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But Ruth reached out and put a hand on my arm as if she could feel my embarrassment. “No, it’s cool. It’s just weird for someone not to know my entire history from the time I was a baby. Refreshing, actually.”
“Seriously, you don’t have to say. Forget I said anything.”
“Stop it,” she said. “It’s a totally valid question. Especially since no, Trent was always an asshole.”
“I tried to tell her at the time,” Olivia cut in, shoving a big, messy bite of fajita in her mouth.
Ruth rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, and I didn’t listen. I was really naïve and wanted to believe the best about everybody. I was like, just because he’s the town’s football star quarterback doesn’t automatically mean he’s gonna be a douchebag—”
“Except when it does,” Olivia coughed into her hand.
“Yeah, yeah. I mean, this town is really cliché Texas. You’ll see in the fall. They treat the football team like they’re gods.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say I wouldn’t still be here in the fall, but I kept quiet so she could keep telling her story.
“We almost went to state in our division the year Trent was a junior and the town still talks about it. And his dad and my dad owned two of the biggest ranches in the county, and they share a border too. So almost as soon as we were born within a few months of each other, the whole town had talked about how we’d grow up and get married and unite the two ranches into one mega-ranch.”
“That’s so messed up,” I said.
She laughed. “Exactly. I was totally outraged by the idea as a little girl. I was gonna grow up and run my daddy’s ranch, not some boy, so I totally ignored him. But then the older I got Dad kept talking about how I’d need to get married so he could have another man around to work the ranch after he was gone.”
“So fucked uuuu-ppp,” Olivia sing-songed, reaching for her margarita glass and sucking loudly on the neon green straw.
Ruth narrowed her eyes at her friend. “I’m sorry, what were your aspirations in high school? Pretty sure all you wanted to do was be a roadie for your college boyfriend, what was his name? Spike?”
Olivia sighed and sat back against the booth. “Spike. God, I haven’t thought about him in forever. I wonder what the hell he’s up to these days.”
“Dear God, save us all,” Ruth muttered. “Where was I?”
“Your dad was talking bullshit about you getting married so you could have access to your own inheritance like you’re back in Jane Austen’s time,” I supplied.
Olivia pointed at me. “I like her.”
Ruth grinned. “Right? She cussed out Trent the first time she met him. She’s good people.”
Okay, I was glowing a little inside. I hadn’t had friends in… well, a really long time.
“Anyway, when we first started dating, Trent seemed like a good guy. Not a great guy or anything, but nice enough.”
“Except all he wanted was to get in your pants.”
Ruth shrugged. “I’d never had a boyfriend before. I thought that’s what all boys wanted.”
“Well…” Olivia said.
Ruth shook her head though. “No, there are good guys out there, I believe it still. They just don’t live around here.”
I bit my lip, thinking about Reece. Was he a good guy? He hadn’t pressed to ‘get in my pants’ since that first time, and even then, I was the one doing most of the pressing.
“Anyway, then Mom died and Dad went off the rails, and Trent was… there. Dad liked Trent and he’d always hated guys I brought around before. I didn’t find out till later that he was already getting in debt and he’d hoped Trent’s dad would buy us out. So I started sleeping with Trent and trying to pretend everything was fine.” Her lips twisted and she took a long drink of her margarita.
“Until?” I asked, because obviously there was an until coming.
Olivia finished for her. “Until we learned what an asshole he was behind that façade of his. He was cheating on her almost from the beginning. And when she found out, he tried to blame her.”
“He asked what he was supposed to do,” Ruth said with a bitter scoff, “since I wouldn’t put out for two months when we’d started dating. What about after that? I asked. When we did start having sex? Why had he kept up sleeping around? Not just with one girl, either. He’d slept with a bunch of them. And everyone knew but me.”
“I didn’t know either,” Olivia said. “And I told you as soon as I learned.”
