Tennessee Truths: A Standalone Enemies-to-Lovers- Romance

by Ashley Munoz

  “How did he propose to you?”

  The lights were off in my trailer, so all I could see were the shadows in her hair and the silhouette of her face. She was looking up, those perfect lips accessible, and I wanted to take advantage, so fucking badly. But I wouldn’t. I didn’t know what this was or what I was doing, but reconnecting wasn’t it.

  “Did he plan some intimate dinner with low lighting and an orchestra, or were you out on a boat and he did it under the stars?” I whispered, running my hand over her hip and to her lower back.

  She inhaled sharply and turned things around on me.

  “How were you going to do it?”

  “What?” I froze in place.

  “How were you going to propose?” Her voice was soft, with genuine curiosity peeking through.

  I was suddenly so glad she couldn’t see my face, because I was positive there was a myriad of emotions flashing across it, ones I wouldn’t be able to hide even if I tried.

  “Or were you never actually going to…” She trailed off, looking down and loosening her hold on my shirt.

  I lifted her chin and stepped closer, hoping her grip would return.

  “I was going to wait for one of those nights when the moon was just a tiny sliver, so we could easily see those stars you love. I had this plan to dance to that soundtrack you love so much, the one with the two girls who sing in the show, Nashville or somethin’… Anyway, we were going to drive out into the middle of nowhere, no lights, nothin’ to dim the light of the sky. I was going to pack a tent, like we did after graduation, and we were going to dance just like you always loved doing in our castle. Then I was planning to get down on one knee and ask you there, spill my guts about how much I loved you from the first moment I saw you, how back in middle school I would follow you to class, even if it meant I was late to mine, because I had to know how you looked sitting there at that table so I could daydream about you.

  “I was going to tell you how perfect you were, how in high school I tried to make you a ring in shop class, how I considered asking you to marry me then…and then I was going to make love to you under the stars.”

  I couldn’t read her expression well, but she cleared her throat, something she used to do when she was getting emotional. I still wouldn’t give her any space and relished how warm her body was pressed up against mine.

  “He threw a big party, invited nearly two hundred people…proposed in the middle of it all. Everyone was watching.” The sadness in her tone stripped me and made my ribs feel too tight.

  If there was one thing about Faith that was essential, it was her deep need for privacy. She hated big parties that were centered around her. All her birthday parties from middle school on were small, tiny affairs. Just me, her best friend Gemma, and whoever Gemma was dating at the time; that was it. Occasionally she’d allow Jessie to tag along, but only if Jessie swore not to let any restaurants sing to her or tell anyone it was her special day. I could only imagine what a big public engagement like that must have done to her.

  “I would have loved the way you were going to do it. Although, I was so infatuated with you that you could have dropped to one knee in the Quick Stop and it would have been the best thing to ever happen to me.” Her hushed confession made my heart beat erratically. Hearing that she’d prefer my hypothetical proposal to her actual one was…confusing, exhilarating… horrible.

  I had this need to touch her, so I leaned in, my hands on her hips, and skimmed the side of her face with my nose. Her breathing hitched, and her hands wrapped around my neck, pulling me closer. She still wanted this. It was clear in the way her body responded to mine and what she’d admitted the other night in the bar…and just now with the proposal.

  She still wanted me.

  Pride surged in my head and hope propelled me forward to grabbing her chin and tilting it up. In the darkness of my trailer, I pressed my lips to hers, feeling a fire surge between us. She pushed up, kissing me back, pulling my shirt into a firm hold.

  I wanted to make her remember how good we were together, but the reminder that this wasn’t real slowly trickled in. She was married. She belonged to someone else. We needed closure.

  I let her go, took a step back, and then did what I did best—I deflected and turned things around on her.

  I opened the door and said, “He sounds like an asshole, yet you still chose to marry the prick.” My heart thundered in my chest, telling me to stop being a dick to her, but it hurt so badly, this life she had without me. Every time I took one step forward, it was like I took twenty back.

  She ambled backward, but I ensured she didn’t trip. Once she was safely on the ground, she looked up at me and sternly said, “Fuck you Jace.” She swept a finger under her eye and stepped back, like she was headed toward her car, but stopped a few steps in. “You want to know why I married him?” she asked angrily, stalking forward a bit.

  I wasn’t ready, not with her angry like this.

  “I went on four dates with him, just four then I was ready to break it off. But I drove into the Quick Stop the night I planned to do it, and I saw you with Jessica James. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking see straight, so I went back to Bryan.” Her desperate glare was slicing through me like glass. “I said yes to him because I thought you’d finally see what was happening. I thought you’d come…I thought for sure an engagement would make you snap out of it. I kept thinking you’d show up. Even on my wedding day, Jace—that’s how fucked up I was over you. I was more eager to see you on that day than I was to see the man who’d put a ring on my finger,” she spat.

  I was so thankful there were no lights on because I was barely holding it together.

  “It was always you, Jace, until you were nothing but a memory, even when he started…” She stopped and looked down, shook her head back and forth, and backed up. “But it doesn’t matter anymore,” she whispered, and she might as well have taken her heart out of her chest and tossed it at my feet. As it was, her words cut through me, ridding me of any more pride and any more anger. She’d taken it all right out of my veins.

  Sixteen

  Five years earlier: November

  “You’re a zombie, Faith. Come on, go out with me…you haven’t been out in weeks,” Gemma begged, like she had nearly every Friday since the breakup…since he left. I’d watched New Moon about a million times, feeling a kinship with Bella after Edward ditched her. Jace was no immortal vampire, but he was the rock dividing my insane river of a life into manageable pieces. He was firm, rooted, secure. I saw my future with him, and without it…without him…I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going.

  “I don’t want to,” I muttered while watching the fields behind my parents’ house. I was terrified of seeing Jace with someone new. I’d barely left the house because I knew my heart wouldn’t be able to take it. I’d fall apart on the spot.

  “We won’t even be local. Let’s go to Memphis, make a weekend of it,” Gemma pleaded, her hands coming together like she was praying. She probably was.

  My mother had been praying the last few weeks, and each week she’d been getting louder. “Jesus, help the girl. Jesus, give the girl purpose.” And my personal favorite: “Jesus, take the wheel. I know it’s a song, but I think we could really use some direction right now.”

  Getting out of town wouldn’t be so bad. I wouldn’t see Jace in Memphis…but it was already five in the evening. “With what money? Sleeping in your car isn’t exactly a good idea.” I lifted my head from my knees to catch her bright smile.

  “My cousin Jade just got an apartment there and I’ve already asked if we could stay the night.” Gemma waggled her eyebrows and began grabbing my duffle bag from my closet.

  “Don’t you have classes or something law-related?” I turned my head and raised an eyebrow in question.

  She rolled her eyes. “It’s Thanksgiving break.”

  “But your job…” She worked herself stupid during the breaks to save up for whatever her student loa
ns didn’t cover during the school year.

  “I have the next three days off. Isn’t that insane?” She pulled open my dresser drawers, pulled out two thongs, and threw them in my bag. That was enough of that. I stood and took the bag from her.

  “You should have led with that, idiot. I would have gone with you if I knew you had a long weekend.”

  “Pshh, you would not. You’ve been in a funk, girl. Rightfully so, considering…but I miss you and really want to hang out with you.” She folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her gaze on me.

  I loaded up the rest of my things and nodded my agreement.

  I felt my spirits lift marginally as we left the city limits. I tried to ignore how the last time I’d gone to Memphis was when I was with Jace. I tried to ignore how it’d been nearly four months since I had his arms around me, kissed him, or even saw him.

  We stopped at Jade’s apartment, dressed in tight dresses and tall heels, utilized all the fancy makeup her thirty-year-old self was able to afford, and headed out, fake IDs in hand.

  Memphis was a different world from what we were used to. We were easily swept up in the frantic beats that thrummed through the darkened room, the moving bodies that swayed to the music. It was amazing but also a little too much for my small-town self. I took refuge in a large, circular booth, sipping on some sort of blue liquid in a tall glass. I knew the word adios was in the title, but I’d missed the rest.

  We weren’t twenty-one yet, so drinking made me nervous and awkward as hell. I hadn’t built up the courage to go to the dance floor without Gemma yet. She’d found herself someone who wanted her on the floor with him with every change in song, so I sat tucked away in the dark booth, wishing desperately that I’d downloaded New Moon onto my Kindle.

  “Any chance you’d be willing to share this big booth?” a velvet voice asked from above me. I snapped my head up and met a pair of electric blue eyes. They were firm, resolute…not the same kind of blue I was used to.

  I shrugged, unsure of what to do.

  “It’s just that I’ve been trying to find somewhere somewhat quiet to sit, to enjoy this drink, but there aren’t any booths left.” He smiled wide, looking like my own personal knight in shining armor. “You seem like you don’t want to be disturbed, so I was content with standing, but it seems your beauty keeps distracting me.” He splayed his empty hand open, like he had a legitimate argument in it.

  I giggled, the alcohol making me lighthearted and giddy. “I wouldn’t stop you from scooting in, but…like you said, it’s big, so maybe stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine?”

  He smiled, he was so well put together and grown up it made me swoon a bit. Maybe I’d been reading too many vampire books, but his smile made my pulse race. His suit was nicer than anything I’d ever seen on a real-life person.

  He slid into the seat across from me as smooth as butter, all the while keeping his gaze locked on mine. We watched each other in our own kind of silence in the midst of the chaos and noise around us.

  He appraised me from over the brim of his glass of amber liquid, and I liked his eyes on me. I liked how they made me feel. I liked how much better it made me feel compared to how I had been feeling. I’d been dead and now had someone offering me the chance to live again.

  “What’s your name?” he asked, loudly enough for me to hear over the music.

  I rubbed my finger around the rim of my glass, unsure if I should tell him. “Not ready,” I muttered in response, smiling like an idiot at the prospect of someone wanting me.

  “Hi Not-Ready, I’m Bryan. It’s nice to meet you.” He sipped his drink and slid an inch to the right, closing the distance between us.

  Present day

  The fluorescent lights in the Collierville library flickered, nearly ready to go out as I hurried in through the front doors. They were going to close soon, but I’d requested a few books and wanted to grab them before the weekend hit. I needed distractions.

  Big, heavy ones that had clever, unsuspecting love, dragons, and fairies. Vampires, werewolves—I’d take it all as long as it kept my mind in a different world. I needed fiction to fix me…and distract me from the fact that my husband wouldn’t stop calling and texting and my ex-boyfriend wouldn’t stop being an angry asshole. It was all wearing on me something fierce.

  I kept expecting Bryan to show up like the boogie man. It had made me so nervous I was picking at my nails in fear, nearly every day. He’d said I had a week, but it had now been over a month and he still hadn’t shown up, nor had he given any more clues as to his decision on granting me a divorce.

  Thin, stained blue carpet quieted my steps as I made my way to the holding shelves. If memory served, all I had to do was find my name on the printed slip of paper, grab my book, scan it, and go. There were about ten books total on the hold shelf, but once I got to the end where my books should have been, I saw there was a note taped there.

  Faith Vanderson,

  Please see me.

  Gloria

  I peeled the note off, inspecting it for clues. Why on earth would Gloria want to talk to me? I kept my gaze focused on the note as I turned and ran right into something solid.

  “Ouch, sorry,” I muttered, bringing my hand to my forehead. Did I just hit a chin? Holy hell. I blinked, taking a step back, and inspected what or who I’d run into.

  Jace stood there in his heavy boots, a pair of navy jeans forming perfectly to his thighs, and a black t-shirt plastered across his firm chest. His dark hair was slightly askew, like he’d been running his hands through it. My stomach tightened at the sight of him, and I hated myself for it. It had been a full week since I’d seen him, since he’d said those hurtful words and his touch had branded my skin.

  I thinned my lips and tried to push past him but he put his arms out, like he was ready to stop me.

  “Oh, good. You’re both here.” Gloria beamed at us as she rounded the corner. Her white hair was wound up into a tight bun on her head, her weathered face relaxed and her thin lips painted a coral pink color.

  Jace and I looked at each other, confused.

  “What exactly do you mean?” I asked, following her frail form toward the back of the library. Jace followed too, huffing out a frustrated sigh. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him like we were twelve.

  “Here we are.” Gloria stopped at a table full of at least fifty books.

  Jace stopped next to me, gently lifting one of them, but Gloria reprimanded him.

  “I don’t think so, Mr. Walker.” She lightly slapped his hand.

  His eyes went wide as he dropped the book. I stifled a laugh.

  “I had planned on fining you two for the damage done in this library, but now that you’re both back in town, this is better.” Gloria smiled, stacking a few of the books.

  Jace’s gaze snapped over to mine, likely thinking the same thing as me. We’d done a lot of things in this library so there was no way to know exactly what she was referring to, but I wasn’t admitting anything.

  “What exactly are we fixing?” Jace rubbed a hand along his chin.

  “There are fifty-three books we’ve found over the last few years that have your notes written inside. Pages and pages of correspondence between you two, written into the margins, just ruining these books.” She shook her head in disappointment. “To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic!” she said forcefully.

  Jace winced, and I wanted to die. Truly, I wished the earth would open up and swallow us. Jace had said they were decoded books. He’d said no one would ever know.

  “No matter.” She breathed through her nose, seeming to calm down. “You’re here to fix it. That’s all that matters. You aren’t leaving until you’ve erased every single page.” She held out a box of Pink Pearl erasers and gestured toward the two wooden chairs.

  Jace scoffed, “Not to be rude, Miss Gloria, but how do you know these were from us?”

  Hope fluttered. That’s right—we never used our names. Suddenly a smug feeling settled in a
s I crossed my arms and quirked a sassy brow, practically shouting for her to prove it.

  Gloria rolled her eyes. “You two honestly don’t think we knew what you were doing? You left a trail messier than a pig rollin’ in a pig pen during spring!” She moved closer to the books. “That and we have security footage.”

  Shit.

  Jace laughed. “There’s no way you can force us to sit down and do this. Can’t you just charge Faith for it? She married a billionaire, didn’t you hear?” He smirked at me, and I nearly launched myself at him.

  “I know you’ll do it because regardless of this horrific act of vandalism, you two were good kids. I know you’ll do the right thing.” Gloria softened and patted her hair. “Now, the back door locks on its own when you exit.” She grabbed her coat and purse, sauntering away.

  The lights in the front half of the library shut off, leaving just the few lit up over our table in the back. I hesitated a second, not sure if Jace was going to take off or stay, then realized Gloria was right. Regardless of what he chose, I needed to fix this.

  I stepped forward and pulled a chair back, taking a seat, then flipped through the first book. I heard a huff of breath before I saw Jace plop down next to me.

  “I can’t believe you’re agreeing to do this.” Jace grabbed The Catcher and the Rye and began thumbing through it.

  “I can’t believe we continued writing in these even after we realized who each other was,” I muttered while reading one of the notes I’d written.

  Dear Fool,

  What’s your favorite thing about the sky?

  Dear Pip,

  The stars are literally history, and we get to see a piece of it every night.

  “Honestly, I’m shocked there aren’t more. We kept going until…what, tenth grade?” Jace quipped, holding an eraser between his fingers, leaning over the desk. For whatever reason, I was terrified of him actually erasing any of our history. I hadn’t even known it still existed before today, but now that I did, I couldn’t bring myself to remove this little part of our past.