The Wright Mistake

One



Julia


“Don’t try to blame this shit on me. Just face it, Julia,” Trevor spat, “You’ll never be happy.”

“Fuck you,” I spat as I slammed the door shut in Trevor’s face as the nasty words he’d uttered cut through me like a knife.

Not because he was wrong, but because he was right.

I couldn’t be happy—not with him or anyone. Not with my past looming over my shoulder. The truth was a guy like Trevor couldn’t handle the real Julia Banner.

My phone started ringing from the other side of the room. With a sigh, I picked it up and saw Heidi was calling.

“So, did you do it?” she asked when I answered.

I sighed. “Yeah. He hates me.”

“Psh. Trevor from accounting couldn’t hate a fly. He’s hurt. He’ll get over it.”

“I don’t know. We were together for a year. Our anniversary was this weekend. I can’t believe I just broke up with him. I’m kind of the worst.”

Heidi snorted. “It was long overdue. You and I both know that.”

Of course, she was right. Because Trevor had been this perfect, normal, nice guy. He was the guy who came over to your place to do your laundry while you were with your friends and filled up your gas tank when he noticed you were running low and called your mom to chat every Thursday. Or he would have done that last one…if he’d thought my parents were alive.

And I was the opposite. It had been nice, but it hadn’t been right.

“So,” Heidi muttered, “want to go get fucked up to feel better about it?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

Heidi laughed. “That’s my girl.”

“Flips?” I asked.

It was the local bar that we always went to. By anyone else’s standards, it was kind of a dump. But Heidi adored the place.

“Actually…we’re all heading to Ransom Canyon for Memorial Day weekend. Lake, boats, barbeque—the trifecta. You in?”

“And how exactly am I going to get laid from this plan?”

“Well, there will be a lot of alcohol,” Heidi said.

“And?”

“And…a lot of hot, eligible men.”

I rolled my eyes. “Like who?”

“Landon and the Wrights all invited a bunch of people to come hang out. I know your…issues with Austin, so I didn’t mention it before. But I don’t think that should stop you now.”

I groaned. “Austin Wright is the biggest alcoholic jackass on this side of the planet! You know how he treated me when we were together.”

“True,” she added. “But…it was a year and a half ago when you were together. And, since you slapped the shit out of him last fall, he’s kind of avoided you like the plague, which means, you should be fine.”

“Heidi!”

“Just get your ass over here and bring a bathing suit. I want to see those tattoos you’re sporting. I won’t take no for an answer.”

And then she unceremoniously hung up on me. I glanced down at it with a sigh. Maybe Heidi was right, and I just needed some girl time.

I stripped out of my work attire and into a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a black Queen tank top. I piled my recently dyed dark red hair up into a messy bun on the top of my head and admired the shaved undercut. I filled up my travel tote with enough clothes for a week away from home. Now, I just needed my favorite olive-green bomber jacket. Not that May in Lubbock, Texas, was cold by any stretch of the imagination, but the dusty, windy, and flat place I had called home for almost two years now got cool on summer nights. But the jacket was nowhere to be found. I tore my apartment apart, looking for it. I swore I’d left it hanging in my closet, but nope, no luck. Must have left it at work or in the car or something.

I finally added a black Beatles sweatshirt I’d picked up at a thrift store to the bag and headed over to Heidi’s place where she lived with Landon Wright. They’d gotten together last year, and they were totally crazy in love. They’d gotten engaged practically right away, and they now lived together in a brand-new house that they’d had built together.

Landon was packing up his Jeep when I pulled up in my black Tahoe. He waved as I parked.

“Hey, Julia. I’m glad to see that Heidi convinced you to come with us.”

I hopped out of the car and moved my bag into the trunk. “Yeah. She’s persuasive all right. Told me to get my ass over here and hung up on me.”

Landon laughed congenially. He had the goddamn Wright good looks—dark hair, penetrating dark eyes, perfect smile, and so tall that you could climb the fuckers.

“That sounds like my fiancée.”

“I swear you say it just because you like the sound of it.”