“Been waiting on you.”
“Where is she?” I ask, making my way to my oldest, truest friend.
He just grins. “You mean the pretty girl who stole your four-wheeler?”
I crack my own smile at the thought. “Yeah. Her.”
“Well, let’s see here,” he starts, leaning against the barn as if he has all the time in the world. “I think I recall seeing her take off that’a way.” He points to the path we took when I brought her out here a couple weeks back.
I don’t even reply, just head straight to his four-wheeler that’s sitting beside the barn. “I’ll be back.”
“Sure, go ahead and take it. I’m not using it,” he responds, his smile evident in his voice. I jump on the machine and fire it up, taking off as if my ass were on fire. “Watch the cameras!” he hollers over the engine noise.
I’m comfortable on ATVs, his included, so it takes me no time to work my way around the farm, following the same route I took Lizzie on. I keep my eyes peeled for my machine. When I turn into the trees and the temperature drops without direct sunlight, I finally spot her. She’s sitting on my four-wheeler, her legs hanging off the back with her head resting between the handlebars. It doesn’t look entirely comfortable, but I’m not going to judge. She still looks completely mesmerizing lying there.
I head in her direction and smile when she lifts her head to look my way. There’s no missing the way her kissable lips turn up as she watches me approach. I park next to my ATV and turn off the engine. Lizzie sits up completely and turns to face me, and I do the same.
“Hi,” she states.
“Hi. Everything okay?” I ask, worried about her tremendously.
She gives me a small grin and nods. “Yeah, it is. I hope it’s okay I took your four-wheeler for a ride,” she says a bit sheepishly.
“I don’t care about that,” I tell her. “You can take it whenever you want.”
When she looks up at me and our eyes lock once more, I feel this instant shift in my chest, like all the pieces finally click into place. It’s not painful or dramatic. It’s…right.
She’s the piece I didn’t even know I was missing.
“I owe you an apology.”
Her eyebrows shoot up, but she doesn’t say a word, so I continue.
“I heard you met Whitney,” I start, letting out a deep breath. “Whitney and I dated while I was in the Air Force. She was a year younger than me in school, right between Cade and me and Charli. From the beginning, I had been a little reluctant to start a relationship with someone who lived back here, while I was in Washington. She insisted she didn’t care about the distance, telling me we had all the time in the world.”
I close my eyes for a brief moment, but it’s not Whitney’s face I see.
It’s Lizzie’s.
“After the first six months of long-distance dating, she brought up the idea of her moving to Washington, but the only way to do that was for me to get married housing. She didn’t want to just get her own place there in town. She wanted to live with me, and that meant I would have to marry her. I wasn’t ready for that, and I told her. She insisted that’s not what she wanted either, yet her insistence that I was the one keeping us apart said otherwise. She played with my mind, telling me one thing and then either doing another or making me feel a different way. It was a constant game, but I thought I loved her, so I kept playing.
“It wasn’t until we’d hit the year mark of our relationship that her demands for a ring started to hit pretty frequently. She blamed me for our separation and started telling everyone back home I wouldn’t commit to her, even though I was fully committed. I tried to talk to her, to remind her she agreed in the beginning that it was only temporary and, as soon as I was released from the Air Force, I’d move back home with her. She constantly told me to hurry up, as if I could somehow make my enlistment go faster. I was in for four years, and had one left to go.
“One night, I got a call from Wyatt. He was upset. Told me he didn’t want to tell me what he was about to say, but as my friend, he had to. He informed me Whitney was cheating on me. Not with one guy, but with two. Two I considered friends back in Cooper Town. Worse, the rumor was going around that she was pregnant, and I knew the baby couldn’t be mine. I hadn’t been home for a leave in more than six months.”
The pain slices through my chest, but I know I need to finish. Lizzie doesn’t say a word, just watches me and listens, but I don’t miss the different emotions that sweep across her face. Outrage, anger, shock, and sadness. It’s all there.
“When I called her, she denied it. Told me it was all just rumors, and at first, I believed her. I knew how small towns work. Wouldn’t have been the first time my name was thrown in the middle of a rumor scandal. But as the weeks went on and the messages I got from people back here started to increase, I realized I was being played.
“I talked to my CO and he granted me a short leave. I had forty-eight hours to fly home and figure out what the hell was going on. The moment I showed up on her doorstep and my friend, Chris, answered the door, I had my answer. He was shocked to see me but didn’t fight back when I threw the punch.I knew doing so could get me kicked out of the military, but I did it anyway. I was so fucking hurt, so mad at him and her.”
I shake my head for a moment and finish the story. “She came to the door, clearly pregnant. Told me I was a waste of space and a loser, that I could never give her what Chris had. For over a year, she strung me along like a puppy dog, toying with my emotions and using the distance as a weapon.”
She clears her throat and asks, “What happened to Chris?”
The corner of my mouth curls up. “You mean when he learned the baby wasn’t actually his because she was also sleeping with Jackson? He left her. Works construction with Cade, but I don’t think they talk. I know we don’t.”
“Good,” she states venomously. “A friend doesn’t fuck another friend’s girl.”
