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"The second I saw you, I proain, Sienna," he growls

Do what - lead oodbye? I&039;m about to demand an explanation, but then I see the door to Nielson&039;s office swing open and Grahter in history because at soet she&039;s the reason I&039;with a little toorandmother&039;s house"

I can&039;t o stiff beneath the table, squeezing my own "I see"

"So you&039;ll understand why I&039; this: Go fuck yourself, Lucas"

Our eyesthat I&039;d seen two years ago, the night I went ho I&039;ll pretend I don&039;t see "I&039;ve only heard you that forceful once, so I&039;ve got to ask: Was that for your grands from his, stand, and put money under the untouched platter of Cheshire pie "Both," I say

I&039;m so flustered - emotionally, mentally, and dammit, physically - by my encounter with Lucas that I&039;randht was co in Nashville I listen to reat, Gra as it takes" Then Graive her e sounds like a hazy dream to me, but Lucas&039;s voice plays loud and static-free inme that I&039;m bad for music

Whatever that&039;s supposed to sty irl, or souess that is a career drainer

The only thing I&039; away the horandparents loved sothe Land Rover up the narrow hill leading to the house where I spent most of my childhood, I draw my brain away from Lucas Wolfe and back to the most important dilemma

"Why didn&039;t you tell me?" I ask quietly "You came to LA to see ht I could fix things What a I wanted to do was burden you with so that would ivevoice, Sienna Jensen There&039;s still time left It&039;s not over yet," she says, her voice hard as steel But when I look at her out the corner of ripping the arhs We both know the land around us, the house we&039;re drawing closer to, is all but gone In less than teeks, maybe a little more if we&039;re fortunate, Gram will be homeless I refuse to leave Nashville until she&039;s settled soo to battle for randmother&039;s happiness

Even if the person that I&039;ine, I pull the keys out of the ignition and stare out at the cabin, which really isn&039;t a cabin at all but what can only be described as a log mansion For the last few years, I&039;ve told Gram that it&039;s way too much house for her and she needs to downsize NowI feel like shit for even joking with her like that

"You o on upstairs and lie down I&039;ve not feeling like myself lately," Gram says once we&039;re enclosed in the war her coat on the rack in the foyer, so she doesn&039;t see the way I pull at the high collar ofhot

"Room still the same?" I ask, and as soon as the words leavefor me to say

She makes an unnatural noise that&039;s supposed to be a chuckle, but it et some rest I&039;ll be fine, okay?" But if I&039; up and down on ht now?

While I help randmother is obsessed with the convenience - I call Seth Of course he doesn&039;t answer, so I have to leave his in your truck Can you bring them by ASAP?" And because I know he&039;ll co to drive across town, I add, "I&039;ll give you twenty bucks for gas e two more times until I&039;m satisfied with how it sounds, and then I call Tori The first ring is not even halfway through when she answers I rapidly

"Oh my God, Sienna where&039;ve you been? Don&039;t you check your texts, woet in touch with you for the last hour! You don&039;t just send a e like that and completely disappear" She pauses for a ht now, fiddling with one of the random whatnots she keeps on her desk because she&039;s so worked up If stress balls didn&039;t exist, Tori would self-implode because it&039;s absolutely necessary for her hands to stay busy A nasally fe to her, and Tori hisses back that she&039;ll do it when Jenna, her boss, confirms the instructions

"Please, please, please, tellme about Lucas Wolfe Please tell me that this is a let&039;s-screith-Tori-moment," Tori finally says in a low, breathless whisper

"Nope Not joking Definitely hi you back sooner, I wasoccupied"

She groans, and I hear a door slains to speak again, there&039;s an echo, like she&039;s in a stairwell "Sorry, had to get away from the donkey witch in the next cubicle Sodoes he reo and you didn&039;t actually fu - "

"He remembers," I snap

She roan and a squeal, like she&039;s both disgusted by the prospect and excited "Well, what did he say? What did he do? Holy shit, why is he in Nashville of all places? No offense, babe, but it&039;s not exactly LA"

I&039;ive her the explanation he gave randht place for him to hole up in while he does it"

She&039;s silent for such a long time that I have to pull the phone from my ear to make sure the call hasn&039;t dropped It hasn&039;t The ives me time to load my chicken pot pie and a Coke on a breakfast tray I start upstairs, toward the bedroom I slept in as a kid, before Tori says at last, "And that&039;s it?"

I pause at the top of the steps, supporting ainst the bannister There&039;s ato confide in her about how Lucas had made me feel in that cafe, but the other part warns me not to touch that subject at all Hadn&039;t Tori been the person I bawled to after the disastrous night with Lucas Not to mention when I found out Your Toxic Sequel never wanted ht htest bit of attraction towards Lucas she&039;d be in Nashville on the first available flight to slap soo fuck himself," I say It&039;s somewhat true, even if it had been uttered after Lucas had deliberately frustrated me

She claps her hands slowly "Bad ass, Jensen See, that wasn&039;t so hard, was it?"

Ugh, she has no idea

"Look, I better run, but I&039; Lucas run all over you and telling hiht"

But I feel like crap when I hang up the phone and walk intothe door quietly behind so I won&039;t wake Gra of the past, I leave the tray sitting onto see that Grah school and college The sae hibiscus bed spreads and Have-A-Day posters

I curl up in the fetal position onmy face in pillows that smell like fabric softener, and listen to the bitter sound of nothingness in a house that I&039;ll h my mind for the next couple weeks to be easy And , I hope today is my very last encounter with Lucas Wolfe because I never want to feel that dull ache in ain