Tears burned the back of my eyes, and I tried to blink them away. I didn’t want to cry for him ever again. But just like everything else, I failed at that too. I lifted my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, rocking back and forth as one by one, tears rolled down my face.

When my phone rang in my purse, I didn’t budge. I wasn’t answering that thing ever again. There was absolutely no one I wanted to talk to.

Then it rang again. And again. And again.

I finally pulled it out and stared at the screen.

Ricky.

My finger hovered over the button to end the call, but for some stupid reason, I answered.

“What did you tell him?”

“What the hell have you been doing up there, Whit? A Riscoff? Really? They fucking hate your family.”

“You no longer have the right to ask me questions like that.”

“But, baby, I’m—”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

I hung up the phone and turned it off. I was done with tonight. Done with everything.

I fell asleep on my bed and didn’t wake up until someone pounded on the front door.

Forty-Five

Lincoln

Present day

“What are you doing here, man?”

Hunter rolls down the window of his truck when I pull up and park beside him at Mo’s. I’m not too proud to admit that I followed my friend and did a good enough job at it so he wouldn’t realize I was tailing him. I just didn’t expect to be following him here. Back to where it all fucking started. Maybe there’s something poetic about that, but I’m certainly not feeling that way right now.

“What do you think I’m doing? I’m here to fix things.”

“Look, I get it. You want another shot with the one that got away. Hell, I even respect it. But you gotta back off for now.”

“Whitney’s aunt has a job at The Gables, if she’ll take it. An even better one than she had before.”

Hunter’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “For real?”

“I’ve also got an apology from my mother, in writing. If Jackie will accept my mother’s apology, McKinley is going to promote her.”

“Holy shit. You didn’t waste time working that miracle.” Hunter leans back in the seat and smiles ruefully. “I should’ve figured you’d find a way to turn this into a windfall. That’s what you do.”

“We good?”

“Yeah.” He nods. “We’re solid.”

We climb out of our vehicles and I follow Hunter. I’m glad he’s over the idea of kicking my ass—and not just because I don’t have many friends I can trust like I trust him.

The tall bastard’s head damn near touches the doorway as we walk into the bar. He’s built like a brute, even though his mother would like to pretend that their family has never done a day’s worth of physical labor. He’s got at least a couple of inches and thirty pounds on me, and I’m not small at six feet and two twenty.