“Daddy, no! You can’t kick him out! He saved my life!”
“Lee-Lee, what on earth are you talking about? Because of the swim lessons?” He shook his head. “I love you, but you don’t get a say in these matters.”
She glanced at me. “I went to Florida. When I told you I had that appointment with my academic advisor? I really went to Florida with Morgan.”
Man, if I thought he’d been pissed before, the shade of mottled red he turned was far worse.
She cleared her throat. “I needed to go. It’s hard to explain, but I was thrown into the water. I would have drowned if Jagger hadn’t jumped in to save me. He’s the only reason I’m still here. He pulled me out of the water, and then he took me to the doctor even after I told him I didn’t need it. Thank God he did, because I needed…” She blushed, the color just…enchanting. Shit, there’s that word again. “I needed to be seen. He saved my life twice in the same day.”
She hadn’t said a thing. Had she had an asthma attack when they’d taken her to be examined?
The muscle in his jaw flexed once. Twice. “Is this true?” He asked it like a dare.
I wanted to lie, for the sheer satisfaction of letting him believe I was the asshole he thought I was. But I wouldn’t make Paisley a liar. “It is, sir. She’d been thrown in by some asshat who didn’t know she couldn’t swim.”
“Language,” Carter growled.
I ignored him. “I was just in the right place at the right time, sir. But it’s the best thing I’ve done with my entire life.” Her indrawn breath was all I heard.
A splash broke my concentration and jarred General Donovan, too. He looked past me to where I knew Major Davidson was standing. “He stays under one condition.”
“Sir?” Major Davidson sounded as confused as I felt.
“You all stick together, Lieutenant? You and your fellow delinquents?”
“Yes, sir.” My stomach dropped and my mouth watered, like that second before puking. I really didn’t want to see breakfast again.
“How about this—your position on the Order of Merit list for aircraft selection can stick together, too. Wherever you place after the primary phase of flight school is where they do. Fail, and you drag them down with you. Enjoy primary.” He walked off, dismissing us all without a word. Major Davidson clapped me on the back and followed.
Enjoy primary. He wasn’t kicking me out, but he’d tied Josh and Grayson to my epic-fuckup fate.
“Will Carter, you get your rear in the house. We’re fixing to have a few words that shouldn’t be spoken in polite company.” Paisley shot a glare at Carter and stalked off, leaving him to trail her like a wounded puppy. We really needed to talk, and I moved in her direction until I remembered that Carter was the one with the right to her time. Not me. We were just friends. My shoulders drew up, and my torso tensed with my jaw.
Carter. Will-fucking-Carter. He touched her. Kissed her. Damn it, he knew how she tasted. And he didn’t deserve any of it, that ring-tapping asshole.
I spun and slammed my fist into the Plexiglas side of the trailer. My knuckles split open, the blood streaking a garish line across the white material. Pain radiated up my arm, but it never reached my chest, where I desperately needed it to quell the fire like it usually did.
“Bateman, don’t do it. That one will sink your career,” Masters called from the dunk tank. Paisley Donovan. If my career was the only thing she sank, I’d be a lucky man.
Chapter Twelve
Paisley
3. Save someone’s life.
“You told on him!” I paid no mind that we stood in Mama’s living room and didn’t bother to keep my voice down. “You almost ended his career over a statue! Was it worth it to you?”
“It’s not just a statue, and it didn’t really matter before you knew who it was.”
“Oh, now, that’s not the truth.” My inner five-year-old reared her head. “Jagger is a really good guy, and you could have ruined him. You would have ruined him if I hadn’t stepped in.”
“I did my duty.”
“You purposely sold out the members of your class!” It flew out of my mouth too fast to stop.
A stricken look passed over his face. God, why did I say it? Was he right? Was I only upset now because it was Jagger? What did that even mean? “Will, I’m—”
“What he did was wrong, and he doesn’t belong here, Peyton!”
I sucked in air reflexively, and it rushed out just as quickly. He’d popped my heart like a balloon, and her name was the dart. “Paisley,” I whispered.
“What?” he snapped.
“Paisley. I’m Paisley, not Peyton. I will never be Peyton.” Pain walked in and sat on my chest. Heck, it never really left completely. Oh, no, that pain, and the missing her—it hovered right outside the doors to my heart, waiting to crush me with the first memory to surface, even two years later.
“Oh, Christ.” He reached for me, but I dodged his hands. “I’m so sorry, Lee. I was thinking about her, how she would have…understood.”
I backed away until my shoulder blades touched the fireplace mantel. “Oh, no. You don’t get to use Peyton like that. Not ever.” His eyes flickered to my left, where her picture sat framed.
“Peyton would have understood this. She would have been right by my side, talking to your father.”