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“Soht pin She did , and I swear to God, she jath of the pants”

“Ah, so you and Whitney were ue with a woht pins and isn’t afraid to use them”

He skillfully ignoredme when you’d come back to town,” Ryan said

I busiedforaze Luke Maddox has beenas I could remember, which made him a close family friend I wished that was all he was But with Luke, it was complicated It always had been for me

“So, how is he doing?” I said, trying so hard to sound casual Please say he’s bald and has poor personal hygiene now—anything to ht

“He’s with the fire department now, and he still helps out at Cecil’s when he’s off duty”

“Oh, okay,” I said as if that answered any questions I ht have had

“Have you even seen hi?”

“He was there, I guess I forgot about that,” I said

Forgot was a euphemism for ‘was drunk at that reception’ I had only hazy recollections ofto the annoying Whitney I had spent serious ti to reconstruct what happened because I kneould have enjoyed thinking about a few things I was pretty sure took place But I had spent soht Partly because I didn’t care for ht a date, a pretty redhead whom I’d instantly despised So I was three vodka cranberries in when Luke had asked ot fuzzy shortly after that, but I re from my waist down to the curve of my ass I wished wholeheartedly that I recalled the rest of that scene Instead, I shuffled papers while my brother looked off into the middle distance a little pathetically

“I reht, onna get promoted, we’d buy a little house, have a couple of babies God, I can’t believe this is how it all turned out This is ridiculous I can’t believe she did this to me, Sarah Jo,” he said sadly

I nodded as sympathetically as I could He was really torn up over the divorce Anyone could’ve seen it co out with his friends He was never home, and she found ways to amuse herself One of those as the newest deputy on the police force, as fa my brother so miserable A tiny part of me wanted to say, well, Ryan, What the hell did you think was gonna happen? You didn’t pay attention to her because you’re so wrapped up in yourself like always I didn’t say it aloud, because I didn’t want to hurt him I’m sure he could stand there and rattle off my faults and failures with no trouble at all So instead I listened, and I was nice, and thanked hiht