Wright Rival (Wright)

I wanted to hurt her the way she’d always hurt me. But all it would do was make her twist me up even more. She wasn’t worth it.

“I’ll be damned if I let you ruin this thing with me and Piper. She’s the best goddamn thing that has ever happened to me. And you…you’re nothing.”

I left her standing in the hallway of the cellar and ran out after my girlfriend.

“Piper!” I called into the night.

The barn was brightly lit as the sun reached toward the horizon. She could have gone back to the party, but I doubted it. She was as stubborn as ever. She wouldn’t want anyone to see her upset. Let alone to hurt her sister on her wedding day. But where the fuck would she have gone?

“Piper!”

I glanced up the hill and found her blue Jeep standing out bright in the parking lot. So, she hadn’t left, which meant one thing. My eyes landed on the fields. She had to have gone into the vineyard. It was her happy place in the same way it was mine. But if she was already inside, how the fuck was I going to find her?

I didn’t give it another thought. I pushed through the vines and into my fields. My heart raced as I called her name and raced down the rows. The fields were several acres big. She could be anywhere. Still, I jogged on the soft dirt in my stupid suit, ruining the fancy shoes Julian had convinced me to get for the occasion.

It wasn’t until the sun dipped completely behind the horizon and only the last dying rays still shone over the fields that I gave up. She was gone. She was just fucking gone. She was out there somewhere, thinking that I wanted Tori more than her. I’d been stupid enough to come when Tori called, and I didn’t even have a good enough reason for it all. It was…years of being fucked up that had driven me back into her stupidity. And I wanted out of it. I wanted it to be done and over.

I wished that I could explain it all to Piper. But what explanation would be good enough? She deserved better. That was for damn sure.

With a frustrated sigh, I left the vines, making it out into the open before I lost all the light. If Piper was out there still, I hoped she could find her way through the dark. I didn’t know what else to do. It wasn’t like I could get a search party out for her. How would I even explain?

“Fuck,” I said again as I trudged up to the barn once more.

I came in the back way and looked around for Campbell and Julian. I didn’t know if it was luck, but they were standing together, drinking whiskey and laughing. If my situation wasn’t entirely shit, I’d be happy to see them getting along like this. My two closest friends. But all I felt right now was despair.

They looked up as I approached them. Julian took in the wreck of my suit. Campbell’s eyes were on my face.

“What did you do to your suit?” Julian asked. Our little fashion guru.

“What happened?” he asked, always the intuitive one.

“Same problem,” I grumbled.

Campbell passed me his drink. “You look like you need this more than I do.”

I downed the entire contents in one long swallow. “Yeah.”

“Seriously,” Julian said. “Those are Dior.”

I snorted. “Remind me not to let you convince me to buy designer shoes again.”

“Remind me that you should only ever be in cowboy boots.”

“Yeah.” I snatched his drink out of his hand, too, and downed the contents. “So, I might have fucked up.”

“We can see that,” Campbell said.

“What did you do?” Julian asked.

With a final sigh, I explained the situation that had gone down. Both guys frowned as they listened. Julian crossed his arms over his chest. Campbell looked incredulous, at best.

The worst of it was that…neither of them even knew about Tori. Everyone I’d known during her years of misery had basically been purged from my life. I wasn’t still friends with anyone from that time, except maybe Zach, but we’d only become close afterward. I hadn’t exactly had friends when we were dating. She was the kind of possessive and jealous girl who didn’t like me to even talk to other people. My brother had been in LA. Nora had been in high school. Julian hadn’t moved here yet. The two closest people in my life, and neither of them had any idea.

“Fuck,” Campbell said when I finished. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I shrugged. “What would I have said?”

“That your girlfriend was abusing you,” Julian said flatly.

My mind immediately rejected that thought. It wasn’t a thing done to guys. Certainly not anyone else I knew. It was something you saw in TV and movies when the guy was beating his girlfriend. It wasn’t like what I had gone through. Was it?