Page 106 of Sundown Somewhere

“I heard that!” Anton calls down the bar.

“You were meant to.”

I shake my head, trying to tune them out. I need to focus. Especially since I’m not entirely sure what I’m focusing on. I can’t make heads or tails of what is going on.

All I know is this—I don’t understand what happened.

Oh, and that my heart is in a million pieces.

“At the risk of asking another dumb question,” Jace says hesitantly. “You texted the girls, right?”

I nod. Because that was the first thing I did when I discovered she wasn’t in any of the obvious spots. Well, the second thing—after calling her a couple of times. No one answered. Dolly, Alice, Emily—not a single one of them returned my calls or texts.

Hell, I’m this close to texting her sister, Whitney, to see if she’s heard from her. What she’s going to do from all the way in Valdosta, who the hell knows.

Nothing, that’s what she’d do. Because as desperate as I am to talk to Dolly right now, she is clearly feeling the exact opposite.

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t go after her,” Anton continues.

“I was respecting her wishes,” I grind out.

I’ve answered this. Told them exactly how it went down and that she said not to follow her, so I didn’t. Never mind being too stupefied by her response. It’s called being respectful.

Or so I’m telling myself.

If there was ever a time to not be respectful, maybe this was it.

“You should have gone after her,” he pushes. “Instead you just stood there like a chump.”

What did he just say?

I’m up and off my barstool faster than I can blink, a clattering noise filling the air as the wood and metal of the stool clang against the cement floor. Of course he doesn’t fucking understand. Anton wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if we locked him in a room with one. He hasn’t been in a relationship in who the fuck knows how long. But to comment on my actions—on my respecting her wishes—is too far.

“Want to say that again? To my face?” I challenge, closing the gap between him and me.

I shove him off his stool, ready to throw down. My heart is racing, anger thrumming through me like whitewater rapids, a mix of the hurt from earlier and his own instigating nonsense. I’ve had enough. He wants to poke the bear; he can fight him too.

“Hux! Knock it off!” Milo warns from behind the bar, as Gus inserts himself in between Anton and me.

I throw him a look, the desire to hit something—anything really, not necessarily Anton—still flowing through me. A desire I need to squash. Because it’s not going to solve anything.

Nodding, I hold my arms up in surrender, stepping back and picking up my stool to right it. It wasn’t all that long ago I was pulling Milo and his best friend, Brandt, apart in this same bar, so I owe it to him to not pull a repeat incident.

“He started it,” I mutter.

“Did not,” Anton counters.

“Did fucking too,” Jace comments. “Like you have any room to talk or give anyone advice.”

“I do just fine…”

I raise an eyebrow, sharing a look with Gus. Unless there are women popping up out of the peach groves we don’t know about, then Anton must have a different definition of “just fine.”

“Really? I bet you anything that you can’t find a date to Willa’s wedding,” Jace challenges.

We all stop, waiting on Anton’s reaction. Our little sister’s big deal is mere months away at the end of the summer and is going to be one hell of an event. Willa doesn’t do anything small.

“I’ll take that bet.”