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I had loved Sale soul She was my one and only, she was the center of my entire world At least she had been until I followed her to college and ulti Salem, however, had been my confidante, my confessor, and maybe most importantly she had offered a lonely and unwanted boy friendship and acceptance She was my very best friend and I was lost without her When she left without so ood-bye it had been the second ti abandoned I was once again left behind by someone that was supposed to care about utted and hollowed out

"So you were tight and then she bounced and this is the first time you have seen her in ten years and now you’re all twisted up about it?"

If only it was that sioing I would be perfectly happy to have never had to see or think about either one of theain

If I didn’t have my hair slicked up and styled like a character out of Cry-Baby, I would have shoved h it in frustration

"I’ to say to her A decade is a long ti to coe and ave me a look and pointed the open end of his beer bottle at er, and instead of talking to her or flirting her up like you nor like a mute weirdo Nope, not twisted at all"

I conte him over the head with my pool stick, but I had a soft spot for his wife, Ayden, and I wouldn’t want her to get upset with h toanyway"

I e the topic of conversation, but I saw hihtened involuntarily on his beer bottle

Jet worked hard He was hell-bent onit as the head of his own record label, but the trade-off was that he had to go where the music was That meant he was forever off to LA, Nashville, New York, Austin, or even Europe It was hard for hi he and Ayden had only been married for a couple of years and they were in love--really, really in love I could see it wearing on both of the, and like I said, there was no stopping fate no matter what that nasty bitch had in store for you

"Everything all right with you on the home front?" I didn’t want to pry but it ay better than dredging up reat It’s everything else that sucks" He shook his dark head and looked atto apply to transfer to the grad program in Austin"

I paused for a second so I didn’t say soed back the rest of the beer in his hand and laid the pool stick across the table

"Want to--no, but it makes the most sense She can transfer to UT Austin and finish school and I can actually see my wife more than two or three times a month It just sucks Our friends are here Her brother is here and Cora just had the baby" He shook his head again and his chest rose and fell in a heavy sigh "It was her idea, but it stillit would be enough, but it just isn’t"

It did suck but it was understandable

"When will she find out if she gets in?"

"Not for a while It takes sorad school, and even if they do want her she has to go and do an interview and juh ato Rule or Nash She hasn’t told Shaw or Cora yet She wants to wait until we know for sure e’re doing"

Rule and Nash ran the tattoo shop and Shaas not only Ayden’s best friend but also Rule’s brand-neife All three of the girls in our little world were supertight, and if one of the dudes let this e to follow for sure Those girls were a solid unit and the idea of one of the to be the cause of so news Keeping it quietabout leaving?"

Asa ran the Bar and was Ayden’s older brother He was a little bit of a wild card and the only reason he had settled in Denver was to be closer to his sister The two had a strained relationship due to the fact that Asa had a history of being ato -broken fences

Jet nodded and propped a hip up on the table I really did expect those jeans of his to split in half every single time he moved It was endlessly fun to rip on him about it

"They talked about it He told her to do whatever makes her happy I think it burunted and cocked uys several years older than us giving us squinty-eyed looks from the far corner of the bar I mean I knee didn’t fit in with the run-down ah-and-tu our own business and ays respected the locals’ territory

I told Jet absently while keeping an eye on the group, "He spent her entire life asking her to do things for him After he almost died it makes sense thatfor herself He knows you’re whathappy anyed Ayden into a ry bikers The end result had landed Asa in a cos We all had welcomed the blond southerner into the fold, but everyone watched him with careful eyes He was lucky Rule’s brother, Ro the Bar For some reason the older Archer took a shine to Asa and had put hi to see how it played out

The group that atching us bent their heads together and the guy I figured was the leader aze and flipped me off with a sneer

I set etting restless We probably wanna go"