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“Mad?” He snorted. “No, boy. She’s not mad.”
My stomach protested. “Ah fuck,” I groaned.
“You and your brother might be eighteen now, but you two have a hell of a lot of growing up to do,” Dad told me in a hard tone. “After what you put that girl through last night, you don’t even deserve her.”
“I know,” I muttered painfully, closing my eyes against the glare of the sun beaming in through the tinted windows.
“Did you honestly think she forgot your birthday?” I shrugged without opening my eyes. “You didn’t once wonder that she could have been planning something special for you and wanted it to be a surprise?”
Again, I shrugged, feeling like complete shit. I should have, but I’d been so pissed and hurt that it hadn’t crossed my mind once. Fuck, I’d messed up. Of course Violet wouldn’t forget my birthday—or anything else about me. Just as I would never forget a single thing about her.
I needed my ass kicked, and if she’d forgive me, I’d let her rip me apart with her bare hands.
The sound of my phone made me groan in pain, but I pulled it out of my pants pocket, hoping it was Violet. Seeing it was Shaw, I sent it to voice mail. I couldn’t deal with her bitching at me at the moment. Maybe later, when my head wasn’t pounding and I wasn’t fighting not to vomit.
No sooner had the ringing stopped than Dad’s phone went off. He hit connect on the touch screen. “Hello?”
“Uncle Jesse,” Shaw’s voice filled the vehicle, and I pressed my fists to my temples, begging my brain to stay intact for a little longer. “Lyric just told me you picked up Luca. May I speak to him, please?” Her voice was so deceptively sweet, but I knew what was coming.
“He’s right beside me, Shaw. You’re on speaker, so feel free to tell him whatever you wish.”
“You’re sure?” She waited for conformation.
“Be my guest.”
“Okay, then.” She inhaled deeply, and I knew it was going to be worse than I first imagined. “You worthless piece of shit! How dare you say you love that girl and then pull something like this? She deserves so much better than a dickhead like you shredding her heart like it’s not the most valuable treasure in the world. Do you know how destroyed she is right now, motherfucker? Do you even care? You are currently trending on all social media. Pictures of you and that skank Megan are being shared left and right, and you don’t even give a shit.”
“Dad, pull over!” I begged.
He jerked to the side of the road, and I threw the door open, puking yet again while Shaw continued to bitch at me.
I couldn’t stomach the thought of Violet hurting because of what I did. I’d been such an asshole, such a little pussy, that I’d broken the only thing that even mattered to me.
Violet.
How the hell was I going to make this better?
I heard Dad tell Shaw goodbye, and he handed me some tissues out of the center console so I could wipe my mouth. “Every decision you make has consequences, son,” Dad told me as I leaned back in my seat and clenched my eyes closed. “Some of them aren’t easy to live with, but you always have to man up and face them. You can’t hide from your mistakes, no matter how badly you might want to.”
Tears burning my eyes, I looked at him. “How do I fix this?”
“I don’t know if you can, but you have to at least try.”
Chapter 9
Violet
Adjusting the sunglasses on my nose, I decided to torture myself a little more and picked up my phone. Only two minutes before, I’d tossed it on the sand beside my lounge chair when yet another picture of Luca and Megan had appeared in my social media feed.
Luca with no shirt, every hard angle of his abs and chest on full display—every angle that wasn’t covered by Megan in nothing more than a baby-blue bra and panties set as she slept on his chest. Her hair a tangled mess as if Luca spent the night with his hands in it, her makeup still perfect on her beautiful face.
They looked good together. The clichéd high school cheerleader and football player couple.
“Stop it,” Shaw commanded as she came out of her house and dropped down onto the lounger beside me. She jerked my phone out of my hands and turned it off. “Neither one of them is worth two seconds of your time.”
“Where did you go?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Had to make a call,” she said with a shrug as she put her legs up on the lounger and used one of her arms to pillow her head as she looked up at the clear blue sky.
