Angel Wings
Maverick
Icast one lastworried glance toward the barn Cheyenne disappeared into. I hoped Betty behaved. She seemed okay enough with Chey, but still. I didn’t trust her with anyone but me, really.
“So…” Ashleigh’s soft, accusatory tone drew my attention. “Who isshe?”
I turned to face her fully. Anger permeated from her; I could practically feel it. She’d never reacted well when I’d tried to move on. Never been good at letting me go. To be fair, I wasn’t any good at it either…
Until now. Until Cheyenne.
The two of them couldn’t be more different. They were night and day. Ashleigh was like the moon on a cloudy night. Cheyenne was the sun.
“She’s my girlfriend,” I replied, though she was so much more than that.
My own resolve surprised me. Ashleigh had always had a way of making me feel like I needed to tread carefully, or walk oneggshells. But none of the usual worry accompanied me as I met her heated glare.
“How long have you been with her?” She crossed her arms over her chest, one of her hips jutting out into a defiant stance.
I shrugged and blew out a sigh. I didn’t see why this mattered. “Couple months now.”
Her eyes narrowed, almost like she was doing the math in her head, before her lips drew down into a furious scowl. “You were talking to her and I at the same time?” Her words dripped with accusation.
Funny, she’d get so mad and accuse me of that when she did it all the time. She’d been the one who’d slept with another man in my own bed. On the night I proposed. Anger and sadness and those old devastating feelings fought to rear their ugly heads, but I pushed them down. No. I was done with letting those emotions control me.
“Her and I hit it off the night you were supposed to come work things out with me,” I finally settled on saying, making sure to keep my tone calm and even despite the anger brewing inside me like a storm.
“I told you I had work!” Her words, her stance, everything about her turned defensive, her sweet voice holding a desperate, shrill note to it.
I leveled her with a knowing look. “Ashleigh…you and I both know you didn’t have work.”
It hurt saying the words out loud. Acknowledging the fact that I’d been second best. That Ialwayswas second best for her. Always the back up. I was the safe harbor when her love life went to shit. The one who picked up the broken pieces from every guy who fucked her over, only for her to use me up, bleed me dry, and then leave before things got too serious. And then when things inevitably went south, she’d come crawling back again.
I think it hurt more, though, that I let it happen for so long.
Why had I done this?
I was the voice of reason when it came to Cash and Ryder’s love lives. I’d spouted off a whole bunch of shit to Charlie a few months ago about not letting a love like theirs go to waste. And yet, when it came to my own love life, I was as much of a mess as Cash… Okay,almostas much of a mess.
Ashleigh’s gaze welled with angry tears as she choked out, “So, I fuck up, and you go and get some girl pregnant?”
Her words hit like a sledgehammer to the chest. If only she knew the baby wasn’t mine. But she didn’t need to know that. Besides, I intended to raise that baby as mine. To love it asmine.
I opened my mouth to respond but she continued on. “I’m sorry, okay? I was scared. Scared of jumping back into things and…” Her words dissolved into sobs as she launched into my arms.
For a moment I just stood there. I didn’t know what to say, what to do to make her stop. I didn’t want her to feel this way. I didn’t want to be the reason for her tears. As much as she’d hurt me over the last almost twenty years, I didn’t want to see her hurt. But Ialso couldn’t keep doing this for her. Being her punching bag, her shoulder to cry on.
I placed my hands on her shoulders and slowly, gently created space between us.
“Maverick I’m so—” she sobbed, her hands coming up to grasp my arms. But the minute her hands met my flesh, she pulled back, a look of pure, undiluted horror spreading across her face. Her gaze landed on my scars. “Oh my god, they’re so much worse than I remembered.”
Well, if her words had felt like a sledgehammer a few moments earlier, these were like a damn dagger straight through the heart.
For a moment I’d forgotten about them. Cheyenne seemed to like them, made sure to mention how beautiful they were every chance she got. And tonight, despite every ounce of my mind screaming at me to keep myself covered up, I’d opted to defy the odds and let them show. No one seemed to mind or notice.
Until now.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, my arms crossing protectively over my chest—like that could somehow hide them.
