“What, we can’t talk about it? We’ve always talked about things like this before.” She was right; she and I had always been super close. There was never something I couldn’t tell her, but this just felt strange.
“It’s Mike,” I said in explanation and again stared back down at him. I was still reeling from the fact that he was here, with me, and that we had done all the things we’d done.
“Because it’s Mikey, we can’t talk about him?”
“Doesn’t it feel weird?”
“Only if you make it weird.” She paused, and I could hear her wrestling around with something on the other end of the line. “I think the two of you underestimated the family. We’ve all been rooting for this to happen for years.”
I was so wrong about everyone’s reactions.
“So.” She used a long, drawn-out voice, indicating she was still digging for information. So what did I do? I gave her some insight into Mike and our blooming relationship. But I kept it as PG as possible. After all, she was my mom.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mike
Offering the cashier a twenty, I picked up my small bag and waited for my change. Each time I moved, I was reminded of my night with Maddison. Night, all through it and in to the next morning, with little sleep. My body still ached in remembrance.
“Here’s your change.” The cute cashier handed me my five and a handful of coin, giving me her best come-hither look. She was young and still had in no way mastered seduction.
I offered her a nod and a kind smile and moved away from her without looking back. As I exited the store, my phone vibrated in my pocket, and I reached around to gather it when I ran into someone briefly. “Sorry,” I mumbled, trying to right my bag and not drop my phone that teetered in my grasp.
Finally getting it under control, I looked at the screen and saw a text from Rhett.
Speaking of Rhett, I then glanced ahead and came face to face with a flash from his past.
“Hi, Mikey.” Harley, the girl Rhett thought was his everything, until he met AJ, that was. “It’s been a while,” she said as she raked her eyes over me from head to toe and back up again. “It’s nice to see you.”
I wanted to laugh at her. She was nothing like the girl I remembered, the sweet country girl that was in such awe with Rhett. She was also thoughtful, friendly, and in no way the version that was now standing before me. She had changed.
“Harley.” I nodded as I tried to step around her.
“Is that all you’ve got for me?” she asked, stepping closer to me. Before I knew what she would do next, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down to her. There I stood in the center of the parking lot, with a tiny blonde hanging from me like a small child, and all I wanted to do was shake her off.
“You look good.” I shrugged out of her hold when she said this near my ear, making me feel even more uncomfortable. “So, what have you been up to?”
“Working,” I said, now placing the small bag of food between us, which was what I should have done to begin with.
“You shouldn’t work so much.” Again, she gave me that interested smile, and I saw what Rhett and even Grace were talking about. Harley had become a different person, because the one I knew wouldn’t be flirting with the best friend of the man she used to claim to love so deeply. “Maybe we can meet for a drink or dinner sometime?”
“Don’t think my girlfriend would like that?” I went for playful and friendly, but I could feel tension inside me growing.
“Girlfriend?” She pushed a little more.
“Maddison.” That still felt strange but in the best kind of way.
“Wow.” Harley wrinkled up her brows and took on a look I could only describe as disbelief. “As in Maddison, your cousin?”
“Yes, but I think we both know she’s not my cousin.”
“Yeah but—”
“No but,” I interrupted her. “She isn’t my cousin.”
“Just seems odd, ya know?” At that point, I was past pleasantries. I’d been raised to respect women. I had also spent years being taught to control my anger and to hold my shit together. All of that was being tested at that very moment.
“Fortunately, I don’t need your approval.” Harley flinched at my directness. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a beautiful woman waiting on me at home.” I didn’t, but she didn’t know that. Maddison was at work, and I was on my way to Rhett’s, though Harley did not need to know that, either.
When I made it to my truck and climbed up inside, I finally took the time to look at Rhett’s message.
Rhett: Grab some milk while you’re at the store, babe.
I pressed the phone button next to his name, and the call instantly connected to my Bluetooth.
“Yeah.” The word sounded muffled when he answered.
“You know how I get when you call me babe.” I smiled when he chuckled.
“Yeah, which is why I do it.” I could hear Blake cooing near the phone, which meant he was holding the little man. “You on your way?”
“Yeah.” I placed my truck in reverse, backing out of the parking space, seeing the back of Harley as she walked into the store I’d just left.
“Did you get the milk?”
Spinning back around, I shifted to drive, and as I was driving away, I told him exactly why I wouldn’t be going back into the store to get his milk. I’d just stop off at the gas station instead.
***
AJ was at the kitchen table, Blake sitting in his little
