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Hayden dropped his elbows to his knees and leaned forward. “I always thought she was spoiled, you know. Like a little kid who ignored people when they didn’t get their way. What I learned today painted a man I have known my entire fucking life in a new light. I thought Conrad hung the moon. I didn’t know how her mother treated her, and apparently neither did he, but it wasn’t fucking pretty, and it was the farthest thing from spoiled as you can get. And in my fucking opinion, if you’re a father, even if you are a weekend dad, you make sure you fuckingknow. He didn’t fucking know shit about her life with that fucking cunt.”
“Agreed. She’s told me a lot, but I think there’s more she’s not talking about and maybe even shit that she’s repressed,” I told him.
Hayden wrapped his hand over his mouth, staring at me before he dragged his hand down his face and chin. “Yeah. Some shit came back to her today. It’s bad, dude. I’m glad you brought Marion back here with you because when she was screaming at him about it, I tossed my cookies in the kitchen sink. I’d have felt bad if she had to clean that shit up.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
I didn’t even know what the fuck repressed memory came back to her, but Hayden, who’d been to a warzone, got sick at the telling of it; it had to be bad.
After several minutes, I worked up the courage to ask, “Did he…umm…was it…”
Or I tried to ask anyway.
Hayden stared at me, his face screwed up like it was trying to follow my thought process. Then he shook his head vehemently. “No. It wasn’t that. They wouldn’t have found the fucker because I would’ve beaten him ’til he was dust in the wind if that had been the case.”
The sick that had rushed up from my stomach at the thought settled back down. I closed my eyes and licked my lips because I’d exhaled so harshly I’d dried them out.
“Abandonment and neglect are all she’s talked about with me,” I offered, unable to meet his gaze, if it was even on me. I couldn’t fucking get the imagery from what I feared out of my head.
“That was the gist of it today, and I may not have whipped Conrad’s ass, but if that cunt mother of hers comes around, you might need to call Gran Daddy Warbucks to get me out of the slammer, and that’s if they don’t put me under it.”
I scoffed but couldn’t stop it from turning into a full-blown chuckle. Hayden laughed with me after staring at me for a moment.
We were still cracking each other up when the bedroom door opened.
“Fuuuck!” Marcie screamed.
Hayden and I both hit the floor, still laughing. Now, instead of laughing at each other for laughing, we were laughing at her because she’d jumped a foot in the air and darted back out of the room, screaming for Declan at the top of her lungs.
“Does she think we’re going to hurt her?” I asked, trying to control the hysterics.
He shrugged, still laughing, but like me, he was slowly calming down.
I hadn’t gotten so slap-happy in months. Things had been crazy since Katie and I met. We’d had some more lighthearted moments, but nothing like this, and I was bound and determined to fix that shit. I wanted to watch her giggle and clutch her sides as she laughed hard enough to make her ribs hurt.
“I’m going to find my girl,” I said. I almost said he should track his down, but I thought twice about it. I wasn’t sure of the dynamic between the three of them, but Katie and I knew there was something happening there. They hadn’t told us, so until they did, I would keep my trap shut. They deserved privacy the same as Katie and I did.
I wandered down the hall toward my room. Katie came up the step in, paying no attention to her surroundings. When shewalked down the other hall, I walked up behind her, wrapping my arms around her.
I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking.
I wasn’t thinking. That was the problem.
I was a goddamn idiot.
My balls and my instep, but mostly my balls, told me so unendingly.
I howled, grabbing my crotch just as my knees gave out. I crumpled to the floor, rolling around, trying to find a comfortable spot.
“Oh, my God! Jackson, baby! Are you okay?” Katie yelled.
I tried to answer her, but bile gathered at the back of my throat, and I knew if I opened my mouth, I would puke my nuts up. And I liked those fuckers where they belonged.
They currently didn’t like my stupid ass.
I could hear Katie crying and yelling for help while she brushed her fingers through my hair.
I felt the tremor in the hardwood as people came running, but I’d lost my hearing all but a muffle. My vision dimmed and was so splotchy it had almost deserted me as well.
