“Um, you know, Lynda, our friends Heather and Josh are kind of…well….”

Lynda spun around and looked at Ellie. “Kind of what? Are they seeing each other?”

Just then, Heather pulled up. Shit, this is gonna be interesting.

Josh turned and watched as Heather parked. She got out, looked up at Ellie and me, and waved. Her smile faded for a quick second, and then it was replaced by a totally fake-ass smile. I looked over at Josh. He quickly turned away from Heather and said something to Grace. Then, he started to walk down toward the barn.

Oh shit. Ellie and I glanced at each again, and I was pretty sure that Ellie’s face matched mine. What the hell was going on with those two?

“I guess we’re about to find out now. Aren’t we ladies?” Lynda said with a snarky attitude.

“Hey, y’all! Looks like everyone decided to get here at the same time,” Heather said with a laugh.

“Hey there, Heather It’s so good to see you again, especially so soon after the wedding. I’m surprised to see that you didn’t come with Josh,” Lynda said.

Fucking bitch.

Heather looked at Lynda, confused as all hell. “Why would I ride with Josh?”

“Oh, well, your friends here seem to think that y’all are a couple and all. I just thought if you were then you would have driven out here with him.”

Heather actually looked like she was about to throw up. Huh, she looks like how I feel. She quickly peeked at me and then Ellie and then back to me again. I just shrugged my shoulders. Hell if I know what to say to that. Josh and Heather had been going back and forth for so long. When he took her home the other day, I thought for sure they would have moved on, especially when Heather sent a text to me, saying Josh and her were polishing off a bottle of wine.

Heather’s shoulders slumped as she took a deep breath. “No, Lynda, Josh and I are not a couple. We’re just friends.”

Lynda did a little hop as she made a high-pitch sound. Then she started to make her way down the porch steps.

“Uh, Lynda, where are you going?” Ellie called out after her.

“I’m gonna go say hi to a certain cowboy who makes my panties melt. I’ll catch up with y’all later!”

I walked up to Heather slapped her on the head.

“Hey! What the hell did you do that for?”

“Oh. My. God. Heather! You just gave her permission to go after Josh. What’s wrong with you? The last time we texted it sounded like you and Josh were moving past this whole friendship bullshit.”

Heather tried to smile at me as she looked at Ellie and then back at me. The minute I saw the tears, I knew. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her into the house and up the stairs to one of the guest bedrooms. Ellie followed right behind us.

The second the bedroom door shut, Ellie and I both said, “Spill it!”

Heather sat down on the bed and just lost it. I’d never seen her cry like this before. A part of me wondered if it had to do with her parents. She had tried to be so strong, putting up a front for everyone.

Ellie dropped to her knees on the floor in front of Heather while I sat down next to her on the bed.

“Oh, Heather, no. What did that bastard do?” Ellie said rubbing her hand up on Heather’s shoulder.

It took Heather a minute or two to calm down.

“Shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to break down like a baby,” Heather said as she looked back and forth between us.

“Heather, what did Josh do? He seemed so sad when you pulled up and got out of the car.”

“Oh. My. God. Ari! I messed up so bad with him, and I don’t think it can ever be fixed.”

I looked at Ellie with a confused look on my face.

“Wait…you messed up? Josh didn’t do anything to you? What in the world could you have possibly done to him?” I asked as I ran my hand up and down her back.

Heather shook her head. She took a deep breath and then slowly let it out.

“The other night, after the whole jail thing, Josh brought me home. It was so wonderful to just spend time together. I mean, we talked, we laughed, and we drank lots of wine. Then, he just stood up, and grabbed me, pushed me up against the wall, and then kissed the living hell out of me.”

Ellie looked up at Heather and smiled.

“And what happened after that?” Ellie asked.

She looked at me and gave me a quick wink.

“I fucked up.”

Wow. For Heather to say that, I knew this was not going to be good.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad sweets. Tell us what happened,” I said as I moved to sit down on the floor next to Ellie, so Heather could look at both of us.

“Well…considering I was totally about to ask him to take me to my bedroom…I felt the need to just blurt out that I’d never been with anyone. I thought it would have scared him off but it did just the opposite. The look in his eyes changed from pure lust to.”

“Pure love?” Ellie asked as she wiggled her eye brows up and down.

“No! I don’t think it was love. Shit, I don’t know what it was. All I can remember is that he called me princess and said he would never do anything I wasn’t ready to do. Then I had a flash-back….”

Heather broke off her sentence while she tried not to start crying again.

“It’s okay, sweets,” Ellie said.

Just take your time,” I added.

“So, anyway, I had a flash-back to my father calling me princess on my sixteenth birthday, and I just panicked. I started to push him away, and I yelled for him to put me down and …..oh god. He was so confused! I’ll never forget the look in his eyes.”

“What happened after that? Did he get mad?” Ellie asked.

Heather let out a small laugh. “No…it sure as hell would’ve been easier if he had. He did just the opposite. He was so sweet and he admitted that he had feelings for me. He said that he had feelings he had never felt for any other girl.”

My heart started to pound. Man whore Josh was in love with our Heather, and Heather had just admitted she wanted to have sex with him. Holy hell. This was good!

“And…what did you say?” I asked.

“Ari, I messed up so bad. I told him that I didn’t feel the same way and that we would only ever be just friends. I wasn’t exactly nice in the way I said it either. He told me he was leaving, and that if I let him walk out the door, he would never again ask me out or anything. We would just be friends.”

“You let him leave, didn’t you?” Ellie said as she looked at me. She had the saddest look on her face.

My heart was breaking for Heather and for Josh.

Heather started to cry again, but this time, she buried her face in her hands.

“Yes! Then, I got your message Ellie. I tried to call Josh a few times, but I kept getting his voice mail. Then I called again later that night and some girl answered his phone. She said he was drunk, and he kept talking about me all night to her and her friend. The girls were super sweet. Both are married, and they were out for a girls’ night. They pretty much kept all the skanks away from Josh.”

Heather finished telling Ellie and I the whole story, describing how the two girls helped Heather get Josh back to her apartment and then how Josh had left the next morning before Heather had woken.

I called him as soon as I realized he’d left. I told him that I wanted to talk to him, but he said he wasn’t in the mood for any more rejection. I thought that maybe after a couple of days out here together, he might let me try to explain, but now…fuck…now that trampy little Lynda is here. I didn’t even think about her being here for Emma and Garrett’s party.”

I stood up and walked over to the window. It looked like everyone had come into the house, but I saw Josh leaning up against his truck, talking to Lynda. He looked nervous while he kept looking back at the house. I bet he was wondering if Heather was watching him talk to Lynda. Lynda was so close to him that she might as well have been straddling his ass.

Little tramp.

I turned to look at Heather and Ellie sitting on the bed. I had the strangest feeling that this was going to be a very long and painful twenty four-hours.

Turning back toward the window, and I saw Jeff, Gunner, Drake, and someone else who must have been Jack walking up from the barn. Lynda ran and jumped into Jack’s arms. Then, she turned to hug Gunner. Jeff and Josh were talking off to the side. They were both laughing like they didn’t have a care in the world.

Fucking men.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

GUNNER

The moment my dad had stepped out of the car, I had been a nervous wreck. Ellie had been amazing. She immediately walked up to him and she introduced herself. My father had fallen in love with her in mere seconds.

Last night had been a bit awkward, but today was like a dream. Sitting in the barn with my dad, Gramps, and Drake, I’d never laughed so hard in my life as we spent the day shooting the shit. I saw a side of my father I’d never seen before. He was relaxed and actually enjoying himself. He seemed…normal to me.

He asked a lot of questions about Ellie and our future. When I told him we wanted to start a family right away, he smiled and gave me a wink. I had thought he would have given me a lecture about how we needed to wait.

Gramps leaned over and whispered something in my father’s ear. He started laughing and called Gramps a wise old man.

Why couldn’t he have been like this my whole life? It sure would have been nice to grow up with a normal father instead of a prick.

As we started to walk back toward house, Lynda came running toward us before she jumped into my dad’s arms. He gave her spin as he told her how grown-up she she looked.

As Jeff and Josh stepped aside to talk about something, I looked back at the house, wondering where my Ellie was.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so excited about the party tomorrow, Gramps!” Lynda said as she hugged Gramps.

“Yeah, well, after fifty years of Emma putting up with me, the least I could do was throw her a damn party,” Gramps said.

Everyone laughed as Dad, Uncle Jim and Gramps started to walk back up to the house.

Lynda made a bee-line toward Josh, practically throwing herself into his arms. He seemed a little taken aback. Pushing her away slightly, he looked back at the house.

“Hey, um Lynda. Um do you think I could talk to Jeff and Gunner alone for a bit?” Josh said as he gave Lynda that famous panty melting-smile of his.

“Oh, sure, Josh. Yeah no problem, I’ll just see y’all inside,” Lynda turned to head back into the house.

“What the hell is going on, Josh? I didn’t hear from you again last night or this morning. What happened between you and Heather?”

Jeff asked confused as hell as he looked back at Josh and then me.

Josh threw his hands into his hair and let out a sigh.

“I kissed Heather.”

“About fucking time, dude. Jesus, it took your ass long enough,” Jeff said as he slapped Josh on the back.

I knew there was more though.

“Yeah… well, I didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for. I mean, at first, she was really into it. Then, all I did was tell her that I would never push her to do anything she wasn’t ready for, and she pretty much did a one-eighty on me.”