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.”

“What do you mean? What did she say?” I asked as I watched Josh kick the dirt with his boot.

“She basically told me to stop touching her. I tried to tell her that I had feelings for her…strong feelings.” Josh cut off his sentence as he leaned over, putting his hands on his knees.

In the four years I’d known him, I’d never seen him this affected by a girl.

“Dude, are you okay? What the hell did she say to you?” Jeff asked.

Josh stood up, leaning against the truck.

“Jesus Christ, y’all. I’ve never felt like this before. This is why I never wanted to get involved with anyone. I just wanted to avoid the same shit my dad went through.”

Josh took a deep breath and then looked up at me. Motherfucker. I could see the hurt in his eyes.

“She pretty much told me that she didn’t feel the same way I did and that we would only ever be friends. I’d never felt so gutted in my life. I was almost one-hundred percent positive that she felt something for me. At least, her kiss sure said she did.”

“What happened after that?” I asked.

“I told her that if I walked out the door, I would never again ask her out again or bother her about wanting anything more than just friendship. Then, she just let me walk out.”

“Damn, Josh. That really sucks, dude,” I said.

“Yeah, the worst part was I got trashed later. I ended up spilling my guts to two girls who were out on a girls’ night out. I guess Heather called, and one of the girls told her I was drunk. Long story short, I woke up this morning in Heather’s bed. She was on the sofa sleeping. She had left a voice-mail the night before, saying she wanted to talk. I wasn’t really in the mood for more rejection, so I just left without waking her up.”

“Oh hell, Josh, that was a stupid-ass move. Maybe she wanted to explain why she freaked out. I mean, I’ve known Heather a long time, and I can honestly say that I’ve only seen her date a few guys at most. Maybe the idea of getting closer to you scared her.” Jeff said.