don’t speak her name, and if you carry on as you are, we won’t speak yours, either.”
Anger crashed down on me, and I locked gazes with her, something I rarely did. “When Jarod was telling tales on me, did he happen to mention that he tried to force me to sleep with him?”
She froze. “You’re lying. He would never do that.”
I crossed my arms, needing a barrier between us before I grabbed her shoulders and shook the hell out of her. “Do you think we only held hands when we were dating?”
She flushed and opened her mouth to fire more poison at me, but I talked right over her.
“Let me guess, that’s my fault as well?” I laughed humorlessly. “Your wonderful Jarod took my virginity, then blamed me for tempting him.”
“He would never do that, not unless you…”
“Stop,” I yelled.
Her eyes widened, shocked into silence for the first time in her life.
I took a step toward her. “Don’t you dare put that on me. Don’t you dare. There were two of us there. And if I’m like Kate, I’m thankful. She’s an awesome mom, a loving wife, and a supportive sister. She loves her daughter unconditionally, unlike you. The fact that you care more about what other people think than your own children, that you would rather believe Jarod than me, says more about you than me or Kate.” I held her gaze even as my heart split wide open. “If you can’t see that, we’re both better off without you.”
It was her turn to flinch, but there was no backing down, it was there in the hard lines of her face.
I was done. So done. There was nothing else to say. She wasn’t going to listen anyway. I turned my back on her and walked to my car.
“You’re not welcome at the ranch,” she said. “Don’t contact me or your father until you can show us you’ve changed.”
I turned back to her. “I have changed, for the better. And you won’t be seeing or hearing from me again.”
Then I climbed in my car and drove away.
I didn’t remember driving the thirty minutes home. One minute I was getting back in my car, the next I was outside Rocktown Ink.
I pushed the door open and walked into the shop.
The little bell above the door jingled.
No one was behind the main desk and music played through the speakers around the room—not as loud as usual—but all I could hear were my mother’s hateful words.
Jesse walked out of the room where he created his beautiful tattoos and smiled when he saw me. “Perfect timing. Just cleaned up after my last client.” He swaggered toward me, like he always did. It was sexy and confident and made me want to kiss him. I always wanted to kiss him.
He pulled me into his arms and gave me what I wanted, what I needed. He kissed me like only Jesse could, like some medieval warrior back from war.
I clutched him to me, kissing him back almost desperately. He hauled me up into his arms and set me on the counter, filling the space between my spread thighs, and gave it back to me just as urgently.
He kissed me until I was dizzy, then he lifted his head and grinned. “Hey, beautiful.” Then his chin jerked back, eyes widening. “What happened? Why the fuck are you crying?” He growled like a feral animal. “Did that fucker Jarod hurt you? I’m going to kill him.” His gaze sliced to the door, like he was about to take off, like he was already committing murder in his head.
I cupped his jaw and made him look at me. “No, it wasn’t Jarod, not entirely.”
“Lila…”
“My mother,” I whispered, the pain choking me. “She was there when I left Cassy’s. Waiting for me. Jarod told her about you and me, that he saw us kissing. She called me a slut and a whore. Told me I’d disgraced the family, and I…I didn’t hold back. I told her about Jarod, all of it, what he tried to do. She blamed me, of course, and she cut me out of her life, like I’m a bit of rot. Like she did Kate.” I broke down then, tears running free.
Jesse held me tightly.
“I know it hurts, Lila, but you’re better off without her poison in your life. I know that better than you think.” He pulled back so I could see his face. “You still have me. You have your friends. You have Kate.