Matched(49)

And not because he was Billy Brenton.

But because even Will Truitt had never been good enough for her.

A steady hand settled on his shoulder, right where his smiley face tattoo burned his skin. "Come inside. Sit with me awhile."

"You-you let her go. You helped her go."

"You have to let her go too. It's her journey now, and you can't help with what she must do."

His hairs stood on end. The hairs on his neck, on his arms, on his legs. He shook Sacha's hand off. "Tell Aunt Jessie I'll call her later," he choked out.

And Will left too.

Lindsey didn't believe in him anymore. This time, he had to be the one who believed in himself.





Chapter Twenty



WILL SPENT SATURDAY night holed up in a seedy motel halfway between Pickleberry Springs and Gellings Air Force Base. He sent Aunt Jessie a text message to call him anytime, sent Sacha a text message that he still loved her even if he didn't want to talk to her for the next forever, but she owed him not moving away, and then he sent Mikey a message that he'd hit the Dumbass Hall of Fame and discovered it wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but he'd be in Nashville on Sunday night.

But first, Will had to get his dog.

After lunch on Sunday, he pulled over at a modest house not far from Gellings Air Force Base. He had a nameless guitar instead of Vera and no dog on the seat beside him yet.

He also had a lifetime's worth of achy breaky songs bleeding out his heart, but none of them sounded like music.

After an obligatory knock, he used his key to let himself into his sister's house. Voices echoed somewhere in the house-more than just Mari Belle's and Paisley's voices. He turned around-he'd call Mari Belle and have her bring Wrigley out-then a squeaky bark greeted him and Biscuits, Mari Belle's terrier, lunged for his leg.

Chicken, her boxer, ambled into the foyer for some sniffing-and-greeting business. Wrigley poked his head out of the dining room. So did Mari Belle.

"Aw, Will," she sighed.

Paisley barreled around the corner too. "Uncle Will! Where's-"

Mari Belle snagged her daughter and clapped a hand over her mouth. "Go get Uncle Will a piece of pie and a glass of milk."

"Yes, ma'am."

She danced off, and Mari Belle eyed him. His shoulders crept to his ears.

Been a long time since she looked at him like that.

Wasn't undeserved. Some, but not all.

Wrigley stood, gave a lazy shake, then ambled to him, sniffing, peering around behind Will. Where's my girl? his dog seemed to ask.                       
       
           



       

Will bent and gave Wrigley a good rubdown and nudged Biscuits off his leg.

Wasn't anything else he could do.

"C'mon, sit down." Mari Belle led him to her dining room, all three dogs following along at their own pace. "My apologies for my brother," she said to her guests. "His brain took a vacation a month ago and his heart's paying for it today."

He wasn't feeling like being Billy Brenton today, so if they were expecting another song-and-dance, they were in for disappointment.

Mari Belle yanked on his shirt and dragged him into a seat. "Anna, Jackson, this is Will. I don't know if you were properly introduced the other night. Will, my neighbors."

He remembered the lady from the meet-and-greet. She smiled at him. "Hi," she said in a Minnesota accent, and on the starstruck scale, she was doing a right good job of almost keeping to the bottom.

He nodded.

Mari Belle shoved him into a chair, then tweaked his ear.

He yelped.

"I swear to sweet baby Jesus," she said, "if you don't say something, I'm gonna whoop your hind end until you can't sit for a week."

He leaned back and folded his arms.

Like to see her try.

'Sides, wouldn't be any worse than what he was doing to himself.

Mari Belle sat next to him, still giving him the mother of all don't be a dumbass looks.

"Here's your pie, Uncle Will." God bless Paisley. Sweet girl hadn't picked up on the ugly flowing around this morning. "Miss Anna made it."

"Thank you, peanut."

He slid Mari Belle a happy now? glare.

He could talk.

Didn't want to, but he could do it.

"Hope you like s'mores pie," Anna said. "It would've been sweet potato, but Jackson doesn't share."

Will eyed the chocolate and marshmallows, arranged all pretty and neat on a graham cracker crust. His stomach rolled over. "Looks right good." Looked like it would make him sick.

Made him think of Lindsey's ice cream. Her s'mores maker. Her licking melted chocolate and marshmallow off his fingers.

"Momma's trying to teach Miss Anna to bake biscuits," Paisley said, "So Miss Anna's teaching Momma and me to bake pie. What's your favorite pie, Uncle Will? And what about Miss-"

"Paisley, the dogs need to go out," Mari Belle said.

"They just came in," Paisley said.

"Have you finished the dishes?"

Paisley slid from the table again. "If y'all are talking grown-up stuff, I can still hear you in the kitchen."

"Go."

"Leave her be," Will said.

Mari Belle's don't be a dumbass eyeball turned into the dual eyeballs of don't disagree with me in front of my daughter.

Will stared right back.

She picked up a coffee cup with a classic Mari Belle sigh. "What did she do this time?"

Wasn't talking about Paisley, and he knew it.

But the stink of it all was that Lindsey hadn't done anything. Nothing but been honest with him, and he couldn't handle it.

They'd all warned him. He hadn't listened.

"You talk to Aunt Jessie today?" he said.

Mari Belle's lashes fluttered in one of her annoyed eye flickers, but she nodded over a sigh.

Didn't much matter what Will's love life looked like. Aunt Jessie's would be hard enough on all of them.

Probably he should've offered to stay behind in Pickleberry Springs and help, but they were better off without him right now. He'd hire extra caretakers if Aunt Jessie needed help, he'd make sure Donnie saw the best doctors, he'd damn well make sure Sacha stayed in town and that Aunt Jessie patched things up with her best friend, if she hadn't already. But emotionally, he couldn't be what they needed. So he'd go to Nashville. Tour rehearsals started soon, and there was a mountain's worth of publicity and other business stuff he had to attend to. And he'd gone and committed himself like a dummy to being in Bliss on Saturday night.

He'd been certain Lindsey was scared of what she knew.

He'd had no idea she'd just been being honest.

Friends can kiss, right? she'd said fifteen years ago. And he'd missed the clue.

I don't do love, I don't do commitment and I can only give you three weeks. It's my rule, she'd said this time.

And again, he'd been the dummy who ignored it.

We're a better match now than fifteen years ago, but you're still better off with anyone but me.

He eyed the pie again. Didn't hurt so bad this time, Lindsey running away from him.

Might could've been because he was numb. Might could've been because he still had Mari Belle and Paisley and Aunt Jessie and Wrigley and Mikey and Sacha.                       
       
           



       

Or might could've been, he was lying to himself.

"You quit talking again, I'm gonna yank that knot till your kidneys bleed."

Paisley leaned in the doorway to the kitchen, watching and being uncharacteristically quiet. Across the table, Anna and Jackson shared a look. Anna had been watching Will curiously. "Did you break up with your girlfriend?"

Will's grip tightened around his fork. He needed to eat a bite. Prove to Mari Belle he was fine. Ease those worry lines creasing Paisley's forehead. Get out from the spotlight of a stranger asking after his personal affairs.

"She wasn't his girlfriend," Mari Belle said.

"I was going to be a junior bridesmaid and babysit," Paisley stage-whispered. She sent Will a dirty look that should've made her momma proud.

"Oh, for God's sake," Mari Belle said with one of her sighs. "Paisley, honey, Uncle Will will buy you a new tea set instead, okay?"

Paisley heaved her junior version of a Mari Belle sigh. "Uncle Will, would you like some Pepto to go with your pie?"

"Oh, honey, you've got it bad," Anna murmured.

Will gave her the Don't talk to Billy Brenton like you know him look.

She sipped something out of her teacup. "Is this because she's a Yankee?" Anna said.

"Yankees aren't all so bad," Jackson drawled into his pie. "Once you give 'em a chance."

Will's jaw went unhinged and dangled. "Did y'all call her a Yankee?"

"Unlike some families," Mari Belle said to Jackson, "we judge people on who they are, not where they're from. And this girl-"

"Watch your mouth," Will growled.

"-has a history of wreaking havoc on my brother's emotions," Mari Belle finished.

"My experience, the only ones that get to you are the only ones that can make you truly happy," Jackson said.

"And exactly how many have gotten to you?" Anna said.

"Oh, three, maybe four." But his grin and wink aimed at Anna said otherwise.

One girl in a lifetime could do a man like that.