“Yes, please, I’m starving,” I explain.
“Sure thing. I’m Max and if you need anything, just holler.”
I smile. “Thanks.”
I take a sip of my drink, looking around at the crowd. There aren’t very many people my age here, most are a lot older or look like they just turned twenty-one.
Not that I’m so much older since I’m only twenty-five, but still, twenty-one feels like a million years ago.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I inwardly groan, not the least bit surprised my mother texted. Lord knows she never misses a chance for her weekly hate text about me leaving Indiana—and her.
Mom
Another week alone. No one has come by to even check on me. I thought you said I wouldn’t be alone, Tessa. You promised your move to New York wouldn’t change my life. You also said you’d visit every month. It’s been four and not one visit.
Because I’m freaking living and trying to make money. I rub my forehead. Of course my asshole brother hasn’t gone to check on her.
Sorry that Reece hasn’t stopped by, Mom. I’ll do my best to visit. Right now I’m on a business trip.
It’s also incredibly expensive to go back home, but that really isn’t her concern. I get it, she’s alone, my brother is a prick, my father left when Reece was two months old, drained the bank account, and never came back. She worked hard just to put foodon the table and then after her car accident six years ago, she was never the same since she couldn’t work and there was no settlement.
I became the source of her frustration and have bared the brunt of it since.
And I’ve tried so hard to do what I can to be there for her, but I have to live my life.
At least that’s what my therapist tells me.
MOM
Oh. You’re traveling.
For work.
MOM
Okay, Tessa. Maybe you should work on prioritizing the people in your life who have been there for you above your career. I guess I’ll see you when you have the time.
I can literally feel her disdain from here and the guilt that only she manages to deliver so well.
But I’m a grown woman with a master’s degree and doing it all on her own. I need to stop taking care of everyone other than myself.
I put my phone away and decide to put my past, my failures as a daughter (according to my mom), and my inability to let go behind me.
I glance over the menu again, still not sure what I want as Max is busy with the very crowded bar, and sigh. This bar reminds me of college. It was exactly like Bill’s, the bar that was down the street from my apartment in Georgia. My collegeroommate, Meredith, and I spent so much of our time there. God, that reminds me how long it’s been since I’ve talked to her, and I think she only lives an hour or so from here.
The door opens and for some reason, my attention drifts there and lands on the most incredibly sexy man. My jaw drops as I take in his dark brown hair that has just the slightest silver dusting on the side that’s peeking out of his cowboy hat. The dusting doesn’t make him look bad, no, it makes him look absolutely gorgeous. Even the scruff on his jaw adds to the allure.
He locks eyes with me and then walks straight to me.
The closer he gets the more I realize he’s not just hot—he’s scorching hot. Quite possibly the sexiest man I’ve ever seen in my life.
And then he smiles and my heart drops as he takes the seat next to me.
Have strength, Tessa.
two
Tessa
