I fell asleep on my bed and didn’t wake up until someone pounded on the front door.
45
Lincoln
Present day
“What are you doing here, man?”
Hunter rolls down the window of his truck when I pull up and park beside him at Mo’s. I’m not too proud to admit that I followed my friend and did a good enough job at it so he wouldn’t realize I was tailing him. I just didn’t expect to be following himhere.Back to where it all fucking started. Maybe there’s something poetic about that, but I’m certainly not feeling that way right now.
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m here to fix things.”
“Look, I get it. You want another shot with the one that got away. Hell, I even respect it. But you gotta back off for now.”
“Whitney’s aunt has a job at The Gables, if she’ll take it. An even better one than she had before.”
Hunter’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “For real?”
“I’ve also got an apology from my mother, in writing. If Jackie will accept my mother’s apology, McKinley is going to promote her.”
“Holy shit. You didn’t waste time working that miracle.” Hunter leans back in the seat and smiles ruefully. “I should’ve figured you’d find a way to turn this into a windfall. That’s what you do.”
“We good?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “We’re solid.”
We climb out of our vehicles and I follow Hunter. I’m glad he’s over the idea of kicking my ass—and not just because I don’t have many friends I can trust like I trust him.
The tall bastard’s head damn near touches the doorway as we walk into the bar. He’s built like a brute, even though his mother would like to pretend that their family has never done a day’s worth of physical labor. He’s got at least a couple of inches and thirty pounds on me, and I’m not small at six feet and two twenty.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here,” I say as my shoes crush peanut shells on the cement floor.
“It’s Cricket’s favorite. For what reason, I’ll never know.”
Mo’s hasn’t changed at all since the one and only other time I’ve been here. It’s crazy how sometimes it only takes doing something different once to change the entire course of your life.
All I can hope is that tonight changes it for the better.
My eyes adjust to the dim lighting, and it takes me all of three seconds to spot Whitney. Her dark hair swings over her shoulder the moment Cricket squeals when she sees Hunter, jumping up and dodging tall tables and the people sitting at them to get to him.
Whitney’s blue gaze lands on me, and everyone else in the room may as well have gone up in smoke. She stares at me for long moments without blinking, and I’d give anything to know what the hell she’s thinking.
Is she remembering that night we met? I would give just about any fucking thing to have tonight end the same way that one did.
I study Whitney’s face as she takes her time looking me over. Her expression isn’t angry. She isn’t running in the other direction.
Maybe ... maybe I do have a chance to fix this.
Cricket rushes past me, probably to throw herself at Hunter, and I walk toward Whitney slowly, as if she’s an animal I’m trying not to spook. She doesn’t run. She doesn’t even break eye contact.
When I stop in front of her, an apology is the first thing out of my mouth. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too.”
Her reply stuns me. “For what?”
“Because tomorrow ...”