Always the Best Man (15 page)

“We've got to pull out of this,” Jase said, searching her gaze as if he expected her to have a magic solution.

“I'm going to my son,” she said, pushing at him. “He's not part of a disaster. He's a scared little boy who shouldn't have been put in this situation in the first place.”

“The sheriff has your dad out the door,” Liam called from where he stood on the stage. “I'm going to get everyone back to their seats.”

Jase closed his eyes for a moment and his gaze was gentler when he opened them again. “I didn't mean it like that. Em...”

“No.” She pushed away. It was too late. She knew better. Davey was all that mattered, her only priority. “I've got to get him out of here. Take care of your image or your dad. I don't care. I'm not your problem, Jase. We're not yours.”

She hurried down the row, bending to pick up a stray Lego piece as she walked. She found Davey and her mother at the end of the hallway, Davey standing stiffly in front of the wooden bench where her mother sat. She crouched in front of him. “I have the missing piece,” she said. He continued to scream, his eyes shut tight and his cheeks blotchy pink as he heaved breaths in and out between shrieks. “Davey, sweetie. Look at Mommy. I have the Lego piece. You can finish the spaceship.”

His screaming subsided to an anxious whine as he looked at the small yellow brick she held in front of him. Emily held her breath. He hiccuped and reached for it, holding it gently between his first two fingers. “Thank you, Mommy.” He wiped at his cheeks with the back of his sleeve. “Can we go home now? You're stinky.”

She let out a ragged laugh. Or maybe it was a sob. Hard to tell with the emotions swirling inside her. “Yes, Wavy-Davey, we can go home now.”

She straightened, meeting her mother's worried gaze. “I'm so sorry,” Meg whispered.

Emily shook her head. “No kind words, Mom. I need to keep it together until we get back to the farm.”

Meg's mouth thinned but she nodded. “You might want to take off the sweater.”

Emily carefully pulled the nasty sweater over her head, gagging a little as the scent of vomit hit her again. It had been easy enough to ignore when adrenaline was fueling her. But now the reality of everything that had happened—in front of most of the town and everyone who mattered to her—made her want to curl up in a tiny ball. But she still had her son to take care of, which was the only thing keeping her going.

She stuffed the sweater into a nearby trash can. The memories of this horrible evening would prevent her from ever wearing it again.

“Let's go home,” she said and her mother took her hand and led them toward the car.

Chapter Fourteen

J
ase had returned to the stage
after Emily left and Declan had been hauled away. He'd remained calm even though
he'd wanted to walk to the front of that room and rip Charles Thompson to
shreds. Everything he'd worked for had been destroyed, but he'd seen Aaron
Thompson slip into the hallway as the door closed to the back of the meeting
room. At that moment he realized how personal the Thompsons felt about his
failure and what lengths they were willing to go to make sure he wasn't elected
mayor.

None of that really mattered. All he cared about was the hurt
in Emily's eyes as he'd demanded she quiet Davey. It had been his shame talking.
She didn't deserve the pain he'd caused her. He'd wanted to follow her to the
Crawfords' farm right away, but there had been so much fallout to deal with
after the scene his dad had caused.

Jase publicly apologized for his dad's behavior. He wanted to
call out Charles Thompson, but he wouldn't stoop to Thompson's level or make
excuses for Declan. It had been even more difficult to keep his temper in check
when Charles complained as Liam officially ended the meeting and sent the crowd
home.

Several of Jase's friends had offered words of encouragement
and support, but he could barely hear them over the roar in his head. Jake
Travers deemed Edna's ankle only a sprain but she insisted on going to the
hospital for an X-ray, so Jase stayed with her until her daughter arrived to
take her home. Cole offered to let Declan ride out his bender in one of the
town's holding cells.

Jase didn't bother to comment on the irony of his father in
jail as he was trying to make a bid to lead the town. It was his worst nightmare
come to life.

At least he'd thought it was until arriving at the ranch. Meg
had come to the door before he'd knocked.

“I need to see her,” he said and opened the screen.

Meg crossed her arms over her chest. “No, Jase.”

“I only need a minute,” he pleaded, letting the emotions he'd
tried to tamp down spill into his tone. “I'll wait if she's putting Davey to
bed. Maybe I could—”

“No.” Meg's normally warm gaze was frigid as she met his. “She
was trying to support you tonight even though it wasn't what she wanted. You
hurt her when things went bad.” She shook her head. “My daughter has been down
that road before, and she's only begun to recover from the pain of it. I won't
let her be treated that way again. She deserves better.”

“I know.” He felt desperate in a way he hadn't in years. He
could feel the person he loved slipping away from him, only this time it was his
own fault. “I let the moment get the best of me. I love her, Meg.”

“You want her, Jase. You have for years. I get that, but it
isn't the same as love. What happened tonight wasn't love.”

“I made a mistake.”

“You might not be the right man for her.”

“You're wrong.”

“I hope I am, and if Emily decides to allow you back into her
life, I won't stop her. But for now she doesn't want to see you. You have enough
to deal with in your own life. Focus on that.”

“I don't care about anything else.” The words came out louder
than he'd intended and he forced himself to take a calming breath. “At least
tell her I was here. Tell her I'm sorry. Please, Meg.”

After a moment she nodded. “You're a good man, Jase. You don't
have anything to prove to this town but it's time you start believing it.” She
backed up and shut the door, leaving him alone on the porch.

This house was the one place he'd always felt safe and welcome,
and now he'd messed that up along with his relationship with Emily.

It was close to midnight by the time Jase walked into the
sheriff's office. He would have been there earlier, but Cole had texted that his
dad was sleeping and he'd alert Jase when Declan woke up. Jase had gone home
after leaving the Crawfords' and let Ruby into the yard. As the puppy chased
shadows around in the porch light, Jase had sat on the top step and left
messages for each of the town council members to apologize for the spectacle his
father had created at the meeting.

Declan was sitting on the bench in the holding cell when Jase
walked into the office.

“It isn't locked,” Cole told him, getting up from his chair,
“but he said he wouldn't come out until you got here.” He patted Jase on the
arm. “I'm going to give the two of you some time. I'll be out front. Let me know
if you need anything.”

Jase walked forward, wrapped his fingers around the cool iron
of the holding cell's bars. “You ready, Dad?”

Declan snorted. “That's all you've got to say to me?”

“If you're looking for me to apologize,” Jase ground out, his
temper sparking even through the numbness of his exhaustion, “forget it. Drying
out in this cell was the safest place for you tonight. After the stunt you
pulled—”

“You shouldn't be here.” His dad stood, paced from one end of
the small cell to the other. “You don't owe me anything, least of all an
apology. Why the hell aren't you with Emily?”

“Let's go home.”

“I puked on her.”

“Yep.”

Declan rubbed a hand over his face. “I'm sorry.”

“Emily is the one who's owed an apology. Maybe she'll talk to
you.”

“She won't speak to you?”

Jase shook his head. “Come on, Dad. I'm tired and done with
this day.”

His father lowered himself back down to the metal bench. “You
see me here.”

“I see you,” Jase said quietly, hating the memories the image
conjured.

“This is
me
in here, Jase. Not you.
I did this to myself, like my dad and his dad before him. Our trouble is not
your responsibility.”

“It sure as hell felt like it when you barged into the town
hall meeting drunk out of your mind.”

“I slipped,” Declan said. “I let people get to me and I took
one drink.”

“One drink ended in the bottom of the bottle. I've seen it too
many times, Dad. You can't stop at one drink.”

“I know, and I didn't want to. I wanted to lose myself. To
forget about everything for a little while.”

“Aaron Thompson brought you to the meeting.”

“It wasn't his fault, even as much as I'd like it to be. I was
at the bar when he found me. Yeah,” Declan admitted, “he said some things that
set me off more.”

“They wanted me to be humiliated.”

“I brought tonight's shame on you, Jase. Not the Thompsons. I'm
the reason you can't have a life of your own.”

“I have a life,” Jase argued, but his voice sounded flat to his
own ears. Because without Emily he had nothing. “I thought we agreed the town
hall meeting was too much for you. If I knew—”

“It wasn't the meeting.” Declan stood, reached into the back
pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small envelope. “Nearly twenty years later
and she can still set me off.” He handed the envelope to Jase. “It's a letter
from your mom, son.”

Jase stared at the loopy cursive on the front of the envelope,
disbelief ripping through him. “Why didn't she track down my email or cell
number? No one sends letters anymore.”

“Your mother was always an original.” Declan moved toward the
door to the cell. “I don't know what she wrote, but I hope whatever it is gives
you some closure.”

“Why after all this time?”

“I don't know.” He stopped, cupped his rough hand around Jase's
cheek. The smell of stale liquor seeped from his skin, both familiar and stomach
churning. “What I hope she says is that leaving had nothing to do with you. That
she regrets not taking you with her and giving you the life you deserve.” His
smile was sad as he ruffled Jase's hair. “That's what I hope she says, but I
don't want to know. Bennett let me use the phone when I woke up. My AA sponsor
is coming by the house in the morning. Whether you believe me or not, this was a
one-time mistake.”

Jase stood there staring at the envelope for a few more
seconds, then turned. “Dad.”

Declan turned back, his handle on the door to the outer office.
“Yeah?”

“I don't regret staying with you.”

* * *

“Are you sure you won't stay with Mom?” Noah pulled out
from the farm's driveway and started toward town. He and Katie had been home
from their honeymoon for a few days so Emily had asked him to go apartment
hunting with her.

“I can't keep hiding out there.” Emily read the address to the
first building, which was in a new development on the far side of town. She
watched the midday sun bounce off the snow-dusted peak at the top of Crimson
Mountain. The weather was cooler now, and while there hadn't been any snow yet
in town, winter would be closing in soon.

“That's not how she thinks of it.”

“Doesn't make it less true.” She shifted to look at her
brother, still tan from his honeymoon on the beach. “I'm staying in Crimson,
Noah. I need to start making a life for Davey and me.”

“He still likes school?”

She smiled. “He loves it. Since I'm now working in the
elementary school front office, I can check in on him during the day.” The
kindergarten teacher, Erin MacDonald, had made a visit to the farm when Emily
kept Davey home from school the day after his public meltdown. While Davey had
spent the day building Lego sets and baking cupcakes with his grandma, Emily'd
barely been able to get out of bed.

The teacher's sensitivity to Davey's outburst had made its way
through Emily's fragile defenses and she'd broken down with all the details of
her messed-up life. Erin had immediately called the school principal. The new
secretary he'd hired had quit after only two weeks. Emily had an interview the
following afternoon and started work the next day. “Millie Travers told me Ms.
MacDonald was a great teacher, but she's more. She's a great person.” She nudged
her brother. “Turns out Crimson is full of great people. Davey is getting access
to the resources he needs. He's made a friend—”

“In addition to Brooke?”

“Brooke is his
best
friend,” Emily
clarified. “But, yes, another boy who loves Lego building. They mainly play side
by side, but it's a start.”

“Does Henry know how he's doing?”

“I sent him an email,” Emily admitted with a shrug. “I don't
know what I was hoping for, but he's Davey's father so I thought...” She sighed.
“His assistant responded to it.”

“The guy is a total idiot.”

“Agreed. But we're doing okay without him.”

Noah turned onto the road that led into town. The aspen leaves
were turning brilliant yellow, shimmering in the sunlight. It gave Emily a
bright and shiny glow inside her.

“What about the other idiot in your life?” Noah glanced over at
her.

“Jase isn't in my life.” She paused, then whispered, “and he's
not an idiot.”

“You haven't talked to him?”

“You know I haven't, Noah.” She'd asked April to go to his
office the morning after the meeting to give him Emily's resignation letter.
Maybe she should have been brave enough to face him, but the humiliation she'd
felt after that night had been too raw.

“Why?”

“There's nothing to say. We want different things.” She kept
waiting for the pain to ease, the vise around her heart to release. Every time
she thought of Jase, her whole body reverberated with the deep ache of missing
him. “I hear the election is going well.” She'd tried not to hear, not to listen
but it was difficult in a small town where people were happy to pass around
gossip like it was breaking news.

Noah nodded. “Hard to believe the stunt his dad pulled at the
town hall meeting actually helped him in the campaign.”

“Not hard with Jase.”

“Everyone is talking about how much he's overcome and how he's
a self-made success.”

“He deserves every bit of his success,” Emily said quietly. The
Thompsons' plan to discredit Jase in the eyes of voters had backfired. She
wasn't the only one who'd seen Aaron as he sent Declan into the town hall
meeting. Apparently, Charles had a reputation of bending the rules while he'd
been sheriff and no one wanted a man with a twisted moral compass in charge of
the town.

“You missed the turn.” She straightened in her seat as Noah
took a right toward Crimson High School.

“I have a quick stop to make.”

“What stop?”

He pulled over to the curb at the edge of the football field.
“I'll show you. Hop out.”

There were a few teenagers throwing a ball on the field but the
stands were empty.

“Do you see it?”

She climbed out of the truck, scanning the bleachers for
something familiar. “See what, Noah?”

The truck's engine roared to life and she whirled around. Noah
had rolled down the passenger window. “See me making you really angry.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

He grimaced. “According to my new wife. I hope you'll forgive
me, and I'll be back in ten minutes.”

“What are you talking about?”

Noah blew her a kiss and drove off, leaving Emily standing on
the sidewalk. She didn't even have her phone. “I'm going to kill him,” she
muttered.

“It's not his fault,” a voice said behind her. She went
stock-still even as her knees threatened to sag. “He owed me for something and I
called in the favor. He didn't have a choice.”

She turned to face Jase, letting anger rise to the top of the
mountain of emotions vying for space in her heart. “Of course he had a choice,”
she said on a hiss of breath. “The same way I have a choice as to which one of
you I'm going to murder first.”