Besides what remained of my dignity, what the hell else did I have to lose?
“Your brother. When he wouldn’t talk to me or let me explain, I couldn’t bear the thought of living in this town and having him ignore me.”
It looked like Waylynn’s eye twitched and her jaw clenched. She was holding back from laying into me.
“Tripp? Why?” Corina asked.
I stared down at the floor and let out a laugh before focusing back on them. “Listen, I don’t know why y’all are here, but if you want to lay into me about leaving your brother, there is nothing you can say that I haven’t already said to myself. You couldn’t possibly make me feel any worse than I did the day I walked away from him.”
At least Amelia and Waylynn’s cold stares melted a bit.
“Tell us why you did it,” Paxton said kindly.
“Why?” I scoffed. “What difference does it make? Your brother has moved on and doesn’t want to speak to me no matter how many times I’ve begged him. I even wrote him a letter, hoping he would read it. I’m positive he never did.”
Paxton and Waylynn exchanged looks.
“Listen, do y’all want to tell me what’s going on here? I know you’re up to something so let’s just get this over with, okay?”
“Harley, we’re not here to lay into you,” Paxton said with a sweet smile. “We wanted to talk. Listen, we all used to be close, and I speak for all of us when I say I want to be friends again.”
“Well, you and I were never friends because I didn’t live here,” Corina said while she rubbed her stomach. When I glanced down, my heart physically ached. I longed for a baby so badly. My eyes lifted to hers and I was positive she could see my pain.
“I’d love to get to know you better, Corina. I have a feeling we’d be great friends.”
Her smile grew bigger, and I knew I was going to fall in love with her. The kindness dripped off of her.
When I peered over to the other three, my heart dropped. Waylynn and I had been the best of friends. Paxton and I had been a bit closer, though. We did nearly everything together when I wasn’t with Tripp.
“I know you all hate me for hurting Tripp. I only did what I thought was right at the time, and I knew the moment after I did it that I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.”
Waylynn walked up to me. “I ran into your mom yesterday. She told me you were having a hard time adjusting, and to be honest, I told her it was your karma coming full circle. When she told me I had no idea what really happened that day and that I should speak to you about it, I started putting two and two together. I know how much you loved my brother, Harley. I also know you both had different dreams and that you never told Tripp yours.”
I swallowed hard and looked at the floor.
“You lied to him, didn’t you? You threw yourself on the sacrificial sword for Tripp’s dreams,” Waylynn asked in a whispered voice. My head snapped up and my mouth fell slightly open.
She stared into my eyes. “There never was another guy, was there?”
“What?” Amelia gasped from behind Waylynn. “Waylynn, what are you talking about?”
Waylynn continued to look into my eyes. A part of me was relieved that someone had figured it out. I had just always hoped it would be Tripp.
“No. There was never another guy.”
The gasps from the women in the room made me turn around and wrap my arms around my body. Damn it all to hell. The flood gates of tears are threatening to spill over.
“What in the hell, Harley! Why would you do that to him?” Amelia cried out.
“Wait, don’t yell at her. Let her explain first,” Paxton added.
They gave me a few moments to gather my wits before I faced them. Leaning against the sink, I took a deep breath.
Here we go again.
“The day I left I found out that Tripp had been offered a job at the law firm here in town during the summer. I had been on my way over to y’all’s house to finally be honest with him about my dreams for after we graduated—to tell him I wanted to travel after graduating from vet school. For years Tripp had dreamed about settling down in Oak Springs, opening up his own law firm, one day running for mayor, and I honestly wanted that for him, and for us, too…just not on the same time schedule as he did. My aunt had filled with my head with stories about the world and being the stupid, naïve girl I was, I longed for those adventures.”
I pressed my lips tightly together and closed my eyes while taking another deep breath in through my nose.