Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
I need to get to my girl.
When Wells called me earlier, I knew something was up.
We just talked last night and he knew I would be in Nashville for meetings with the finance team today, so I didn’t hesitate to walk out of the meeting to take the call.
Anyone on my leadership teams should be used to it at this point: if my family, Tinsley, or Wells call me, I just walk out of whatever is going on.
Those calls don’t happen that often, but when they do, they come first, and I don’t apologize for it.
Max prefers to text and rarely calls me, but he’s on that list too.
I told Jett to reschedule the finance meeting to next week if they didn’t get whatever they needed accomplished with me in the room today; I wasn’t going to be back in Nashville at least for a few days.
I open The Brigade group chat. Growing up, my siblings and I were known both in our family and our community as The Cavalry.
We still refer to each other as that, but when Walker came into the picture—and actually wanted a relationship with us unlike Vivian’s first husband—we needed another group chat the included him.
I thought it was fitting that we could call the expanded group that since a Cavalry is part of a larger military group like a division or a brigade.
Theo was officially added to The Brigade even before they got engaged when a psycho kidnapped my sister.
Thankfully, it all turned out alright; Theo and Sav were married within three months of that whole ordeal.
Me
I know we’re supposed to have family dinner tonight at Dad’s but I don’t know that Tinsley and I will be there.
Savannah
What happened?
Vivian
Is everything okay?
Me
No. Wells called a bit ago. I’m in Nashville and Ethan is hauling ass to get me back home.
I had him come get me so I could work during the commute into the office but I should’ve just taken a helicopter.
I wasn’t thinking though, Wells was notified this morning that their mother Bridget Wilson was found in her living room.
They aren’t sure but think she died sometime last night.
Liam
What? Where did his mother live?
Me
I don’t have her exact address, but I know they were relegated to their Chattanooga house they own when Rick was kicked off all of Tinsley’s stuff, and with his bond in place, he can’t leave the state.
Liam
That’s enough. I’ll see what I can find out.
Ryan
Does Tinsley know yet? Is she alone right now? Like should someone go be with her or something?
Cami
I’m at work but I can call someone to cover me.
Vivian
I would if I could, you know that, but she can come here if she needs to! We can’t come to her, but baby snuggles are always healing. Henry and Davis will be happy to help!
Savannah
I can go be with Tinsley if you need me to, Jack. I’m at Walker and Viv’s but could be there in less than ten minutes.
Me
No, it’s ok. Wells told her, and I talked to her briefly. She knows I’m on my way home and Allie is with her right now. She isn’t alone.
Finn
Just let us know if she needs anything, ok?
Ryan
How’s Wells?
Me
He wants answers and then he’ll process it.
Savannah
It’s probably super complicated with everything, but it’s still their mom, and also so soon after Fiona’s death. You seriously have to let us know if Tinsley needs anything at all, Jack. I’ll text her later today but give you some time first.
Vivian
Me too.
Liam
I’ll call Wells later.
Vivian
Just let us know what Tinsley needs…
Me
Thanks everyone. I’ll keep you in the loop.
When I arrive at my penthouse, Tinsley is in my arms like a blur, and at some point, Allie sneaks out. I sit with Tinsley on the couch and she lets it all out.
She cries for the loss of her mother, but it’s more than that, and a part of her crying is for the finality of it all.
Tinsley is crying about her death, of course, but also the loss of that relationship ever being redeemed.
With Bridget passing, there’s no fixing how broken their relationship was, and there’s no version of Bridget where she ever put Tinsley first—at least not in the last thirty years of Tinsley’s life.
Wells has insisted over the years that it was different before their dad died, but Tinsley doesn’t remember those days, so that’s not really any comfort to her.
Eventually, Tinsley’s sobs slow, as does her breathing, and my girl cries herself to sleep in my arms.
I don’t have anywhere else I need to be or anything else I need to be doing.
Holding my girl while she tries to process all of this shit on top of all of the other shit she’s already dealing with is not only where I want to be, it’s where I need to be—just like I need my next breath, I need to help Tinsley carry the emotional weight of this.
If I can ease her burden at all, then that’s what I’ll do.
I love this woman and that’s not just a nice sentiment.
It’s a vow that means showing up and choosing her, something I want to do the rest of my life.
I will stand with her in the happy moments of life, but I will also fight through hell and wade through the dirtiest heaps of garbage and crawl through the slimiest muck if she needs me to.
Marriage has never really been a goal of mine or even on my radar until Tinsley, but like the floodgates have opened, I can see it all: Tinsley with her gorgeous curly red hair wearing a white dress standing in front of our family and friends, her ice-blue eyes radiating joy with my ring on her hand, and my baby in her belly.
This just escalated.
But I can’t unsee the vision.
I want to marry Tinsley, and I want that to happen as soon as she’ll say yes.
We just have to get through all this shit first. When it comes to Bridget and Rick Wilson, shit is the correct term.
I struggled to find redeeming features in them when I didn’t know the full picture of what Tinsley’s reality of life was like with them, but now that I know the full picture and the extent of the abuse Rick subjected Tinsley to and Bridget allowed, if not also participated in at least verbally?
I find them lacking in every possible way.
It's really astonishing that Wells and Tinsley are as incredible as the two of them are considering the home environment they had to survive.
Tinsley starts to stir after she’s been sleeping for maybe forty-five minutes. I’m not sure—I haven’t looked at my phone. I’ve been sitting here, looking at this amazing woman who is stronger than she should ever have to be but still carries herself with such grace.
Her big eyes blink up at me with a soft smile as I press a featherlight kiss to her forehead.
“You’re amazing, do you know that?” I tell her gently as I push some of her wayward curls out of her face. She tilts her head toward my chest and nuzzles into me a little more with a content smile.
“Because I can cry myself to sleep or…?”
“No, because you don’t give up. You never quit, despite the bullshit with Rick, your mother, fighting for your recovery, processing your grief with Fiona’s passing, managing all of that, but still somehow finding a way to smile and make others smile every single day.”
She’s incredible.
“What would be the alternative?”
“Letting it swallow you whole.” My honesty is blunt, but it would be so easy for her to let go and allow the pain to consume her—but that’s not my girl.
Tinsley shakes her head. “No, that’s not an option. And it’s not because I’m strangely optimistic like Cami or even naturally sunshine and happy like Vivian. I’m stubborn as hell.”
“What do you mean?”
“People have tried to break me, and they may have damaged me, but I won’t let them win.
” She softly shakes her head, and I run my hand up along her jaw, not missing how she leans into my touch.
“If I let the anger and rage consume me, they win. If I become a miserable person that lets that hurt be the driving force in my life, they win. If I allow them to be right about how I’m just defective or unlovable, they win—and I won’t let them win. I’m stubborn.”
I scrunch my eyebrows and rear back slightly. “You are not damaged or defective at all, Tinsley Sinclair. That’s not true.”
She softly raises a shoulder in a shrug as if she didn’t just sucker punch me with that statement. “Agree to disagree, Jack.”
“No, fuck that, Red. You are not defective or damaged.”
The note.
The fucking note.
I growl—like a fucking bear as it all clicks.
“Wait … is that what you meant when you wrote the note in the hotel room?”
“That was years ago, Jack. But … yeah, I mean, it’s fine.
No one is perfect, and I’m happy with who I am and I’m working on the rest of it.
It’s a lot easier without being yelled at daily or having bullshit quite literally beat into me.
” She looks away from me, but with my hand still on her jaw, I steer her gaze back to mine.
“I’m going to get up to go get something, but I’m not walking away from you or this conversation, okay?” She’s confused but nods as I carefully shift her off my chest and stand up from the couch. I walk down the hall to the office area in the corner of my penthouse.
Tilting the correct book away from the bookshelf behind my desk, a row of books silently moves forward and lifts up and out of the way, revealing the safe Liam helped me conceal in here.
I doubt Tinsley even hears it around the corner; it’s so quiet.
The biometrics security features scan my face as I place my thumb on the fingerprint scanner.
I don’t keep many things in this specific safe, but this piece of paper has been in here for over three years.
It has a single crease from where I folded the sheet of paper in half, but otherwise, it’s in the same condition it was when Tinsley wrote on it after sneaking out of my bed.