AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Davis.
Ugh.
“Excuse me,” I say as I try to maneuver around him, but he grabs my wrist as I try to pass.
“Wait, Abigail. I wanted to talk to you.” His slurred speech and glassy eyes tell me he’s already at least five drinks deep. Dealing with a drunk Davis is not high on my list of priorities tonight. Or any night.
“I need to get back to my boyfriend,” I tell him. If I give him an inch, this man will try to take ten miles. I rip my wrist from his grasp and turn to get back to Jackson and far away from this asshole.
“Please. Just hear me out. Seeing you here tonight has me in knots. This should have been our party. Our wedding tomorrow.”
That stops me in my tracks. My spine goes ramrod straight as I spin to face him.
“Our party? Our wedding? Are you serious? Are you fucking delusional?” I seethe out. “You were caught with your overused and underwhelming dick in my best friend’s mouth. Why the hell would you think there would have been a wedding after that?”
“I know, I fucked up. It was just some harmless fun until I settled down. You know our families always wanted us together. It was a given that I was going to marry you.” Davis sways on his feet and tries to give me his best Southern boy smile. It may have worked on me for little things like being late picking me up or forgetting to make reservations before we get to a restaurant, but cheating? Yeah, hell no.
“Well, too bad for you, I had no intention of marrying a cheater. Do you think I’m some kind of idiot? Plus, I don’t care what our families expected. They weren’t the ones marrying your sorry ass.”
I turn around to go back to my table when Davis takes a step in front of me, caging me against the wall.
“We were so good together, Abby. We could be again. You proved your point when you left. You made a life for yourself up north, but you can come back and build one with me now.”
“Davis, myboyfriendis waiting for me. I’m not having this conversation with you. We’ve been over for years, and I have never regretted getting the hell away from you.”
I make to move around his frame when he puts a hand on my hip, pinning me in place.
“That guy? Please, if you think what I did was bad, you should hear the things I’ve heard about him. He makes me look like a fucking saint,” he sneers.
I’m under no delusions about Jackson’s reputation or his past. Davis probably doesn’t even know the half of it. The thing is, I don’t care. I know Jackson, and I see the way he’s changed. I know what it means to be the sole recipient of his attention, and it’s fucking fabulous. His past doesn’t have anything to do with his present, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for this overgrown frat boy in front of me.
Just as I’m about to push Davis away, I turn my head and see Jackson storming toward us. And he is furious.
“Get your hands off her, asshole.” Jackson pushes Davis away from me, which causes Davis to stumble, almost losing his balance. He rights himself at the last minute and glares at Jackson.
“We were having a private conversation, Hayes.” Watching Davis try to make himself intimidating would be laughable, but he’s drunk as shit, and Jackson is pissed as hell. This could turn bad really quick.
“You lost the right to any private conversations with my girlfriend the moment you stuck your dick in another woman,” Jackson bellows. The commotion is loud enough to get the attention of the other partygoers who come around the corner just in time to see Davis charge at Jackson. Unfortunately for him, because he’s so damn drunk, all Jackson has to do is step out of the way and Davis goes flying into his brother and a couple of his friends. I hear Cesily scream when he nearly topples her groom over with the force of his fall.
“Not before the wedding,” she screams before she tries to help Davis and Dawson right themselves.
Her vicious glare turns to me. “I should have known having you here would cause this kind of drama. You ruin everything,” she yells at me. “And you…” She turns and points at Jackson. “How dare you lay hands on my brother-in-law at my party. This is the South, where people have manners and know how to behave in public. I should have known some Yankee party boy wouldn’t know how to conduct himself.”
“Lady, you’ve got a lot of nerve talking to your sister or me like that.” It’s sweet that Jackson is trying to stick up for me against my sister, but this isn’t the time. Everyone’s been drinking and quite frankly, I’ve had enough drama around the Callaways to last me a lifetime.
Stepping in front of Jackson, I lay my hand on his chest. “Now’s not the time. Let’s just go back to the hotel.” Jaw tight with anger, he’s still seething and staring daggers at my sister and Davis. I stand on my toes so I can whisper in his ear. “Hey, get me out of here and you can make good on all the things you wanted to do to me instead of coming here.” That finally breaks through, and I see when he comes back to me. Jackson gives me a tight nod and grabs my hand, pulling me through the crowd.
No one speaks to us as we leave and once outside, I take a deep breath. Jackson pulls me into his chest, running his hands up and down my back.
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” he asks, looking ready to go back in and do some serious damage if I answer wrong.
“No. I’m fine. Promise. It was just more of the same bullshit he tried to sell me when I broke up with him. Nothing I haven’t heard before.”
Jackson looking me over for any injury is probably one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen him do.
“I don’t know how you stand these people, Red. They’re seriously a bunch of assholes.”
“Why do you think I hardly ever come home?”
