Friendship, Texas Series: Volume 1

by Magan Vernon

  “Well, I was seeing that Ashley chick at the time, and she told me it was a good scent. She worked at that store, so I trusted her opinion,” he said, adjusting his guitar strap.

  “You trusted the opinion of the girl you dated for three months who then broke up with you via an email?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I didn’t say her taste in breakup strategies was good, just in candles. And you’re one to talk. Remember when you dated that guy from Farmersville who said he could only commit when it wasn’t deer hunting season?” Eddie asked in a challenge.

  I put my hand up. “Okay, so we’ve both had sucky taste in the people we’ve dated.”

  Eddie strummed a few chords. “Yeah, and that’s what got me thinking. I sat down on the plane on the way to Nashville and thought of all the things that led me back to Friendship and to you.”

  He hummed, strumming along to a few bars before he opened his mouth and he crooned out lyrics I’d never heard but had me tapping my fingers on my knee to the beat.

  The song was about coming home, and realizing everything you missed and all the mistakes you made. Then the beat sped up, and he belted out words I felt like I’d been waiting for him to sing forever.

  “But it doesn't matter now. That’s all in the past. Because I’m back home to you; I’m back home where I belong,” he crooned, closing his eyes and letting his words ring through the room.

  I sucked in a deep breath and stared at this beautiful man. I was so lost in his words and so lost in him that I couldn’t even speak.

  He might have said all of those songs were about me before, but actually listening to these words and feeling the music was completely different.

  “What did you think?” Eddie asked, strumming the last few chords.

  I racked my brain, trying to think of the right words, but all that came out was word vomit. “I’m thinking I should have gotten you something better than a flash drive of 90s music.”

  He smiled, sliding his guitar strap off. “You could always write me a song. You’re the author and that one summer I taught you at least three chords.”

  I smirked. “I’m sure my own rendition of ‘Hot Cross Buns’ would be spectacular.”

  He scooted closer, putting the guitar strap across my shoulder then situating the guitar on my lap before pulling me close. He got up slowly only to sit back down again behind me with my back to his chest and his breath on my cheek.

  “Do you remember where to put your hands?” His lips vibrated against my ear.

  “Maybe,” I whispered.

  He draped my right hand over the upper body, keeping my fingers perpendicular to the strings. On Eddie’s acoustic, he didn’t use a pick, just finger strummed it, so I tried plucking a chord.

  “That’s a good start,” he murmured, his lips trailing from my ear to my neck.

  I sucked in a breath, goose bumps dancing everywhere his lips hit my bare skin.

  My fingers slipped on a few chords, causing a god-awful sound to come from the guitar.

  Eddie laughed, his lips vibrating against my neck. “You have to concentrate, B.”

  He put his hand on mine, moving my fingers along the chords.

  His other hand went around my waist, his fingers splaying on my stomach.

  “You gotta make sure you have good posture ... and good concentration ...” he murmured, his hand slowly sliding down as his pinkie skimmed the waistband of my pants.

  “I don’t remember this part of guitar lessons,” I said, trying to think of something sexier or more coy, but that was all that came out.

  “Then I guess I wasn’t doing it right before, and I’d better make up for that,” he whispered, his fingers sliding lower until the only thing between his rough hands and my flesh was my silk panties.

  “I d-d-d-don’t remember that either.” I stuttered like a freaking fifteen-year-old girl. I’d been intimate plenty of times, but never with Eddie, though I’d thought about this moment so many times throughout my life.

  He used my hand on the guitar and strummed a few notes that I recognized as an old George Strait song. With his other hand, he slowly pushed my panties to the side then used his digits to play the same notes inside me.

  I gripped his knee with my free hand and bit my bottom lip. Fuck, I’d wanted his touch for so long, and now, his expert fingers were playing me better than he’d played any guitar.

  I moaned softly, feeling myself crescendo.

  His breath brushed across my neck as he increased the beat on the guitar and inside me. I cried out when he hit that glorious C note, and my body shuddered around his fingers.

  Usually after an orgasm, I expected the guy to stop, but Eddie started using my hand to strum a faster beat on the guitar, his fingers inside me picking up the pace as well and bringing me to another orgasm.

  I came again and again, until finally I couldn’t hold the guitar and collapsed against Eddie’s chest.

  We sat there for a while with his fingers still inside me, while I breathed heavily against his chest.

  “I don’t know if that gift was for you or for me,” he whispered. “You’re so hot when you come undone.”

  I leaned back to press my lips to his, but before I could even get close, the front door burst open.

  I jumped to the other side of the couch, knocking the guitar down in the process. I grabbed it, sitting cross-legged on the other end of the couch. As if his parents didn’t know what was going on and as if we weren’t two almost thirty-year-olds.

  “Mom, Dad, guess the Conti’s party was a bust?” Eddie put his hands in his pockets, slowly standing up.

  I followed suit, putting the guitar down and wishing I could reach my hand down my pants because my panties were definitely out of whack.

  Lydia smiled. “It was a good time. Just wanted to get Gramps home. Y’all can stay here; we’re going up to bed anyway.”

  Lydia turned toward me, giving me a wink. I knew she and my mom always had this secret wish that Eddie and I would get together, but I didn’t exactly want to practice making the future Jahid-Carrington kids while they were asleep upstairs.

  “Uh, I better get going and see my family too. Merry Christmas, y’all,” I said, rushing toward the door.

  “Keep practicing guitar, Brooke,” Eddie said.

  I glanced back at his wide smile.

  “And when you do, think of me,” he whispered.

  Chapter 12

  Moving day was finally here. Not that I had a ton of stuff and neither did Clay. But once Mom got used to the idea that we were moving down the road, she said we could take our bedroom furniture and some furniture from one of the living rooms.

  Clay had the closing at nine am and took Mom with him, so I was in charge of delegating our ragtag team of movers.

  Nick Conti pulled up in the driveway first in his old pickup with his brother in the passenger seat. Boxes and furniture already filled the truck bed.

  “What is this?” I asked, walking over to the truck and gesturing to the back.

  Nick smiled, patting the wheel well. “Did you really think we’d be able to get out of the house without Ma trying to load y’all up with more stuff for your new place?”

  I looked at the array of restaurant boxes, coffee and end tables, and lamps. “Your parents didn’t have to do this!”

  All I had was my old bedroom set and the suitcase I brought with me from Austin. I couldn’t even remember what I still had at Drake’s place. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Now, I barely even thought of him, which sounded shitty, but during the past few years of our relationship, we’d basically been roommates. I’d pay my portion of the rent and groceries. We’d have sex if I got drunk enough—it was always mediocre—and usually, I’d finish myself off later. I should have broken up with him when he got the job in Austin. But at that point, we were stuck in the same rut, and I didn’t have the backbone to break it off and go crawling back to live with my parents in Friendship. It was funny how things ended up with everyon
e back in the tiny town we all said we would leave someday.

  “Yeah, and Ma’s instructed Lia to bring pasta Milanese by after lunch,” Nicky’s brother, Sonny, said, hopping out of the passenger seat.

  Sonny was Clay’s age, but they didn’t hang in the same high school crowd. I knew Sonny as the smartass kid who used to unwrap all of the silverware and loosen the lids on the parmesan cheese then blame it on his little sister.

  Now, the pain in the ass had grown into the typical tanned guido jock with slicked-back hair and a bright white smile that I was sure had a few girls throwing their panties in his direction.

  “Lia? As in the little girl who used to sit in the back office and watch PBS on Saturdays while I worked the afternoon shift?” I asked.

  Nicky smiled. “Yeah, she’s all grown up now. Still the same girl who would rather put on her headphones and listen to music than be with people, but she’s a knockout. You should talk to her; give her some writerly advice or something.”

  “Does she want to be a writer?” I asked.

  Nicky shrugged. “Hell if I know. She doesn’t talk to us much.”

  Before I could say anything else, another truck and a Jeep pulled in. Eddie and Noah each got out of their respective vehicles and walked up to us.

  “Where’s Clay? He told us to be here at ten,” Noah asked.

  “Still at the closing, but we could probably start packing up and have him meet us there,” I said.

  “I told Lia to come by at noon,” Nicky said.

  “Your hot sister?” Noah wiggled his eyebrows.

  Sonny glared at him. “Watch it. I know you’ve got the body language down, but if you look at my sister wrong, I will knock those hearing aids out.”

  Noah put his hands up. “Okay, okay. I get it.”

  Eddie smiled. He stood out like a beacon between all of the other guys who were cute in their own right, but nobody fit a pair of faded Levi’s and stretched out an old white t-shirt like him. And damn did I want to get under that shirt and Levi’s. I couldn’t stop thinking about our night together on Christmas Eve and wishing we both didn’t have so many obligations, family and otherwise. But maybe tonight, in my own place, we wouldn’t have to worry.

  “Want to just start packing up and have Clay meet us there?” Eddie asked, his eyes meeting mine.

  “Yeah, that sounds good,” I replied.

  Nicky groaned. “Okay, let’s pack this shit up so you two can quit eye fucking.”

  “Aw, Nicky, don’t be jealous,” Eddie said, putting his arm around the big guy.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” Nicky said, following me into the house.

  As soon as we walked in, I found Violet on the couch with her head down. I expected the bubbly little girl to want to help as much as she could, especially on a day off from school, but she was being quiet.

  “Hey, can y’all head up to my room and start with that furniture? Eddie knows which one it is. I’ll meet you up there in a second,” I said, walking toward the couch.

  “Of course Eddie knows where your room is,” Sonny said with a laugh.

  I waited until their laughter dissipated up the stairs before I sat on the couch next to Vi. “Hey, why the long face?” I asked.

  She just shrugged, keeping her head down.

  “Did I do something to upset you?”

  Violet looked up, her eyes watering. “You and Clay are leaving. You just got here, and you’re leaving again.”

  I smiled, putting my arm around my little sister. “Vi, we aren’t leaving. We’re moving just a few miles up the road. You’re still going to see us.”

  She sniffled. “Yeah, but not as much. Who’s going to be here when I’m home from school? Who’s going to sit and watch cartoons with me before bed?”

  “I can still do all of those things with you. Maybe not every night, but we can still do them.”

  “But it’s not the same,” Violet whined.

  “I know, Vi. You know, my best friend moved away when I was just seventeen, and I thought it was the end of the world.”

  She looked up at me with watery eyes. “You did?”

  I nodded, pushing a strand of her long brown hair behind her ears. “For a long time. And he was in Nashville, a lot farther that I’m going to be from you. I really thought I’d never see him again.”

  “What happened? Did you see him?” Violet asked.

  I glanced over to the stairwell where Eddie and Nicky were arguing while moving my dresser down the steep stairs. When Eddie’s eyes met mine, he smiled and winked before going back to his work.

  I smiled, looking back at Vi. “He came back like he always said he would.”

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out Eddie’s white guitar pick. “He gave me this the night before he left and told me it was lucky. I didn’t know how lucky it was until recently, and now that I’ve used the luck, I think it’s time to pass it on to you. Now, you’ll know I have to come back.” I set the small white pick in her hand.

  “But what if you need it? How will your best friend know to come back for you?” Violet asked.

  I heard the sound of Eddie’s boots on the hardwood floor behind me.

  “He already did,” I said, smiling at Violet.

  ***

  Clay pulled up to the house just as our truck-filled convoy turned into the driveway.

  “Holy shit, did we really have this much stuff?” Clay asked, hopping out of the cab of his truck.

  “Yeah and we all loaded it all up without your lazy ass,” Noah said, climbing out of his Jeep.

  I was the first to pull into the driveway; my little sedan looked dwarfed by the rows of giant Fords.

  Clay dangled his keys “Ready to get into home sweet home, sis?”

  “Yep,” I said with as much excitement as I could muster.

  I’d briefly glanced at my bank account and my last book payment. I had basically enough to cover the rent I agreed to pay Clay and some left over for an off brand soda at the gas station. If I were going to stay here, I would have to suck it up and get a job or sell my soul to get a book deal or something.

  “Hey, why the long face?” Nicky asked, after he came back outside from helping his brother carry in the sofa.

  “Nothing. Just tired is all. Moving is a lot of work,” I said, mustering up a smile.

  “You sure it isn’t Mr. Bedazzled Ass over there who’s causing you problems?” Nicky asked, nodding his head to the left where Eddie and Clay were carrying a dresser into the house.

  I shook my head. “No, things are fine with Eddie and me.”

  Nicky waited until Clay and Eddie got inside the house before he turned back to me. “Look, Brooke, I’ve known you and Eddie forever. We’ve all grown up in this town, and I’ve watched that guy break your heart I don’t know how many times.”

  I rolled my eyes, grabbing a box. “I think you’re exaggerating. Eddie and I have always just been friends.”

  “I know the way you’ve always looked at him, and the way he looks at you, and that ain’t friendly. That’s the look of someone who wants to rip the other’s clothes off.”

  “Well, um, you know we’re older, and things tend to progress,” I said, trying to fumble for my words.

  Nicky grabbed another box, and we walked toward the back of the house and the open gate.

  “I know you had some hanky-panky going on in his gramps’s deer stand, but I also know what my sister and her friends see about him on those gossip sites.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but Nicky stopped in front of me and turned around. We were on the back patio near the pool where Noah was slumped over with his back to us. The other guys were inside and none the wiser to our conversation.

  “Look, Brooke, I know that you’ve been in love with this guy forever, and he broke your damn heart when he left. He’s changed since he moved, and he ain’t that same old farm boy who used to come crying because he got beat up by a guy on the football team. Just be careful, okay? Don’t le
t him take the good parts of you.”

  “I won’t, Nick,” I said, but even as I said the words, I wasn’t sure I meant them.

  Eddie had always been a part of me, and now that he was back, I was finally starting to feel whole again for the first time in forever.

  “Hey, can someone help me with this?” a faint voice called. Nicky and I set down our boxes and walked to the front of the house.

  A short girl with dark brown hair piled in a bun on her head, black-framed glasses, and a shirt that read, “Say something” stretched across her chest. A very large chest for how petite she was otherwise.

  “Lia, what the hell are you doing carrying that all by yourself?” Nicky swooped in and grabbed the two giant trays from her.

  “Lia? Lia Conti?” Clay’s voice carried from behind me. “Holy shit, she grew up,” he whispered.

  “’Ey, that’s my sister,” Sonny warned, coming up beside him.

  “Ma loaded me up with enough food to feed the entire town, so I hope y’all are hungry,” she said, taking out another tray from the back of her beat up Jeep.

  It always cracked me up to see the Conti siblings. Even though they had a dark olive complexion, their Texas accents rang strong.

  Clay practically pushed me out of the way. “Here, let me help you with that,” he said, grabbing the tray from Lia.

  He smiled wider than I’d ever seen him and carried on a conversation with Lia, who giggled at everything he said. I knew my brother wasn’t that funny.

  Noah watched Lia, his eyes trailing down her jeans as she followed Clay into the house. If she saw Eddie inside, she’d be sure to have total heart failure if she was going to blush at my brother.

  Nicky snapped his fingers in front of Noah. “’Ey. That’s my little sister. Quit staring or I’ll break your legs.”

  “Unless I let your sister break them first,” Noah joked before running into the house. Nicky tumbled after, waving his fist in the air.

  I just shook my head and followed them inside.

  “Mom said this is the last slumber party we get to have,” I said, laying out my sleeping bag then crawling out of the tent.