Page 71 of Easy On Me

Jase winced. I squeezed his hand under mine.

“--and has serious consequences in Georgia. You don't have to decide now, but I can help you if you want to report--“

“I want to.” Jase's voice hardened, and he rotated his hand to link our fingers. He glanced sideways at me. “Everybody's gonna see it anyway. Her doing this? That's wrong. I'm not owning that for her.”

“Okay.” Scott nodded. “I'll make a call and get someone over here.”

He didn't get just someone – the local chief of police, only a few years older than Jase, someone he knew and trusted, showed up with the investigator.

I clung to Jase's hand while they asked questions, collected screenshots, and took his statement. More than an hour later, they left, Scott walking them out after the chief promised they'd be in touch.

Jase stared down at the business card in his hand, turning it over and over between his fingers.

I caressed his forearm, and he covered my hand with his.

“What do you need?” I whispered.

His lashes fell. “I have to tell them.”

I didn't have to ask who he meant – his parents and grandparents.

A rough half-sob shuddered up from his chest. “And I really want Daddy and Grandaddy.”

“Okay.” “I stroked his temple, and he leaned into my touch. I brushed a kiss over his jaw, fumbling for my phone. “I'll call them for you and ask them to meet us. Let’s get you home.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jase

The back door shut with a muffled thump, Mama’s voice blending with Tyler’s quiet one, and I cringed. We’d been home just long enough for me to walk through to the den, boots on, and slump on the couch.

Hearing Daddy and Grandaddy’s steady footfalls on the hardwood, I gripped my hair, elbows digging into my knees. I didn’t want to look at them.

“Son?” A hand on my shoulder, Daddy hunkered by me, his leather driving moc next to my dirt-encrusted work boots. At the corner of my vision, I caught a glimpse of Grandaddy’s garden shoes.

“Jase.” Mama settled next to me on the couch, an arm around me. A faded sob shuddered through me, a holdover from Scott’s office. My whole torso hurt, like I’d been lifting rear wheel weights all day. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

Might as well jump in. Waiting wouldn’t change anything.

I blew out a breath and lifted my head, not enough to meet anybody’s eyes, but enough to see Tyler’s feet behind Grandma and Grandaddy. She shifted from one to the other, nervous for me. I wanted her next to me. I needed her next to me, steady, close.

Hands at my mouth, I puffed against my skin, shoring myself up. I dropped my hands between my knees.

“Elizabeth’s pregnant. Says it’s mine.”

Next to me, Mama made a kicked kitten noise. Daddy’s hand tightened on my shoulder.

“She got mad because she wanted me to marry her.” I dragged my palms down my face, brain flashing back to that field. What if I’d handled her differently? I pulled the thought up short. This was about her choices, her behavior. Not mine. “Told me I’d be sorry.”

Grandaddy snorted, his familiar response when he was disgusted. Figured I’d hear it again when I told the rest of it.

“So she had a video of me. In the shower.” I swallowed hard. “Masturbating. And she posted it online.”

Mama’s harsh inhale vibrated through me. I cringed, belly folding in on itself.

I bit the inside of my lower lip and shook my clasped hands between my knees, trying to release the antsy energy running through my whole body. “It’ll be all over town.”

“Fuck the town,” Grandaddy growled.