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"No, Steel, I’m not Asher doesn’t want me He made that clear to me I broke it off with you because you deserve to be loved by someone who is not me With their whole heart, and not only half of one"

He released a nasty laugh "Yeah Fuck that I don’t want anything to do with love I’h life Sounds a helluva lotyou"

I tried to hide the humiliation he made me feel with his words because Steel had more substance than that He was kind and could love soive a woman a home and a fa hio had been so hard But that woman should be able to offer the same in return I’d never been able to do that with him His brother always stood between us and would’ve probably stayed there forever

"You’re ht stands"

He stared off down the road as the cars whizzed by, "I thought so, too, but you knohat, Dix, I think I’ll like bars and a different woood to uessed all men needed to be a little reckless before they finally settled down This ht have been Steel’s time to have a taste of that life But I kneouldn’t make him happy At least not forever Daddy always said a man sowed his wild oats before he realized that the love of one woman was all he needed to thrive When I’d been with Asher and thought we’d always be together, Daddy would warnand babies, Dixie That boy has wild oats to sow before he’s ready for that He goes out and comes back to you in the end, then it’s a love you can trust You need to date other ht behinore it I couldn’t stand the idea of Asher being with anyone else But that hen I thought fairytales came true, when I believed Asher was uess you can go see if that’s the life you want It’s not rown ht thank you one day For breaking an walking toward the town center Or rather, swaying toward it I considered following hi Dallas maybe to yank Steel froed from around the corner The Sutton boys always took care of their own I was no longer needed so I climbed in my Jeep and quickly drove away Asher didn’t want to see me Steel even less He’d said what he couldn’t say sober

I also felt a little better Thiswide open, but Steel’s words in to heal Steel had been an important part of my life for a year We’d become a couple And I wanted us to work, until Asher ca Steel would now be a part of my past, and maybe one day I could remember this and not feel sad about it But that’d be a while fro this toas my only option I had to make a new life somewhere else I didn’t want to leave my parents I hadn’t wanted to leave Scarlet either, but now she’d left me I liked this place, I loved my home, but my life here had always been intertwined with the Sutton boys

A neith new friends and a new independence would help ht I was ready to commit to Clemson in the fall He could pay the tuition and I’d start ust My chest felt heavy fro soon and finishing his last year at Florida, this toas still my connection to him It was the place where he’d been mine

I looked in the rearview ht Asher was outside his truck talking to Steel as nowat Asher, while Asher reht now, they had to be both wishing they’d neverbut a probleood

Asher Sutton

THIS WASN’T OVER with Steel He’d cursed et him I left hiht now They both were hurting They both needed to drink and forget They could drown their sorrows together Hopefully, they wouldn’t both wake up next to women they didn’t know But thenas they stayed away fro around with married women he didn’t realize were married It was a , but they were both o home and talk about Steel He could tell theht noas silence and hts, but I kneouldn’t find any peace As I turnedour land to the Monroe’s working far At least not anymore My brothers and I used to swione

It had also been the spot where I’d taken Dixie’s innocence She’d told rassy bank I’d told her I loved her, too, holding her naked body snugly against e boy would declare love when he had a naked female in his arms But I knew this moment had been special It had been honest and real I’d known I loved her before that moment It had just fallen from my lips as emotions washed over me like a tidal wave She hadn’t been hts and sat there in the dark watching the ht us to swihts when I ay that I’d close ood daysmy heart

All of a sudden, htseveral feet away She’d been sitting I hadn’t noticed But she was leaving now I should let her go It was best for both of us The right thing to do But I couldn’t Not here and not right now Not when some of my best ing for what it couldn’t have I got out of aze locked on ht halo around her, as if she didn’t belong to the night

"You co I wondered about often We had so many memories here Did Dixie think of me when she came to the lake?

"Yes, sometimessome times more than others"

She didn’t have to explain that to ined she needed to be alone, ," I told her

"I know," she replied, not needingto do"

"I wasn’t being condescending If you’re out here worried about the shape you found him in earlier, drunk in the azed back to the water, her eyes no longer on mine "He hates ht thank me in the future I don’t think he meant it, but I’ll hope and pray that’s the case Have to hold on to that"