“Jesus, do you give Bass this much shit?”
“Yes, yes I do. Which is why we’re together.”
She stared down the small redhead and thought for a minute. A true, honest to god moment of honesty:
What do I want?
The answer was simple. A single word: Huck.
And it was that single word that had her on the brink of losing it. Losing her mind, losing her heart… Who was she kidding. She lost her heart to him a while ago. Now all she could do was salvage what was left and start over in LA.
“I can see it on your face that you’re moon-eyed for Huck. Maybe staying and setting down roots isn’t so bad.”
“No. It will fail.”
“You have to have hope that it won’t.”
“Hope gets you in trouble,” Autumn said.
“Sometimes. But it’s also what allows you to hold on to the best things in life.”
Autumn looked Penny dead in the eye. “That has never been my experience.”
She hugged Penny and turned to walk out. She was done. Done with Diamond, done with Huck and done with hope.
Chapter Thirteen
Huck bolted through the door of Penny’s BBQ. If Autumn wouldn’t take his calls, he’d hunt her down.
“Is she here?” he asked Penny, who stood behind the counter.
“No, she left.”
“Where did she go?”
“LA. She took the job. She’s gone.”
His lungs froze. She left. No goodbye. Wouldn’t even take his calls. She just left. Every shitty feeling, horrible memory came flooding back. Only this time, it packed an extra punch because he honestly thought Autumn was different. Thought they had a chance.
“I’m a fucking idiot,” he mumbled.
He cursed his brain, all but ran out and started his truck, heading to the one place he could think to find her, though he knew deep down, she wouldn’t be there.
When he pulled up to the auto shop, he saw his father’s silver hair and greasy hands, and a look of anger and sadness on his face.
“Is she here?” Huck barked.
“She just left. She hugged me. Thanked me. And went on her way.”
Huck clenched his teeth. He ran both his hands through his hair. He wanted to break something, throw something. Instead a stab of heart-wrenching agony stung his eyes and his chest simultaneously.
“Well, looks like the deal is off. She doesn’t want the shop, doesn’t want to stay.” And yet Huck was still chasing around town after her as if some small thread of hope remained that he’d find her. That she hadn’t really left him.
“What did you do?” his dad asked.
Huck snapped his stare to his father in shock. “Me? I didn’t do anything. She left! She didn’t say a damn thing to me.”
His dad nodded, looked more solemn, like he was in on some secret Huck wasn’t privy to. “You didn’t do anything? Looks like that’s your problem, son.”