For the last two weeks, Jessie had been calling, trying to talk to him, but Alex hadn’t been interested in hearing from her. Even after she told him she was going to get on the straight and narrow, he knew she had been drinking again, and he knew that Jeff was coming around.
As much as he wanted to push her out of his life for good, he couldn’t sit by while his ex-wife continued to throw her life away.
“What did he tell you?”
Ashleigh flinched, but she turned toward him. “I know she has problems, Alex. I know she calls you at all hours.”
That she did. Alex had never tried to hide the calls from Ashleigh when he was with her, but he had wanted to. The thought of losing Ashleigh because Jessie was continuing to use him for whatever reason tore at him.
But, this was who he was. He couldn’t change the fact that he didn’t want to see Jessie hurt. Until recently, he hadn’t realized he wasn’t able to help her the way she needed. That had been a hard thing to swallow, but as the days passed, he knew he had to do something or things with Jessie would never change.
“Alex.” Her warm hand came down over his, and he briefly glanced down at it. “Let’s go see what she needs. We have to get her help. Real help.”
He knew what she was saying, but he couldn’t get past the “we”. His heart swelled, aching with the need to tell her everything he felt for her. The woman was so giving, never asking for anything in return and here he was, dragging her across town to check on his ex-wife, not knowing what they would actually find when they got there.
“Let’s just check on her.” Ashleigh said, sounding entirely too reasonable. “Then you can decide what the best thing to do for her is.”
“Why?” He couldn’t hold back his questions anymore. He felt like he were being set up and he was suddenly scared of what might happen. He couldn’t lose Ashleigh, but he couldn’t turn his back on Jessie. He had to live with the consequences. Either way.
“Why what?” She asked, pulling her hand from his.
“Why do you want to go?”
“Trust me, I don’t want to go.” She retorted, then took a deep breath, sighed again. “Dylan told me about your relationship with Jessie. Between what he said and what you’ve told me yourself, I think the woman needs help.”
She paused, then looked at him.
“Don’t get me wrong, Alex, I’m not willing to be her friend, and I’m not exactly thrilled about sharing you with her, but it’s clear you are concerned about her.”
He was. But not the way Ashleigh thought. Maybe now was the time to tell Ashleigh the full story.
“My dad died when I was twelve.” He said, keeping his hands firmly on the steering wheel. “For two years my mother sat around, depressed and lonely, until one day she met a man. Rick. She started dating him for a little while, and before I knew what happened, Rick was coming to the house. He’d stay the night once in a while, and I didn’t ask questions. My mother seemed so happy, and that was the most important thing to me.”
Ashleigh reached over, touching his arm and her touch seemed to calm him. Releasing one hand from the steering wheel, he laced his fingers with hers.
“As it turned out, Rick wasn’t all that nice. They would argue from time to time, but I tried to stay out of it, unsure what to do or say. Time passed and they kept seeing each other, but their relationship kept getting more and more unstable.” That was an understatement. “I was fifteen when he hit her for the first time.”
Ashleigh’s fingers squeezed his, but she didn’t say anything.
“I was bigger by then, not like I am now, but I wasn’t the scrawny little boy I had been when he started coming around. Long story short, Rick’s anger only continued to escalate and so did mine. I was so pissed at my mother for just sitting back and letting that bastard beat on her.” He paused to take a breath. The anger from those memories surged to the forefront.
“I came home from school one day to find him hitting her while she cowered on the floor. The rage set in, and the only thing I remember is pulling him off of her, so fucking pissed that she’d let him do that to her.
“Then he turned his anger on me, but I’d obviously been preparing for that day. Needless to say, by the time the cops showed up, they had to pull me off of him.” That was the easy part. “My relationship with my mother was never the same again. She didn’t forgive me for that, or for the fact that Rick didn’t come back around.” Alex hated that part, hated how his mother had put that man before her own son. “I can’t stand a man that hits a woman, and maybe I should just back off, leave Jessie to her own devices, but I can’t seem to do it.”