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“But I did mean for you to. Jackson, I instigated you. I pushed you to the edge on purpose. That was the point.”
“But why? I didn’t want to hit you. I wasn’t—am not—angry with you.”
“Because I’m your friend. I’ll have a lovely bruise later, maybe a black eye if I’m lucky. I hear it can make guys look sexy. We’ll see how that works for me with Mercer.” He grinned. Jackson couldn’t smile back but felt a twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Bottom line is this: I’m okay. And you are too. Now had you continued driving and unloaded on our dear ‘friend’ Steve, you would most certainly not feel okay. You would feel just as horrible, only you might have a lawsuit too. Or the cops might be putting you in the back of a cruiser. Ladies do not like either of those things.”
“But you didn’t need to do that. You should have let me go.”
“I know. But I’m your friend and corny as it sounds, I love you. I want the best for you, so I took one for the team. Maybe Steve deserved it—I’m sure he did, actually—but I took it. You see what this is a picture of, right? You see why you can’t go punch Steve Taylor in the face. No matter what he’s done. This isn’t you anymore, man.”
Jackson stood and pulled Beau to his feet and into a hug. He pulled him in tight, not caring how all this looked by the side of the road to people passing by. Every so often, a car honked, or someone yelled out the window. Beau clapped his hand against Jackson’s shoulder and then pulled back.
“Just so we’re clear, you know that I could take you, right? If I wanted.” Beau grinned at him. Jimmy snorted from where he stood a few feet away.
Jackson grabbed Beau by the shoulder. “I think you just did. And I couldn’t be more thankful.”
As Jackson climbed back into the Jeep, a feeling of loss settled over him. Beau had saved him from making a big mistake, but it didn’t change the fact that Jenna had kissed Steve. Now that his anger had dissipated, he realized that he had questions. Ones he should have asked Jenna before he stormed away.
She had said that Steve kissed her. She said that she was a cheater. That was about the time his mind grew dark with rage. He didn’t even know when Steve had kissed her. Or if she had wanted him to. Knowing Steve, it could have been completely one-sided. Jackson should have asked. Instead, he took her words at face value and threw them back at her in some kind of moral outrage, fueled by his hurt.
His stomach clenched. The words he said were inexcusable. Especially if he didn’t have the full story. What an idiot. An irrational, hot-headed, impulsive idiot.
He may very well have misunderstood what Jenna meant. Now that he was calm, he couldn’t imagine her hooking up with Steve.
That morning he had been worried that he had been pushing Jenna away. He didn’t need to wonder anymore. His actions and his words today almost certainly had destroyed whatever fragile relationship they had been building.