“You think I haven’t thought about that?” I whisper-yelled through gritted teeth. “I mean, if I was a betting man, I’d say with the history they have, Jackson is probably still hung up on her.”
“Shit. But what about Avery? Are there still feelings on her end?”
“No way in hell. She hates him so much that she can’t even look at me. Or fucking talk to me. I don’t know.”
Colton rounded the corner of the bar, heading in our direction. And since he was friends with Avery, I immediately shut my mouth.
“Hey, Daddy! Oh, you brought company today?”
“Daddy?” Jayson chuckled, almost spitting up his drink.
“Inside joke, pretty boy.” Colton winked, spinning his bottle opener around his finger. He spent a moment looking back and forth between Jayson and me; his eyebrows furrowed, trying to get a read on us.
“It’s Jayson Jennings, actually,” he said smugly.
“I know who you are, pretty boy; the whole country does if they know anything about hockey. The sunglasses and hat don’t fool anyone. But if you’re wearing them for style, then pleasecontinue. You look hot.” In typical Colton fashion, he didn’t hold back.
“Um...” Jayson cleared his throat. “Thanks?”
“Jayson, this is Colton. I’d introduce him to you, but apparently, he already knows who you are.” I laughed, even though just moments ago, and for the last several days, I’d been a far cry away from even smiling.
If anyone could help me crack a smile, these were the two who could make that happen. Even though I’d only known Colton for a short amount of time, each instance that I sat at his bar, I’d left feeling one percent better.
“He works at Bluff City, and now here, as well.”
“You have a thing for Daddy here? Is that why you work at all his favorite spots?” Jayson joked.
“I have a thing for Daddy’s wallet,” Colton deadpanned.
“Fair.” He shrugged.
“Okay, can we stop referring to me as Daddy now?”
All it did was remind me of Avery.
After a moment of cracking jokes, Colton topped off our drinks and let us be. With him on the other side of the bar, I kept my eye on him with every mention of Avery’s name. I didn’t want anything I was saying to get back to her.
Not that I had anything bad to say, but if any of it was news to her, it was only fair that she heard it from me.
“So, where did you and Jackson leave off then?” Jayson jumped back to where we had left off.
My mind went back to that afternoon. When Avery left. She said she needed some air and time to think, but like a fool, I had hoped that after we took a beat, she’d be back. I guess in my gut, I should have known she wasn’t coming back. She couldn’t.
“After Avery left that day, it wasn’t good.” I rubbed my temples, hating every memory from that entire day. “It got uglybetween me and Jackson. I think we both said some things in the heat of the moment.”
“It happens, man. It’s gotta get ugly before it gets better.”
“Yeah. I ended up reaching out a couple of weeks later.”
Ideally, I would have wanted to talk to Avery first. But when I realized she may need more time away from everything than I would have hoped, I called Jackson. I couldn’t allow the anger to eat me up inside any longer—I needed to face it head-on.
Even though it had only been a couple of weeks, we were both able to enter a conversation with a clearer mind. We talked for hours. Not just about Avery, or the money, but his upbringing. For the first time in the last few years that he’d lived here, we were finally able to talk on a deeper level.
Partially, it gutted me that it took this disaster to have a decent conversation with Jackson. The sick part of me was happy it all went down because I could finally get to know my son. And for that, I felt like the biggest piece of shit—wanting a relationship with the person who’d hurt the woman I loved more than anything. But that was something I needed to continue working through on my own.
“We talked about it all. The resentment he had for his mother. His lack of communication that ultimately drove him and Avery apart. The fucked-up actions he took to keep her around when he should have just moved on. Everything.”
I think when he saw the two of us together, a lot of feelings hit him like a brick wall. He saw her need me in a way that I don’t think she ever needed him. He realized that he had lost her and he would never have another chance. Jackson was on a tidal wave just going through the flow of each emotion.
