It was a brutal kick in the teeth; the kind of truth I needed to hear. It was true. I had let the farm down and if it wasn’t for Austin and Brax picking up my slack, it wouldn’t be running. My newfound love of drinking had created the demon known as epic hangovers, which meant the alarm at four am was always slept through. I was letting down my family, one thing I had promised myself I’d never do.

“Can I get you anything, Austin?”

My head shot up at the sound of her voice, and there she stood. Looking almost nervous, her voice slightly weak, her eyes focused on Austin, refusing to look at me. I watched her closely, drinking her in, enjoying the sweet smell of her perfume.

“I’m just here to pick up Destry and take him home,” Austin said quickly with a nod towards me. I slid out of the booth and stood beside her, towering over her. She didn’t move. My eyes narrowed in at her, knowing that the amount of unfinished business between us was growing by the day, and to be honest, I was afraid of what would happen when it came to the surface.

“I’m not standing here, then?” I asked with a slight slur. “You’re supposed to serve all the paying patrons.” I slapped a twenty on the table. “And I’m paying,” I said with sarcasm.

“What you’re doing is turning into a drunk asshole,” she sneered at me. “One who’s about thirty seconds away from being thrown out on his sorry ass.”

She turned to Austin who was trying to hold in his snicker. “Sorry, honey. You’ll have to take asshat home.”

“How cute, you two are just so damn sweet my teeth are gonna fall out,” I jibbed, trying to hide the hurt at them being so buddy-buddy.

“Your teeth are going to fall out after somebody is smart enough to knock some sense into you.” She looked up at me with what could only be described as disgust. That one look tore me apart. “Pull your head out of your ass, Destry. And grow the fuck up.” With that, she nodded at Austin and stormed away.

“Not a word,” I growled at my brother, knowing he wouldn’t be able to help himself.

“You just got bitch slapped,” he guffawed with a smug look on his face.

“Screw you,” I threw back at him. There wasn’t much I could say after that ego-breaking blow. I couldn’t seem to help myself of late. I’d turned into a drunken fool with a bad attitude, and I didn’t like it one freaking bit. Ultimately, it was that look she’d given me, the one that shone in her eyes when she’d acknowledged me just now. She was absolutely disgusted in me, and that hurt my heart more than any of the words we’d thrown at each other. I slunk out of the bar without another word to anyone and climbed in to Austin’s truck. The entire ride home was a sad kind of silence that neither he nor I were willing to break. This was it, this was the point I needed to get my head together and either let her go, or fight for her. Only thing was, I didn’t know if we’d done too much damage to repair.

X X X

My worst nightmare was coming true. Ellie was hysterical, had locked herself in her bedroom and was refusing to come out. The boys and I had been sitting on the porch chatting about the day when Ellie turned up with a screech of wheels and a look of thunder flooding her pretty face. She stormed past us without a word, slamming doors as she went; she was still in her room while I paced the hall.

“Ellie bug, can I come in?” I asked gently, rapping on the door with my knuckles.

“No!” she yelled. I looked back at my brothers who were both at a loss. She was bawling her eyes out and I didn’t have a clue what to do. “I need Amelia! Someone call, Amelia!” she hollered with a hiccup.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the white bedroom door. “Ellie, talk to us,” I pleaded. The last thing I wanted to do was call Amelia. I needed time to form a plan before I saw her again.

“Well, tell me which one of you want to come in here while I talk about the guy I’ve just spent the night with? Yeah, boys, your little sister had sex,” she sobbed. I went ramrod straight at that and the tension in the air turned to pure fury.

“Somebody needs an ass kicking,” Austin growled. I turned around and shot looks at the boys. Hoping one of them would call Amelia for me. I didn’t know what to say just yet.

Austin was too busy clenching his fists and letting the steam come out of his ears to help, so I raised an eyebrow at Braxton. He nodded and pulled his cell out to make the call.

Within ten minutes, the sound of wheels crunching on gravel filled the house and suddenly the front door flew open and I heard her voice. "Ellie, Brax?"

"Up here," Brax replied quickly.

Amelia flew up the stairs, wide-eyed and frantic. My eyes ran the length of her body; she was wearing skintight sweat pants that showed off every delicious curve of her sweet body, and a tank top, which sat just short enough for me to glimpse at her toned stomach.

Fuck it.

Her eyes finally found mine as she stood before the three of us. The tension swirling around us and I knew it was because of my stubborn ass.

"Thank you for doing this," I said quickly, my eyes darting from hers to the closed door of Ellie's room.

"I'm not doing this for you, Destry, so no need for the thanks."

Without another look in my direction, I noticed the fierce eyes she had thrown me moments ago softened when she looked at Brax and Austin before she opened the door and walked through, slamming it after her.

“You royally screwed that up,” Brax said with a huff as he walked off and disappeared down the staircase.