Page 116 of Second Chance Saloon

Jackie chuckled.

They lay there for a beat, their breathing heavy, coming off the high of pleasure.

Eventually, she worried her lip between her teeth, her gaze flicking to his. “What did your father say when he called you the other day?”

He groaned. “Do we need to talk about my father right now?”

“We don’t, but I want to know how you are.”

“You know how Tanner is. He’s only getting more bitter with age. Was frothing at the mouth about the press and making things difficult for him and his career. Such a scandal at his only son’s failed wedding.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t happy about me, either,” she said in a small voice.

Mitch gritted his teeth, anger flaring in his chest. “Fuck Tanner. I told him I’m done being treated like crap.”

Jackie blinked, wide-eyed. “You said that to him?”

He frowned. “Why is that shocking?”

She held his gaze. “Because he’s been treating you like crap for years and you never stood up to him, not fully. I know you went away to college, and then vet school, but the things he said to you … The way he made you feel … It was always like you took whatever crap he dished out, you just accepted it.”

Mitch goggled at her. “Wow. Don’t hold back, then.”

They had been together almost four years, and she had never told him this. She wasn’t wrong, he had let Tanner get away with awful behavior. Always found an excuse or brushed it off, telling himself and others that no matter what he did, he was his father. His family. And family, no matter how dysfunctional, was sacred.

At least that was what he used to think.

Jackie smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry. It’s a big thing, Mitch. Standing up to your father this way. How do you feel about it?”

He considered her question for a beat, digesting the words and trying to come up with an answer. How did he feel about it? Tanner would no doubt continue being Tanner. Mitch had stopped kidding himself he’d ever change. There was no way he could influence Tanner’s behavior, but what he could control was his own reactions and expectations. Knowing that, when it came to his father, the safer way—the only way—was not to expect anything at all.

“I’m fine, I think. I thought he wanted to check on me. But when he didn’t even ask how I was feeling after being left at the altar—he never asked, even on the day it happened—I knew that was it.”

Jackie smiled. “His loss.”

Mitch doubted Tanner would see it that way but maybe he was wrong.

She took a deep breath, and he knew what was coming.

“You don’t want to wait until tomorrow to tell me everything, do you?” he asked.

“I can’t.”

Mitch sighed, sliding a hand under his pillow, the other one resting across his stomach like he wanted to brace himself for what was coming. “I thought that’d be the case.”

Jackie mirrored him, her black hair a stark contrast to the white pillow. “I should’ve told you a long time ago. It was wrong and I’m sorry.”

“It was,” he agreed. There was no point in sugarcoating it. “I can’t even put into words how finding that note instead of you next to me felt.” Tears stung the corners of his eyes, as if on cue. He swallowed. “At first, I was frantic with worry. I thought something horrible happened to you. I tried calling you so many times. I begged Brenda to tell me where you were. I even called your father. No one would tell me.”

A single tear fell off her cheek and soaked into her pillow. “I know. I asked them not to.”

“Why?” Mitch asked on a rough sigh.

Dim light from the bedside lamp glimmered in her eyes. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. Ten years’ worth of pain and loneliness etched on her beautiful face, trampling his heart.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Mitch