“Daddy and I can take the girls while y’all go enjoy yourselves.” Momma smoothed a hand up and down Rory’s back and smiled at her. “Your sister and Gran are right. You deserve a little break. You’ve been workin’ on this for days, not countin’ all the plannin’ leadin’ up to it.”
“I’m not takin’ no for an answer, sugar,” Gran said, her eyebrow raised as if challenging Rory to try it.
“Y’all comin’ or what?” Nat yelled from across the yard where she stood with Will, Finn, and Nash. “I’m itchin’ to see this fancy new place, and God knows I need a fucking drink after this long in Havenbrook.”
Momma sighed, closed her eyes, and shook her head. “She’s lucky her daddy’s already inside,” she mumbled. Then louder, “Did you misplace your tact on your travels, Nat?”
“Sorry, Momma, but you know me and tact aren’t really friends.”
Nash said something to Nat then, too low for Rory to hear, and Nat tipped her head back in a booming laugh. Rory’s chest tightened in response—the same reaction she’d been having all day and night as she’d watched her sister and Nash chum it up, talking and telling inside jokes and holding each other up through their laughter.
Rory hadn’t had a moment alone since she’d gotten that first glimpse of Nat across the yard. Which meant she hadn’t been able to work through any of the bubbling emotions this day had dredged up. But, yeah, sure, why not go hang out with her sister who couldn’t stand her and the man she was sleeping with in secret and get a front row seat to their obvious connection?
“Y’all go on now,” Momma said. “The girls are already crashed out on the sofas inside anyway. You can pick ’em up in the mornin’.” She turned to Rory and patted her cheek. “Enjoy yourself, sweetheart.”
Mac hooked her arm through Rory’s and tugged her out of their momma’s hold. “There’ll be a never-endin’ glass of wine for you. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Better be something a whole lot stronger than wine,” Rory muttered as she stared at the retreating forms of Nash and Nat.
His arm was hooked around her sister’s neck as they strolled toward his truck. Nat looked up at him through her laughter, and Rory’s stomach sank even further. The two of them just…fit.
Rory and Nash were a lot of things—volatile and combustible and explosive. And she’d known from the beginning that they didn’t make sense together.
What she hadn’t known was just how bad it’d hurt to realize he and her sister did.
An hour later,Rory was still desperate to go home. The Willow Tree wasn’t huge by any means, which meant that no matter where she stood, Nat’s laughter followed her. The sound inevitably caught Rory’s attention, and she’d glance over to spy a glimpse of her youngest sister surrounded by throngs of friends. Nash and Drew and Nola. Will and Finn and a dozen other people who hadn’t seen Nat in years, all of them smiling and enjoying every minute of being in her presence.
But that was Nat. She was a freaking magnet, drawing people in, and she’d always been like that. Rory was just buzzed enough to admit—at least to herself—that she’d always been a little jealous of that because that gene had skipped right over her. Sure, she could gain a crowd’s attention, and she had no trouble getting people to listen to her and do her bidding if she so chose. But that had more to do with her ability to command a room than it did with any ounce of charisma.
“Dang, girl, you need another one already?” Mac asked, lifting her chin toward Rory’s drink.
Rory glanced down at her empty glass. No, she absolutely should not get another one—she’d already had three—but the alcohol had been a passable bandage for the current shitshow that was her life. It’d dulled the emotions ricocheting through her. Had numbed the tightness in her chest and settled the swarm of bees in her stomach that’d kept her company all day. “You promised to keep my drink filled.”
“So I did.” Not bothering to try to catch Nola’s attention to get a refill, Mac slipped around behind the bar to mix Rory another drink. “You wanna tell me what’s goin’ on?”
Rory lifted her eyes to meet Mac’s. “Well, I’m here only because you made me come, and I’d like to go home now.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.” Mac leveled Rory with a pointed stare.
Oh no.No. Nope. No way. She was not going there. And definitely not while they were in a public place. And most certainly not while she wasthis closeto say-way-too-much drunk.
“’Fraid I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Okay, well, how far back should we go so I can refresh your memory?”
“Mac, don’t—” Rory started, but her words got swallowed by the too-loud college-aged girls who sat down next to her at the crowded bar.
“Nash’s so damn hot,” Blondie slurred.
The redhead nodded vigorously as she sucked up the last remnants of her bright-green drink. “Truth. He could have a wife and three kids at home, but if he came knockin’ on my door again, I’d let him bang me like a screen door in a hurricane.”
“You’re so bad!” Blondie chortled, then froze, her eyes going wide as she squeezed Redhead’s forearm. “Wait, what do you mean ‘again’?”
“I never told you about that?”
“Uh,no. Spill!”
“Last year, right after this place opened, I came to check it out. I wasreallydrunk, and he offered to take me home, and, well— Oh! I love this song!” Redhead yelled, then pulled her friend to the middle of the small dance floor.
