Copyright © 2016 by Kelly Elliott
Published by K. Elliott Enterprises, INC.
View my website at www.kellyelliottauthor.com
Cover photo and design by Shannon Cain Photography
Photos shot at Sugar Berry Inn Bed and Breakfast
Editing and Proofing by Erin Noelle
Proofing by Holly’s Red Hot Reviews
Interior Design and formatting by JT Formatting
ISBN-13: 978-1-943633-22-7
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products, bands, and/or restaurants referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
License Notes
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Title Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Epilogue
Thank you
Playlist
About the Author
Other Books
SITTING ON THE dock, the cool breeze blew my dark brown hair around in a swirling motion over my shoulders. The clear night sky offered up an amazing show. We’d already seen two falling stars and my wish was the same for both. Keep Holden safe.
This was the last night Holden and I would spend together before he left for the University of Southern California and I left for Texas A&M. My heart slowly sank as the clock ticked on.
“Are you nervous?” I asked, my voice shaky and unsure. I could hear the nervousness in my voice.
With a grin that still caused my stomach to flutter, he responded, “Nah. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll miss you and my folks. Probably will miss Mason, too, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.”
I lightly pushed him as I let out a chuckle. “Stop it. Mason’s like a brother to you. You’re going to miss him.”
Shrugging, he nodded his head and glanced away. “I’m looking forward to playing football. I only wish my father understood.”
Closing my eyes, I silently prayed I would understand as well. Holden and I had always planned on going to Texas A&M and getting a degree in agriculture and life science. Then we would move back to our hometown of Brady and start our life together. When USC offered him a full football scholarship, he said he couldn’t pass it up and it would be a new adventure. One he would go on without me. It wasn’t like he didn’t ask me to go with him. I wanted to be with him, but I also wanted to follow my dreams and Holden realized that.
“I’ll miss you the most, Em. I hope you know that.”
Swallowing hard, I bit down on my cheek to keep my tears at bay. I had promised myself I wouldn’t cry and make this harder on Holden, even though it tore me apart. He said he needed this. It would be good for both of us in the end. I had a terrible feeling it was going to change everything.
Turning back to me, Holden’s face lit up. “I love you, Em. I’ll always love you.”
Holden Warner and I had been practically inseparable since we were five years old and he pushed Mason Frank to the ground for pulling my ponytail and saying I was cute. We had been best friends since then. When we hit high school, Holden finally started to see me differently. I was no longer his best friend who did everything with him. I was Emylie, the best friend who started growing breasts and who liked to put makeup on and wear dresses. Our friendship quickly turned into something so much more.
I tried to smile and failed big time as I pleaded, “Promise me you won’t meet some hot California bleach blonde and forget about me.”
Holden placed his hand on the side of my face, his gaze fell to my lips as his thumb left a trail of fire across my cheek. “I promise you, Em. You’ll be my best friend forever and the only woman I will ever love.”
Closing my eyes, I let the tears fall as I whispered back, “I’m scared you’ll forget me.”
“Look at me, Em.”
I stared into his blue eyes. “This will be good for us. Some time apart isn’t going to be a bad thing. It will make us stronger.”
I shook my head. “How can you say that? It’s tearing me apart. How is this not doing the same to you?”
“It is. But going out and exploring new things, new people … it will be good for me and you. This town is all we’ve ever known. Ranching is all I’ve ever done. How do I really know I want to run my father’s ranch?”
Hurt filled my chest. “Because you love it.”
“I do love it,” he answered with a soft voice.
“What about us?”
Moving his finger along my jaw line, he smiled. “I can’t imagine meeting anyone who could ever make me feel like you do, Em.”
Lifting my chin, I attempted to keep my voice steady. “I can’t imagine it either. I love you and I’m going to miss you like crazy.”
He leaned over and kissed my lips. “I love you too. More than you’ll ever know. This is going to be good for us.”
His words rattled around in my brain. We would be okay. Our love was strong enough to be tested. If this was what Holden wanted, then I’d go along with it. Really, what choice did I have.
Five years later
A LUKE BRYAN song played while everyone two-stepped on the dance floor of Twin Oaks Dance Hall. I quickly glanced around.
“Do you see him?” my best friend Becca asked.
Shaking my head, I answered, “Nope.”
“Good, let’s have some fun!”
I followed Becca to the bar where she ordered us each a Bud Light. Placing the bottle to my lips, I caught Mason staring at me. I flashed him a smile as he replied back with a wink then said something to the girl standing next to him.
Turning away, I checked out the dance floor. “You know,” I said, leaning over
to Becca, “he could still show up.”
Shrugging her shoulders, she replied, “Let him. I’m done with him and his cheating ass. I wish I had listened to my parents. My life would be a hell of a lot better.”
Gazing down at the floor, I shook my head before glancing back at my best friend. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail that swung to the beat of the song. Her blue eyes seemed to sparkle tonight. Her divorce from her high school sweetheart was finalized today, and she planned on celebrating while my parents watched her four-year-old daughter, Sage.
“You wouldn’t have Sage if you had listened,” I contended, giving her a wink.
She simply nodded. “Only good thing that came out of that mess.”
“Evening ladies,” Mason said as he stopped in front of me. He glanced over to Becca and I couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes explored her.
“Evening, Mason,” Becca purred. She’d always had a crush on him. I’m pretty sure since the day he and Holden walked up to us on the playground in kindergarten, she was in love with Mason. Holden and Mason were best friends from the first moment they said hello to each other. Even after Holden pushed Mason to the ground for pulling my hair, the four of us did everything together. Mason had liked Becca in high school, but never went for it. Then she met her asshole of an ex and Mason lost interest. I thought for sure when I told her what happened between Mason and me she would have been angry with me, but that wasn’t Becca. She understood the reason behind why it happened.
Mason was there for me when I got the call. The moment my life changed forever. If it hadn’t been for him, I would have packed up and left college to move back home and cry myself to sleep each night. Probably would have ended up working for my parents at their bed and breakfast in the heart of Brady.
But I didn’t pack up and leave college. I cried in Mason’s arms for weeks before finally pulling myself together. Of course, the fact that I found myself in his bed also helped. He numbed the pain and made me forget how Holden had torn my heart in two.
“Want to dance, Mason?” Becca asked as she placed her hand on his broad chest. Turning away, I smiled and attempted not to laugh at my friend’s shameless flirting.
Before Mason could answer, Troy Walker came up and asked Becca to dance. Turning to me, she raised her brows and gave me a naughty smile. Her one and only goal tonight was to get laid. I was pretty sure any attention from any guy would do the trick.
As Becca wondered off with Troy, Mason watched them intently. Was that a bit of jealousy I saw? He finally motioned to sit next to me. Smiling, I nodded.
“How’s it going, Em?”
The sound of Mason’s voice caused my body to hum. I hadn’t seen him in over a week, and I longed for some … attention of my own. “It’s going. How about you?”
Lifting his beer bottle to his lips, I watched him take a drink while I bit down on my lip. Mason didn’t light my body on fire like Holden had, but he certainly knew how to make it come to life. His blonde hair and blue eyes were my weakness…and my crutch. More so my crutch, truth be told.
“It’s going. I haven’t seen you around the ranch. Where you been?” Mason asked as he kept his gaze out on the dance floor. He couldn’t stop watching Becca dance with Troy.
Taking a drink, I tilted my head and surveyed him. “Have you missed me?”
Mason peered back at me and licked his lips. The way his eyes filled with lust made my chest tighten. A moan unintentionally slipped from my lips. “I have. A lot,” He replied.
I knew it was unhealthy for the two of us to use each other like we did. Becca took every chance she had to remind me that Mason and I were nothing more than fuck buddies. We were okay with that.
Quickly turning and glancing out over the dance floor, I said, “My days have been consumed with helping Sam stock the tank and making sure everything’s ready for next weekend.”
“Sounds like fun,” Mason chuckled. Mason was the ranch manager for the T-Bar Hunting Ranch, one of the largest and most premier hunting ranches in all of Texas. I also worked on the ranch as a wildlife manager. He struggled with the position for a bit, knowing it truly belonged to Holden with it being his parent’s ranch. But Holden made the decision to walk away.
I could feel the heat building between the two of us as I moved about in my seat. “Was loads of fun.”
Mason stood and reached his hand out for me. “Dance with me, Em.”
Setting my beer down on the table, I took his hand and let him lead me to the dance floor. It wouldn’t seem out of place for the two of us to dance. After all, we’d been the best of friends since anyone could remember. Little did they all know, we’d been sleeping together since our last year of college. The only person who knew was Becca.
The song changed and “Fly” by Maddie and Tae began playing. Burying my face into his chest, I closed my eyes and let him take me away from everything. It was easy to get lost in Mason. He was my safe zone.
Holding me closer, he placed his lips against my ear, “Come home with me tonight, Em.”
Pulling my head back, I looked at him. We had an arrangement. When he needed me, I would be there for him. When I needed him, he would be there for me. As much as I tried to make myself feel something more for Mason, I couldn’t and I knew he felt the same way. We made great best friends, but we’d never be good at being together. We tried and failed big time. “Okay,” I whispered as he smiled.
The song ended and a faster tune started playing. “Let’s show these assholes how you dance, Tink.” Throwing my head back, I laughed as Mason and I two-stepped around the dance floor. He’d given me the nickname Tink after I dressed up like Tinkerbell for Halloween one year. Holden had hated when Mason called me that. He stopped calling me the nickname when Holden and I began dating, but picked it back up again after the first time we slept together. Holding me in his arms as I cried over the asshole who had broken up with me over the phone, he whispered, “I’ll always take care of you, Tink. Always.”
And he has held true to that promise.
Unlike Holden.
Mason turned on the lights of the three bedroom, two bath ranch house. Scanning the room, I frowned as I surveyed the mess. Once Mason became the foreman of the T-Bar Ranch, Sam gave him the house to stay in. He complained at first about the house being too big for just him, but having Mason here on the ranch was important, so Sam insisted he stay.
“Holy shit, Mason. It’s a mess in here,” I commented as I walked over and picked up a pizza box off the coffee table. Lord knows how long it had been there. Glancing back to Mason, he gave me a sexy grin and opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of beer.
“I’ll clean up tomorrow. Or the next day.”
Letting out a sigh, I began cleaning off the coffee table. Walking into the kitchen, I threw it all in the garbage, not before I did a quick once over on the kitchen. It was actually pretty clean for being bachelor pad.
“You need a girlfriend, Mason.” I said as I walked back into the living room and sat down next to him on the couch. Handing me my beer, Mason laughed.
“Yeah, like you need a boyfriend, Em.”
Shaking my head, I whispered, “Hell no. I’m never going down that road again.” Then I added with a smirk, “I do know someone who would love to play the part of your girlfriend though.”
He lifted his brow. “Who?”
Chewing on my lip, I replied, “Becca.”
“Yeah, fuck that,” Mason whispered.
I wasn’t sure why Mason thought the idea of Becca was wrong. I saw the way he looked at her, and he loved Sage so much. He had been crazy for her in high school. Not being in the mood to push it, I sighed and let it go.
I leaned my head back against his arm and asked, “How did we end up like this?”
Mason cleared his throat and started with his explanation. “Let’s see. It all started when Holden called you up at A&M and told you he had met a girl and he was planning on staying in California
to start a new life with her … causing you to fall into a serious funk that I, as your best friend, had to pull you out of.”
“That’s right. How could I have forgotten?” I replied sarcastically.
“Then, I walked in on the woman I thought I was going to marry having sex with some computer nerd who swept her off her feet and moved her to Washington DC.”
Snarling my lip, I said with a sharp voice, “Bitch.”
“Yeah, she is. And Holden is an asshole.”
Nodding, I agreed. “Yep. Better off without the two of them.”
After Mason had walked in on his girlfriend, he came to my apartment, which was right off of campus. I’d never seen him so upset. One thing led to another and we quickly found ourselves tangled up naked as we spent the rest of the night together. With Holden breaking my heart weeks earlier, and now Mason’s girlfriend destroying his, it was only natural when the hugs turned to more.
We made a promise to each other that night that nothing would come out of our arrangement. We were simply two friends who were finding comfort in each other by having sex. A lot of sex. Hot and heavy sex that left me breathless and longing for the next time Mason would fill me. God, that made me such a slut. But it also gave me an escape. When I was with Mason, I didn’t think about Holden.
Letting out a deep breath, I stood up and headed into the kitchen. My stomach growled and I was wishing I hadn’t skipped dinner. Before I even made it halfway into the kitchen, Mason grabbed me and had my skirt lifted and my panties pushed to the side. He sunk his fingers inside of me, giving me what he knew I needed. We were soon lost in each other. It was the only time we were both able to forget the hurt caused by the very people we thought loved us.
I couldn’t figure out the expression in Mason’s eyes, but I had a feeling it had to do with Becca. Guilt quickly hit me square in the chest. I was going to have to talk to him about her. About his feelings for Becca, especially now that she was divorced and single again.
Sitting on the floor attempting to catch our breath, Mason turned to me. “Tink, how long are we going to keep pretending?”
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