He’d never been able to lie to Charlie. “Because I’m a fucking mess.”
“Oh, trust me,” she said, “there is nothing going on in my life that puts me in any position to judge.” She stepped past him, a plastic bag swinging from her hand.
“What’s that?”
“Sheriff Henderson stopped by the diner and mentioned that you still couldn’t find your way around a kitchen, so I figured I’d make you some dinner while we caught up,” she said airily. “Oh yeah, remember how I was going to have my first Emmy by now? Well, I never actually got around to leaving for Hollywood, and now I work in the fucking diner. So tell me again how much of a messyouare?”
“Okay,” he said, discovering an unexpected smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I lost my leg in Afghanistan, I have PTSD, I’m drinking way too much, and I can’t bring myself to even start tearing down the wallpaper in this house so I can sell it, because I know my parents put it up when they bought the place, and I feel like it would be spitting on their graves.”
Charlie’s expression softened. “I heard about your mom. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” His voice rasped. “Me too.”
Charlie reached out and curled her fingers around his wrist. “Come on. I still make a mean mac and cheese.”
She headed for the kitchen, and Aaron followed. He lowered himself onto a chair, and leaned his crutches against the edge of the wobbly table as he watched Charlie get to work. The kitchen wasn’t well-stocked, either with ingredients or with utensils, but she dug up a saucepan from somewhere and set it on the stovetop. It was an old green enamel saucepan. Aaron’s chest ached as he remembered his mom using it to cook dinner all those years ago.
His gaze drifted to the back door, and to the way he’d felt back in another life when he’d stumbled through it with Quinn MacGregor thinking they were going to fight, and Quinn had kissed him instead.
“Angry little rabbit, ain’t cha?” Quinn had asked, his mouth tugging into a grin before he had suddenly leaned forward and pressed his lips to Aaron’s.
Aaron had felt as though all the breath had been sucked from his lungs as Quinn shoved him up against the back wall of the house beside the kitchen door and pressed into him. A knee had nudged at him, and Aaron had spread his legs instinctively, and then Quinn’s thigh had pushed between his, and Aaron’s dick had been hard and aching in his jeans. He’d reached up and slid his fingers through Quinn’s long hair. Quinn had moaned, and pushed his tongue against the seam of Aaron’s lips until Aaron had opened his mouth. Then Quinn’s tongue had been inside his mouth, and Aaron had felt like every bone in his body had dissolved into mush. He’d put his other hand on Quinn’s shoulder, feeling the muscles shift under the skin as Quinn had pushed into him. One of Quinn’s hands had settled on his hip, fingers digging in and thumb hooking around the empty belt loop of his jeans.
What thefuckwas going on? Weren’t they supposed to be fighting? Aaron had no idea how this had happened—did Quinn know?—but he never wanted it to end.
“Jesus,” Quinn had murmured, his breath hot against Aaron’s lips. “Fuck,Aaron.”
He’d said Aaron’s name like it was a revelation, like it was something amazing, something sacred and profane at the same time, and Aaron’s stomach had flipped. He’d never heard anyone say his name like that before. He’d wanted to hear it again and again.
It had been the hottest and most confusing thing that had ever happened to him, and it had led to the most amazing summer of his entire life, where everything felt big and new, every fresh day like the entire world was created again just for them, right up until it had all shattered in the most horrific way imaginable.
“What the hell happened to us?” he asked softly, his eyes stinging.
Charlie’s smile was shaky. “I don’t know.”
“We had the best summer, do you remember?” Aaron was starting to regret that second beer. It had tipped him over the edge into a maudlin puddle of feelings he really didn’t want to force Charlie to suffer through with him. “You and me and Quinn. And Brody when he wasn’t too high to forget to meet up with us. We were all going places that summer, weren’t we?”
Funny how one single gunshot in the night had destroyed everything. It had stolen more than Dad’s life.
“What the hell happened?” he asked again.
Charlie shook her head. “Life?”
“Yeah,” Aaron said, staring out into the back yard, where the afternoon light was making everything turn golden. He shook his head and snorted. “Life.”
Chapter 3
Quinn replied to a text from his mom while trying to make himself cognizant enough again. He’d slept surprisingly well, maybe because the town was quiet and he knew he could take most things it could throw at him.
Besides, he was pretty sure he’d know if Jimmy wanted to try and take him out. The previous day had proved that he could still read his cousin—a thing that had kept Quinn safe that last summer in town. He put his phone on the worn-out Formica table and forced himself to eat the toast he’d made.
Rehab, once he was through the worst withdrawals, had taught him how often he should eat, and it worked somewhat. In a few hours he’d want lunch, and then a snack in the afternoon and then dinner and an evening snack before bedtime. In some ways, rehab had felt like an around the clock kindergarten.
Quinn sighed. That summer. It had been the best couple of months of his life. Nothing had topped it before, or after. The party that had kickstarted it all was one thing—that night when Quinn had gatecrashed Aaron’s party and Aaron had got all up in his face, which had somehow led to Quinn finally giving in to the tension between them and kissing him—but then maybe a week after that, it had gotten much better. Jimmy had been doing tricks on his dirt bike to impress that girl…what was her name? Candy? Cindy? Something like that. Jimmy had been trying to impress her and he’d managed to fuck up a landing so badly he’d spent a week in the hospital and then four more weeks housebound.
It had been the most free Quinn had ever felt. He rubbed a hand over his face and groaned. It didn’t matter now. Aaron and Charlie were both gone, most likely. The only person from that summer he thought would be in town was Brody. Even Brody himself had known not to dream big, not with the weed habit and the general aimlessness.
Charlie had had big dreams. Quinn smiled at the thought of the girl he’d known. She’d been his and Aaron’s best friend. In a couple of months, the three of them had become a solid unit that they’d thought could never be broken.
