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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Liam
“Another.”
“No, I don’t think so, man. You’ve had too much already.”
I glared at the bartender. Clearly the man had no idea how royally I’d just fucked my life up. If he did, he’d give me my double.
I leaned against the bar, my chin in my hands. It wasn’t every day that a comment could completely fill your heart and then rip it out in a matter of moments.At least I was brave enough to do something about it.That’s what she’d said.
Ashlyn had wanted me. Not just the physical side. But she’d wanted more. She’d wantedme.
And I’d lied, kept things from her. After repeated opportunities to come clean, I’d lied to the purest creature to ever grace my life.
I groaned, dropping my forehead to the polished wooden counter. The liquor was sour in my gut, sloshing as I slowly counted to ten, begging my stomach to recenter itself.
“You doing okay, buddy?” My friend the bartender again. Obviously worried I was about to hurl up sixty dollars of scotch all over his drink station.
“He’s fine. Thank you,” a familiar voice spoke close to my shoulder.
I lifted one brow. It felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Ian plunked down beside me, sliding the glass from my fingers and examining the contents.
“Don’t look at me like that. I can still take you,” I said.
Ian rolled his eyes at me. “You can't take me sober. There’s no way you can do it hammered drunk.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. You hate you,” he told me casually, picking up one of the scattered shot glasses and wrinkling his nose at the smell.
I eyed the bar in front of me, my fingers shuffling around the empty glasses. “I hate you for saying that. How the fuck did you even find me?” I hadn’t been drinking as much since Ashlyn’s contract, and I had to admit that the booze was hitting me pretty hard.
Ian handed me the water he’d ordered. “Sam,” he said simply.
“Goddamn nosy sisters,” I growled.
“Careful, Macklen. Let’s leave her out of it.” The warning was clear in his voice, and I raised an eyebrow but moved on. I was relieved she had sent him. I had a horrible feeling that I was going to regret this entire night. At least with Ian here, he could be sure that I didn’t muck up everything Ashlyn had built.
I took a sip of the water. Ice cold, it pierced my chest. “You always did like her best.”
“She’s the only one of you with any sense. That’s something I can appreciate,” he said.
“That’s fair.” I took a long sip of the ice water.
“So are you going to tell me what this is all about?” Ian’s voice was casual, calm, just like usual. But I could feel the curiosity in his words.
I gave him a hard look. “Sam didn’t?”
Ian was silent. Translation, she did, but not the gritty details that led to me sitting here, drowning my disgust in alcohol.
I only had a few days until the board announced their decision. Fuck. What had seemed so important a few weeks ago now seemed like a complete waste of whatever meager brain power I still had left. And I wanted to use it to find a way to get Ashlyn back.
Wait, what was I saying?
Ian waited patiently, tugging on the cuff of his leather jacket.
I took another long, fortifying sip of my water. “I fucked it all up. It seemed so easy at the beginning. When Ashlyn sprang the fake girlfriend option on me, I went for it. I knew the board would eat that shit up.” I squirmed on my seat like a kid in the principal’s office.
