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“Should I just go home so you can tell him everything?” She glares at Madison for a response, but her friend doesn’t back down.
“You told me that you needed me to be the person who won’t let you back down. I’ve spent months watching the two of you be miserable all because you were too afraid to speak up. I’ve pushed you in Cash’s direction and Walker has done the same with him.” She waves her arm at me with frustration. “I say years because that’s how long this has been going on. I never said anything to him. I let the two of you attempt to work through that stuff, but no more. You love each other. You’re meant to be with each other. I think that it’s time—oh shit, he doesn’t look happy.”
Both Adalynn and I turn our attention to the street, just in time to see Donnie walking toward us. He looks like he’s ready to pull my arms from my body.
“Donnie, listen,” I begin as he gets closer, but his hands lift.
I squint my eyes closed because the man is going to knock my lights out, but I’ll just have to take it. I’m not going to ruin my chances with Adalynn because of a fistfight with one of her brothers.
Instead of a meaty fist to the face, arms wrap all the way around me. Right on the sidewalk, Donnie Tate, the grumpiest man I’ve ever met, hugs me.
“I approve,” he says, only loud enough for me to hear, before clapping me on the back hard enough to remind me just how much damage he could do if he wanted to, then stepping back. I get a half-grin, and I know that’s a victory of epic proportions coming from him.
Emotions clog my throat as I look past him to see Ronnie standing outside of their truck with a wide grin on his face.
“Not twenty minutes ago you warned me away from her,” I remind the towering brute.
“Donald Tate!” Adalynn snaps.
“Look, if the man wasn’t willing to go against what I said, then he didn’t love you enough,” the man says without apology. “He nutted up just the way I fully expected him to.”
Adalynn scrunches her nose with his choice of words.
“What I won’t tolerate is the two of you making out and dry humping each other on the street, so you need to take that mess somewhere private,” Donnie says, his eyes locking on me.
“We weren’t dry nothing each other,” Adalynn says, but even she doesn’t sound like she believes her words. When Madison whispers that she’s a liar, she rolls her lips between her teeth to hide her smile.
I can’t stop looking at her, can’t stop the millions of questions rolling around in my head.
“Can we go somewhere and talk?” I ask.
Adalynn is quick to nod, but before she walks away with me, she shoves her car keys into Donnie’s hand.
“Take my car to my house,” she tells her older brother before reaching down and taking my hand.
I shift the straps of the small bag Madison handed me in order to hold her hand, and it draws Donnie’s attention. I feel Adalynn stiffen beside me. She hasn’t told her family yet.
“What’s in the bag?” Donnie asks, as if no one around him is allowed to have secrets, which I guess isn’t true because he clearly knew how I felt about his sister for years and never once brought it up.
“Lingerie,” Madison says. “A red lace, silky little number with bows on the—”
“Ick,” the man says, scrunching his nose. “That’s my little sister you’re talking about.”
“Then quit being so damned nosy,” Madison snaps.
Donnie narrows his eyes as he looks at her. “You better be glad I respect Chase, because a mouth like that would get that cute little ass of yours spanked.”
A choking noise comes from Adalynn, but Madison just narrows her eyes at the man.
“I think that’s our cue to go,” I say, pulling Adalynn away.
Madison and Donnie continue to stand on the sidewalk, arguing like they don’t care who sees them.
“I used sixty-four ninety-two,” Adalynn says when I open the passenger side of my truck so she can climb inside.
I lock eyes with her.
“That’s what Madison was saying.”
