“Then we’re understood. Douglass is off limits.”
“Anything but that,” he contests, crossing his arms over his chest, which tells me loud and clear that he isn’t going to budge on the issue.
My hands clench into tight fists at my sides. “What did you say?” I grit through my teeth.
“Why do you care so much who Douglass is friends with?”
Because she’s mine, and I won’t let another person take what’s mine from me ever again.
“You never spoke a word to her in school. Come to think of it, you never said anything to her, ever,” he says.
Just because I never spoke to her in high school, didn’t mean she wasn’t on my radar. I was just too dumb to realize what was in front of me then. I’m not making that same mistake again now.
Turning the tables, I ask, “The same could be applied to you. Why doyoucare so much?”
“Because she’s the first person in five fucking years who has given me the time of day. Do you know how it feels to be treated like shit on the bottom of a shoe by the entire town you grew up in because you made the mistake of falling in love with your best friend’s girl?”
I’d been caging my anger for most of the day since Mike left the house. But not anymore. Years of hatred and heartbreak come tumbling out, and I lunge across the desk, grabbing his shirt collar in a chokehold. His eyes fly wide at my sudden aggression.
“You fucked my fiancée! You were my best friend. My brother. I trusted you, and you betrayed me!”
Chase doesn’t try to push me away or grab at my wrist to dislodge it. The only time I’ve seen him cry was at my mother’s funeral, so it snaps me out of my rage when I see tears glisten behind his eyes.
“I know,” he chokes out brokenly. “I’m sorry.”
I shove him away from me with a jerk. “You can take your apology and shove it. If you think because you and Amelia broke up entitles you to a second chance with me, you’re dumber than I thought. And I swear on my life, if you mess with Douglass, you’ll regret it.”
The contrite, repentant demeanor he’d been wearing, disappears. Hard, brown eyes meet mine. “I’m not afraid of you, Jor. And I’m not going to stop being Douglass’s friend because you demand it.”
Stalking to the door, I wrench it open. “We’ll see about that.”
I may be a Hammond, but I’m also a Montgomery. And no one messes with a Montgomery. My older brother Fallon taught me that.
Chapter 24
The sound of a lawn mower wakes me up.
Shit. I overslept. I’m usually up around six but I’ve slept like crap for the past two weeks because whenever I close my eyes, Jordan is there, stalking my every thought. He invades my dreams. He is every-freaking-where. Literally.
Every day, for thirteen days straight, I’ve either woken up to Jordan standing at the stove in Natalie’s kitchen cooking a breakfast I never eat, or he’ll drop by unexpectedly during the day to help me with repairs around the house.
I want to hate his persistence and the fact that he won’t go away and leave me alone. I want to hatehim. I really, really do. But damn it, he’s getting to me, and he knows it.
Knowing exactly who is pushing the loud-ass lawnmower at eight in the morning, I walk over to the bedroom window and slide the curtain back an inch.
Yep. There’s Jordan.
Shirtless, sweaty, sexy Jordan.
He’s pushing Natalie’s old mower that smokes because it burns more oil than it cuts grass.
Letting the curtain fall back into place, I dive onto my bed with a belly flop and grab my journal and pen from the nightstand.
You need to tell him, I write.Stop putting it off.
“Morning,” I answer when my cell phone rings.
“Girls’ night!” Harper cheers.
