“Yes, from you. You make me question my moral judgment and I don’t like it.” Her voice was small. Tiny. Not like Ash at all.
“Will you check in and let me know you’re okay?”
“I’ll try,” she said with a nod.
“Ash,” I warned, my voice strong.
“I said I’ll try, damn it. I’ll try.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Fuck,” she whispered. Then she stared into my eyes. “When I’m with you, I want nothing but you. But she’s my best friend. The moment I leave you, all the good things go flying out the window and I can only think about how hurt Lynn would be if she knew.” She walked over to me and leaned close to my face. “Kiss me goodbye like a good boy,” she commanded.
I let her touch her lips to mine, letting her be in control, until she tilted her head and went deeper. Then I pulled her to me. She pushed me back, her hands on my shoulders. “Call me if you need me, okay?” I said. “For anything.”
“What if I just need you to love me?”
My heart plummeted down toward my toes. “I do love you.” Surely, she had to know.
“But I’m not her,” she reminded me.
I shook my head. “No, you’re not her.”
She lifted her ratty old backpack onto her shoulder. “Peace out,” she said, flashing her first two fingers in a V at me.
Out of all Lynn’s friends, I had the best overall friendship with Ash. If she went away for good, she would take a piece of my heart with her.
15
Two nights later, I finally got the call. I hadn’t heard from Ash, or any of Lynn’s friends, for forty-eight hours. I was out of my mind with worry. The phone rang, and I rushed to answer it.
“Hello,” I barked.
“Mason?” a strong voice replied. It had a hint of gravel in it.
“This is Mason. Who is this?” But a part of me already knew, and my insides were already warming.
“It’s Charlie, you asshole.”
The vise that had been clenched around my heart for forty-eight hours eased a little. “Charlie who?” I replied, trying to be playful.
“Fuck you,” she spat back.
Charlie was a soldier, and she had a vocabulary of unused dirty words sitting in her arsenal, just waiting to be fired. She was tough. She liked to drink beer and shoot the shit. She ran ten miles every morning, rain or shine, and she could probably bench press me if I gave her the opportunity.
“Are you still in town?” I asked, already grabbing my keys from the bowl on the table Lynn kept next to the front door.
“Yep. Want to come have a few beers?”
“I’d like nothing more.” I stepped out my back door and into the garage, where my car waited. “Are you still at the hotel?”
“The one on First Street. Room 302. I’ll meet you at the bar, though. I’ll be the soldier with the empties next to her.” She hung up on me.
Fuck. She hung up on me.
I rushed to put on my seatbelt. It had been four years since I’d last seen Charlie and I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t happy to hear from her.
I drove as fast as traffic would allow and paid the valet to park my car. Then I went straight to the bar. I saw her sitting there talking to the bartender. She had her hair in a bun, taming the long strands that were the color of an evening sunset on the beach before the purples and blues take the sky over. That sandy color that meets the horizon, when it’s all lit up by the rays of the sun, that’s what her hair looked like when it was free. I knew it. I’d held it in my hands enough times. I’d had it cascading over my body.
The bartender leaned close to her, getting all up in her personal space. She leaned back and scowled at him. I stood in the doorway and watched them. The bartender suddenly took on a ferocious frown. She chuckled and flipped him the bird.
“Charlie!” I called from across the room.