“He, I don’t know. He was angry, and…” I couldn’t find the words for what had just happened, because I was still trying to process it.
“She’s fine. Fuck you all. I thought I knew you, Addy. I was wrong,” Alec shouted, as he pushed to his feet and spit on the ground before storming away.
“Did he touch you?” Jett asked, and the look of concern in his eyes nearly brought me to my knees.
I shook my head, but when I tried to speak, a sob escaped my throat. The tears came faster and more hurried now, and I covered my mouth to try to stop my emotions from overflowing.
Alec Taulson had just been aggressive with me. Physically aggressive. I was afraid of him. The boy I’d known my whole life.
Jett wrapped me in his arms, and I buried my face in his chest. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
We stepped out of the bushes and I looked up to see the faces of a very worried Coco, Shaw, and Jax. “I’m okay. I think he’s really drunk. He’s never done anything like that before.”
Coco wrapped her arms around both Jett and me, which made me laugh through my tears.
“Will you text me later and let me know you’re okay?”
“Of course,” I said.
Jett’s fingers intertwined with mine, and he led me to the car. Neither of us had any alcohol. We wanted to be clear-headed tonight. I was spending the night with him, and I wanted to remember every moment. But now, Alec had left a dark cloud over our heads, and I hated him for that.
Jett leaned over to buckle my seat belt once I was in the car.
“Do you want me to take you home instead? You’ve had a rough night,” he asked after he slipped in the driver’s seat and turned to face me.
“No. I think he probably wanted to ruin my night, and we aren’t going to give him that. I want to be with you. Nothing’s changed.” I lowered the interior mirror and tried to clean up my face.
“You were just assaulted by that asshole. Everything has changed.”
“Not between us. I love you. That hasn’t changed. And honestly, that’s all that matters right now. Please, please, don’t let him ruin this for us.”
His jaw clenched, but he nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner. I was trying to be respectful. Can you tell me what happened?”
“Thanks for coming when you did. He was drunk and angry. Shouting at me that I haven’t been there for him with all he’s going through.” A tear ran down my face and I swiped it away. I looked down to see my hands trembling in my lap and I squeezed them together to try to stop the shaking.
“That piece of shit. I love you so much, you know that, right?” he asked.
“I do.”
“Did he put his hands on you?” His gaze studied mine, searching me for answers. I got the feeling that he was waiting for my answer before he’d pull away from the curb.
“He just shook me a bit. I’m fine. I really want to get out of here though, Jett.” I wiped away the last of my tears and forced a smile. Alec wasn’t going to ruin this night for us. He was drunk and lost and I’d tried to help him, but I was done. He’d crossed a line tonight that I didn’t know if we would ever recover from.
And I was okay with that.
Sad? Sure.
But after what he’d just done, I was certain I didn’t know him at all anymore.
Jett pulled away and reached for my hand. “Okay. It’s taking everything in me to drive away. I want to go beat his ass.”
“Please don’t. I just want to go. Just you and me.”
He drove down the dirt road toward our favorite spot on the lake and told me to wait in the car for a minute before he stepped outside. I looked through the front window just as candles lit up the space around the hammock. Jett opened the passenger door, my overnight bag slung over his shoulder, and I took his hand.
“What is this?” I asked, my gaze moving around to see a tent surrounded by white candles. Even the large tree had twinkle lights.
“We were out here today setting it all up,” he said, holding up two little remotes in his hand.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I said as he led me over to the adorable little campsite. He dropped my bag at his feet.
“I had help. Your musketeers are quite the little worker bees when they’re doing something for you.” He wrapped his arms around my middle, my back to his chest, as I took it in.
“Magic Willows.” I laughed and turned in his arms. “Thank you for doing this.”
“I’d do anything for you, Ace.” His words were sweet, but I saw the struggle in his dark eyes. Anger. Sadness. Frustration.
“I’m fine. I promise. He was just drunk.”
“I wanted to hurt him. If Shaw and Jax hadn’t pulled me off, I don’t know if I would have stopped,” he said, his thumb grazing along my bottom lip. “You sure he didn’t hurt you?”
“I’m sure. He just squeezed my shoulders,” I said, not wanting to tell him that the back of my head had also taken a couple shots when he shook me.
He slipped his coat down my shoulders and pulled his phone from his back pocket. He turned the flashlight on and held it above my arms, scanning each one as he cursed under his breath. I looked from one shoulder to the next, taking in the bruising that had already turned a purplish-blue.
“I’ll fucking kill him,” Jett hissed.
I shifted my arms, slipping his coat back in place.
“He’s miserable, trust me. You don’t need to get in trouble over him. And we actually have tonight together. Just you and me. I don’t want to waste another second on him.”
“Okay.” He nodded, and I didn’t miss the stress that he tried to hide from his gaze. “What do you want to do?” he asked as he pulled me back into his arms. My hands tangled in his hair and my breathing picked up at his nearness.
“I know it’s cold, but I think we should night swim.” I bit down on my bottom lip at the thought. Night swimming was on my bucket list, as was swimming in my birthday suit with my boyfriend.
He cocked his head to the side. “Did you bring your swimsuit?”
“Nope.” I shook my head, feeling the heat spread up the back of my neck.
He quirked a brow. “Me either. Let’s do it.”
He carried my bag and we slipped inside the tent. There were several candles inside the cozy pavilion and even after all that had happened in the last hour, I was suddenly overcome with desire. I think having the warmth of someone I cared about was really important to me right now and would make us both forget what happened earlier in the evening. This was what I wanted to remember, the night I was finally going to get to spend the night with Jett. God knows I’d thought about it more times than I could count.