Page 15 of Twister

I could feel my gaze turn molten at the simple gesture before I realized Rose was sitting right there next to us.

Swallowing nervously, I blinked and sat back, fidgeting with my napkin before placing it in my lap to hopefully hide my stiffening cock.

I chanced a glance at Rose, who was, thankfully, focused on feeding another piece of chicken to Bucky and not paying a lick of attention to either of us.

“Oh, who do we have here?”

The smile immediately dropped off my face and my jaw tightened at the sound of a voice I really didn’t want to hear, especially not whilst I was at Malone’s.

By the look of slight confusion and alarm on Marshall’s face, he’d immediately picked up that something had changed and not for the better.

I watched his eyes dart from mine to over my left shoulder.

I swallowed a sigh and placed my knife and fork down so I wasn’t tempted to stab someone with them. “Brett.”

“Daniel.”

Gritting my teeth, I slowly turned around to see my ex-husband, Jackson, and his boyfriend, Brett, standing next to our table.

With his dark brown hair still carefully spiked and the neat but slightly rumpled white business shirt and cobalt blue jacket and pants, I assumed that Jackson had just finished work.

He’d always preferred a more laid-back, casual vibe, but I knew, through Rose, that he needed to dress up for the corporate job he’d found after he’d left us.

The Jackson I knew would have hated every second that he had to wear starched suits and ties. He did look supremely uncomfortable standing there behind his boyfriend, but I didn’t think it was his clothes that were giving him trouble.

No. That honor fell to his boyfriend.

Brett looked sloppier than I’d ever seen him. Shorter and stockier than Jackson, Brett’s black hair was a mess, as were the stained burgundy shirt and dark chinos he wore. His cheeks were ruddy, and his eyes were glazed over like he’d been drinking heavily.

One whiff of his breath as he swayed in front of me proved that assumption to be 100 percent correct.

“Jackson.”

To his credit, Jackson looked like he wanted to be anywhere else other than bothering us at our family dinner. “Hi, Daniel.” He glanced at Rose, his face morphing into worry. “Hi, Rosey.”

“Hi, Pappy Jack—”

“Who’s he?” Brett demanded, cutting off Rose’s greeting and glaring at Marshall.

I narrowed my eyes at him before I swept an annoyed look at Jackson, who slowly closed his eyes in defeat.

Was this the way Rose was being treated at his house?

No wonder she never wanted to visit him anymore.

Absently, my fingers went searching for my fork, gripping it tightly when I found the handle.

An uncharacteristically low, angry growl sounded from under the table as Bucky joined the conversation. I felt movement next to my legs as he shifted positions to get out from under the table so he could better protect his owners if the need arose.

Brett’s eyebrow arched as he took a step back. “You brought the mutt with you to Malone’s? Isn’t that some sort of health code violation?”

“His name’s Bucky,” Marshall said quietly. “And from what I can tell, he’s got better table manners than you.”

“Brett, please don’t do this,” Jackson muttered as his cheeks darkened. He tugged uselessly at Brett’s sleeve.

“The fuck?” Brett pulled his arm out of Jackson’s grip and gave him an annoyed glare before he looked down his nose at Marshall. “Who even are you?”

Not moving from his seat, Marshall blinked placidly up at Brett. “Me? I’m just someone trying to enjoy a lovely dinner with my date, his daughter, and their wonderful dog. Who even are you?”

Jackson’s eyebrows rose in surprise at Marshall’s response, while Brett scoffed at me. “You’ve got a date? You?”

“Brett, please,” Jackson said, trying again to gain his partner’s attention.

“No.” A mean grin came over Brett’s face as he looked me up and down.

“I want to know how much this blowhard is paying someone so young to be his date, because there’s no way a scruffy, unkempt moron like him would be able to pull that on his own.

” He pointed at Marshall without taking his beady eyes off mine.

“Could you even call it a date if you let the orphaned rug rat tag along?” He laughed mockingly.

My eyes widened, not because of what Brett was saying, even though it was abhorrent, but more that Jackson was letting him say it without argument.

Even though Jackson had left both me and Rose, I’d always thought he cared for her in his own way.

Why was he letting Brett talk about Rose like that?

When I glanced at a pale Jackson, Brett snapped his fingers in front of my face, making me flinch back.

“Rose, honey?” I heard Marshall say to my daughter in the background, but I kept my narrowed eyes on Brett. “Can you please grab a server? Tell them we want to take the leftovers to go.”

“No, you don’t get to look at Jackson,” Brett snarled at the same time as Marshall spoke, leaning over in an attempt to intimidate me. “You had your chance. He’s mine now.”

Although I focused on Brett, I could see Jackson in the background nervously looking at anything other than us as Rose slipped out of her seat and darted inside.

As soon as she was out of earshot, I threw my napkin on the table, got out of my chair, and stood toe to toe with Brett, anger running through my veins.

“Let me make something perfectly clear, Brett. The only reason why I even glanced in Jackson’s direction is because I was appalled that he remained silent when you talked about our daughter like she was nothing. ”

A quiet whimper came from Jackson’s direction, but I didn’t shift my eyes from Brett.

“He knows his place,” Brett spat, looking me up and down with disdain. “As should you.”

Frowning at his words, I stepped back from him and tilted my head to the side to study the mediocre man in front of me.

I hadn’t seen either Brett or Jackson for longer than the time it took me to drop Rose off at their place for her scheduled visits in about a year, and I’d certainly never heard him talk about Jackson like this in the time they’d been together.

As much as we’d had our ups and downs, especially at the end of our marriage with how we’d each responded to Rose’s ongoing needs, Jackson had never been the type of person to be okay with being spoken about like this.

What the hell was going on here? “I guess you should enlighten me, then. Where exactly is my place?”

“Away from him” came Brett’s immediate angry response.

“Well, this is where I’m getting confused, Brett.

” Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose and raised my shoulders in an exasperated shrug before I placed my hands on my hips.

“I was sitting here, having a wonderful meal with people I care about, completely unaware of you or Jackson until you declared yourself. How am I supposed to keep away from him if you bring him straight to me?”

As I was talking, Rose reappeared with a server, who took one look at the aggressive way we were all standing and immediately started clearing the table.

Rose stood back a little from us all, wringing her hands, so Marshall got up and went to stand with her, muttering something to Jackson as he went past that made Jackson startle.

When Marshall got to Rose, he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and led her back inside.

Bucky didn’t move from his spot next to me, although he did lean his weight against my leg more to let me know he was there. I welcomed the reminder.

“Look,” I said, shaking my head and trying to remain calm when everything within me wanted to rip out his worthless spine for talking about Rose and Marshall the way he had.

“Clearly, you don’t like me, and that’s fine.

You do you. But you can’t stop me from talking to Jackson, especially when it comes to our daughter. ”

“We’ll see,” he muttered darkly.

Narrowing my eyes, I stared at him until he got uncomfortable enough to look away. “Jackson and I share custody of Rose, Brett. If that upsets you, then you need to rethink having a relationship with someone who is a father.”

I picked up my wallet and keys from the table that was still being cleared and pocketed them before I leaned into Brett’s personal space and grabbed his neck so I could growl in his ear, “And if I ever hear you talk to or about Rose or anyone in my family again the way you talked tonight, I promise you that you won’t live long enough to regret it.

” I stepped back and released the tight grip I had on Brett.

He stumbled backward and rubbed his neck as he glared at me.

I ignored him entirely and stepped past him to address his trembling boyfriend.

“Jackson, I know you and I haven’t seen eye to eye about much in recent years, but you deserve better than whatever this is.

” I threw a thumb in Brett’s direction. “If you want to continue seeing Rose, I think it’s best if you come to us from now on.

Without Brett. I don’t want him anywhere near our daughter. Got it?”

Jackson swallowed noisily, then nodded, his face so pale, I thought he was going to faint.

With my brows furrowed, I studied the man I used to love and wondered what the hell had happened to him. The lingering pain I’d been feeling over how he’d left had all but disappeared, only to be filled by a sense of worry and concern about why he’d changed so much in such a short amount of time.

Shaking my head, I sighed and patted him gently on the shoulder, only for him to wince in what looked like pain. My frown deepened as I paused long enough to narrow my eyes at Brett, who was looking anywhere but at me.

I guessed I’d gotten an answer to my unspoken question.

I’d thought Jackson was happy with his new life with Brett. It was becoming quickly apparent that I was very, very mistaken.

I ground my teeth, trying to remind myself that Jackson was a grown man who could fight his own battles.

But could he? I’d always thought so, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Regardless, Rose and Marshall were waiting for me inside.

“You have my number, Jackson,” I muttered under my breath. “Use it if you need to.”

His eyes widened before he nodded shakily.

Figuring I’d about done all I could, I let out a final huff and walked away. I had loved ones I needed to get back to.