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I knew it would, it was just a matter of time.
As if he can read my thoughts, my phone beeps with the incoming call. I glance at the screen before pressing the answer button on my steering wheel, the call connecting through the speakers.
“You here yet?” a deep voice with a familiar Texas drawl asks.
“Hello to you too, man,” I say dryly.
“By the sound of your voice, I’d imagine so,” my best friend continues, not caring the last bit for my animosity. Then again, why would he? His life was playing out just as he planned it. Soon enough, Emmett would have everything that he’s ever wanted. Just like I have everything that I wanted.
Do you really?
Ignoring the annoying voice, I push it to the back of my mind just like I do any other shit I don’t want to deal with.
Instead of answering him, I shift in my seat and let out a grunt in agreement.
“I really hope you brought better manners for my wedding, Fernandez. You know you’ll have to make a toast as my best man, right? Kate will not appreciate your grumpy ass grunts. Nor will my mother for that matter.”
“Well, then you should have picked a different best man, Santiago.”
Emmett snorts. “As if that was ever an option.”
“No, I guess it wasn’t,” I agree, rubbing my hand over my jaw.
Emmett and my family have lived next door to each other. Well, as next door as two families who own ranches can live. We’ve spent most of our childhood together. From playing on the fields, to helping our families run the business and playing football side by side all the way from pee wee football through high school when our lives took us in separate directions. We’ve stayed in touch, our college teams even played one another on a few occasions, but things were different now.
Wewere different now, and yet…
“Want to meet up tonight?”
I contemplate the idea for a moment. It would be good to catch up with my best friend. But then there was the question of that other thing. The one that we’ve been avoiding for the last three years.
You’ll not go there. Not just yet.
The headlights illuminate the familiar sign for my family’s ranch, and that vice grip around my throat tightens even more. No, I wasn’t ready to go back home and see my parents for the first time in five years, but I also wasn’t ready to have a one-on-one with my best friend.
Selfish?
Maybe, but at this moment, I didn’t have it in me to care.
“Nah,” I shake my head, although I know he can’t see me. “I’m tired from the drive. Rain check?”
There is a beat of silence as he weighs my words. For a moment I think he’ll insist, but in the end he lets out a sigh. “Fine. Breakfast tomorrow? I have to take care of some things on the ranch, but I can meet you in the diner around ten.”
I look at the clock on the console. Thirteen hours. He was giving me thirteen hours. It’s not much, but I guess I can’t push this off much longer. Not now that I was back in Bluebonnet.
“I’ll meet you there in case they don’t run me out of the town the moment I get out of the car.”
Emmett’s laughter booms from the other side of the line. “You can only wish you’ll get off the hook that easy. Better chances are they surround you and torture you. There is no fun in letting you walk away.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Don’t do something stupid, Fernandez. I’m not in the mood to look for a new best man just a few weeks before the wedding.”
“I’m not making any promises.” I slow down as I near the turn, debating my options. “I’ve gotta go,” I mutter absentmindedly. “See you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.”
I hang up, my gaze fixed on the sign. I could make a turn and go home to face my parents. The original plan was for me to come here, do the wedding and get the fuck out before anybody even realizes I’d stepped foot in Bluebonnet. I don’t know who I was trying to fool, because chances of me coming here unnoticed were equal to chances of Giants winning the Superbowl. But that illusion was shattered when mom found out that I agreed to be Emmett’s best man. She called me immediately and insisted I promise her I’ll get my ass home for a visit, something she’s been trying to get me to do ever since I left. Unsuccessfully, until now that is.
