the dictionary need a new adjective for confusing, then they could put Dax Silver’s picture there. After the weird, but strangely comforting moment we shared at the cottage yesterday, he’s been avoiding me. Although, I can’t prove it. He could have been out for meetings all day, but it feels like he’s distancing himself from me on purpose.
I take a sip of my white wine and tune back into the conversation Jasmin and Logan are having. We’ve come out after work to have dinner. I couldn’t be more grateful that everyone else on the estate is lovely. And these two… I will miss them so much when I return to New York, because they have been my rocks since I arrived.
“You cannot be serious?” Jasmin grabs Logan’s phone from him, swiping through it.
“What?” I ask, wanting the distraction. Now it’s not just home and my own guilt taking over my head, but thoughts of Dax hot-and-cold Silver, too.
Jasmin rolls her eyes. “Logan thinks this is a good chat-up line.” She tilts the phone screen so I can read the messages between him and MissFoxyFarnham.
“Still using this dating app, then?” I lean forward, reading the exchange.
LoadedLogan31: When can I take you out?
MissFoxyFarnham: I’m seeing someone new. I’m about to delete this app.
LoadedLogan31: Don’t let a boyfriend ruin your chance of meeting your future husband.
“First of all, that name.” Jasmin throws her head back and laughs, her long dark waves falling down her back. “Loaded Logan?”
“What?” Logan stares at us both. “My name’s Logan Rich. So… rich… loaded, and also…” He arches one brow. “Loaded. You know what I mean?”
“Eww.” Jasmin straightens in her seat, her lip curling in distaste before holding a hand up. “No is all I am going to say about that. But secondly, Logan, that’s such a douchebag thing to say.”
“I thought it was quite witty,” he mumbles into his glass.
Jasmin rests her forearms on the table and leans toward him. “You’re telling me that if this girl says yes that you’d actually want to take her on a date? If she’s happy to cheat on her boyfriend, then she would do the same to you, you idiot.”
Logan frowns into his glass before placing it on the table and opening his mouth to speak.
“And don’t”—Jasmin holds up one finger—“say some shit about how she would be so satisfied by you she wouldn’t need to look elsewhere. Because I’m telling you, if a person cheats so easily with no regard to anyone else’s feelings, then they will always cheat. Won’t they, Rose?”
She turns to me, inclining her head to Logan.
“Yes,” I agree. “Absolutely. Cheating ruins everything. It’s vile and it’s selfish, and it wrecks lives.”
Jasmin raises her brows, maybe not expecting me to be so passionate on the subject. But pleased nonetheless as she tips her head back at Logan in a told-you-so manner.
“Where’s your brother when I need him?” Logan pipes up with a chuckle. “I’m outnumbered two to one here.”
“I don’t know. Taking care of some things he said he had to do. Besides, don’t think for one second he would support this little dick-led notion of yours.” Jasmin looks at Logan pointedly. “He knows better than that.”
“He’s scared of you, you mean?” Logan laughs, earning himself a slap around the bicep from her.
“Shut up, idiot.” She smirks. “Thankfully, my brother is more mature than this one, despite them being the same age,” she says. “Dax has always been in control, but since he got out, he’s been even more serious. I wish he would loosen up a little. He works too hard.”
“He’s just worried about the business, with him being away from it for so long.” Logan turns serious.
“I know. But we managed, didn’t we? Besides, I’m not convinced that’s all it is. I’m amazed he came for the staff night out the other week. He never comes out with us anymore.”
Jasmin’s right. I’ve already been out with her and Logan multiple times for drinks and to a club since I arrived. And the staff party is the only night Dax came, even though I’m sure Jasmin invites him every single time.
“He’s thirty-one years old, and he’s a hermit. He’s either at work or out at meetings. Being in jail changed him. He’s obsessed with the idea that one wrong move and he could be back there. So he never goes anywhere. Or does anything.” Jasmin drops her chin into her hands on the tabletop, her shoulders sagging. “It worries me. He should be doing the things he missed out on. He’s always had to be the grown up. Thinking he had to look after me. He never got to be stupid and make mistakes like most teenagers. The first one he made landed him in jail.”
“What happened? Sorry… I mean, it’s none of my business,” I say with an apologetic smile.
I don’t want to admit that I know he was sentenced to three years for grievous bodily harm with intent, thanks to Google. But the news articles didn’t tell the story behind his motive. Only that he had laid into a guy at some big business dinner event. Why would he do that unless he was provoked somehow?
“Don’t worry, it’s not a secret. But it is a complicated story.” Jasmin sighs, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. “It was my fault.”
“It wasn’t. The guy deserved it.” Logan turns from Jasmin and fixes his gaze on me. “There’s a guy, Julian Young. He runs one of the country’s main import and export companies for wine and liquor. The Silver Estate didn’t bother him until Dax and Jasmin took over.”
“But since our grandparents passed and we inherited the business, things got… messy,” Jasmin adds. “He was jealous that Dax secured the sole production rights for Aunt Iris’s Blend. It was a huge contract. Julian wanted to win it and then outsource production to overseas to keep costs low.”
“Rake in the cash,” Logan snorts.
“He was always making digs at Dax whenever he saw him at business events. But Dax ignored him. Until Julian got drunk one night at an event and got a little handsy with me, then sent me a delightful selection of dick pics from the men’s restroom.”
“Gross.” I recoil.
“So gross,” Jasmin agrees. “Dax saw my phone. I was standing with him and had no idea what I’d been sent. He marched right over to Julian in front of everyone in the room and I saw Julian say something quietly to him, then the next second, all hell broke loose.”
“It was impressive.” Logan smirks.
“It was awful.” Jasmin scowls. “Dax was like a man possessed. I’ve never seen him so mad. He just kept hitting Julian over and over. Julian smashed a glass and went for Dax, and then Dax broke a chair over him.”
“Dax was awesome. The cock deserved it.”
Jasmin flashes Logan a stern look that shuts him up. “He might have deserved it. But the law doesn’t see it like that. Dax threw the first punch. He approached Julian. And Julian was the one who needed surgery for internal bleeding. Dax barely had a scratch on him.”
“Yeah, and Julian was unconscious,” Logan says.
“He tried to get Dax charged with attempted murder. He would have been gone for years.” Jasmin’s lower lids pool with water. “I’m sorry.” She sniffs, wiping them away. “I hate thinking about it. Two and a half years felt like a lifetime. The idea that… I just can’t bear to think about it.”
“I’m sorry I asked.” I wrap my arm around her, and she squeezes my hand.
“Don’t be. You work with us. You’re our friend. You should know what happened.”
“Dax served two and a half years of a three-year sentence. They let him out early for good behavior,” Logan says.
“He is good.” Jasmin wipes her eyes again with one hand, still holding mine with the other. “He’s amazing. Honestly, Rose. Don’t let this change the way you see him. I know he looks like this bad guy with all his tatts and moodiness. But he’s got the biggest heart. He’d just turned eighteen when we lost our parents. He had to look after me. He had to grow up fast. His whole life has been about doing the right thing and thinking of others before himself. I just wish he’d realize that he needs to put himself first now. I want him to be happy.”
“He’s lucky to have you.” I rest my head on top of Jasmin’s head, and she sighs.
“I’m lucky. I don’t deserve him.” She sniffs and wipes her eyes again with a laugh. “This sure got heavy.”
“I’m so sorry I asked.” Guilt pulls at my chest.
“Stop. I won’t hear it. I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Brothers, eh?” She laughs again, and I smile because I know what she means. I love my brother, Brett, more than anything. He’s always put me first, too. He was out looking for me that day Gareth dumped me. He shouldn’t have even been walking on that road. I’m the reason he was.
My smile slips. I’m the reason.
“I hate to break up all the fun,” Logan says. “But MissFoxyFarnham just messaged me back.”
“What did she say?” Jasmin straightens, her voice suddenly filling with energy.
I straighten up too, grateful for the change to a lighter topic.
Logan’s eyes light up and his brows shoot up his forehead as he reads the message. “She said, I have a girlfriend, not a boyfriend.” He grins as his fingers fly over the screen typing out a reply.
“Please tell me American men aren’t such dicks?” Jasmin says loud enough for Logan to hear, but he’s far too busy studying his phone, his cheeks glowing.
I bite my lip, pushing Gareth firmly to the back of my mind.
“I wish I could.”
Jasmin and Logan drop me off at the main estate gate, after buzzing it open for me, and I walk up the main drive toward the turn off for the cottage. It’s still light. After Dax’s warning the other night, had it been dark, then I would have asked them to drop me at the front door. But I like the walk. It’s not far. And the estate is beautiful. The main drive is lined with these weird-looking trees called monkey puzzles. They have long textured branches that hang down like monkey tails. I guess that’s where they get the name.
I step back so I can stare at one of the trees.
That’s when the main gate whirrs and a silver Range Rover without the estate logo on the side glides through. It drives right up to me, only slowing to a stop because I’m standing in the road. If I wasn’t, then I get the distinct impression it was about to drive past me.
I look through the windshield and lock eyes with dark brown. Dax stares back, his eyes holding mine as he swipes his thumb across his lips and licks the corner of them.
I walk over to the driver’s side window and wait as it slides down just enough that the top half of his face is visible through the tinted glass.
“What happened to your face?” I stare at the beginnings of a bruise shading the contours of Dax’s cheekbone and unease gnaws low in my stomach. Something isn’t right. “Roll the window down. Now.”
His eyes flash with something before he presses the button, and the glass slides all the way down.
“Dax?” I gasp as I take in his face. His cheekbone is bruised and his lip split, blood staining the crease at the corner of his mouth.
“It’s nothing.” He looks through the windshield, his hands flexing on the wheel. His knuckles are grazed, his right ones swollen.
“Where have you been?”
He shakes his head with an empty chuckle. “This isn’t your fight.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He snaps his eyes to mine and they’re dark and glistening. “It means go home.”
“No!” I’m fed up with him ordering me around, thinking he knows best. My family sent me here, thinking they know what is best for me. Other people are always telling me what to do.
Be kind to yourself, Rose. You need time, Rose. It wasn’t your fault, Rose.
I march around the hood of the Range Rover and yank the passenger door open.
“What are you doing?” Dax grits, his jaw tensing as I climb into the passenger seat and slam the door shut.
“Hanging out with a jerk, it would seem,” I mutter as he glares at me.
“A jerk?” he growls.
“Yeah.” I look at the fresh blood running from his lip again. “One with a face that’s too pretty to be banged up like that. Now drive, please.” I fold my arms and face straight ahead, waiting for him to argue, to contradict me. To make me get out of the car and leave me here as he kicks up gravel and dust in my face.
“What am I going to fucking do with you?” he mutters.
It’s the second time he’s asked himself that.
I get under his skin. I must by the way he reacts to me sometimes. But I bet it’s not half as much as he gets under mine.
Dax hot-and-cold Silver.
He shoves the car into drive without saying another word.
