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“Dumbass,” Lyric muttered under his breath.
“Cannon showed up, and he and I got into an argument.” I flexed my swollen left hand. “I punched him… And then I got drunk.”
“Aw, Shaw,” Aunt Harper said with a disappointed shake of her head. “Honey…”
“Later, as I was coming out of the bathroom, Cannon cornered me,” Violet took over the story again. “He said…” She gulped, and her hold on Lyric tightened until her knuckles were bloodless. “He said that since Shaw kissed his best friend, he got to kiss hers. He was drunk. He kissed me. I fought against him, Ric, but he was so strong like that, it was scary. And he…” The sob that left her tore at something inside me, and I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around her, needing to hold on to my best friend. “He hurt me,” she choked out before burying her face in my chest.
“Wait!” Aunt Harper was trying to block Uncle Shane from leaving. “Just take a deep breath. We’ll take care of this, but killing him isn’t the answer.”
“Get out of my way, beautiful,” he seethed.
“Shane, please,” she begged him, pushing at his chest as tears spilled down her pale face. “I’m just as pissed as you are right now, but it’s not our place to deal with him. Let me call Dallas. She’ll handle this better than anyone else. I promise.”
“He touched our baby,” he growled menacingly. “He hurt her, Harper!”
Tears fell faster from her eyes. “I know,” she whispered. “And I want to strangle him. But…please, Shane. Please don’t do this. Let Dallas handle him first.”
“Please, Daddy,” Violet said as she lifted her head. “M-Mom’s right.”
Frustrated, he scrubbed his hands over his face. “Call her,” he gritted out. “Now.”
I bit my lip as she dialed my mom’s number. I wasn’t sure yet what time it was in Knoxville. That part of Tennessee was on East Coast time, and a glance at the clock on the bedside table told me it was 2:13 a.m. Pacific time, which meant it was 5:13 where my parents were.
They’d gone to Knoxville for the weekend to visit my adopted sister, Kenzie, and her husband. Dad adopted Kenzie right before she aged out of the foster care system back when he and Mom were still dating. She’d moved to Knoxville for college and then ended up staying when she got married before I was even born. Her eldest was less than two years younger than me, so it was beyond weird when he called my parents Grams and Grampy.
My uncle Linc and his husband Rhett lived in the same suburb as Kenzie and her husband. When I was eight, Kenzie had offered to be Linc and Rhett’s gestational host. They got two separate eggs from the same donor, used both their sperm, and Kenzie had their twins. Ripley was biologically Linc’s son, and Lennon was biologically Rhett’s daughter. Kenzie and her husband Bishop were big parts of the twins’ lives, and I was sure it would physically hurt my adopted sister if they ever moved away from each other.
The call to my mother didn’t take long. Aunt Harper gave her a quick rundown of what was going on, leaving out the part where I was still drunk, but I knew it would only be a short reprieve. Whatever punishment I got, however, I would take without complaint.
I would own up to my mistakes, but I knew whatever I was given, it wouldn’t even be close to what they would do to my brother.
Chapter 8
Jagger
After dropping off Gretchen at her house, I drove around for a while, trying to clear my head. I wanted to go back to the party and make Shaw talk to me, but whe
n I pulled up outside the house in Santa Monica, I saw Cannon’s car was still there and figured it was better to wait.
I got home a little after one and dropped down onto my bed. I typed out a text to Shaw at least fifty different times, but I ended up erasing it every single time because whatever I wrote seemed like pure bullshit.
I was sorry…for being a pussy. For not having the balls to pick her over her brother because I was scared—of losing them both. I should have manned up and told her what was in my heart.
A week ago, she would have taken my words and given them back to me. Now, she would probably laugh in my face. I could easily picture her FaceTiming me just so she could laugh hysterically before flipping me off and telling me to go fuck myself.
No, whatever I told her needed to be said face-to-face so she would know how sincere I was. That I wasn’t going to let anyone stand in my way this time. All that mattered was her. No one, not a godsdamn person, was going to stand in my way of winning her back.
A knock on my door was quickly followed by Ma barging into my room. The look on her face told me she was pissed, and I instantly went on alert, wondering if I was the one she was mad at. Hands on her hips, she stopped at the foot of my bed and glared down at me. “Tell me about this fucking party tonight.”
Swallowing a groan, I slowly sat up, knowing that I had to approach this—and her—with caution. “Maybe you should tell me what you know, Ma. And then I’ll fill in the blanks.”
“Don’t be a smartass,” she snapped and showed me her phone. With a tap of her finger over the screen, a video started playing.
The video was of me making out with Gretchen and then Shaw pouring beer over my head, followed by everything else, all the way up until Shaw punched Cannon and stormed away before abruptly cutting off.
“That about sums up the party,” I assured her.
“Yeah?” She lowered her phone, but her voice got even frostier. “That about sums up the party because you left after that, or it about sums it up because you want to protect Cannon?”
