club and when she came back in for her car keys, the dumb blonde club slut jumped up in my lap naked and Darby walked in then.”
“She stripped tonight?” Ava asks before Zane can even respond. “And what did you tell her?”
Ava’s concern has quickly morphed into a defensive tone. Darby’s her best friend and if I have anything to do with her being in jail, Ava will have my nuts strung on her rearview mirror by the morning.
“Listen, I can’t explain everything because I promised Darby.” I put the bottle down and look up to Ava and Zane. “I fucked up by saying some things tonight, but only said them because I’m way too damn protective of her.”
“Why is she in jail?” Zane asks.
“She beat the shit out of the blonde. The bouncers with the women’s crew tonight hauled her out of the club and wouldn’t let me have her.” I pick up the bottle again and press it to my lips, relishing the burn of the liquid. “She wouldn’t have let me take her anyway. I guarantee she’d rather be in jail.”
“I have to go get her.” Ava looks at Zane, keeping her eye contact off of me. “I have to. She’d do the same for me.”
He nods to her. “We’ll all go. I’ll stay in the car with Charlie and Rhett.”
Ava’s hesitant with the suggestion, but eventually nods her head in agreement. “Let me get Charlie’s diaper bag ready.”
“She’s going to eat you alive, man. I won’t be able to stop her. If you fucked this shit up with Darby, I can’t help you.”
There are no words or anything I can say to defend myself without exploiting Darby’s secret she shared with me the other night in our bed, so I only nod. And hope like a fucker that Darby will understand my knee-jerk reaction one day. It was out of protection of her. I didn’t miss the fact she was trying to teach me a lesson and how it makes her feel when I’m on stage…I get that. But no way in hell on God’s green Earth would I ever want her to expose herself like that.
My forehead meets the island countertop as I process the night over and over in my mind. I was protecting my girl and it backfired. I should’ve followed my gut reaction and bent her over Ross’ desk, fucking the hell out of her. I should’ve claimed her in that tiny office instead of protecting her. But she’s different to me and I wanted to show her that. The first time I act like a gentleman is also the first time I lose the love of my life. I can’t take back my words and don’t want to…I just want her.
The drive to the jail is eerily silent, reminding me of the silence before every storm in history. The only soothing sound in the car is the bundle of joy, Charlie, snoring next to me in the back seat. I stare down at her and think how incredibly blessed she is to be safely buckled in a car seat, bundled in blankets, and no cares in the world. I want to go back there, but in the same second I don’t. My own safety nestled in a car seat is in Darby and it seems I’ve lost her forever.
“I’ll be back.” Ava steps from the car and vanishes into the jail.
Zane remains silent in the front seat. I know he’s beyond livid about being woken up in the middle of the night, but also wants answers. We’ve never kept anything from each other. We’ve shared our highest of highs and lowest of lows.
“We started this crazy thing where we share something to each other each night before bed.” I begin rambling. “The first night I opened up to her about my lack of reading and it went from there. Some nights silly shit and other nights super serious stuff. Darby let me in on some abuse that happened in her childhood years. I thought I was protecting her tonight, but she took it as a slap in the face.”
“You hurt her.” His words echo around in the car.
“I was trying to protect her.”
“You hurt her, Rhett. She was trying to show you how much you hurt her by dancing and she thought she’d show you. You hurt her.”
“I didn’t mean to.” The words float out like a little schoolboy who’s being scolded in the principal’s office.
Zane swivels around in his seat