Page 35 of Home Is Where You Are

Not seeing her reaction to him.

Not seeing the way he’d touched her just now. However innocent it might have been, no man needed to have their hands on Ainsleigh’s ass. And what was up with him calling her Leigh?

I shook my head as I walked through the kitchen and out the back door so I could get a shower of my own. Tonight was fend for yourself night in the Courtright house, so I’d just make myself a sandwich later and do my best to hide from Leo so I didn’t have to go to Whiskey On The Rocks with everyone.

It was best if I stayed home.

For everyone’s sakes.

Especially mine.

fourteen

AINSLEIGH

With my arm linked in Aspen’s, we raced up the stairs with Dylan behind us. Seeing the two people who'd held me together the past four years made my heart happy and my anxiety lessen. I didn’t know what I’d do without these two.

I walked past my room and down the hall to the room two doors down from mine.

Opening the door, I unlinked mine and Aspen’s arms and walked inside with the two of them behind me.

“Dylan, this is your room. Aspen’s will be the one right next to yours. It’s a Jack and Jill bedroom with a shared bathroom. If you don’t want to share with Aspen, she can just use my bathroom,” I turned as I told him, holding in a laugh. He hated sharing a bathroom with the two of us in college.

“I’ve shared a bathroom with two girls for the past three years. I think I can manage for a couple of days until we leave and go to her cousins,” he said as he threw his duffle bag onto the bed.

Aspen and Dylan stopped here first because they couldn’t not see me for long. We hadn’t been separated for the past four years except for holidays. They even stayed behind for most of the summers with me so I wouldn’t have to be alone. They were the best friends a girl could ask for. They were going to see Aspen’s cousins in Sunset River a couple hours away from here.

“I won’t hog all the hot water. Promise,” Aspen teased as she walked to the doorway, turning to wink at him.

Their playful banter always made me laugh.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll believe that when I see it.” Dylan laughed.

“It’s fend for yourself night in this house, so we are going to go get ready and be downstairs in about an hour and a half to go out. There’s a new bar called Whiskey On The Rocks that my brothers said was a good time,” I told him as Aspen and I left his room.

We walked the few feet down the hallway to my room, and Aspen followed behind me and shut the door.

Leaning against the door, she let out a squeal and laugh combination before she started talking a mile a minute.

“Oh my goodness. You never told me how gorgeous Gentry was. Like THAT’S Gentry. The one you left behind. Girl, I don’t think I could’ve done it.”

It wasn’t easy. Trust me.

“He didn’t look like that when I left him,” was the only response I could come up with as I sat on my bed. I didn’t want to be in this room, but having Aspen here helped.

“Oh, I love a good glow up. How’s it been being back home?”

I hadn’t told her much because I didn’t want her to worry.

“It’s been an experience, let me tell you.”

I told her all about how Gentry had to come and pick me up, and I could see the hearts in her eyes. Aspen was a romantic at heart and loved to find a story in every encounter. We often sat in the coffee shop back at school and would try to guess how people met and where’d they be in five or ten years.

I just didn’t want those hearts in her eyes to turn to hopes that Gentry and I would rekindle old feelings.

No matter how much I loved that man, it wasn’t meant to be.

Aspen and Dylan would likely be staying in Sunset River after graduation, and I’d go back to Virginia alone. They hadn’t told me their final plans, but I could tell they were keeping something from me out of fear of how I’d react. I let them because I didn’t want them to stay and put their lives on hold for me. I wanted them to go out and make all their dreams come true. Even if we’d have to be friends from a distance.