Jake’s mouth tightened.
“He’s also thinking of working with his brother Owen,” she went on, knowing she was babbling but unable to stop the words from popping out of her mouth. “Owen runs a very successful contracting company.”
Jake’s cheeks took on a red hue, though she wasn’t sure if it was due to embarrassment or anger.
“Didn’t your brother recently marry Maddie Wilson?” Ava Price asked coolly.
Bree had completely forgotten Lexie’s sisters were sitting at the table. Ava and Alyssa had barely said two words during dinner, which was a huge freaking relief, since both women were total snobs. Ava had been in Bree’s grade in high school, and her yearbook blurb about her life’s goals had been one line: marry a rich man and spend, spend, spend!
“Yeah, Owen and Maddie were married last month,” Jake said. His tone was wary, as if he expected a verbal ambush at any second.
“Is the happy couple planning on starting a family?” Barbara asked politely.
“Eventually.”
Cue: verbal assault.
“Well. Let’s hope that Madeline will be more successful at controlling her children than your poor mother was.”
Jake’s shoulders went rigid. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Bree’s mother offered a saccharine smile. “It’s no secret that you four boys ran wild, and still do, from the sound of it. Your mother should have tried harder to discipline her unruly boys. Then again, your father’s influence was probably difficult to overcome. I imagine he didn’t set a very good example.”
Bree’s heart lurched at the same moment Jake snapped.
He didn’t lash out, didn’t yell at her mother, but she immediately sensed the change in him. The fury simmering beneath his black suit jacket, the way he was white knuckling that fork. The eerily calm set of his mouth.
“I guess I did run a little wild back then.”
He smiled at Barbara, and a shiver ran up Bree’s spine.
“You probably have some experience with wild children,” Jake added. “Bree was a handful back then, too, wasn’t she?”
Two red splotches appeared on Barbara’s porcelain cheeks. “My daughter was certainly not wild,” she said. Her gaze moved to the mayor, who looked faintly amused by this entire horrible conversation. “Bree was a very respectable young woman.”
“Respectable,” Jake echoed. His smile widened.
Bree’s hands trembled over her wine glass.
“I guess I saw a different side of her, Barbara. The Bree I knew was pretty damn wild. One time, she snuck in through my bedroom window, wearing nothing but a trench coat and rain boots.”
Mortification slammed into her.
Mayor Price chuckled.
Lexie’s eyebrows said hello to her hairline.
Tanner looked absolutely livid.
“Jake,” Bree blurted out.
“But she probably gets that from you, right, Tanner?” he said pleasantly, shifting his gaze to Bree’s father. “According to my old man, you were no saint in your youth either.”
Tanner’s jaw fell open. “Pardon me?”
“How many DUI arrests did you have in high school? My dad said it was two, but he wasn’t counting the ones your parents paid the sheriff to look the other way about.”
Shock had Bree turning to stare at her dad, who was red-faced and livid. “That is categorically untrue,” Tanner snapped before shooting a furtive look at the mayor.
“Whatever you say, Mr. Lockhart.” Jake glanced over at Bree with a stony expression. “Sweetheart, I’m afraid I must bid you all goodnight—” he scraped back his chair with a grating sound, “—before I do something wild and unruly, like tell your parents to fuck off.”
With that, Jake marched out of the dining room, leaving everyone wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
Silence. Pin-dropping silence.
And then Bree stumbled out of her chair, her legs shaky, her chest colder than the ice cubes in her father’s Scotch glass.
Without excusing herself, she hurried out of the dining room and caught up to Jake just as he opened the front door.
Sucking in a deep breath, she stormed after him and grabbed his arm as he stepped onto the porch. “What the hell was that?” she demanded.
At least he had the decency to look guilty. “Sorry,” he said gruffly.
“Sorry? That’s it? You just humiliated me in front of my parents and all you can say is sorry?”
His gray eyes flashed. “You weren’t the only one who was humiliated, sweetheart. I’ve just spent the past two hours being goaded and needled and treated like a leper. I might have been out of line right now—”
“Might have?”