Chapter 28
“Get your shit and get out now, Sierra.” Jacob could barely see through the red-hot fury clouding his gaze.
“No, listen to me. This isn’t what it looks like, Jacob.” Sierra’s voice was infuriatingly calm, given the situation.
“Is that a drink in your hands?” he snarled out, stepping into the kitchen.
“Yes, but it is not mine. You—”
He cut her off, tension rising through his shoulders and gripping his neck.
“Jesus Christ, not again with the excuses.” He shook his head when she tried to speak again.
“Do you want me to drag you from the kitchen and out the door or will you get your things and leave with what little dignity you have left?” He loomed over her.
She looked up in dismay, shock and hurt in her eyes now. He could see her body shake slightly. “No, but what I expect is for you to hear me out, Jacob.” She put the glass down on the counter, the clunk sounding like a shotgun to his ears. “This is not my drink.”
“Then whose is it?” He seethed.
“Your father was just here and he—”
He flung his hand out and waved off her lies. “Sierra, my father called me a half hour ago to tell me he was out of town but will be flying in tomorrow to see me and Kaitlyn.”
Her eyes widened. “Jacob, he is lying.”
He shook his head, voice deepening with anger and he moved closer. “No, I don’t think he is. You have put on a pretty act, but now you have been caught. Were you really going to those AA meetings or directly to a bar?”
His head snapped back from the blow of her slap.
“You arrogant ass. You know full well I haven’t!” Sierra spun and dumped the contents of the glass, splashing the whole sink with the dark liquid. “And you are using this as an excuse to push me away. Well, tell your father he has won. Because right now, I can’t even look at you.”
“Me? You are the one that got caught red-handed, Sierra. Just—”
She shoved past him without another word, heading straight to her room. He followed, his heart racing, the blood rushing through his veins. He couldn’t believe he’d let her sink her claws back into him and now she would again hurt Kaitlyn when she woke up and saw her mother gone.
He stared at the woman he’d been falling in love with again. Even his brothers had teased him that they’d never seen him this way, not when he first married Sierra or when he spoke of any other woman. They were glad that he was finally happy.
He was until the bottle once again was more important than him or their daughter.
He had missed her and Kaitlyn while he was away at the family cottage. After he’d hung up with his father, he’d put his phone on silent and he raced home to be with them as soon as he could.
“Get out. I am almost done and need to change.” She hissed furiously at him, yanking the zipper on her luggage closed.
He moved to stand outside the door, and his gut clenched when he heard her call for a taxi.
Every fiber of his body wanted him to keep shouting at her.
He’d opened himself up for the first time in his life and let her in.
But she’d just betrayed him again and he didn’t know how he was going to deal with his scattered emotions.
When she walked past him, she paused and set her luggage down to adjust something. As she went to lean on her cane, he bent to help her with the suitcase. His fingers barely made it around the handle before she ripped it away from him.
“I don’t need your help. I will wait outside for the taxi.” She said coldly.
His world was crashing down around him, and he couldn’t stay there to watch her walk out. He stumbled to his den and fell into the chair behind his desk. Dropping his head in his hands, Jacob tried to ignore the growing throb at his temples as his thoughts whirled.
How could he have missed the signs? Had her manipulation gotten better than he realized, or were there no signs to see?
Maybe today was the first day she’d taken a glass to drink, but what had triggered her relapse then?
Was it him not being home and she’d been left alone by herself—but that didn’t make sense because she’d been fine when he went away for Colin’s bachelor party.
A part of him couldn’t believe what he’d seen; he wanted to believe her words, the earnestness in her voice telling him the drink wasn’t hers.
But his father had told him he was out of town, so her excuse didn’t add up.
Something was not right. The Sierra he had been living and getting to know now, she was not the person she used to be, and he knew that.
Jacob took a deep breath, knowing he needed a moment to calm down and he would go out to talk to her.
He’d reacted so wrong and let his emotions and doubt get the best of him.
He sat up straighter, eyes blurry from the strain. With a deep steading breath, Jacob got up and made his way over to the small liquor cabinet. He’d installed a passcode to get in just in case Kaitlyn tried to see what was inside out of curiosity.
Sierra knew about it, but he did not tell her the passcode and she never asked for it. Only his family knew what the passcode was.
The decanter on top of the cabinet was whisky, his father’s drink of choice, and the glass he’d use when he’d come to visit wasn’t next to it. Sierra hated whisky, never touched it in all the time he’d known her.
Dread filled him and immediately, he called his father. “Brock, where are you?”
“I’m out of town. I told you that. Why, son?”
The lilt in his dad’s voice sent alarm bells ringing in his head. “You’re not here in Boston? You didn’t just come to my house?” He spoke the words softly—anyone that knew him, knew he used that voice when he already had the answer.
“Now, son, I told you—”
A chipper voice cut his father’s response off. “Welcome to Boston’s famous McKinley Pub, may I take your drink order?”
“You sonofabitch!” Jacob squeezed his phone so tightly in rage, he was surprised it didn’t break in his hand.
“She is not good for you, son; she will only hurt you!” His father shouted into the phone, but Jacob hung up before he could do more harm.
Setting his phone onto the cabinet, Jacob struggled to stop the tremble in his hands. Sierra would never forgive him for this. For all the trust and vulnerability she offered him, he didn’t do the same. At the first sign of trouble, he pulled away and shut her out.
“I’m an ass.”
He almost jumped and let out a shout when he heard “You are an ass” behind him. Jacob barely had enough time to turn before she was inches away and breathed into his face. He blinked, stunned.
“Smell that? I didn’t take a drop of alcohol nor would I ever drink that foul stuff.” Her hand swung toward the decanter in disgust.
Hope filled him; she hadn’t left, he had a chance to make it right again. He reached out to touch her, but she smacked his hands away and paced the room. “It is clear you still have trust issues if Daddy Deficit could manipulate you so easily.”
He opened his mouth to argue and shut it. She had a point, and he hid a smile. But Daddy Deficit….. “Umm, Daddy Deficit?”
“Yes, he is deficient on how to love someone properly and has passed that gene to all his sons.” Sierra paused in her pacing and shot him a firm look. “But luckily for them, they have now met the right ones to help them fight it.”
“Including me?” He swallowed, grateful for his little spitfire.
“Yes, including you. Even though right now you don’t deserve it.” Sierra sighed, dropping her hand to rub the scar on her leg. Then she straightened her back. “But I won’t let him turn me into a liar. I warned him I was not going down without a fight.”
He wanted to go to her, but he didn’t want to upset her again. “Do you want to keep fighting?”
She walked up to him, grabbed hold of his t-shirt and the hair resting underneath. Without pause, she yanked both toward her and he groaned.
“Yes, but I am so mad and hurt. I could do some bodily harm right now.” Though her response had a tingle of thrill in it for him, her eyes lost their ire. The sadness that welled up in her gaze struck him to the core. “How could you believe that I would do something like that?”
He cupped her hands. “Sierra, I am sorry that I hurt you and didn’t believe you. I got so hotheaded and only focused on what my eyes saw, not what my heart was telling me.” He stroked his thumbs over her knuckles and bent his head lower in remorse. “When I calmed down, I knew I was wrong.”
Sierra narrowed her eyes, searching his gaze. “Really?” She loosened her grip on his shirt slightly.
“Yes.” He nodded, a lump swelling in his throat. “I was thinking of how best to come outside and beg you to forgive me.”
A smile threatened to cross her lips, but she seemed to hold it back, her gaze serious. “And if I had taken a drink?”
“I know this is not an easy, quick fix and boom, you are cured.” Despite his outburst, Jacob confessed his true feelings on the matter.
It was something he’d thought about for a long time.
“There might come a time when you could possibly take a drink, and I hope you never do. But we will get you the help you need and be there for you as a family.” He held onto her hands tighter, pressing them into his chest. “Even now just my understanding is not enough. I want to be there for you and attend your meetings to better know what type of support you need from me.”
She nodded her head, her eyes still teary. He leaned his forehead against hers and she let him. “I will always be there for you,” he whispered.
Sierra shook her head gently, their foreheads rubbing together. “Let’s not make promises that we can’t keep. We don’t know what the future holds, but promise instead to keep working on us and building our future together.”
He nodded and then bent to kiss her mouth. She pulled back.
“Ah, nawww, if you think you are going to get out of begging. Think again.”
He gave a chuckle before fixing a serious look on his face.
He got down on his knees and reached out with his hands to grip her waist. “Sierra, I am so sorry for the pain I just put you through and I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I am begging you to stay with me even though I was an ass and hurt you. I love you, Sierra.”
Her eyes opened wide in wonder, and she gasped. “You have never said that to me before.”
Jacob massaged her hips, trying to show his honesty. “I know, I couldn’t back then because I didn’t want to let myself say the words and be hurt by anyone. I didn’t want to be vulnerable with you just to be hurt again. But now I am saying it to you and will tell you for the rest of our lives.”
He swept up her left hand and kissed each of her fingers, then the ring he’d placed on the third. “I want to love and cherish you, sweetheart.” He looked up at her, his heart in her hands for her to accept or crush.
An immediate reply was not given as she continued to search his eyes. But after a pause of silence, her face lit up with joy. “I love you too.” She whispered. Tears of joy pooling in her eyes.
He reared up and pulled her into his arms, his lips meeting hers and they felt like home to him now.
She opened up to him on a sigh and he cupped the back of her head, deepening the kiss.
She sank further against him, then reached behind to take hold of his hair, pulling on it just the way he liked.
He groaned and was going to walk her back to the couch when they sprang suddenly apart.
Two curious brown eyes were staring up at them from the doorway
“What are you doing and why is Daddy licking and eating your mouth like it is ice cream?”