Page 57 of Sunrise Arrows

“SHE WAS COMIN’ BACK!”

I wrap one hand over the other and bring them down on his back. Hunter grunts and rolls off of me, and while the kick isn’t hard, I don’t quell the urge to jab my sneakered foot into his ribs when I stand up.

He groans at the ceiling before crunching up, arms over his knees as he wipes blood from his face.

“Yeah, she did,” he concedes far too easily. “But only after she was done spreadin’ those pretty little thighs for that guy she was on tour with and fuck knows who else, all while you were a fuckin’ pussy whipped little bitch pinin’ away for her.”

My fists curl at my side and I suck in my next inhale through my teeth. It doesn’t do anything to help me, though, and I’m whirling around to punch Hunter again.

“You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

“Fuckin’ Christ!” he swears, spitting blood onto his hardwood floors. “Are we seriously gonna fight over a woman? Because here’s the thing, Arch, your girl didn’t fuckin’ deny it!”

“Two things,” I hiss, holding up my fingers to count them off. “One, I wouldn’t have given a shit if she had been with anyone else.

“And two, would you’ve even believed her if she had?” When he doesn’t answer, I nod, “Exactly,” yanking open a bedroom door to continue searching.

Hunter hangs in the doorframe, holding his ribs. “It wouldn’t have worked. It only works now because you’re both here. What do ya think was gonna happen once she was in L.A. and you were here?”

“I would have gone with her.”

“Fine, say you did. Hell, say you do; how does that look, Arch?”

Coming up empty in the room, I shove past him when he won’t let me through to move on. I shrug off his arm and demand, “Where is it?”

“Answer the question and I’ll tell you.”

“You answer mine!” I rage. “How the fuck have you been able to lie to my goddamn face for years?Years, Hunter! Not only to me, to her!

“She had every reason not to come back when I didn’t call her for ten months, but she still came. And you told her I didn’t want her anymore. What was the point? I was still in love with her and you knew that! Why lie to her? Why let her believeyourgirlfriend wasmine?

“Shit, Hunt. Tinsley saw her kiss me and it broke her fuckin’ heart! And you… you just let the love of my life leave thinking I had moved on and thrown her away. So why?”

“Because you’re not cut out for her life, Archer!” he yells, scrubbing his hands over his face. Tonelessly, he repeats, “You’re not cut out for it. You weren’t then and you aren’t now.”

He goes back to the stairs and sits down, head bent as he tugs at his hair and lets out a short laugh.

“Do you remember how you were right after you met her? I’d never seen you act that way over a girl and you hadn’t even gone on a date with her yet.”

I do. After we left Berry Station and I walked Tinsley to her car so she could go to her condo and get ready, I called Hunter from my truck and told him Dad hadn’t been lying when he talked about how fast he fell for Mom.

A Hayes man knows when he’s met the woman he’s going to love for the rest of his life. There’s no way to reason it, no preparing for it, no fighting it. It’s swift and irrevocable. From one heartbeat to the next, she becomes the center of his universe, the reason he exists, the very air he breathes.

Defying all logic, all reason, from the moment we collided, I was Tinsley’s just as he’d predicted.

When I don’t answer—merely coming to reluctantly sit beside him—he lets out a short laugh. “Of course you remember. What you don’t remember, because you don’t know, is I followed you that night. I sat three tables away, watching the two of you in that little booth all night.”

At that, I turn my head, my brow pulling to the center in question.

“Yep,” Hunter confirms, popping the p. “You were never like Ryder and I, letting your dick lead you around. You were so indifferent to girls in high school, hardly seemed to even notice them.

“Actually, for a while I thought maybe you and Ames… you know, which would’ve been cool ‘cause he’s a chill dude,” he shrugs. “But there wasn’t anything there either, and eventually I realized you’re just… different. Which is also cool, and you know Ryder and I would’ve fucked anyone’s shit up if they said anythin’ about you being gay or just, you.

“Anyway, it wasn’t normal to see you actin’ the way you were over some random girl you’d just met, and I didn’t trust it, so I followed you. Wanted to see her, get a feel for her, make sure there wasn’t anythin’ goin’ on there that would be concernin’ like those books with the shirtless dudes Mom reads where the guy is like tryin’ to seduce the woman for her family’s fortune or whatever.”

“Read a lot of Mom’s books do you?” I chuckle.

“Shut up.”

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