“We’re not together anymore,” Chase says right as I reach the exit.
Guess that answers my question on whether or not Amelia is lurking about.
Don’t do it. Don’t you dare turn around.
Dammit, Douglass.
“Caught her screwing some other guy?”
The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. And when Chase’s face flushes red and his gaze averts to the floor, I feel like shit, even if he doesn’t deserve any sympathy from me. Oh, karma, you evil bitch. You should be pointing that cruel magic toward my sister, not toward the men who were stupid enough to fall for her.
I know all about making colossal mistakes. Mistakes so big you wish you had a time machine, so you could go back and fix the mess of your life by choosing a different path. Make a different choice. Get a second chance.
Biting my lip, I make a choice now. I just hope it’s the right one.
Holding my food at my side, I push the front glass door open with my hip and wait. “You coming?”
Chase brightens somewhat. He nods and follows me outside, pointing to our right to a small grassy area adjacent to the parking lot where I see the picnic table. I’ll be glad when the cold front pushes through later tonight, dropping the temperatures from the lower eighties to a more pleasant upper fifties. I did not miss the Texas winters and its seesaw weather one bit while I was gone.
I slide onto the seat and immediately take out my wrap, peeling back the paper around it. Chase sits across from me and props his elbows on the picnic table, hands clasped together. His black cotton T-shirt stretches taut over his chest, and the short sleeves openly display his massive biceps. Chase isn’t the only one who looks good. I don’t ever remember him being this muscular before.
“How have you been?” he asks.
I shrug and bite into my turkey wrap. “Good, I guess,” I reply with my mouth full.
When I realize that I basically inhaled half the food in five seconds, I put it down and take out the bottle of water.
“Wherehave you been? You kind of disappeared. Amelia never did say where to.”
I study him over the water bottle as I drink. I’m reluctant to answer at first, not sure if anything I say to him will get back to my sister. Who knows what Natalie has told Amelia. Hopefully, not much. Natalie learned the hard way over the years that my sister and I despised one another. She tried her best to get us to act like sisters. Hang out, be friends, do sisterly things, or at least be civil. She finally gave up trying when I was fifteen. Over the five years since I left, I never asked about Amelia, and Natalie never tried to force information on me about her.
If only she knew the whole story of what went on between her nieces under her roof. The abuse I hid from the world.
“I moved to North Carolina.”
He nods and looks over at the parking lot. “Beautiful state. One of my cousins goes to Duke. Pre-med. Is that where you went to college?”
“No.”
“UNC?”
Recapping the bottle, I put it down. “Look, Chase. I’m all for small talk and catching up, but—”
“I’m sorry. I know this is weird. It feels weird. And what you said in there,” he gestures over his shoulder at the gas station, “I have no defense for it because it’s true. I fucked up big time. I lost my two best friends because of it. Seeing you here now, it just… I wanted to… I don’t know what I’m trying to say,” he finishes, blowing out a breath.
Not willing to gloss over the elephant in the room, I ask, “Why’d you do it?”
Because I never would understand why people cheated. Is it the thrill of doing something you know you shouldn’t? If you’re just going to hop into someone else’s bed, don’t commit to a monogamous relationship and make promises you aren’t going to keep. What’s the point? It’s just cruel.
“I loved her. I’d been in love with her for years.”
“That’s not an excuse for betraying and hurting your best friend. Or letting Jordan plan a wedding to my sister. You were going to stand beside him on his wedding day as his best man and listen to him say vows of forever to a woman you were having an affair with. A woman you knew damn well you’d continue to fuck even after they were married. Don’t deny it,” I coldly state, becoming angry on Jordan’s behalf. No one deserves that, not even the man I currently despise at the moment.
Chase leans back. He doesn’t try to defend himself. “I miss him and Mike.”
He sounds so sad, the regret marring his face so visible. It pulls me in and calls to the same pain I carry around with me every day.
“Are you still working for your dad?”
