Page 65 of Bourbon Bliss
I tugged on my underwear and turned away from him to put on my bra. He said my name again, but I didn’t answer.
“June, please.”
I’d managed to quickly pull on my pants, but the emotion in his voice made me pause. I slowly slid my arm through my shirt sleeve.
“What?”
“Talk to me.”
I turned to look him in the eye. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I swear.”
Tears burned my eyes. I couldn’t keep standing here in his room. I pulled my shirt down and walked away. Out the door. To my car. Away from him. Away from the inevitable end.
21
George
This was some messed-up shit.
I gaped at the empty doorway June had just gone through. If I stared hard enough, maybe she’d reappear, and I’d realize the last five minutes had been some kind of crazy hallucination.
She didn’t come back.
My stomach turned over, a wave of sickness surging through me as I got up to deal with the condom. I cleaned up in the bathroom, tugged on a pair of sweats, then hit the couch. Mellow bounded over, so I scooped her up into my lap.
What the fuck had just happened?
I replayed everything in my mind, looking for where I’d failed. Where I’d gone wrong. We’d been kissing on the couch, things getting hot and heavy. I hadn’t sensed any problems. When I’d led her to the bedroom, she’d come along willingly. It wasn’t like I’d picked her up and tossed her on my bed. Granted, there were times when that was called for, but I’d known our first time wasn’t it.
I’d taken things slow. Made sure we were on the same page. She’d said yes.Twice. I’d given her every opportunity to tell me to slow down. To let me know if she wasn’t ready. I’d thought she trusted me enough. That she knew I would have stopped if she said no.
Why had she done that? Why had shelet medo that to her?
I stroked Mellow’s soft fur, feeling the barely-there weight of her in my lap. The way June had walked out left me gutted. I felt hollow, staring at the floor because I couldn’t think of anything else to do.
* * *
I didn’t remember fallingasleep, but I woke up the next morning with my neck jacked up from sleeping cockeyed on the couch. Mellow snoozed on my chest. I pet her a few times and she cracked one of those blue eyes open.
“Hey, little one. Are things still shit?”
She closed her eye.
“Figured.” I got up and set her on her pillow, then went to get her breakfast.
I had enough food in the house that I didn’t have to leave for a couple of days. No word from June, which I took as a bad sign. I didn’t call her either, but what was I supposed to say after that? We’d slept together and she’d left like the room was on fire.
Another day and I had to drag myself into town. I was out of groceries, and more importantly, I was out of alcohol. That wasn’t going to fly. I figured I’d stop at Build-A-Shine and mix up as potent a concoction as Sonny Fullson could come up with. It might taste like gasoline when I was finished, but all I needed was something that would get my tall ass good and shit-faced.
Unfortunately, when I walked into the Pop In to grab some groceries, who should be there but Sheriff Tucker.Of courseI’d run into her father. This damn town was too small to avoid anyone.
“Hey there, GT,” he said. The friendliness in his tone suggested he didn’t want to shoot me, but I couldn’t tell if he knew that June and I had essentially broken up.
I nodded. “Sheriff.”
“You all right, son?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. I wasn’t all right, and I was a terrible liar. But it wasn’t like I could talk to herdadabout this.
