Nineteen

Ashton

“Hey!” Brynne poked her head in my room. “You’re back already?”

It was nice to see a familiar face. It kind of felt like I was the only living person on Earth. Wheston had been like a ghost town ever since I’d arrived. “I’ve been here a couple days.”

She frowned at that. “Why so early?” she asked as she dropped onto the edge of my bed. “I thought I’d be the first one back.”

Because I’d hoped to find Will and make him listen to me, but I wasn’t going to tell Brynne that. So I just shrugged instead of saying anything.

“Well,” she said brightly, wiggling her left hand toward me, “you’ll get to be the first one to see my ring then.”

“Pretty,” I said, holding the tips of her fingers. “Nice cut.” The princess cut was outlined with small diamonds, and it really was pretty. Who would have ever thought Nate Carey had decent taste? He probably had help picking it out.

“Ok.” Brynne pulled back from me, her green eyes narrowing slightly. “What’s wrong?”

Everything. Everything was wrong. “Didn’t I gush enough?” I asked. “I can try again.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not stupid, Ash. Something happened. Whatever it is, you know, I’m your friend. I’m on your side. You want me beat up Braden or something?”

Just the idea of that happening was laughable. “Probably be better if Nate did that. He’s a long stronger than you.” Besides, he ought to be good for something.

Brynne laughed. “Sure. I’ll hire out Nate to beat up all the assholes out there.”

Nate was going to be tired then.

“What about Will Parke?” Brynne’s gaze focused on me again. “Do I need to add him to Nate’s list?”

“Will’s not an asshole.” And I was really pissed that my voice sounded choked all of a sudden.

“Yeah?” Her voice softened. “What is he, then?”

Probably the most decent guy I’d ever met. Honest, sincere, and sexy as hell. I’d felt things with Will that I didn’t even know were possible. “The one that got away.” And the one that never wanted to come back. I mean if he’d wanted to come back, he already would have, right?

Brynne reached her arm out to me. “What happened, Ashton?”

I settled against her, but I just shook my head. “You’ll think I’m awful if I tell you.”

“I could never think you’re awful. I just told you I’m on your side, no matter what.”

But not if she knew the truth. “Even if you found out something really bad about me?”

“Did you kill someone?”

I snorted.

“Well, then it can’t be that bad.”

“So short of murder, you’re on my side?”

“I’m even on your side if you murder Braden.” She nudged my shoulder. “I’ll even help you hide the body.”

I did laugh at that. What more could you want in a friend who was willing to be an accessory after the fact? “What if you found out that Wheston breakup girl was me? The one Will tweeted about?” And I braced myself for Brynne to gasp or make some kind of sound.

“That was you and Braden?” she asked softly.

I nodded, not trusting the words to come out of my mouth.

“Oh, Ash, I’m so sorry.”

Tears started to trickle down my face and I sniffed. “Everyone was laughing at us. Even you and Molly, and…”

“Why didn’t you say something?” she whispered.

“I didn’t want that stigma to follow me forever. And you were the one saying ‘poor Will’.”

Brynne blew out a breath. “Will knew it was you. That’s why he said all that stuff the night at The Throne Room.”

I nodded. God, I’d hated him that night. But that was before I really knew him, knew what kind of person he was and that he had no intention of outing me to the world. And now I loved him, but it didn’t matter.

“And then he went home with you for Christmas?” she didn’t sound very sure of that. “How did that even happen?”

“Cancelled flights, shitty weather.” I sighed. “He offered to drive me home and I asked him to stay. Chase was right. Everything he told you was true. Braden was never there.”

“And you hooked up?” she guessed.

“It was more than that.” So much more than that. “But now he never wants to see me again and…”

“Why?”

“He heard me tell you that he wasn’t there. He was pissed that I wanted him to lie to everyone. That I didn’t want anyone to know he’d spent Christmas with me. I mean, if everyone knew that, then they’d know Braden wasn’t there. And…”

“Honestly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Brynne said.

“It made sense at the time,” I breathed out. “Braden and I made a pact to—” I made air quotes with my fingers “—breakup over Christmas. Then no one would think we were the Wheston breakup couple.”

“Ah.” Brynne nodded like that made sense now. “But Will was there instead.”

“Will was there instead,” I agreed.

“And his pride is damaged.”

“What?” I pushed up slightly to see my friend’s face.

Brynne smiled. “You don’t want anyone to know he was with you, like you’re rejecting him. Guys act all secure, but their pride can be really delicate, Ash. More so than ours.”

That was bullshit. “I wasn’t rejecting him. He knew exactly why I didn’t want anyone to know, Brynne. He just has this honesty thing and just won’t lie, which drives me nuts and…something I respect all at once, but not when it comes to my reputation.”

She nodded again. “So you’ve got your reputation, but you lost the guy?”

“Yeah.” I winced.

“Well, sweetie, only you know if the tradeoff was worth it.”

The bracelet I hadn’t taken off since Will gave it to me caught my eye again. It’s symbolic. I’m giving you my heart, Ash. I’ve never given it to anyone before.

And I’d broken his heart and mine. “He won’t even talk to me.”

“Well, I can get him to talk to you. Just make sure you have something worth hearing.”

Will

I wasn’t sure if I was glad I was back at Wheston or just glad to be done traveling. It was so strange not having a phone for days. I was so used to venting on Twitter whenever the need arose, but ever since I’d left Connecticut, I’d been mostly social media silent. I’d check in occasionally from my laptop at night, but it wasn’t the same as being hooked in 24/7. Being back at Wheston was like my first taste of “the real world” again, where there were people and places I knew.

I pulled into my parking spot and grabbed my bag from the trunk. Then I started up the walk to my front door and heard all kinds of sounds – music, laughter…What the hell? Was there a party or something going on in there? I’m gone and Chase decides to trash the place? Well, Chase could pick it all up. I told him when I’d be back. You’d think he’d be done partying or whatever he was doing.

I opened the door and found the entire Wheston baseball team and probably half the school in my living room. Music was blaring from the sound system and I could barely squeeze my way into the apartment. What the fuck was wrong with Chase? Was he trying to get us thrown out of the place? I mean Wheston’s a college town, but we still had neighbors. But as I scanned the room, I’m pretty sure I spotted all of our neighbors amongst the crowd.

“Chase!” I yelled. And I couldn’t even hear myself. “Chase!”

And then the music shut off. “Parke!” Chase pushed his way through the crowd and clapped me on the back. “Welcome back, man!”

“What the fuck?” I looked around the room.

“Impromptu engagement party for Carey,” he said as though that should have been obvious.

Sometimes I hated Chase. “Yeah, well, when’s it over?”

“After you listen to me.” Ashton appeared right in front of me, and my mouth fell open at the sight of her. Still the prettiest redhead in the world, no matter how hard I’d tried to forget about her the last several days. But it didn’t matter how I’d tried. I could never really forget her. I really wished I didn’t love her. I really wished the sight of her didn’t make my heart lift. But it did. Because I was a fucking idiot.

But my own apartment should be safe. What the hell was she doing there? So much for Chase having my back. I sent him a go-fuck-yourself glare.

“Will,” she said softly and placed her hand on my chest, and her touch rippled through me. I’d missed her touch, the feel of her against me more than I’d even wanted to admit to myself. “Just talk to me. Just for a minute.”

Just talk to her. If I just talked to her, she’d convince me to do things her way. All it would take was the bat of her eyes and the flash of her smile. I knew my weaknesses. And talking to her was the fastest way for me to lose my mind and every thought I ever had. “I don’t really think that’s a very good idea, Ashton.”

She frowned at that and I could tell she hadn’t anticipated that I’d say no. That gave me a little bit of strength. Maybe even the upper hand.

Ashton lifted her wrist up and I immediately spotted that little bracelet I’d given her. “Do you remember what you said to me?”

I remembered every word, and I was pretty sure I’d never forget them.

“You gave me your heart,” she whispered. “And you have mine, Will. I do love you.”

And I loved her, damn my heart. “I can’t trust you, Ash. It doesn’t matter that I love you. I need whoever I’m with to be honest with me and…”

“I’ve always been honest with you,” she insisted.

And I really wanted to believe that. But the odds were if she lied to her best friends, then she’d lied to me too. I couldn’t—

“Um.” Ashton cleared her throat. “I have an announcement to make!”

And then the chatter and laughter all died down.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Being honest with the world,” she replied under her breath. Then she took a shaky breath and said for everyone in the room to hear, “Some of you know me. Some of you don’t. But you’ve all heard about me.”

They’d all heard about her?

She gestured to me. “You all heard about Will Parke’s viral Wheston Breakup posts right?”

There was a smattering of laughter and a round of applause, but my stomach was twisted in a knot. “Ashton, don’t,” I said. Was she out of her fucking mind?

She looked up at me and pushed her red hair over her shoulder. “I can’t prove it to you any other way.” Then she swiped at a tear. “But if there’s nothing to hide from anyone anymore, you’ll believe me, right?”

And my heart really broke right then. She couldn’t mean to out herself like this. She couldn’t really mean to tell everyone those posts were about her. She’d never live it down. “You don’t have to prove it to me,” I said quietly. “Please don’t.”

Her blue eyes held mine and all I wanted in that moment was to love her and protect her even from herself. “You mean more to me than everyone knowing the truth.”

“What’s the announcement?” Andre Williams called from my couch.

She was willing to tell the world the truth for me? Then I should be able to lie to them for her, shouldn’t I? “You all know,” I called loudly, “that I’ve picked up a lot of followers since those posts went viral. And now nothing I say goes unnoticed. I didn’t really appreciate that until over the holidays when I tweeted something about Ashton that I shouldn’t have. And she’s been pretty pissed at me ever since.”

“Will?” She blinked up at me.

“I deleted the post almost as soon as it hit my feed but not before it was liked and shared and…I owe Ashton an apology in front of all of you.”

I brushed my fingers across her cheek, her skin was as smooth as I remembered. And touching her brought back so many memories, memories I wanted to experience over and over again.

“I’m sorry, Ash,” I whispered as I slid my arms around her and pulled her close. Then I kissed her, and for the first time in days I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

There were some hollers and some clapping and some “aww”s, but I didn’t really pay them any attention at all. How could I when I had the prettiest redhead and the sweetest girl in my arms, kissing me back?