by Toni Aleo
As she walks toward the bar, I see, again, that things haven’t changed. Everyone greets her, hollering her name and kissing her cheek when she flashes a bright smile. There was always something about that girl’s smile that confused me. Made me feel things. Stupid things, but things nonetheless. Like it did when we were younger, her grin takes up her whole face. Her eyes light up, her lips curve, and her bright-white teeth sparkle like a creek in the summer. She was always so happy, so good, and fun to be around. Everyone worshiped her, loved her, which only made me hate her more.
Or, I tried to hate her.
I don’t know, it was weird, confusing back then. I wanted to despise her, but like everyone else, I enjoyed being around her. I always thought she was beautiful. Even when she was way bigger, she had a face that took my breath away. I drink in those long, strong legs, her shorts hardly covering that sweet ass of hers. Now, she not only takes my breath away, but she makes me hard as a rock. One thing is for sure, I would really like to be on the other side of her as that whiskey makes her frisky.
Not that it would ever happen, though. Pretty sure she still hates me. Not that I can blame her, but man, how much fun is it to get under her skin? Her eyes always get so dark, a little wrinkle appears between her brows, and her lips press together defiantly. I have been thinking about her since I left the funeral. It’s a welcome distraction. After this shit day, I need something to make me smile, and Delaney does just that.
I run my fingers through my hair, laughing to myself. Thinning hair? Please. I have a full head of unruly hair that is in no way thinning. She was trying to get back at me, but all she did was make me wonder if she really did think of me as she touched herself. What’s even more curious is what it would have been like to touch her then. Or to touch her now.
I roll my eyes. I’ve been here a total of twenty-four hours, and this town is already getting to me. There is a whole world out there—gorgeous girls who, if I wanted, I could get. Yet, it’s Delaney Abbot who has me intrigued as hell. A girl I’ve known my whole life and who has known me. Well, minus the last fourteen years.
A bright grin covers her dark-red lips as she waves to the boys at the bar before going behind it. She hugs the guy who brought our beers earlier and throws her large bag on the back bar.
I raise my brows as I place my beer down. “Del works here?”
Holden, who was speaking, pauses before his lips curve up. “Yeah, three nights a week.”
Theo grins. “Why ya ask?”
I point to her. “She’s here.”
All of us look across the bar, and when she looks up, she grins as she waves wildly at us. “Hey, guys!”
“Hey, Del,” they all call back, but I watch her as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear that has escaped her ponytail. Her gaze falls on me, and that little dip shows between her eyes as she looks away, shaking her head.
I lick my lips as I bring my beer to my lips. “I don’t think she likes me.”
Theo laughs. “You called her Chubs all of middle school.”
I grimace. Man, I was a dick. “I stopped when she got to high school.”
“’Cause she sat on you and tried to choke you,” Holden says matter-of-factly as Devin and Theo chuckle loudly. “Pretty sure she scared the shit out of all of us.”
I chuckle at the memory. I was a horny teen, and this girl I thought was beautiful was sitting on my chest. Fear was the last thing on my mind. “Maybe, but I was a dick back then—”
“And angry,” Theo adds, and I nod.
“That I was.” I lean back in my chair, putting it up on its back two legs. I may hate this town, but I’m not the kid she knew, and I’m sure she isn’t that kid either. What the hell am I thinking? I’m leaving Tuesday, maybe even Monday. Though I can’t help but wonder if maybe a nice roll in the sheets with her will heal my broken heart.
“Is she dating anyone?” When everyone starts laughing, I make a face. “What?”
“Delaney and dating is the hot topic around town,” Holden says, sputtering with laughter. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard.”
I give him a dry look. “’Cause I’d ask?”
“Touché,” he laughs, shaking his head.
“Del has the worst luck,” Devin says. “I think almost every guy she’s been with lately has cheated on her.”
My face twists with disgust as anger rattles inside me. “What the hell? Why would they cheat on her?”
“’Cause they’re dicks,” Devin says, his eyes on Del. “She’s a damn good girl.”
“Well, John Aaron didn’t,” Theo volunteers, bringing our attention to him. “From what I’m told, she smeared a shirt full of come in his face ’cause he said he wished she looked like the girl in the porn they were watching.”
I widen my eyes. “What an asshole.”
“Exactly,” Holden says, looking to his cousin. “She is plagued by nothing but assholes.”
“For such a damn sweetheart, it sucks it keeps happening. She should be married now with a few kids. But then, none of the Abbot kids are,” Devin says, and Holden holds his hand up.
“Don’t rush me.”
We all laugh at that just as the door opens and Bryce comes in. I want to ask more, but everyone is greeting my brother. He’s out of his uniform, wearing worn jeans and a thin tee, looking younger than he usually does. Instead of coming to our table, though, he goes to the bar. Delaney leans over it with her carefree grin, meeting him before kissing him on the lips. My brows pull together as she hands him a beer. She taps his chest in a very intimate way that has me even more curious and sort of pissed. Why the hell do I care? This town will be in my rearview in a matter of days.
Bryce says hi to a few people on his way to our table. “Hey there, fuckers.”
He drops down into the chair beside me, and I hook my thumb to him. “I thought you guys said she wasn’t dating anyone.”
Bryce tilts his head in question. “Who?”
“Delaney.”
He points to himself, his brows pulling in. “I’m not dating Delaney.”
“You just kissed her.”
He rolls his eyes. “That’s how we say hi. Believe me, I tried about six years ago, and she turned me down quick.”
Oh.
“Me too,” Devin says then. “But that might have something to do with the fact that I’ve loved Cataway since I was ten.”
“Maybe,” Holden says with a quirk of his lips. “But then, who’s keeping up with that?”
Devin nods. “Exactly.”
I roll my eyes. “Still? I thought she broke your heart.”
“She did, but I still love her.”
My brother and Cataway Abbot are one of those tragic stories. Girl falls for star football player who is fine staying in the town he grew up in. She thought she could stay too, but she had big dreams. She left him the day of their wedding for New York, shattering my brother’s heart. And from what my mom says, she’s on some reality show or something. I didn’t realize he was still in love with her. It’s sort of sad, but then again, they were really in love.
“That’s pathetic.”
“Fuck you,” Devin says simply, and laughter fills the table.
As my laughter dies off, I look to Theo. “You date her?”
“Who?”
“Del.”
Theo shakes his head. “I’ve been in love with Gen my whole life. Del knows that. And even so, I don’t think she’d go for me.”
“No need to ask me. I’m her cousin,” Holden says, sending the table into fits. “But the real question is, why do you care?”
“I don’t,” I say, clearing my throat. “Just asking, making conversation.”
Bryce rolls his eyes. “Delaney is the topic all over town. Especially after she took a bat to Larry Yarbrough’s Mustang.”
I laugh. “She took a bat to a Mustang?”
“Oh yeah,” Holden laughs, pulling out his phone. “I think the video is still in the Facebook group.”
Theo shrugs. “We have a bank.”
I seriously I hate this place, but before I can express that, Holden hands me his phone and I push play. While I want to laugh, I can’t. Delaney’s face is full of tears, her eyes wild as she slams her bat over and over again into the hood and windshield of some idiot’s car. She looks heartbroken, and that tugs at my heartstrings. I hand back Holden’s phone and nod. “She’s always been good with a bat.”
“The best,” Theo says with a shake of his head. “She’d do anything for anyone, yet she keeps getting screwed over. Sucks.”
“I told her I’d be good to her, but she doesn’t want me,” Bryce says and then leans back in his chair. “Delaney Kate?” he calls to her.
Delaney looks up from where she is leaning on the bar, talking to one of the guys standing there. I hate that I’m wondering what they’re talking about. Is he a dick? Will he hurt her? Shit, why do I care? She makes a quizzical face as she calls to my brother, “What?”
“You don’t want me?”
She grins, and I swear her gaze flicks to me, but it’s only for half a second before she shakes her head. “You know I can’t handle that redheaded temper of yours. I got my own, and I’m not even redheaded.”
He throws his hands up playfully. “Okay, okay, but I’d be good to you.”
She rolls her eyes, her lashes almost kissing her brows. “Bryce McElroy, you don’t want me, and you know it. You just want to bang. I’m not stupid. You aren’t settling down. Stop playing.”
He shrugs. “Still, I’d be good for you.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not ruining that for a roll in the sheets. You’re like my best friend.”
“Hey!” Theo and Holden tease, and she grins at them.
“Oh, hush, you two. I’m working.”
“Bring us beer!” Holden yells then, holding up his beer.
She gives him a dry look. “I’ll be there in a jiffy.”
Bryce looks to me. “She’s a good girl. Hell, you know that.”
Theo side-eyes him. “You know they’ve always had that issue.”
Bryce laughs. “Oh yeah, you two never got along.”
I look back toward where Delaney is coming out from behind the bar, a tray full of beers in her hands and a little sway to those naughty hips of hers. Shit, we sure didn’t get along before, but maybe we could this weekend. She flashes that nonstop grin at everyone, and of course, everyone eats her up. That’s just how it is. She’s a pleaser, always has been.
It drives me absolutely crazy.
When she comes to our table, she walks up beside Bryce, setting the tray on the table before handing out the beers. “How y’all doing tonight?”
“Good, Del. You?”
“Tired. Today drained me,” she says, taking my empty beer and replacing it with another.
“Me too,” Devin said, cheersing his beer at her before taking a long pull. It’s obvious I need to slow down. I might need to take my brother home.
She makes quick work, not sparing me the littlest of glances, even as I’m drinking in her sweet thighs and thick ass. If she thought those shorts were going to contain that ass, she has another thing coming. Jesus. What I wouldn’t do for a nice little squeeze…
“Hey, Del,” Devin says, and she looks over to him as she lifts the tray of empty bottles.
“Yeah?”
Her voice is high, in that fake, pleasing voice she turns on in church. I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve that voice, but that’s not how she used to be with us. When her eyes meet mine, my stomach clenches. Her eyes are so damn dark, making her lashes seem inky and full. As I look into her eyes, it’s as if every single memory I have of her plays like a movie in my head. We went to church together, school, and everything else, but never had I looked at her and wanted to see her naked. I may have been confused with how I felt when she smiled at me, but I controlled that. She was the epitome of Spring Grove.
She was never leaving this place.
“Don’t you think it’s good that Reed is home?”
She gives Devin a look before sparing me a glance. She shrugs. “I mean, we love tourists. Which is what you are, right, Reed?”
Everyone sputters with laughter as her eyes meet mine. Her lips curve up, and I swear she flutters those lashes at me.
“Something like that.”
She looks back at Devin just as my gaze moves down her body and then back up. When my eyes meet hers, her eyes darken and narrow a bit. “See something you like?”
My lips tip up as Theo holds back his laughter, looking away, while Holden does the opposite. My brothers, they just stare as if they’re watching a reality show. “Not at all.”
“Your eyes say different,” she challenges. “I thought not a damn thing had changed about me?”
Ha-ha. Figured she’d take that to heart. “Maybe I was wrong.”
Her grip on the tray tightens as her eyes burn into mine, and that little dip between her eyes appears. “You were.”
“Was I?”
“Yes. A lot has changed about me.” I always liked the darker rim of brown around her eyes that the lighter brown merged into. Her lashes make her eyes darker, and her lips are so damn plump. I shouldn’t find her as sexy as I do right now, but I do. I want to kiss that defiant little tilt of her mouth and make it mine. “But don’t you worry about me.”
“I’m not.”
“Seems you are.”
“You’re the one bringing up a comment I didn’t mean.”
“Sure seemed like you did. It seemed you went out of your way to hurt me.”
“I didn’t.”
“I think you did.”
“Well, you always did jump to conclusions and make everything about you.”
She narrows her eyes as she says, “You know what, Reed, don’t let the door hit ya on the way out of town.”
“It won’t,” I say. “It didn’t the first time.”
“Well, hopefully, it does this time so you don’t come back.”
“For someone who doesn’t want me to come back, why are you talking to me so much?”
Oh, if looks could kill, I’d be dead four times over. She walks away, and that ass of hers taunts me as it sways. It’s so juicy, thick, and I wonder what it would feel like to hold on to it as I pound inside her. Problem with that is we don’t get along, Del and I. We’ve always made smartassed comments, but no matter what, we had each other’s back. Seems that’s changed. But it doesn’t really matter. She doesn’t like me, and I’ve never been a fan of hers.
Then why do I want to taste her smart mouth?
Chapter Five
Delaney
“I don’t know why he brings out the worst in me.”
I throw down a magazine before reaching for another, my knee resting on my calf as I lean on the counter.
“I don’t know,” Gen says across from me, looking at her own magazine. She’s been here for about an hour, listening as I complain about everything that has to do with Reed.
“He needs to go back where he came from. From what I heard, he’s going back on Monday after the will reading. Can’t come fast enough,” I sneer as I pout.
“Well, then why are you stressing about it?” she asks, pushing her blond hair behind her ear. “He’ll be gone soon, and you won’t have to worry about him anymore.”
“He makes me crazy. Like, why does he pick on me? We are in our thirties! Doesn’t he know how to be an adult?”
“I hardly know him, only what Theo has told me,” she says with that dreamy look filling her gaze. She always gets like that when she talks about her fiancé. “Reed doesn’t seem awful to me. Very quiet, though.”
“He’s always been like that,” I say, waving her off. “He’s like a bug zapper. It’s all quiet and minding its own business, but as soon as you get close enough, it zaps you. He seems so nice, so to himself, but the moment you look at him or eve
n try to be nice to him, he cuts you in two.”
She makes a face. “I didn’t get that feeling.”
“Ugh,” I groan, rolling my eyes. “I just don’t get him. I haven’t seen him in fourteen years, Genny. Fourteen, and he still treats me like I’m the little girl chasing the lot of them around, begging for a chance to hit the ball.”
“Yeah, I don’t know. Theo speaks very highly of him.”
“Of course he does, ’cause he’s great to Theo. But to me, he’s always got something slick to say. I never know what he is thinking, and just when I think we’re cool, he zaps me. Shit, is it so hard to be nice? A nice little ‘Hey, Del, how ya doing? Good to see you. God, you’re sexy as fuck now.’”
Gen raises a brow at me. “Why would he say you’re sexy now?”
“’Cause I am,” I deadpan. “I mean, you remember how big I was. I am gorgeous now, and it’s like he doesn’t even notice,”
She doesn’t seem to understand. “For one, you’ve always been gorgeous, Del. And for two, I don’t understand why he would say that. Why can’t he just be like, ‘Hey, good to see you.’ And leave it at that?”
I glare, not wanting to admit what I am feeling. I’m worried she’ll laugh at me. Crushing on a guy for years after he leaves is a little pathetic, especially when he’s never given me even the slightest bit of his time. “I guess.”
“I’m just saying, for someone who doesn’t like this guy, I don’t understand why you’d want him to think you’re sexy.”
My glare deepens. “Because I want him to see what I’ve done, how hard I’ve worked. Notice that I’ve changed.”
Her face is twisted with confusion as she flips through the pages of her bridal magazine. “Why does it matter?”
It shouldn’t. But it does.
“Pick your damn flowers,” I demand, and she snorts as she looks down at the magazine. “I was just saying.”
“Well, it sounds like you like him,” she says, peeking at me through her lashes. “And I wouldn’t blame you. He is very handsome.”