Chapter Five #3
I nod. “He was one of the first guys I met. And when you finally get away from your parents and their rules, you go a little crazy. Drinking, parties. Fun. Anyway, by sophomore year I had a girlfriend.”
“Lacey,” she says. “I remember.”
“And Beck had one, too. Her name was Jenna. The four of us hung out together when we could, but Beck was on scholarship and he had to work. A lot.”
“I know what that’s like,” she murmurs.
My gut churns but I continue. “Jenna resented the time Beck spent working, but there wasn’t anything he could do.”
I hesitate and Jordan gives me an encouraging nod. “Go on.”
“One weekend, Lacey went home to see her parents. Beck had to work Saturday night and I went to a frat party. I got drunk. I mean completely shit-faced, typical college, lucky-to-remember-anything wasted. When I made it back to my bed, the room was spinning, and I really thought I was going to hurl.”
She lets out a light laugh. “I can relate more to Beck’s working than your partying, but I saw it all the time around me and I understand. What happened?”
I shrug. “To this day I’m not one-hundred-percent sure.
I remember a woman crawling into my bed, telling me she was back and she’d missed me, and then she kissed me.
I swear to God I thought it was Lacey and she was home early, that is, if I was thinking at all.
What I didn’t know or even sense was Jenna had crawled into my bed. ”
“Oh, no.” A horrified expression crosses Jordan’s face, and I want to die.
“You have to know that, sober, I would never cheat. I grew up with my father fucking around. I wouldn’t do it.
And I sure as hell wouldn’t sleep with my friend’s girl.
But I was so far gone I was still half drunk the next morning.
When Beck walked in and Jenna popped up in bed, crying, telling Beck she was sorry, it just happened, I could barely lift my head. ”
“But he didn’t want to hear it,” Jordan guesses.
I shake my head. “She wanted his attention, and oh, boy, did she get it. Meanwhile, I got a punch in the jaw and would have had a black eye if one of the other guys didn’t come in and pull Beck off me.
Then, I finally threw up.” I draw a deep breath and lean back against the couch.
“Needless to say, I lost my best friend and my girlfriend. Beck ditched both me and Jenna, who tried to play the martyr for him, and when that didn’t work, she had the gall to attempt to convince me to go out with her. ” The woman was a psycho.
“Linc, I’m sorry. Why didn’t you ever tell me any of this?” Jordan asks.
“Nobody knows and I mean nobody. Would you admit you screwed over your best friend?” I can barely look at her now.
She sighs. “Let me ask you a question to put this into perspective. If a man climbed into bed with a completely drunk woman, pretended to be someone he wasn’t, and slept with her, would there be any actual consent?
If someone did that to Chloe, would you blame her for sleeping with someone she thought was her boyfriend? ”
I lift my head. “Hell no.”
“Right.” She pins me with a determined stare, the one she uses when she wants me to think the same way she does.
And when I think about my sister in my position, I can look at things differently. “I would consider it rape and I’d beat the shit out of the guy.” My hands are already clenched into fists.
She braces her hands on my shoulders, getting my attention again with her touch. “Linc, Jenna set you up. You didn’t want to sleep with her. You didn’t agree to sleep with her.”
I appreciate her not calling it rape. I don’t think that’s something I can discuss or consider.
“None of that matters since I did the deed. I slept with Beck’s girl, and now he clearly somehow managed to partner with my father, and if I can’t come up with the money to cover this down payment, Beck will become my partner in my business. ”
And the more I think about it, the more pissed off I become.
Jordan squeezes my shoulders before dropping her hands. “Listen. He’s been holding a grudge for over a decade. It’s time for him to get over it. And if it just so happens it was a good business deal? There’s no doubt he saw the upside of sticking it to you.”
I nod, relieved and grateful Jordan is looking at this from a rational point of view and not thinking I’m the scum of the earth I thought myself at the time.
And did for years after. I’ve kicked myself so often, I forgot to think about how I miss Beck as a friend and regret that things went south between us and I lost a man I once thought of as a brother.
“Since you know who it is, can you go see him and discuss possibilities to fix this without losing a piece of the company?” Jordan asks.
I wince. “I can try. But we’ve been bidding against each other for years without actually having face-to-face contact. But I plan to see what I can do because Dad owes much more than our liquid assets.”
A few quiet seconds pass and Jordan finally speaks. “Are you okay?”
I roll my stiff shoulders. Now that she knows everything, much of the emotional burden has been lifted. But the future of my company is at stake, and I’ll be damned if I let an old grudge stand in the way of keeping it in the family.
“Linc?” She runs her tongue over her lips, moistening them. Tempting me.
“Yeah.” I glance at her.
She tips her head to one side, her ponytail brushing her shoulder. “Maybe you can use your father’s dementia to declare the contract null and void.”
“No.” I shake my head. “We agreed to keep the news to the family. If it gets out, any deals he did in the last year, even legitimate ones I knew about, could be undone by someone with regrets taking us to court.”
She visibly cringes. “Okay, I understand. So what do you suggest?”
“Either I get Beck to be reasonable … or I find a way to pay.”
Jordan nods. “So you have a plan.”
I shoot her a grateful look, once again struck by how vital she is to me. How understanding even when I don’t expect it or think I deserve it. How I can’t live without her in my life. “Jordan?”
She looks at me, concern in her gaze. “What is it?”
I draw a deep breath. “Thanks for not judging me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t thank me. I know you, Linc. And there is no way you’d deliberately hurt a friend. Or cheat. Discussion closed, okay?”
I’m dying to pull her into me and kiss those soft lips, in much more than gratitude. I lean forward, unsure what I’m planning, and Jordan jumps up from her seat.
“I vote we go back to the city. I have a ton of laundry and cleaning to do.” Cheeks burning, she turns away.
God dammit. What do I need to do to ease her into being comfortable with testing the waters of a relationship? I can’t stop thinking about our night, our compatibility in all ways, and I want to see if we can make a go of things.
Have I done a one-eighty? Yes. But I can’t imagine another woman who’d understand me as well or who I’d desire more.