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Just as I open my mouth to tell him to fuck off, Austin appears, slapping his hand on Tripp’s shoulder. “Hey, man, I just came in from the parking lot, and looks like someone backed into your truck.”
“Son of a—” Tripp slams his beer on the bar top, causing liquid to shoot out of the top, and runs off.
Austin smirks as he takes the now vacant spot beside me. He waves his finger in the air, signaling a refill of his drink.
“You didn’t need to do that.”
“Do what?” Austin twists so he’s now facing me with his elbow propped up against the bar top. I’m not falling for his false innocent act.
“Did someone actually back into his truck?” I arch a brow, letting him know I’m onto him.
He shrugs and takes a sip of his fresh beverage. “Yeah, okay. Whatever. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. But I needed to defuse the situation, and that was the quickest thing I could think of. If there’s one thing Tripp Briggs loves more than his reflection is that stupid truck.”
“Again, you didn’t need to do that,” I repeat.
“So, you weren’t five seconds from punching him?”
I remain silent, and that’s enough for him to know the truth. He nods, chuckling. “Right, so you’re welcome.” He tips his drink in my direction. “You need to be careful, man. One of these days, shit is going to escalate between the two of you, and no one will be there to break it up.”
I know he’s right, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to admit that. I don’t know what it is about Tripp Briggs that constantly gets under my skin.
“Well then, maybe he shouldn’t ever open his mouth again and think about looking into a mute lifestyle.” But then again, he will probably just look at me the wrong way, which will make me want to sucker punch him in the face.
“Just be the bigger person. I know he probably deserves a swift kick in the ass. Lord knows he’s given plenty of folks a reason to, but I figured this was the last place you wanted to cause a scene.”
I flip around so both my elbows rest up on the bar, and Austin matches my stance. We watch Tripp finally storms back into the barn, his eyes searching for us and a scowl on his face. Once he finds us, Austin catches me by surprise and tips his beer in Tripp’s direction. He responds with his middle finger in the air before storming off to the other side of the barn.
I sigh and sink back into the bar, propping the bottom of my shoe on the base of the bar.
“Who knows, maybe if I just fucking decked him, it would give people something else to talk about.”
“You mean then they wouldn’t be talking about how we all might suffocate from the tension between you two?”
My eyes instantly seek Riley, who is walking directly toward us. The closer she gets, the faster my heart beats. Can she hear it over the shift in the music?
“Dance with me,” she says when she approaches us.
Maybe our interaction between us earlier at the fall festival changed things. I hope she truly understood how sorry I am. Every foul word or name she thought or said about me, I deserved. Those words are long overdue, but I have to have hope and faith that they just weren’t too late.
My breath hitches at the thought of spinning her around like I used to. I stand up straighter and open my mouth to accept the invitation, but then she tugs on Austin’s arm.
“Pretty please?” she whines, sticking out her bottom lip in a pout. Of course, she’s talking to Austin.
No longer waiting for him to answer, she pulls him forward with such force as he’s bringing his beer to his lips that some spills from his mouth and down the front of his red plaid shirt.
While he may look similar to his brother, the groan that slips from his mouth as he allows her to whisk him away to the dance floor tells me that this is where they differ. I’m pretty sure if Tanner had been here, he would have been the one pulling Riley out on the dance floor.
The black cloud over my heart rolls back in, forming a pressured pain that squeezes at my heart. Fuck, will it get easier? Maybe it was a mistake coming back here.
I watch Riley and Austin smiling in front of me and wonder if it would be easier for everyone if I had never come back or if I slipped away in the night as easily as I had once before. They all could go back to the lives they were living before I arrived back here and disrupted them.
When watching gets to be too much, I turn to give my back to the dance floor. A shadow looms over me.Guess Tripp came back for round two.However, I know I’m wrong when a hand moves in circular motions between my shoulder blades. That touch could only be the soothing and loving touch of a mother.
“Spin your mother around the dance floor, will ya?”
“I don’t know, Ma. I’m not really in the mood to dance right now,” I grumble.
“Oh, I’m sorry. You thought I was asking? It wasn’t a question. Be a dear and dance with me.” She uses her mom tone. You know, the one that in the fine print screamsdo what I say or feel my wrath.I’m pretty sure Shannon Graham doesn’t care that I’m twenty-four—she’d pull me over her knee and spank my behind if I disobeyed.
