“Yeah?” Ty wagged his brow.
“Jesus, you’re as bad as Masyn. When she showed up last night, we were swimming. I have no idea what she believes took place, but I can assure you it wasn’t the story she wants to make it out to be.”
Ty appeared disappointed. “So you really didn’t sleep with this chick?”
“Nope.”
“Nothing?” Beau asked.
“I mean, she kissed me when she left.”
Ty exchanged glances with Beau before calling bullshit. “There’s no way you let a hot girl swim around in a bikini in your pool and didn’t initiate anything.”
“Why does everyone think I’m such a manwhore? She kissed me.”
“So you pushed her away, right?” Ty mocked me, and Beau snickered with him—I ought to knock him off the stool and see who was laughing then.
“Basically.”
“Yeah, right after you stuck your tongue down her throat, and she spread her legs.” Ty was married with two kids under the age of three. It would surprise me to find out he wasn’t getting the same kind of attention he had from Donna when they were making out under the bleachers in high school.
“Didn’t happen.”
Ty redirected his attention to the car. “You gonna see her again?”
“She doesn’t even live here. I have no idea if she’s already left town. We didn’t discuss it.” That wasn’t exactly true, but giving these two the actual events would only spur this ridiculous conversation on instead of shutting it down.
“You should give her a call.” Ty never made much sense—not when it came to advice and women.
In one breath, he’d tell me I was responsible for his sister, and in the next, that I needed to dip my stick in any oilcan whose cap I could get off. If he had any inkling of what I dreamed about doing to his sister, he’d draw and quarter me.
“I thought we were here to fix an alternator. Did I miss a memo?” I asked.
“Nah, I’m just fucking with you, Lee. Enjoy this shit while you can. Once you walk down that aisle or bring a kid into the world, the days of freedom are in the past.”
Ty could say what he wanted about freedom and missing the past. There wasn’t a woman on this planet he’d trade Donna for, and those kids were his world. He was a family man and always had been. As a kid, it was his siblings and parents. When he got married, the protective vibe shifted to Donna, although he still kept close tabs on Masyn—not that he needed to. She never did anything other than hang out with me.
When we—and I use that term loosely—finished the alternator and had Masyn’s car running again, I tried to grab Beau and head out. I was afraid to go into the house and set Masyn off, but my stomach was screaming for food.
“You guys stay for lunch.” Ty glanced at his watch. “Early dinner.” It was later than any of us realized.
“I don’t know. Masyn’s pretty ticked, and the only way she’s going to calm down is if I talk to her. That conversation doesn’t need to happen here.” I’d known her long enough to be certain she wouldn’t open up in front of her brother, or anyone else.
Ty clapped me on the shoulder and ushered Beau and me inside. “Then Masyn can go home in her car, which is now running.”
Donna was in the kitchen patting out hamburgers, and Masyn was beside her, working on what appeared to be the makings for potato salad—hard to say with her back to me. There were beans in a casserole dish with strips of bacon lining the top, biscuits on a pan, and corn on the cob wrapped in tinfoil, waiting to go into the oven. It wasn’t a feast for kings, but in Harden, it was a damn-good way to end a weekend.
By the time dinner was ready, we’d all piled out on the back deck to eat with folding lawn chairs and paper plates. Ty lit some timber in the fire pit—nothing like more heat in the heart of June in Georgia. I’d spent more Sundays like this than doing anything else, and it was still one of my favorite things to do. The tension with Masyn died down, and she had even let me hug her from behind when she stood at the sink washing her hands. She hadn’t let go of whatever was on her mind, though. She’d simply set it aside to enjoy the evening and not make a scene in front of Ty, who wouldn’t let that shit go.
Donna stepped out on the porch from the kitchen and handed out bottles of beer, leaving the door open behind her. Just as she handed me one, I heard my phone ring in the kitchen.
I had my plate in my lap, and I tried to get up without dumping it onto the porch. “That’s mine.”
“Sit. I’ll grab it.”
Donna tossed it to me on the third ring. I had a split second to make the decision about answering it—and I made the wrong choice.
“Hello?” I said around a mouthful of food.
“Hey. Are you busy?” Peyton sounded upbeat.
“Just sitting over at Ty’s house eating dinner. What’s up?” Maybe if I played it cool and acted like it was anyone other than Peyton, no one would be the wiser.
“I hope you don’t mind me calling.”
“Nah, not at all.”
“My parents left with my sister this morning. And I got tasked with cleaning up the mess with vendors and guests. You said to let you know if I was going to be around longer, so I thought I’d see if you wanted to hang out this week. My flight doesn’t leave until Friday afternoon. If not, it’s no big deal.”
I avoided making eye contact with anyone, yet I could still feel each gaze intently focused on me. “Yeah, absolutely. I don’t get off until three. Five, maybe?”
“Let me know where. I’ll see you then.”
“Bye.”
I didn’t look up. It was as though the world stopped spinning while that call took place. We were outside in the country, and you could hear a damn pin drop with two toddlers running around a few feet away. I took a bite of my corn, hoping everyone would resume their conversations and forget about me. They did not.
“Who was that, Lee?” Beau was determined to use all of his nine lives in one day, and his mocking tone made me feel like we were back in third grade, except then it was him getting teased, not me.
“Peyton,” I mumbled, and hoped no one understood.
“Oh yeah, you two are going to hang out, huh?”
I glared at him, and Ty snickered beside me. Beau’s eyes danced with amusement. Masyn’s did not. She wasn’t a crier, never had been. When we were nine, she broke her arm jumping off a rope swing. The break was so bad, the bone cut through the skin—not a single tear shed. Now her eyes were tinged with emotion. Before she let anyone witness it, she stood and walked inside. I watched through the glass in the door as she dumped her plate in the trash. Then she grabbed her keys off the counter.
Shit.
“Masyn!” I hollered from the porch. “Fuck. Sorry.” I scrambled over people’s legs and feet to get inside and stop her, spilling food on the porch in the process. “I’ll be right back to clean it up.”
I raced inside and flung the front door open just as she pulled out of the driveway. The sun was setting, and the sky was dusky-dark as I watched her taillights disappear down the road. Instead of grabbing my keys to go after her, I waited to see if she’d turn around. Once she was out of sight, I spun and slammed my fist into the steel front door, breaking open the skin on my knuckles.
“Damn it!” I yelled to no one in particular, although I was quite certain everyone heard me out back. My chest heaved as I took several deep breaths and paced in circles, trying to calm down. I had to go back to the group, but I just wasn’t in the frame of mind to do it yet. It took punching the door again, yanking on my hair, and practicing Lamaze to regain my composure.
Finally, I threw my hands up in defeat and went inside. Even though Donna beat me to it, I snagged some paper towels on my way through the kitchen to clean up the mess I’d made in my hasty exit. “I would’ve gotten that, D.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I know. I don’t mind. Everything okay?”
“Dude, I could have told you how horribly wrong that was going to go.
” Beau shook his head and got up to throw his plate away. He didn’t close the door when he stepped inside and called back to Donna, “Another great meal, D. Thank you.” And then he rejoined us with a fresh beer in hand.
“Thanks, Beau. I’m not sure how I’ve survived with you away at school. You really should come home more often.” With that, I snatched the beer from his hand, tossed it back, and guzzled down the cold, burning brew.
Chapter Nine
I’d searched for Masyn after I left Ty’s house last night. Every place I could think of that she might be was a miss. No one had seen her, and she hadn’t gone home—I dreaded hearing what rumors got stirred up about my frantic search for her. It was too much to hope that she’d gone to my house to wait for me to show up. I gave up around eleven, knowing I’d see her in the morning at work, although trying to sleep was as fruitless as my search for Masyn. I tossed and turned all night worrying about her. In all the years I’d known her, I’d never seen her act like this about anything. She went with the flow, regardless of who was involved—the more, the merrier. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what her aversion to Peyton was. There was no way she was jealous, and I refused to believe Beau’s theory might hold water, because if it were true, then I had bigger fish to fry than Peyton Holstein.
The time clock glowed when I punched in a little before six. My shift didn’t start for another hour. I just couldn’t stand another sixty minutes of pacing around my house. She hadn’t read or responded to any of my messages, nor had she answered my calls. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that I was frantic, but she hadn’t put an end to my suffering. The earlier I got to work, the more time I’d have to corner her before we had to actually do something. There was no way she could avoid talking to me here unless she called in sick, which she never did. Yet sitting here, time kept ticking away with no sign of her.
“Hey, Farley. You heard from Masyn?” I asked the owner’s son as he walked through the breakroom.
“Nah, why?”
“She’s not here yet. Just wondering if she called in sick.”
“There’d have to be a world war or zombie apocalypse for her not to show up.” He poured a cup of coffee and then faced me. “Shouldn’t you know where she is?”
Why the hell does everyone think I know her every move? “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shook his head and held up his hand, spilling his coffee down his arm. “Shit. That’s hot.” He wiped his arm on his shirt. “It doesn’t mean anything other than you two are attached at the hip.”
That didn’t warrant a response. “If you hear from her, can you let me know?”
His skeptical expression made me think he was going to probe; thankfully, he didn’t. A few minutes later, he poked his head in the door. “Hey, Lee. Masyn’s here.”
She came into view, meaning she’d been next to him, clocking in when he loudly announced her arrival. I jumped up to follow her and pushed him out of the way. “Masyn.”
She stopped dead in her tracks and her back stiffened. She held her fists in tight balls at her sides. It didn’t take me long to catch up to her and step around her.
“What’s up, Lee?” Her indifference was nothing more than an act, but it stung all the same.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m trying to get to work. What’s going on with you?” She folded her arms across her chest and squared her shoulders. There wasn’t a hint of amusement or happiness in her expression, and her eyes were sad—dull. None of the color I liked to pick apart from the brown was there to see.
“Where’d you go last night?”
“The dock.”
“You drove all the way out to Lake Martin?” No wonder I’d never found her. It was a hike from town to the water, not to mention pitch black at night. It wasn’t a commercial marina, just some rickety old wood we’d been going to since we could drive.
“Yep.” She offered no explanation for why or how long she’d stayed.
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset with me. What have I done?” I needed to lower my voice.
Other guys in the shop stared at the two of us lingering in the walkway. I didn’t do drama, and I sure as hell didn’t do it in public. I wasn’t interested in people knowing my business. It was hard enough to keep things to yourself in Harden as it was.
She’d yet to uncross her arms, and her stare was so ice-cold, a chill ran up my spine. “I don’t know why you’d think you’ve done anything.” Her brows arched waiting for my response.
“Break it up, you two. The metal isn’t going to turn itself,” Farley squawked at us.
Nothing was going to be resolved standing here. And getting written up would only further irritate her. “We’re not done, Masyn.” I started to back off toward my station, still holding her attention.
I could have choked her when she rolled her eyes and shrugged just before she pivoted on the ball of her foot and stomped off. Her inability—or rather refusal—to act like an adult was uncharacteristic and sent me careening into immaturity with her. If we’d been in a sandbox, I would have hurled a handful of dirt at her. Too bad we weren’t five anymore—that sounded rather cathartic.
Masyn managed to avoid me all day. Even at lunch, she ate in her car. It took a hell of a lot of restraint not to go out there and beat on the window to force her to talk. All it would do is rile up the guys in the shop, and listening to their ribbing for the remainder of the afternoon wouldn’t help my mood any.
At quitting time, she was the first to punch out, and then she practically sprinted to her car and sped into the street. Just in time, I burst out into the parking lot, shielding my eyes from the sun, and watched her peel out. It was hot as hell, and I was standing there sweating like a whore in church. A couple of the guys clapped my shoulder as they left, yet I didn’t move. Masyn was long gone, and I hadn’t budged.
The lot was empty when I finally got in the truck to drive home. I didn’t have a clue what Peyton had in mind; I just knew I couldn’t do it in Dickies covered in grease. A shower was my top priority, and it couldn’t come soon enough. When I looked over my shoulder and backed out, I caught a whiff of myself and it was pungent. No one ever accused me of not putting in a hard day’s work—but I didn’t need to smell like it when I wasn’t at the shop.
Beau’s BMW sat in my driveway when I pulled up. He leaned against the hood with his cellphone in his hand. I wondered if he’d ever considered having it surgically attached to his palm.
“Hey, man. What are you doing here?”
“Other than arguing with Felicity? Nothing much. Didn’t have much going on, so I thought I’d stop by and see what you were up to.”
“Supposed to get together with Peyton, although you already knew that.”
He tried to act surprised and failed miserably. “Oh yeah, I forgot.” Liar. “What are you two doing?”
“No clue. You’re welcome to tag along.” I walked by him and opened the front door.
“Remind me why you lock this place up…”
We lived in a small town where crime was non-existent. This was the type of town where neighbors shot people for being in places they weren’t supposed to be, and then asked questions afterward. There was no threat to my house or my belongings; I just didn’t feel the need to encourage uninvited visitors. “Are you still talking?”
He bounced around like he was amped up on something, but Beau had never done an illegal thing in his life. This was his natural exuberance. Felicity had kept him so bogged down that I hadn’t seen him this light in years. “So what are we doing? Masyn coming?”
Talking as I walked, Beau followed me around the house. I stripped my shirt off on my way to the laundry room and tossed it into the basket when I got there. He continued rambling behind me. And when I started to unbutton my pants, I faced him. “Dude. You mind?” And I motioned toward my pants.
“No, go ahead.” And then he stood there yapping while I stripped my filthy pants off an
d added them to the basket with my shirt. “We could take the boat out. There’s still plenty of daylight.”
I wore nothing but boxers, yet weirdly enough, Beau continued to trail after me like a lost dog. There was no way I was letting him into the bathroom.
“It is already in the slip? Or would I have to go get it from your parents’ house?” I had no desire to tow, or return, the Queen Mary forty-five minutes down the road. The Chastains’ large deck boat was fun to play around on; it was not fun to transport. It was as hard on my transmission as it was on my brakes, neither of which I had an interest in replacing.
“It’s there. My dad and I moved it this morning.”
I kept forgetting Beau had nowhere to be, and obviously nothing to do. “How long have you been hanging around outside waiting for me to get here?” I stopped at the door to my bedroom and whirled around to confront him.
After a quick shrug, he stared at me like I’d shot his favorite coon dog. “I dunno. Since I got back to my parents’ house.” Beau tried to put on a good front. He’d maintained his happy composure and had nothing good to say about Felicity, yet there was no way he couldn’t be hurting on some level—even if it was just the betrayal of being lied to and manipulated. “I know you have a life that doesn’t really include me on a daily basis. I just need to stay busy until I get back to mine. A week alone might send me over the edge.”
“No worries. The lake sounds like a plan, and based on what little I learned about Peyton, it will probably be a new experience for her. While I shower, can you pack a cooler, grab some towels, and find the most unappealing swimsuit Masyn has here?”
“On it.”
When I was able to escape to the shower without an audience, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I walked on eggshells everywhere I went. I hated not being comfortable in my own home. One best friend needed his hand held while he moved through canceling a wedding, and the other avoided me like the plague and harbored some hatred for a woman she knew nothing about. The whiplash of the last two days had already started to take its toll.
Label Me Proud Page 11
