Taking a step back, I decided to remove myself from the situation. “I should get back to the bar.”
“Tell me what the fuck is going on with my daughter!” he shouted, chasing after me.
“Pop!” Liam shouted.
I was almost at the door when his father grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around, slamming me up against the wall.
“What the fuck did you do to her?”
“Nothing!”
“Then why the hell do you have a bruise on your face?”
Again, I didn’t say anything.
“If you hurt her, I swear to God?—”
“She’s pregnant,” I blurted out, unable to keep the man in pain for any longer.
His eyes widened as he slowly released me, taking a step back. The silence in the waiting room crackled through the air, and for the second time, I didn’t see the fist coming until it was already hitting me square in the jaw.
My head snapped back against the wall, but I was ready the second time and ducked just as his fist came flying at me again.
“Pop!”
“You son of a bitch! You came into town and got her pregnant?” the father shouted.
“What?”
I barely got the thought out when he swung again. I was getting really tired of being used as a punching bag, and even though the man was older, he still packed one hell of a punch, one that I didn’t feel like taking again.
Grabbing his fist as he swung at me, I jerked his arm up behind his back, shoving him up against the wall.
“I didn’t get her pregnant,” I hissed in his ear, hoping to calm him down. “I knew she was pregnant, but that’s it.”
“They why the fuck didn’t she say anything to me?”
“That’s something you’re going to have to ask her.”
He was still riled up, still on the verge of losing his shit, but it didn’t feel like it was directed at me any longer. Slowly, I eased my hold on him and stepped back.
“Are we good?”
When he nodded, I released him and removed myself from his vicinity. An argument immediately ensued between fatherand son, but I didn’t stick around to find out how it would turn out. I’d already put myself too firmly in the middle of this family drama, and I wanted nothing more to do with it.
“JR!” Maverick shouted as he chased me out of the hospital.
“I’m gone,” I called over my shoulder.
“Just wait!”
But I didn’t listen. I couldn’t. Not when the memories were still too close and threatened to pull me under. I hadn’t thought of that time in my life for so long, and I wasn’t about to go back there again tonight.
30
JOSIE
“Oh my gosh!”Ellie May gushed, rushing into the shop. “Did you hear the news?”
