Page 23 of Undeniable Love
“Okay, one hurdle down,” she murmured, shutting the door behind her.
She found Ty in the kitchen and the boxes open on the massive island. “Beer, soda or water?” he asked, his back to her.
“Uh…beer to start.” Moving around the kitchen, she grabbed some plates and napkins and put them out too. “I’ll switch to a Coke when I’m done.”
They worked in silence until they each had a couple of slices on their plates and sat down at the kitchen table. She figured this was where he was going to make her beg, and she was ready to do it.
“You’re making a mistake,” Ty said firmly before Lucy could utter a single word. “I get that you have some issues with Jax, but passing up the opportunity to work on this camp—a camp that could realistically turn into a year-round rehab clinic you could run—is possibly the worst decision you’ve ever made.”
At any other time, she would have taken immediate offense and argued with him, but…tonight she was going to fight that urge and have a conversation. “I wouldn’t say it’s the worst decision,” she countered. “I’ve made some really terrible choices in my life. Remember the blue hair? Or the time I decided to follow One Direction on tour because I was convinced Harry Styles would fall in love with me? Or thought I could be a backup dancer for Pink? I mean…in the grand scheme of things, turning down the camp offer seems pretty par for the course for me, don’t you think?”
She was going for light and teasing, but her brother’s expression was fairly stoic.
Sighing, Lucy met his gaze. “Okay, fine. I probably shouldn’t have blown everything off the way I did.” Another sigh. “I should have been mature enough to at least sit and listen and take a few days to think about it before just saying no.”
He eyed her intently. “Would you still have said no?”
Shrugging, she figured she owed him her honesty. “I don’t know, Ty. I can’t help how I feel, okay? I still don’t get why you don’t hate Jax, but whatever. The thing is, he’s probably not going to be overly hands-on with the camp, so it would almost be a moot point to turn it down based on having to work with him.”
“But…?”
“But,” she said, “I know myself and I know that I’m never going to look at Jax Wylder and not have negative thoughts and feelings. I’m sorry.”
And because she hated cold pizza, she picked up her slice and took a big bite while waiting for Tyler to tell her how wrong she was.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he picked up his own slice and began eating. For the next several minutes, they ate and talked about the pizza, her job, his job, and several more neutral topics. Lucy grabbed another slice and so did Ty, and before she knew it, an hour had gone by and she figured they were good and the topic of Jax and the camp were over.
“Any chance you have some ice cream?” Lucy asked as she cleared away their plates. “I should have picked some up while I was waiting for the pizza, but I forgot.”
“Yeah, there are a couple of pints in the freezer,” Ty told her as he walked over to it. “Chocolate? Butter pecan? Mint chocolate chip? And…” He moved some things around. “Ooh…cookies and cream. Nice.” Placing all the pints on the island, he then grabbed some toppings from the pantry. “Chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, and I think there’s some whipped cream in the fridge. We can make sundaes.”
Smiling, Lucy grabbed a couple of bowls for them. “And this is why you’re my favorite brother! Charlie eats too healthy and Wyatt never has anything to eat at his place.”
“Yeah, well, Charlie eats that way because Bree makes him, and Wyatt’s just lazy. I prefer to have a variety of stuff I love here so I can snack happily in the comfort of my own home.”
“Smart,” she told him as she scooped out some chocolate ice cream. Again, they worked in silence as they made their sundaes. “Do you trust me to eat this on the couch?”
That made him laugh. “You’re good. Come on. Let’s get comfy.”
That’s exactly what Lucy did as she curled up in the corner of the oversized sectional. She was savoring her first spoonful of ice cream when Ty pretty much turned her world upside down.
“I was drunk on grad night,” he said somberly. “No one ever said anything because Greg Wylder was clearly in the wrong, but…if I had been sober, I could have avoided the crash.” He paused and took a slow spoonful of his dessert. “For whatever reason, no one ever said anything about my blood alcohol level. There was so much chaos after the accident that I just never questioned it.”
She was shocked and couldn’t quite process what he was saying.
“Jax was supposed to be the one to drive. We all knew that, and it was what we told Mom and Dad when we left here for the party that night. But you know how it is, Luce; we were young and stupid and had no idea of our limits. Hell, we thought we were invincible.”
Still she couldn’t make herself say anything.
“When it was time to leave Billy Donnelly’s house, I could see that Jax was in no condition to drive. He could barely stand upright.” He took another bite of his ice cream before continuing. “I remember thinking that I was fine, that I could totally drive everyone home. I snatched the keys from Jax and he argued with me about it, but he was stumbling and really had no choice but to give in.”
This time she went to speak, but Ty held up a hand to stop her.
“Looking back? Yeah, we should have called someone. None of us wanted our parents to know we’d been drinking and because it was so late, I figured if I could get everyone home, Jax could just sleep over and everyone would be asleep when we got to our place.”
As much as she wanted to argue, she couldn’t. It all made sense.