Kiss and Break Up (Magnolia Cove, #1)(59)

Jackson sighed. “Apparently, she was all messed up over you, didn’t know how she felt and didn’t know what to do, so she slammed the brakes on and bit the hell out of his lip.”

I said nothing, my vision still spotting.

“You see the cut on his lip?” I frowned, remembering it and the way people had called Peggy a savage. “She bit him to make him get off her, then Willa and Daphne stopped the limo.”

As Jackson kept talking, I remembered where I’d been while this was happening between her and Byron. Inside the dark warehouse feeling like I’d been stood up, like the sorry son of a bitch I was.

She’d had to bite him to make him stop.

I should’ve tried harder. I shouldn’t have left her with him to go drink my feelings away. I should’ve pushed even more. I was Dash Thane, and I didn’t stop until I’d gotten what I’d wanted. But this time, I couldn’t handle the challenge, so I’d stepped back, hoping that for once in my life, I wouldn’t have to demand I be given something. Something that couldn’t be bought or handed to me.

Standing, I set loose a string of curses so foul that Jackson stared at me as if he was waiting for me to explode. “I’ll kill him next time. I’ll—” Jackson pushed me back onto the couch, and I stood back up, getting in his face. “Quit doing that, asshole.”

His green eyes flared. “She was his girlfriend, and you fucked around, playing games instead of being straight with her.”

“I was straight with her.” But then I’d bailed, leaving her confused, like a coward. I blinked, stepping back and scraping a hand over my hair.

“Where’s Peggy?” Kayla asked, wrapping her arm around mine.

I shook her off. “Get gone before I throw your ass out the window.”

She gasped, then laughed. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Hey, Kayla,” Lars said, a lift to his lips as he sank back into the couch cushions.

She stopped, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she fluttered her lashes at him.

“Word is that your boy just left with Annabeth.”

Her brows pulled. “What?” A laugh tittered out of her, then her expression fell. “No way.”

“Left about fifteen minutes ago,” Jackson said.

Kayla’s lips cracked and her shoulders visibly shook as she raised a hand to her forehead. “You’re lying.” Yet her tone lacked conviction.

I didn’t know if he had, and I didn’t care. So long as he was nowhere near me right now.

“The hell would we lie about something like that?” Lars flicked a hand at her. “Never mind, believe it or don’t, just fuck off before we catch something.”

Her face contorted in outrage, but she didn’t hang around, and neither did I.

After stumbling to the room to find my phone, I made it to the stairs before Jackson grabbed my shoulder and hauled me back. “I swear to God, you keep manhandling me, and I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” he asked, a look in his eye that said he could do with an outlet. “If you want out, I’ll take you home. You’re wasted. You’re not going anywhere else.”

I needed to see her, and this shithead was intent on stopping me.

Peggy. Fuck me. I wanted to throw myself down the stairs, guilt a pulsing beat in every vein in my body. It repulsed me to know she’d been mauled by that dog, but now I’d broken her too.

Lars joined us as we filed downstairs, Raven nowhere to be seen.

“Take me to Peggy’s,” I said as we climbed into his truck.

“No.” The truck roared to life, the headlights illuminating a bunch of girls dancing in the street.

“Yes,” I said, my head falling to the glass as it spun in hazy waves.

Jackson said nothing, and I tried to lift my head, but I’d overdone it, and all too soon, blackness took hold.





Lars and Jackson had hauled me out of the car and left me on the porch. Lars needed help getting back to the truck, so Jackson rang the doorbell and left me there.

Couldn’t exactly blame him, but it did take my dad a considerable effort to help me inside.

Showered and lying face down on my bed, I replayed the events of the previous night over and over. It never got any easier to relive. I was a masochist of the worst degree.

But if I was going to feel like shit in every possible way, I was going to make sure I did it right.

Church slithered along my body, then his paws started kneading my back. I wasn’t wearing a shirt, so his nails were a bit of an issue, but he was one of the only things I loved, so I’d put up with it. Not like I didn’t deserve a bit of pain anyway.

“Knock, knock.” Dad opened my door.

I didn’t even bother looking at him and grunted. “Usually people knock, rather than say, knock, knock.”

“I wouldn’t get smart with me, drunkard.” He paused, and I heard him take a slurp of coffee. I’d kill for some coffee, but I wasn’t sure my stomach could handle anything. “Now, I was eighteen once …”

I groaned. “Not this shit again.”

“Shut your mouth. I was eighteen once, and I remember with not a lot of clarity how much shit one can get into. However, this needs to stop, Dash. Get control of yourself.”