my mind, marriage was the next logical step. I was ready to settle down and start a family, and as terrible as it sounded, she was just . . . there. I cared about her and bent over backward to give her a good life and make sure she was happy, but I couldn’t say if that was out of love or if I just felt like it was my responsibility to do all those things.

“Leah had this sense of entitlement,” I told her. “She wanted to be taken care of, and I didn’t mind doing that, but not to the extent that made her happy.”

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