"Where's Masyn? I didn't think you two ever did anything without the other." Her question was directed at me. It dawned on me, since the two of us were always together, that no one had ever mentioned it. Now that Masyn had been MIA for a couple of days, everyone looked to me for her whereabouts. Any other time, it wouldn't have gotten under my skin, but knowing Masyn was avoiding me made every inquiry painful.I had a mouthful of food-because I came here to eat-so I didn't answer. And before I swallowed, Verna got called away by another table and lost interest in pulling gossip from our table.Peyton poked at her okra with her fork and dipped it in the bowl of gravy she'd requested. "Where is Masyn, Lee?"I shrugged, still eating. "He hasn't seen her since she showed up at his house on Saturday while you guys were swimming.""Not true." I washed down my food with some of the amazing sweet tea Peyton had refused. "I saw her at work today.""Fine. If you want to split hai

After dropping Peyton off at her hotel and Beau at his parents' house, I made my way across town to Masyn's. Peyton might not know our history and Beau might be full of shit, but I couldn't let this keep going on. Two days without my best friend at my side was two days too long. The entire way there, I psyched myself up for what I wanted to say, what I needed to say. She could very well shoot me down, but I'd never know if I didn't try. And if Beau and Peyton were right-although I wasn't a hundred percent certain they were-then letting this go on only served to hurt the person I loved.It wasn't all that late when I got there, and all the lights were on in the house. Masyn was still up at ten o'clock. Even after several deep breaths, cutting the engine didn't help calm my nerves before I stepped out of the truck. This should feel like a relief, but instead, I dreaded spitting the words out. The fear of rejection was real, even for someone who never had any problems attracting the opp

I couldn't figure out why we kept coming back to Peyton. "You realize she's leaving on Friday afternoon, right? And going back to New York." Peyton was a non-issue. Beau couldn't date her, and I didn't want her. Masyn began to sway. And when she closed her eyes, all the color washed from her cheeks and was replaced with a hint of green. I didn't have any idea how much alcohol she'd consumed tonight, but it was dangerously close to making an appearance. Before I could get up to find a trash can or carry her to the bathroom, her mouth opened and she leaned forward, covering me in everything she'd drank tonight. And it just kept coming, wave after wave. All I could do was hold her hair out of it. Trying to move her would only make the mess worse and leave a trail down the hall or into the kitchen that one of us would have to clean up. As it stood, most of it was being absorbed by my shirt and jeans, or pooled in my lap. When the retching finally stopped, I took the beer from her han

I managed to clock in before the buzzer rang, signaling the start of the shift. I hadn't had time to look for Masyn. My head was far too fucked up to try to interact with her, anyhow. She may want to forget everything that happened last night, but I'd done nothing other than agonize over every word she'd said, trying to make sense of it. None of it aligned with what Beau told me at the diner, and I had a hard time believing Masyn would twist things around to create reasons to talk to him when he was at school. That was the kind of shit every other girl in town would do, not Masyn Porter. I had to remind myself over and over, I specifically asked if she was talking about Beau, and even through her rambling, she'd answered yes without hesitation. As much as my mind wanted to convince my heart that I'd misunderstood, there was no misconstruing her message-not even as tired as I'd been. My head pounded from all the noise in the shop, coupled with a lack of sleep, making it harder to wor

Going to the shop had been an utter waste of a day, except that I still got to collect hours on my paycheck. I couldn't do shit without my right hand, and it was still too tender to use it to pick things up. I wasn't worried about tearing the stitches out, it just hurt like hell. Farley put me back in receiving so I could check trucks in and deal with shipments going out. An inbred monkey could do this job. There was nothing worse than boredom and idle time at work. If I had to be here, I wanted something to occupy my mind, and this wasn't cutting it. I'd spent the better part of the day thinking about what Masyn and Beau's wedding would be like. When she'd move to Atlanta. How many kids they'd have. It was torture, and I was inflicting it upon myself-they hadn't even gone on a date, and I already had their life planned. The longer I spent thinking about it, the more outlandish my thoughts became. By the end of the day, I had them married with two-point-five kids and a white picket