Wright with Benefits

Then, it detonated.

My fist connected with Chase’s fist. Annie shouted when it happened and pushed her way between us.

“What did you do?” she yelled at me.

“What the fuck?” Chase gasped, clutching his nose. I’d probably broken it.

“Jordan!” Annie cried out.

I came back to myself then. The red film cleared from my eyes. The anger ebbing just marginally to make me realize what I’d actually done. Who I’d become: my father.

I took a step back.

I didn’t want to be anything like Owen Wright.

I leashed the dragon inside myself that wanted to shatter Chase Sinclair. But he wasn’t really the problem, was he? The problem was that my life was falling apart and there was no way to put it all back together. I was in free fall, completely out of control. And the decision I’d had to make out of that free fall was destroying me.

Julian and Hollin rushed to my side. Julian knowing me well enough to jerk me back from Chase and snap at me. “Calm the fuck down!”

But I was already past that. I wasn’t going to do worse. Chase had gotten what he’d deserved as far as I was concerned.

“I’m cool,” I said, brushing Julian off of me.

Annie had dug a tissue out of her purse and was applying pressure to the blood running out of Chase’s broken now. She looked back at me as if she’d never seen me before. It was a real look. She’d never seen this side of me. I’d hoped she never would.

“Fuck,” I spat. I took a step toward her as if I could fix this. Even though I knew that I was about to make it so much worse.

“Don’t,” she said.

The rest of her response was lost as blue and red flashing lights lit up the inside of the barn and the signature whoop, whoop sounded outside of the winery.

33

Annie

“What now?” I gasped.

Sutton shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Chase was going to be fine. This was the moment that I’d always wanted in my life. I was the doctor in the house to check on Chase. Of course, I’d never expected it to be because my boyfriend had just punched him. In fact, I hadn’t expected much of any of that to happen. Not a damn thing.

So much for waiting for him to come to me with his grief. Instead, it had exploded out of him.

This wasn’t Jordan. This wasn’t him at all. This was the pain and grief and everything else all bottled up into one perfectly, spectacularly terrible moment. It didn’t make it hurt any less.

I closed my eyes to shield my heart. To try to hold back all the pain threatening to tear me apart. Because I loved Jordan…and I been planning to tell him tonight after the party. To tell him about staying in Lubbock for him. But now…

Well, now, everything was fucked.

And the police were here.

“I’m going to go find out what’s going on,” I told Sutton.

Ashleigh had stumbled over. Her eyes red and tears running down her cheeks as she gasped out her brother’s name.

“Chase is fine,” I told her. “Just stay here with him. He has a broken nose and will probably have a wicked black eye.”

“We’re going to press charges against that animal!” she shrieked.

“Ashleigh, breathe. It was one punch, and Chase is fine,” I repeated. “No need to press charges.”

“After what he just did?”

Chase shushed his sister. “Shut up, Ash.”

And then he closed his eyes again and pressed his fingers to his broken nose. He winced. Yeah, that was going to hurt for a few days.

I left Chase with his sister and headed outside with Sutton. Campbell was still playing in the background as we stepped out into the cool night beyond and to the police officers standing around. Jordan, Julian, and Hollin were already dealing with them.

One of the officers spoke up as I approached. “You don’t have to go home,” he said with a thick country drawl. Then he tipped his head down and shot them a condescending look. “But you can’t stay here.”

“Sir,” Jordan said, his voice stretched thin, “we have a permit for the event tonight.”

“You’re overcapacity. I’m going to have to ask you to shut it all down,” the man said, sticking his thumbs into his belt.

“Sir,” Jordan tried again.

“Son, we can do this the easy way,” he said dramatically, “or we can do it the hard way. Your choice.”

Jordan clenched his jaw, and Julian stepped in. “We understand, sir. So sorry that you had to drive all the way out here for this. We’ll take care of it.”

“Good boy,” the cop said.

I thought Jordan might assault a police officer with how tightly he was hanging by a thread. He must have thought better of it because he took a step back. Let Julian, with all of his charm and charisma, handle the police.