Forever Moore (Moore Family Book 1) Page 14

  Chapter 22

  Jackson

  The morning sun is shining through the curtains, waking me up. I look down and notice Tilly resting her head on my chest with her casted-arm draped over me. While I feel like my bladder might explode, I can’t bear the idea of moving. Instead, I lie here lightly caressing her back up and down, as she continues to sleep.

  Last night, she came storming in the house and rushed to her room, avoiding all of us and the inquisition her brothers had planned. I will admit I want answers on what the hell happened last night. But when I entered her room, I was transported back to that first night I came home. Tilly was curled up on her bed… crying. All the questions I had, quickly seemed unimportant. I crawled in bed behind her and pulled her into my chest. Her hair and body were damp from taking a shower. The scent of her mango shampoo was intoxicating. As I held her, I could feel the tension leave her body. The sobbing subsided and she was finally able to sleep.

  “Good morning,” she whispers sleepily, nuzzling deeper into my chest.

  “Morning,” I reply, kissing the top of her head and giving her a light squeeze.

  “How was your night with the boys?” she asks, obviously avoiding the elephant in the room.

  “It was fine, but honestly, I am more interested in hearing about your evening?” As much as I want to give her time to tell me on her own, I need to know what happened last night. Based on how she stiffens, I am guessing it didn’t go very well.

  “Ugh, I don’t really feel like talking about it right now. Can we talk about it later? Maybe after some coffee and breakfast?” she pleads.

  “I’m sorry, babe, but I need you to talk to me. What happened last night?” Besides, I know her brothers did not go home and are all likely sitting downstairs, waiting for answers.

  “Fine, but it stays between us?” Sitting up, she stares me down, letting me know this is non-negotiable. I nod in agreement. While I know we will need to tell her brothers something, more than that, I need her to tell me what happened. Before beginning, Tilly lets out a big sigh, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “You were right… Keith manipulated me. He had no intention of giving you that job.” She then breaks down and starts sobbing into her hands.

  I jump up, immediately on red alert, and pull her into my arms. I try to calm her down by brushing her hair back. “Shh… it’s okay. What happened? What did he do?”

  “I feel like such an idiot. I should have known the minute we got to the restaurant that something was off.” As she continues to shake in my arms, my brain plays scenes of the worst things I can imagine.

  “Tilly, you are anything but an idiot. But I need you to tell me the whole story. What happened last night?” I keep my voice calm and collected, even though inside I am screaming and practically pulling my hair out.

  “Well, you know we went to that steakhouse, the fancy one. He reserved us that booth in the back of the restaurant. You know, the romantic one? All dark and secluded in the corner?” I nod in agreement, while biting the side of my cheek. “Well, at dinner he refused to talk about the job. He kept changing the subject whenever I brought it up. Then he mentioned something about ‘business best being discussed over dessert’, but he ordered the dessert to go.”

  We both take a moment as I process her story. The table location explains why the hostess thought they were a couple. But I have a feeling that isn’t the worst part of the story. “Okay, what happened after you left the restaurant?”

  “He drove us out to the overlook,” she whispers, staring down in shame.

  “He drove you out to lovers’ lane?” I try to rein in my anger but it is starting to become difficult. I had no doubt he was going to try and make the meeting a date. But I never expected this level of manipulation. If I had any inkling that he might have brought her somewhere private like that, I would have never let her go with him.

  “Yea, at first he was mostly talking about the view. How it would be a good place to capture images of the town for marketing. But then…” She takes a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “I don’t know what happened, Jax. One minute, I was explaining to him why you are perfect for this job, and he was appreciating my passion on the subject. Then, before I knew what was happening, he was kissing me. He basically told me the only way you would get the job is if I would fuck him.”

  I am not sure when it happened. But the next thing I know, I am standing in Tilly’s room with my fist red and bloody, and there’s a new dent in her wall. Tilly is sitting in her bed, crying hysterically and telling me not to be mad at her. Fuck, I drop back down next to her, taking Tilly’s hands in mine.

  “Shh, babe. I’m sorry. I promise I am not mad at you. I am mad at that fucking psychopath. I am frustrated at myself for allowing you to go to that fucking dinner with him. I am pissed that I was not there to protect you from him. Fuck, what happened? Did he…?” I suddenly realize I didn’t hear anything about how she got out of there or how far he took it.

  She chuckles, clearly amused by something. I can’t imagine what though, given the fact that there is nothing funny about this situation. “Well, at first, to get him to stop kissing me—because he was holding my head in place—I used all my strength to give him the fucking goriest purple-nurple.” Involuntarily I chuckle as well, imagining Tilly getting him good. That used to be her number one move in the many wrestling matches her and Jake got into as children. “After that, he cornered me again, trying to convince me to accept his proposal. As he leaned down to kiss me again, I am not exactly sure why it happened, but I got super nauseous and Linda Blair-ed him. I mean, badly. it was all over his face and in his mouth. It was fucking disgusting and hilarious, all at the same time.” We both cringe at the imagery she describes. Granted, I would have loved to have seen it though.

  “Why didn’t you call me?” Although I am relieved that she got out of that situation, I can’t help but be hurt that she was in trouble and didn’t even bother to call me.

  She looks down sheepishly picking fake lint off the blanket. “I’m sorry, Jax. It was nothing personal. I just needed time to process everything. I know if I would have called you and you would have seen the situation… Well, you would have ended up beating his ass and getting yourself thrown in prison.”

  “I’m not some sort of neanderthal, Tilly.”

  “You literally just punched my wall, Jackson, from only hearing my story. Imagine how you would have reacted… picking me up on the side of the road, crying and with vomit all over me? You would have hunted him down and made sure he paid for what he did.”

  Fuck, I hate when she is right. But still, I would like to think that when there is a problem, I would be the first person she would contact.

  “Please understand, Jax. I didn’t call any of my brothers either. I called Letty because I needed someone with a level head, who could get me home. Also, let’s not forget, I know you guys were out bowling and drinking last night. I doubt that any of you would have been in any position to drive.”

  I huff. While she is completely right, it still sucks. I should have never allowed her to go out in the first place. “Okay, so, what now? We need to report this.”

  “Absolutely not! It will only cause more problems for us.”

  “Tilly,” I say sternly, “he needs to be reported. What he is doing is illegal. You can’t just let him get away with it. This isn’t like high school. We can’t just ignore it and pretend it never happened.”

  “It will just be a he-said-she-said situation. In the end, nothing will happen except for having to relive one of the most embarrassing nights of my life over and over again. I will end up being the talk of the town. Because he is Keith McCalester, whose daddy is the mayor. It will all get swept under the rug. Fuck, they might even twist it that it was my fault. It just isn’t worth it, Jax. Nothing happened. He made a douchey move and I handled it. The only thing that sucks is that now we are back to the drawing board on you getting a job.”

  “Fine then… what now?” I
don’t like her not reporting this. But then again and at the same time, I understand her concern. The McCalesters hold a lot of power in this town. Without concrete proof, her complaint would fall on deaf ears or be twisted to make her the aggressor in this situation.

  “There isn’t much of anything. Look, I’ll handle my brothers and give them an abbreviated rundown of the events of last night. Then we will keep working on finding you a new job. I mean, if that is still what you want?”

  “I don’t care about the job…” Tilly tenses pulling away from me. I realize what I said and try to gather my thoughts. “Of course, that is what I want.” She lets out a relieved breath. “I just don’t like that he is getting away with this. But it is your choice, and I will respect it.” I bend down and kiss the top of her head and gently pull her out of bed. “Come on, we better get downstairs and eat some breakfast.

  “Okay,” she says, leaning in and kissing me. “I will meet you downstairs. I am just going to freshen up real quick.”

  Chapter 23

  Matilda

  After breakfast this morning, I decided I needed to get out of the house. We gave my brothers the abbreviated version of the events that occurred last night. I know Jax isn’t happy with me; but based on the rage they displayed from the story I did give them, I know it was the right choice to make. I hate that Jax is disappointed in my decision, but I know he will understand after he has had a chance to cool off.

  Thankfully, it is Sunday. Letty and I both don’t have to work today so we decided to take a trip to the Mall of America. I am hoping that getting away for the afternoon will help clear my head a little. That, and I really need this opportunity to talk with Letty about what happened. I tell Letty everything, down to every last embarrassing detail.

  “I cannot believe that needle-dick,” Letty curses. She hasn’t been able to stop since I told her. “Jax is right. You need to report this.”

  I shake my head. “Come on, we both know nothing will come of it, besides town gossip. I have no proof of anything.” I would love nothing more than to report the asshole; but without proof, no one in this town would do anything about my allegation. They would start some awful gossip that ended with me being the villain in the story.

  “We can’t let this go, Tilly. He is clearly still obsessed with you, and now has crossed the line. What if he tries to corner you again, or worse?” She removes her right hand from the steering wheel to hold my left hand. “I know you just want to forget about it and move on, just like you did in high school. But you can’t this time. The boundaries he has crossed are unforgivable.”

  “Letty, I understand what you are saying. And if I had anything more than my word, I would be down at the station right now. But let’s face the facts… Keith is the wealthy, loved bachelor in this town. The majority of the women would think I am just lying to get a paycheck. Then Derek, his best friend, happens to be a lieutenant at the Sheriff’s department and his daddy is the Sheriff. Oh yea, and I almost forgot, Keith’s dad is the mayor.” I list the reasons that this is a terrible idea, counting them off on my fingers. “I need to be smart about this. If I go in, guns blazing, with nothing other than my word, I would lose more than just this job for Jax.”

  “I agree. You need to be smart about this. However, I still think reporting it is the right thing to do.” She puts up her hand defensively. “But I understand your concern. I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. I will support you no matter what. Just promise me, you will truly think about reporting it?”

  “I promise. I just need to think this through a little more.” Fortunately, she drops the topic after that. The rest of the ride to the mall we sing along to our road trip playlist. Neither one of us can sing well, but it is a blast singing along to the classics.

  At the mall, we walk around and mostly window shop. Of course, Letty ends up buying six bottles of her body spray, since there was a buy-three-get-three deal going on. Honestly, I am amazed she didn’t buy twelve. I decided to buy myself a new cute bra and pantie set to surprise Jax with—nothing too sexy, because that has never been my thing.

  After we are done shopping, we decide to stop at one of the food courts to grab something to eat. It is crazy. This mall is so big. It not only has several large chain-restaurants, it also has two food courts. We decided to stop at the burger and shake place that has an awesome 50’s theme with little jukeboxes at the table, where we can select a song for a quarter.

  Letty catches me up on what’s going on with the bar. It sounds like Ted will be retiring any minute now. He has already started negotiating with her about the purchase of Harper’s.

  “I don’t have quite enough saved up yet, and I don’t think I will have enough by the time he retires. But we have already discussed having me make a down payment and taking over daily operations… and having him just be a figurehead. Then, I’ll cover the mortgage until it is paid off—which is better than me having to go and try to get a mortgage on my own. While we were looking at the numbers, I think it will take me maybe five years to pay it off. Four, if I am lucky.”

  “That is awesome, but how are you going to be able to afford this all? Rent for the apartment, plus covering the mortgage? When you take over, you won’t get a regular paycheck anymore.”

  “We already figured that out. Since the bar is unofficially mine, Ted showed me a space upstairs—which is a large lofty studio apartment that I am going to clean up and renovate. I will move in there and my rent will technically be covered by the mortgage, since it is my building anyway.” Letty is grinning from ear to ear. I am so excited to see her dreams finally coming true. “It is going to be awesome, Tilly. Ted will still be involved in the bar until I officially take ownership, but ultimately, he is stepping down. He said all decisions will go through me and he will only speak up if he thinks I am about to make a fatal error.”

  “Let me know if you need help with anything. I will do whatever I can.”

  ∞∞∞

  Back home, Letty drops me off. We have been gone all day. It is almost six at night. I am surprised to see all of my brothers are still here. I figured they would have gone home by now (well, except Jake). I look around at the kitchen counter and notice an assortment of toppings spread around, along with mini pizza crusts.

  I set down my bags and stand in the archway. “Hey, what’s going on in here?”

  Jax looks up, giving me his panty-melting smile. “Hey, we didn’t hear you come in. Hurry up and assemble your pizza.”

  “We couldn’t decide on a pizza to order, so I whipped together some dough and figured we could do our own personal sized ones. That way, we can all get what we want,” Scott says with a satisfied grin. Ordering out has always been a headache in the family. Mom and dad rarely did it—because instead of being able to order two large pizzas that we would all share, they would have to order seven small ones to ensure everyone got what they wanted. Sometimes, we could compromise and get five mediums. But that was rare.

  “Huh, not that I am complaining, but what brought all this on?”

  “We were talking about the old days, and how we used to do Friday night dinners until we basically all grew up. I was thinking that most of us don’t work Sunday evenings and we should re-institute weekly dinners,” Robbie says, while piling his crust with every meat option available.

  I feel a tear roll down my face and I quickly wipe it away. “Mom and dad would love that.”

  “That’s what we were thinking as well.” Jake walks over to me and drapes his arm over my shoulder. “Now, come on, sis. Help me figure out what monstrosity of a pizza I will make this evening.” This elicits a laugh from everyone. Jake will eat just about anything, and used to pick random toppings every time we ordered out.

  It was fun creating our own variations. I am usually pretty boring with mine and stick to pepperoni and green olives. Robbie makes his meat-madness pizza. I don’t think the term “too much meat” registers with him. Scott goes fancy gourmet with his.
He uses a white sauce, spinach, chicken, bacon, and peppers. Jax surprises me. He ends up doing a fancier version as well; it has white sauce, balsamic, caramelized onions, prosciutto, and goat cheese. Then Jake was… well, Jake. He ended up topping his with grilled chicken, pineapple, jalapenos, and mushrooms, before drizzling it with buffalo sauce.

  While Scott works on baking our creations, I take the opportunity to bring my bags upstairs. The last thing I need is to have the boys snooping around to see what I bought. I quickly change into my leggings and one of my big comfy sleep shirts. There is no need to be dressed up to sit and eat dinner with the guys.

  Downstairs, Jake and Robbie are arguing over what to watch—typical. Robbie wants to play some mindless action flick, while Jake wants a horror movie. With Halloween around the corner, I agree with Jake. We should definitely choose something scary, but we are the only two who seem to enjoy the genre. Jax will tolerate the funnier ones with minimal gore. But Jake and I love the more gruesome titles with way too much fake blood and guts.

  “Jax won bowling last night, so I say it is up to him,” Scott adds to the argument. Jake and Robbie look downright terrified, and they have every reason to be. Scott and Jax have this ridiculous obsession with sappy chick-flicks. Some aren’t too bad, but these guys can go pretty deep down the romance rabbit-hole. Like the only reason I have seen The Notebook as many times as I have is because Jax and Scott dragged me there almost every week (when it was still in theaters). Then, when they bought the DVD… Well, let’s just say, we avoided movie night for a long while.

  Jax gives a devilish grin, rubbing his chin as he contemplates what he will torture us with tonight. “Fine,” Jake says, “but no fucking Notebook. I see that evil glint in your eyes and you are not making me watch that shit again.”

  Everyone bursts out laughing. “Oh, you know you love that shit, and use the fact you have seen it a hundred times to pick up chicks,” Jax retorts. “But whatever. Moulin Rouge, it is.” Jake and Robbie groan, while Scott and Jax give each other high-fives. Fortunately, I actually like this one. I do have a weakness for musicals and it used to be one of my favorites in junior high.