Page 71 of The Way Back Home

“Everyone,” he says impatiently. “There’s a damn resort in the Bahamas where you can swim with pigs.”

“Huh.” I frown. “I did not know that.”

“We’re gonna have to set her cast again.”

“Okay, just tell me when you want us to come in.” Jude just looks at me. I grimace. “Oh, you mean now?”

“Yeah, Olivia. I mean now,” he says. Betty hops over onto my lap, and I have to admit, her cast does look bad. “What? You have somewhere else more important to be?”

“Nope, not a single place in the world.” And I don’t. August wouldn’t have left the hospital yet, and at this point, I’m not even sure he wants me back at Tanglewood at all.

***

AN HOUR LATER, WHENwe pull in the drive at Tanglewood, August waits on the porch step, but he’s on his feet and storming toward us before Jude has even pulled the car to a stop.

“Where the hell have you been?” he demands, yanking my door open. “And what the fuck is he doing here?”

I glower at him as I climb out and set Betty on the ground. “Driving me home.”

He scoffs. “It had to be him, didn’t it? I bet you just couldn’t wait to call him.”

“Really, August? I didn’t call him. I didn’t have my goddamn phone because I left it in your truck. He happened by when we were stranded by the side of the road.”

“Of course he did.” He throws his hands up in exasperation. “Jude du Pont always comes to the rescue.”

“Well thank God he did, because if not I’d still be out there, getting heatstroke because you left me by the side of the road.”

“Wait. You left Olivia out there on her own?” Jude says. He’s out of the car now, Zora is too, and all the warming she’d done toward him in the last hour simply vanishes.

“It’s fine,” I say.

“It’s not fine.” Jude steps closer to me. “He left you out there by yourself where anything could have happened to you. What if Cole Webb had been the one to find her?”

August flinches involuntarily, as if that thought hadn’t even occurred to him. It hadn’t occurred to me either, but Jude makes a good point. August sneers at the doc. “You’ve got two seconds to get your ass the fuck off my property, du Pont.”

“You need to calm down. You’re scaring her,” Jude snaps, stalking away from me and closer to August. Zora growls.

I frown at Doc. August doesn’t scare me. Okay, well, he doesn’t frighten me in the sense that I am afraid for my safety, but my feelings for him scare the shit outta me.

“I mean it. Get the fuck off my property.”

“I’m going,” Doc says, and steps back, almost running into Zora, who’s practically circling him with her hackles raised.

“Zora, here, now,” I snap at her, but she pays me no mind. She continues to growl at Jude, and I glare at August. “Can you call off your dog, please?” He ignores me. “August!”

“You know it’s not too late for you to come with me,” Jude says. “You’re not safe with him.”

“Not safe?” August roars. “Not safe with me? You got some fucking nerve showing up here.” He turns to face me; his eyes burn bright with rage. “Did this asshole tell you what he did?”

“August—”

“Nah, you know what? He’s right. Maybe you should leave too. Because if you’d rather be with him after the damage he caused, then you’re perfect for each other, but I don’t want you around my kid sister.”

I scowl at him. “What are you talking about?”

“He fucked my fiancée, Liv.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jude murmurs.