I toss my baseball cap down next to me and scrape my hands through my hair. “I tried, Rowdy. I tried to make it work with Jane. She’s fucking family to me, but...”
“Hayes, you’re loyal to a fault. No one doubts that. We could all see how hard you tried to make it work with Jane, but you can’t jam a square peg into a round hole.”
At Rowdy’s words, a welcome wave of relief washes over me. The guys have always thought of Jane as a little sister and been protective of her. I’ve harbored fears they’d be angry at me for ending things with her, which is why I let our relationship drag onas long as I did.
Stretching out my legs, I feel some of the tension ebb from my muscles. “Yesterday, we got into a fight because Jane wanted me to propose. I’ve never even told her I loved her, but she expected me to be ready for marriage,” I say, still reeling from Jane’s demand and the panic I felt at hearing her words. Lifting my glass, I remember it’s empty. Rowdy slides his whiskey across the coffee table. I take a long, heavy sip from his glass. “She gave me an ultimatum: propose or break up. I fucking froze and didn’t say a word. She yelled at me some more and then stormed out, and I ended up at Tank’s Motel and Tavern where I met Annabelle.”
Rowdy presses his lips together. “Hayes, you’re the stupidest smart guy I know.”
My brows furrow.
Shaking his head, his belly heaves from his hooting laughter. “I’ve got bad news for you, brother. You didn’t break up with Jane, but it sounds like you need to since you slept with someone else.”
“What are you talking about, Rowdy?” I bark. “Jane said to either propose or break up. I sure as shit didn’t propose. Therefore, we broke up.”
Rowdy pulls his phone from his pocket, puts the call to his wife on speaker, and sets it down between us.
As it rings, I take another gulp of whiskey, my heart sputtering at the implausible idea that Jane and I didn’t break up yesterday. Rowdy is right about one thing: I am loyal, and I value loyalty above all else. That I may have cheated, even unwittingly, eats at me.
“Bailey, I've got a situation to run by you right quick. Hayes needs a little help understanding women.” Rowdy leans forward, placing his elbows on his thighs, and explains what went down.
Bailey’s tinkling laughter, which I usually find endearing, grates on my nerves. She sighs and confirms my worst fears. “You did not breakup with her, Einstein. How are you simultaneously so smart and so dumb, Hayes?”
“That’s almost exactly what I said, babe.”
Great. Just fucking great.I throw my hands up in the air, exasperated. Rowdy’s laughter crescendos into full guffaws.
“Y’all can both shut up,” I say, furiously massaging my forehead. “Explain it to me like I’m five, Bailey. How did we not break up?”
“Jane supplied you with two options. Option A was to propose, and Option B was to break up. You chose Option C, which was to freeze like a freaking deer in headlights.”
“Hayes’ new nickname should be Bambi,” Rowdy quips as I glare at him.
“Focus, Rowdy,” Bailey admonishes. “Just because you didn’t choose Option A doesn’t mean you chose Option B by default. Y’all just had a fight. But if you slept with someone else last night, it won’t matter if you thought you were on a break—”
I see the thought cross his mind before Rowdy forms the words. “Don’t fucking say it, man,” I warn, pointing my finger at him.
Ignoring me, Rowdy does his best Ross fromFriendsimpression, “But we were on a break!” Which, of course, his wife finds hilarious.
Hell, at this point, even I find the situation a little funny.
Until I realize I might still need to break up with Jane.
Fuuuuck.
5
Annabelle
Then
After the killer hangover that wrecked me today, I skipped the wine and grabbed a La Croix once the girls were in bed. Not long after, I hear a soft knock on my front door. I invited Laura over to catch up, since we missed each other this morning.
Lord knows I have a lot to tell her.
“Hey, Anna!” Laura wraps me up in a hug, and I lean into it, grateful for her affection.
“Hey, yourself. Want some wine?”
