Page 1 of Need You To Choose Me

CHAPTER ONE

SAVANNAH

March

“Double whiskey on the rocks,” I say to the bartender as I slide onto the first open barstool.

The guy gives me a curious look, but he doesn’t comment as he grabs a glass, throwing a few cubes of ice in it before placing it on the bar in front of me and pouring my drink.

The moment he starts to lift the bottle, I wrap my fingers around the cool glass, toss my head back, and down the drink.

My eyes squeeze shut as the alcohol burns down my throat, making tears prickle under my eyelids.

Shit, this is strong.

But I needed strong.

More than that, I needed to feel numb tonight.

And this was the only way I knew how to do it.

Blinking my eyes open, I wave to the guy for a refill.

I was determined to get drunk tonight.

Maybe that would help erase the last few days from my memory.

Or at least alleviate this sharp ache inside my chest.

Because today was the day I put my grandmother, my only living family, to rest.

It still felt surreal. Even at seventy-five years old, Grams was one of the most vibrant people I knew. I loved her to pieces, although some days, she drove me crazy with how independent she was. How damn stubborn. That woman was energetic, opinionated, loud, and generally didn’t take shit from anybody.

How could a person like that be gone?

One day, she was here telling me I should ditch my piece-of-shit boyfriend and find myself a nice man who would treat me well so I could focus on him and stop bossing her around already, and the next, I found her lifeless body lying in her bed.

A heart attack.

My throat grows tight as the image of her pale face flashes in my mind, and more tears gather in my eyes.

She was right, though.

Mark was a piece of shit.

Not just that, he was a lying,cheatingpiece of shit.

Which was the second reason I was drinking tonight.

I didn’t think it was too much to expect my boyfriend of four years to attend my grandmother’s funeral, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised Mark told me he couldn’t come because he was too busy at work. To say he and Grams didn’t get along would be an understatement. So I did it all alone. Yes, my friends were there, as was half of Bluebonnet. After all, Grams was very loved in our little community, but that wasn’t nearly the same.

Now that she was gone, I was on my own.

Completely and utterly alone.

The funeral and the wake were a blur of emotions and people as I tried my best to keep myself from falling apart. I couldn’tbreak down in front of my small town. My family was enough of a spectacle as it was.

But then everybody left, and it was somehow even worse. It felt like the walls of my childhood home were narrowing down on me. Asphyxiating me. I couldn’t stay there. I needed to get away. I needed tobreathe. I needed to forget. I needed somebody familiar.

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