“You what?” my father demanded.
My mother sighed. “Well, we’ll have to order a larger groom’s tux, but unless Jace has an aversion to chocolate cake or lilies, all the other wedding preparations should be fine. I’ll call the tux shop after breakfast.”
I had to fight the urge to pull out my own hair. “Before you do that, Mom, call Isaac. He has something to tell you.” I hung up my phone and threw it straight at Jace’s pillows.
ELEVEN
Jace
“I swear, Melody’s going to put me in an early grave.” With every word I spoke, my foot fell heavier on the gas pedal. Which was bad, because my Pathfinder was already chewing up the narrow backroad faster than the Tasmanian Devil on speed, in spite of the sun glaring in my eyes and the sharp, winding curves.
In the car behind us, Lucas was having trouble keeping up. I’d decided he should drive separately with Teo and Warner to give him time to adjust to my new relationship with his sister without having to see it up close and personal. After the uproar with Melody, I knew exactly what it felt like to discover that one of your friends has had his hands all over your sister.
Not that Isaac and Melody had anything in common with Abby and me. Ours was a much more mature and acceptable connection. In ways I couldn’t put into words when Abby had asked me to. Many, many indescribable ways.
“She’s just growing up, Jace.” Abby’s pulse raced as trees flew by on either side of the car, an irregular blur of dark green, casting shadows over the narrow road. She clutched the armrest. “Could you please slow down?”
I lifted my foot from the gas pedal, and the truck behind us swelled in the mirror until Lucas slowed to match our speed.
“Seriously, though,” she continued, “you can’t tell me that I’m old enough to make my own decisions, then deny her the same opportunity. She’s an adult. Just like I am.”
“You’ve never been as young as she is at this very moment.” Melody was not ready to make major life decisions, and Isaac was damn well old enough to know better. And they’d gone behind my back! In my own house!
Yet Abby seemed perfectly calm about the whole thing. “It’s not fair to compare me with your sister,” she insisted. “She and I have led entirely different lives. And even if she’s a little immature now, becoming a mother will change that.”
“I wanted life to change that.” I punched the steering wheel, and Abby winced as if her own fist hurt. “I wanted Melody to have a chance to grow up on her own before there was a baby.” I’d spent years trying to undo what Calvin had done to his only daughter—trying to show her that she had options. And she’d just thrown the whole thing away.
“Well, that’s not your choice to make, and she’s made hers,” Abby said, as a road sign sped by. “The best thing you can do is support her. She knows what she wants, which is more than a lot of girls her age can claim. Besides, having a baby doesn’t mean she can’t still do other things. Look at Faythe. She’s on baby number two, and she’s running a whole Pride.”
“Melody isn’t Faythe.”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. She’s hardheaded and she knows exactly what she wants. Sounds like Faythe to me.”
A growl rumbled up from my throat. “You’re manipulating the facts.”
“And you’re manipulating her. You’re giving your sister all the choices in the world except the one she wants. That’s you trying to run her life for her, which is no better than what Cal was doing.” I growled again, but she spoke over me. “If you could set aside your own ego for a second, you’d see that I’m right.”
“My…” I glared at her through narrow eyes.
“Yes, your ego. By the way, I’m officially off the clock until we get there, so you can’t play the boss card to shut me up.”
But that had never really worked, anyway. The best way to stop Abby from talking was to kiss her, and since I was willing to rip the face off any other bastard who tried that, the rest of the world was just going to have to listen when she decided to talk.
Abby studied the map Warner had given her. She squinted at a gravel road up ahead, only barely illuminated by the morning sun. “I think that’s it.”
Her pulse was racing over what she assumed would be her first live takedown. Not that I had any intention of letting her get her hands bloody—that was the only thing Lucas and I could agree on without addressing the larger issue. Untrained enforcers don’t see action.
I slowed as we approached the gravel path, then pulled as far onto the side of the road as I could. I got out and closed my door as Lucas rolled to a stop behind me, blinding me until he turned off his lights.