Page 60 of Stunner (Whiskey Dolls 3)

He had the audacity to look shocked. “What? Asher, are you kidding? Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“I did, and I don’t care. You came here to start shit because you’re a weasel, and that’s what weasels do. But I’m not going to let you get in my head. You’re a sad, pathetic, sorry excuse for a man, and as far as I’m concerned, Owen and I are both done with you, so get the hell out, and don’t come back.”

“This is ridiculous!” he started, but I stepped to the side, giving Triumph a bigger opening to get to him if he wanted.

As if reading my mind, my dog growled and took two steps closer. That was all it took. Like the coward he was, Jackson bolted for a second time. Lucky for him, he was able to use the door this time instead of having to find a window.

Once he was gone, I shut the door and threw the deadbolt just in case he went completely insane and decided to come back.

I turned slowly to face Owen and found he’d moved back to the kitchen.

“Owen,” I called as I started for him. He was standing at the sink, scouring the skillet with so much force I worried he was going to take the protective non-stick coating off. “Owen, will you stop that and look at me, please?”

He let out a sigh as he dropped the sponge and braced his hand on the edge of the sink. His shoulders slumped and his head hung low. I’d never seen him look so defeated, and I hated the sight of it.

“Owen, honey. What was he talking about?”

Owen

I held the counter in a white-knuckled grip as panic coursed through my blood. I should have let that fucker beat on the door until he wore himself out. I never should have let her answer, because now I had to tell her the truth, and once she knew, she’d never look at me the same.

I forced myself to meet her gaze, the love I felt causing physical pain.

Her beautiful face was married by a frown that killed me. “I know you’ve been keeping something from me. Just tell me.”

I had to rip the Band-Aid off. Just get it out and move past it.

“Junior year was the year my mom was diagnosed with cancer,” I started, my voice sounding like I’d been gargling rocks. “She made it seem like nothing when she told you about it, but the part she left out was the treatment nearly killed her.”

She lifted her hands to cover her mouth. “God, Owen. I’m so sorry, I can’t imagine what you must have been going through.”

“She’d always been my biggest supporter. When I told her I didn’t want to take over the restaurant, the family legacy, she didn’t bat an eye. She was the most important woman in my life. The thought of losing her—” I had to stop myself, the lump in my throat painfully swelling. I cleared it and forced myself to continue. “My dad was a wreck. He could barely function. To say he wasn’t holding it together very well would be a massive understatement. She’s the love of his life, and watching her waste away was destroying him.

“I was fucking up in school. I blew off my classes to be with my mom, even though she kept telling me my education was more important. When I did go, I couldn’t concentrate onanything. I just didn’t give a shit about any of it. I had a girlfriend while all of this was happening.”

“Stacy,” she said quietly, starting to piece things together.

I nodded. “We’d been dating for about a year. I thought I was in love with her at the time, but looking back, it was only a stupid infatuation. She was a spoiled brat and wasn’t thrilled she had to share my attention with my sick mom. We started fighting all the time because she couldn’t stand how much time I was spending at home instead of with her.”

“Jesus,” Asher hissed. “What a selfish bitch.”

I let out a humorless chuckle. “Baby, you have no idea. I didn’t have a safe place anywhere. If I was home, I was focused on my mom. If I was at school, I was dealing with Stacy’s bullshit drama. I started partying harder than I ever had before. The only time I was able to forget that my life was swirling around the drain was when I was drunk, so for a while, I just stayed that way.

“We were at a party one night and had been fighting the whole goddamn time. She finally told me it was her or my mom. I had to choose, and if I chose my mom, we were done. Something inside me snapped. I’d had enough. That had been going on for nearly a year, and I’d fuckingfinallyreached my breaking point. I’d been drinking for hours by then, but I didn’t let that stop me. I didn’t care about anything but getting the hell out of there. I had no business getting behind the wheel of a car. Jackson saw me storming out and followed after me. He tried to get me to come back inside so I could sober up, but I wouldn’t listen, so he got in the car with me.

“It took a long time for all the pieces of that night to come back to me, I’d been that goddamn drunk. Turns out, I plowed my car right into the Dean’s shiny new Lexus. He wasn’t in it at the time, and, thank God, no one was hurt, but I was drunk as hell at the time. If the cops showed up at the scene, my entirefuture was fucked. We were always well enough off growing up, but my folks weren’t loaded. College was expensive as hell. I’d managed to secure a scholarship, but if I was arrested for driving under the influence, I would have lost it, and with my mom’s medical bills, there was no way they could have afforded for me to stay. And that wasifI didn’t get kicked out. My dream of vet school would have disappeared.”

Her voice came out quiet and strained as she asked, “What did you do?”

“It was what Ididn’tdo,” I finally admitted, feeling lower than low. “When the cops showed, Jackson took the blame, said he’d been driving the car. He’d been drunk too, so they arrested him right there on the spot. Of course, his parents had him bailed out in no time. When I asked him why he did it, he said he knew his parents would pay to have it all taken care of, but I’d lose everything I’d worked so hard for, and it would break my mother’s heart. He said his parents could afford to get it all swept under the rug, and since he was going to work for his father’s company, he wasn’t at risk of losing the job. He took the fall for me, and I... I let him. That was the wakeup call I needed to get my shit together. I stopped drinking, stopped partying. I told Stacy to fuck off, in politer words of course, and I started busting my ass in school. But I never owned up to what I’d done. I let Jackson swing for something that wasn’t his fault.”

She stood silent for so long that a cold, nervous sweat broke out across my skin. Finally, she shook her head, her forehead puckered in a frown. “I’m sorry, but I’m having trouble picturing Jackson doing something out of the kindness of his own heart like that. It’s just not in the nature of the man I know.”

My laugh was self-deprecating. “I felt the same way. It didn’t make sense to me for the longest time. Then I ran into Stacy at the coffee shop on campus one day a few months later, and she told me the two of them had been sleeping together for twomonths before the crash. That was when I finally got it. He’d been feeling guilty for fucking my girlfriend behind my back, and taking the fall for something Mommy and Daddy could easily get him out of was his penance, his way of apologizing without everyactuallyhaving to apologize.”

“Ah.” She nodded her head. “Okay, yeah. That makes a lot more sense.” She let out a sigh and shook her head. “So this was your big secret? I don’t understand. Why didn’t you just tell me from the beginning?”

“Because I was terrified you would look at me differently. What I did was fucked up, Ash. I’ve been in love with you for so goddamn long, the thought of you thinking less of me for what I’d done in the past made me sick to my stomach.”

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