Chompin' at the Bit (Horse Play #2) (13 page)

“Based on lies! And from what I could tell, his parents seemed to enjoy my company over yours all weekend,” I retorted arrogantly.

Kaylie’s eyes moved back and forth rapidly between mine, almost as though she was unsure what to say; I should have known better. “You think you know me?”

Crossing my arms tightly across my body, I arched an eyebrow at her. “Oh, I know you. You’re a selfish, manipulative bitch. Did you give any consideration at all to how he would feel? You didn’t even give him a choice.”

I watched, slightly afraid, as Kaylie’s eyes widened and her face went red; there was a very good possibility she was about to explode. “What about
me
?” she shrieked, a little louder than I’d have liked. We didn’t need an audience. “I never wanted kids. Ever. I couldn’t be saddled with such a burden—especially with him sitting in a prison cell for three years. So yeah, I got rid of it when I knew he couldn’t stop me.”

“
What?
”

My heart skipped a beat, and I gasped as I quickly turned to face our uninvited spectator. When I saw Lilah’s angry face, her wide eyes moving between Kaylie and me, I panicked. My hands were sweating as I turned to her completely. “Lilah, I—”

Her hand flew up to silence me as she focused her fierce eyes on Kaylie. “You did
what?
”

For the first time, I saw real fear in Kaylie’s eyes. She stepped forward, holding out her right hand to Lilah as she spoke. “Lilah, honey—”

“Save it!” Lilah barked, making me jump in fright. She lowered her head but kept her enraged blue eyes on Kaylie. “What. Did. You. Do?”

Then Jensen entered the small hallway, and my heart sank. This was all my fault. If I had just walked away, Lilah wouldn’t have found out this way. Tears of regret burned my eyes as I dropped them to the floor, completely ashamed.

“Hey,” he said softly, glancing at each of us curiously. “What’s going on in here?”

Lilah’s eyes left Kaylie’s, and she glared angrily at her brother. “Oh, nothing really.” Sarcasm dripped from every word out of her mouth, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep quiet; I had already done enough damage. “I just walked in on Kaylie telling Madison that she terminated the pregnancy. Is that true, Jensen?”

Glancing up, I saw Jensen’s eyes widen as he looked to me for an explanation. I couldn’t look at him—couldn’t respond. Instead, I choked back a sob and mumbled a quiet apology as I rushed from the room, through the restaurant and out the main doors of the hotel until I collapsed on the front steps. He was going to hate me after this.

I sat there crying for a few minutes, cursing myself for opening my big fat mouth at all instead of just walking away like I had originally intended, when a voice spoke behind me. “Madison? Sweetheart?”

Sniffling, I looked up to see Janet above me. She settled in next to me and wrapped her arms around me. I melted into her embrace, feeling the need to spill everything that just happened like word vomit. I held it back because I knew I’d already done more than enough to this family. “Oh, honey, what’s wrong?”

Her hand began to move softly over my hair in an effort to calm me as I bawled into her shoulder. “I just did something horrible,” I blubbered.

“Shhh,” she said softly, wrapping her arms around me even tighter. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I shook my head, my breaths becoming more ragged the longer I cried. “I shouldn’t have said anything to begin with,” I sobbed brokenly.

Janet’s hands stilled and she forced me up until she was staring directly into my eyes. “Does this have something to do with Kaylie?” I nodded once—apparently I found it impossible to lie to any member of the Davis family, and I was pretty sure if she asked me specific questions, I’d tell her everything.

“Mom?” Jensen’s low, emotionless voice cut right through my heart, and I closed my eyes tightly, unable to see the look of disappointment on his face. “Can I have a word with Madison?”

Chapter 11. Me and My Big Mouth

T
his is it,
I thought, clutching my hands together tightly in my lap to calm the shaking that had suddenly taken over my entire body.

“Of course, dear.” With a smile, Janet wrapped me in one more hug, and I responded to it by hugging her back—quite possibly tighter than normal because I was afraid it would be the last time. Giving me one more firm squeeze, Janet pulled out of our embrace and stood up before leaving Jensen and me alone.

I turned until I was facing forward again, my eyes focusing on the pavement as I toed at the step my feet were on. Behind me, Jensen huffed before sitting next to me, his body right against mine. “So?” He nudged my shoulder with his, indicating I should start talking.

“It was an accident,” I whispered hoarsely, wiping the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand. “I’m so sorry. She just … confronted me and started saying all this stuff about me being a phase. I didn’t mean to say anything, I swear.” I dropped my face into my hands. “God, you must hate me.”

“What?” he said, completely shocked, as he grabbed and twisted me to face him. I still couldn’t meet his gaze until he placed his hands on my face and forced my eyes to his. “Madison, I could
never
hate you.”

“But I—”

Jensen sighed. “Did something I’ve been too chicken-shit to do. I’m not angry with you, baby. I’m angry with myself.”

Feeling relieved that he wasn’t upset with what I had unintentionally done, I threw my arms around his neck. He held me for a long while, occasionally placing a kiss in my hair before he pulled me away from him. “Wait …” I froze. “She said you were a phase?” I nodded slowly before he cupped my face in his hands again. “You know she was just trying to get to you, right?”

“Yeah,” I replied quietly.

“I love you, Madison. I’m not going anywhere.” His eyes held mine as he leaned in to kiss me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me to him.

Sighing, I tightened my hold around him, hoping that I was able to convey just how much I loved him too. Even though I had accidentally outed Kaylie, he was able to forgive me; I only hoped his sister—

That was when I panicked. “Lilah!” I gasped into his mouth.

Jensen pulled his lips from mine and arched an eyebrow questioningly. “Not exactly the name I expected.”

“Oh, God, she must be so upset.” I pulled out of Jensen’s embrace and folded in on myself again.

Jensen shook his head. “Not with you, love. Mostly with Kaylie … and me.”

“Your parents?” I asked, turning my head to look at him.

He let out a dry laugh, running his hand through his hair. “My father assures me that while they didn’t know with one hundred percent certainty, they suspected something.”

“I still can’t believe I did this,” I whispered.

Jensen stood, pulling me to my feet with him. “From the way Lilah tells it—or rather, how she screamed it—
you
didn’t say anything that would have slandered Kaylie. She said that before Kaylie said anything about terminating the pregnancy, she thought that maybe I had told you that Kaylie was a bitch—or at the very worst, that she maybe cheated on me.”

What he said confused me for a moment because that wasn’t how I remembered it—at all. Quickly thinking back on everything that was said between Kaylie and I, I realized that he was right. I was elated that I hadn’t been the one to break the news by sticking my foot in my mouth—as I was so prone to doing ninety-nine percent of the time—but I still felt partially responsible.

“You still seem upset, love.” Jensen stopped me once we were back inside the hotel and looked down at me.

“I should have just walked away from her. I shouldn’t have said anything at all. Even if I wasn’t the one to out her, I engaged her. You should be furious with me,” I told him.

Jensen shook his head adamantly. “Nope. I’m not. While I’ll admit, the timing wasn’t exactly ideal; I can’t say I regret that they all know now. I only wish I’d have manned up when we first ended things. I could have avoided this altogether.”

He wrapped his arm around me. “Come on. Don’t worry yourself over everyone being upset. They’re not. I promise.” His words fell flat the instant we were outside the restaurant and could hear the violent shouts coming from within.

“You were my best friend!” Lilah shouted. “I comforted you after you and Jensen broke off the engagement, consoled you while he was away … And the whole time you were keeping something like this from me?”

Even as we pushed the doors open, we couldn’t see them, but I still tensed. Jensen tightened his grip around my waist protectively. From the sounds of it, Kaylie and Lilah were still near the washrooms off to the left, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that everyone in the restaurant could hear their heated discussion.

“It was nobody’s business, Lilah!” Kaylie rebutted, garnering a very unladylike snort of disagreement from Lilah. “I have a right to decide what I do with my body.”

“Nobody’s business?” she cried. “Nobody’s fucking business? What about Jensen’s right? That was
his
child, too. He deserved to have a say, regardless of his situation at the time!” Lilah let out a frustrated cry before there was a deafening pause. “You know what?” Her voice was surprisingly calm when she continued after a few beats of silence. “I’m not going to continue this discussion here. Or anywhere, for that matter. As far as I’m concerned, you are no longer my friend. Don’t call. Don’t email. Just don’t try to contact me at all, because I won’t respond. You are dead to me.”

Lilah emerged from the little hall near the washrooms, and I froze, unsure what to expect from her if she was that angry with Kaylie. I gripped the back of Jensen’s shirt and tried to prepare for the worst.

She glanced quickly at us and forced a smile on her face. “Let’s get back to brunch, shall we?”

“Lilah—” Jensen started to say before she cut him off with a sharp glare.

“No. I’m not going to get into this any further. We’ll talk—at length—afterward.” And with that, Lilah breezed by us and rejoined the table.

To say the rest of our meal was awkward was an understatement; there may as well have been a large pink elephant sitting in the empty chair across from me. Everyone glanced at the empty spot at least twice, but no one addressed it.

“So,” Gavin said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. God bless him. “Where are you guys going on your honeymoon?”

I looked across the table, being sure to avoid the empty seat, and looked at Lilah and Kyle. Kyle genuinely smiled and wrapped an arm around Lilah, who still seemed a little upset but kept her game face on. “Greece, actually,” he said, squeezing his new wife to his side before releasing her. Our plane leaves tonight.”

For the remainder of the meal, everyone at the table talked while I pushed my cold pancakes around on my plate. Jensen’s hand on my thigh brought me out of my silent funk, and I turned to him with a small smile.

“Not hungry, love?” he asked softly.

I shook my head and set my fork down. “Not really.”

After everyone finished eating, we stood, saying our goodbyes to those that were leaving the hotel to head home. As I stood to the side while the Davises and the Lewises spoke, Kyle approached me and wrapped one of his massive arms around me.

“You know that what happened wasn’t your fault, right?” he said under his breath, and I looked up at him with wide eyes. “She won’t be upset with you. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that this will bring you two closer.” He offered me a dimpled grin and a wink. “Trust me.”

“Thanks, Kyle.”

Giving me one last hug before he pulled away. “Anytime. Keep your chin up, Madikins.”

Jensen was back by my side soon enough, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Should we go and grab our things before we get charged an extra night?”

“Sure,” I told him with a smile.

We had both just turned to leave when Lilah appeared in front of us. “Wait,” she said, her eyes moving back and forth between us both. “Can we talk?”

Inhaling deeply, Jensen nodded. “Yeah.” He turned to me. “Why don’t you go on up to the room?”

I just started to pull away when Lilah spoke up again. “No. Madison should stay. I mean, if not for her, none of this would have come out.”

Ouch.

Lilah must have realized the impact of her words, because her eyes widened with remorse. “Oh, no. That’s not how I meant it at all. I’m
glad
I know. Yeah, it sucks, but I’m glad.”

Lilah led Jensen and I back to the table, and we sat there for a moment until their parents and Kyle joined us. Once again, we sat in maddening silence, waiting for someone to begin. Thankfully Lilah was that person.

“So, spill it, Jensen.”

“What’s there to say that you don’t already know?” he replied, leaning on the table and clasping his hands in front of him. “Kaylie aborted the pregnancy when I went to prison. She told me, and then I never heard from her again.”

I looked around the table to see that Henry and Janet both seemed unfazed by this news while Lilah and Kyle looked as though they were hearing it for the first time. Lilah sat with her arms crossed over her body, her hard eyes steeled on Jensen as he fidgeted very uncharacteristically and Kyle’s brows were knit together as he absorbed everything.