“Five minutes and we’ll go,” I tell my brother.
“Veronica is coming with us,” he says as she hooks her arm through his. She meets my gaze and gives me a triumphant look, as if somehow she’s winning by being with Reece. Whatever.
I shrug. “You’ll be the one bringing her back to her car later.”
He gives me a tight nod.
I walk over to Sugar, Eric, and Boone, who are playing darts, telling them that we’ll be leaving soon.
Eric reads my face. “Sure, man.” He looks at Sugar. “See you at my party, right? You know I wouldn’t be opposed if you brought a pie.”
She grins. “It took me two hours to make that. How do you feel about donuts instead?”
“Sold.” He pats me on the back, walking off with Boone.
“I like your friends,” she says.
I glance over at the table where she came from, a guy and a girl there watching us with avid interest. “Maybe you can introduce me to yours?”
She frowns. “Sometime, yeah, maybe.”
I pop an eyebrow. “You embarrassed of me?”
“Well, this is just pretend, so…” Her voice drifts off.
I exhale. She’s got a fortress around her.
“Come here a minute,” I tell her as everyone else hangs by the door, getting their coats on.
“Yeah?”
I pull out my phone, hold it out for a selfie, and wave it at her. “I don’t post a lot on social media, but it might be good if we did some Instagram stuff and maybe your guy at Vandy will see it. Priming the pump a bit.”
“That’s a great idea.” She perks up and moves to stand next to me, and I lean toward her until our heads are together then snap the picture. I kiss her on the cheek and snap one more. She’s laughing and taking my phone and looking at the photos.
“We look nice.” Her gaze is bright when it meets mine. “Send those to me?”
I shrug. “Sure.”
She chews on her lip. “Are you really leaving?”
“You’re welcome to come with me.”
She laughs and, just to mess with her and perhaps on impulse, I wrap my hand around her nape and pull her to me, pressing my lips to hers one more time. I kiss her, my tongue sweeping in to taste her, and when I pull back, her lips are red and swollen—and mine.
“Just in case that first kiss wasn’t enough,” I say.
She nods, her face pink. “That’s four.”
“You’ll stop counting.”
She smirks. “I’m keeping a tally.”
Reece calls my name again.
I say goodbye and head to the door.
Part of me wants to look back at her, but I know she doesn’t want that. She wants me to keep it simple. Uncomplicated. Yeah, I’m wondering how long that’s going to last…
15
Sugar
Both Poppy and Taylor are waiting on the edge of their seats when I come back to the table.
Taylor squeaks. “Fuck a duck in a bowtie. Tell us all the details.”
I laugh at the saying he picked up from Mara, reach over to grab what’s left of his martini, and drink it. Zack Morgan is the most confusing person. I shake my head, still trying to suss it out, replaying the interaction in my head. “Dude bolted out of here like a speeding bullet.” I lean back against the booth. “And Reece wouldn’t even talk to me. Weird.”
“What about that guy they called Boone? I want an intro to him,” Poppy says as she leans forward over the table.
I laugh. “He’s younger than you.”
“And that’s a problem?” she says.
“Poppy, your necktie thingie is in the fries,” Taylor says, giggling. Poppy has a tendency to be a bit spacey.
“Oh!” She pulls back up, straightening her cardigan around her shoulders as she giggles. “Too many martinis.”
Taylor stiffens as his eyes go to the front door and widen. “Bloody hell. Is there a full moon?”
“What?” I say, arching my neck to see who or what he’s looking at.
Tall and handsome with wavy black hair and a trim, lean physique, Bennett has just waltzed in the door. An anvil lands square on my chest at the sight of him. I can’t stop staring, taking him in, the strong chin with a dimple in the center, the way his hair flops in his face. A girl is attached to him like glue.
She’s pretty with cropped shoulder-length brown hair and a svelte figure that’s draped in a clingy black dress and sleek, thigh-high boots with three-inch heels.
A bitter laugh comes from me. “He always liked brunettes in dresses.”
Poppy pats my hand. “He’s a dick. He wanted to change you.”
I sigh. It’s true. He complained about my casual attire constantly. “I wasn’t rock star enough for him. He wanted a sultry sexpot.”
Poppy frowns. “Girl, you are sultry. He just isn’t the one.”
Taylor lets out a long sigh. “Ladies and gents, the night is officially over. Let’s fix our crowns and be brave—and get the hell out of here.”
Bennett’s head comes up and he sees us. He whispers something to the girl and starts walking our way.
I watch him get closer and closer, my chest heaving as I think back to the times we spent together. The magical summer at his parents’ lake house in Michigan, the time he made me chicken soup when I had the flu…
First love—first everything. It cuts you open and flays you alive.
And seeing him again—which is damn hard not to do in a town as small as Sparrow Lake—I feel frozen.
I can’t lie. I miss him. You can’t spend that much time with someone and not.
He comes to a stop at our table and I take in the expensively ripped grey T-shirt with the black jacket on top. The coat has zippers everywhere, on the sides, the collar, and the cuffs. It fits him like a glove, the material hugging his slender waist. Up close I see he’s wearing his hair a little longer, the raven waves brushing against the skin of his jawline. He’s handsome, alarming so, with an easy smile and deep brown eyes. He has this way of looking at you as if you are the center of the entire universe—until you aren’t.
“Sugar…”
I stiffen. “Bennett.”
“You never answered my texts or calls. I even went to BB’s last week to look for you. Mara wasn’t exactly friendly, but whatever, I’m—I’m so glad to see you.”
I stare at him.
He swallows. “I’ve been to your dorm room a few times…”
I know. I’ve gotten the texts when I wasn’t there.
His brown eyes devour my face. “I just want to talk.”
Poppy’s back goes ramrod straight. “She has nothing to say to you.”
“Mhmm,” Taylor adds. “And no one invited you over to our table either, so scat.” He makes a move on along motion with his hand.
But it isn’t easy to dissuade Bennett. His tenacity is one of the things I love—loved—about him. He pursued me for three months our sophomore year before I finally gave in and went out with him.
He leans in, his gaze completely on me, as if Poppy and Taylor aren’t even here. “I miss you.”
My jaw tightens. “Yet you’re here with someone?”
He straightens up. “I’m not a monk, and if you won’t even talk to me…what else am I supposed to do? She doesn’t mean anything to me, babe.”
“Jump off a cliff,” Poppy says under her breath.
I tilt my head at the girl at the nearby table who’s eyeing us with interest over the top of a drink menu. “Is she the one you were with that night?” I didn’t see her face, just long legs and a dress.
He sighs.
“Can’t you just admit it?” I say. “I saw you.”
He darts a look at Taylor and then Poppy.
“They know everything, Bennett.”
He holds both hands up to accentuate his words. “It was one time, Sugar, one time, and I was trashed. It didn’t mean shit. You were caught up in your classes and law school applications, and I was lonely. It was a mistake.”
I blink rapidly. The nerve of him to blame this on me.
“All it takes is one time, Bennett. One time. I trusted you.”
“Babe, you know I hated it when you didn’t come to my shows.” His eyes bore into mine. “I needed you there. You were such a muse to me. It was a moment of fucking weakness.”
He looks up at the ceiling as if looking for the right words to explain, but I know he won’t find anything there. You can’t reason your way out of having your dick inside another girl.
I recall the moment I found a lip-smeared phone number in his pocket and called it, and the girl on the other end had no qualms about detailing her make-out session with Bennett at Remi’s Bar, a local music spot where his band plays.
At his next gig, I showed up at Remi’s unannounced and saw for myself, both of them in his Land Cruiser, her straddling him in his seat, her dressed shoved up around her waist.
Part of me wanted to pull a Carrie Underwood and take a Louisville Slugger to that car.
But I didn’t.
I walked away.
And I haven’t stopped.
Maybe it was because of how I watched Mama cry to my father. I watched her beg him every time he left us to go back to his real family. Her tears made me swear I would never be the girl who got her heart broken.
He must read the emotions flitting across my face. “Please. Just give me another chance. Everyone deserves that.”