Page 45 of Merry Mayhem
“It does?”
“Yeah. I’ve been annoyed that you’re dating my sister because of Sierra. But if you’re not really dating, that makes sense.”
I take another step forward. “Hold on. What about Sierra?”
She hesitates. Then she crosses her arms. “I asked Ami about you. After we met, I found out you had visited Harley.”
Ami, Amelia, is married to Michael, my Chief and one of my best friends. And, she is Ellie’s granddaughter. That makes her Harley’s great-grand niece. And some kind of cousin to Thea.
But I focus on my favorite part of what she said first. “You asked about me?”
“I did.” She frowns. “And Ami told me that you followed a woman to Louisiana from Nebraska, changed your whole life for her, and were totally hung up on her, so I didn’t go any further.”
My heart thumps. I had no idea. Thea had asked about me and wanted to know more about me. “And what did you want to do?”
She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter. Ami said you were madly in love and not over Sierra.”
“Ami was misinformed.”
“Was she?” She looks completely skeptical.
“Iwashung up on Sierra, yes. I did follow her here. That’s all true. But she told me it was over. She moved on. I did too.”
“Ami said you hadn’t been with any other women.”
Okay, well, there’s that.
“I haven’t,” I admit. “But I…” I clear my throat. “I had plenty of that before.”
“Plenty of ‘that’?” Her brows are nearly to her hairline.
“Women.”
“Ah. And before what?”
“Before I decided to get my shit together.”
“What does that mean?”
I sigh. Okay, well, I want her to trust me, so I need to tell her everything. “I went job to job. Started and dropped out of school. Partied like hell. Drank. Slept around. And gambled. Hard. I did a lot of stupid stuff. I put my family through hell. My parents and brothers bailed me out more than once. My sister finally took a huge risk to get me out of a debt that I was going to get beaten for, fuck, maybe killed over.” I shove a hand through my hair. “I had issues. But I got help. I started attending therapy. Gave up my ‘friends’, gambling, drinking, and women. And moved here to start over, and that helped a lot. Leaving all of that behind was the best move I could make. Sierra broke my heart, I’ll admit. But that was over a year ago.”
Thea hasn’t uncrossed her arms, but she’s not frowning anymore. “And Ami doesn’t know that?”
“Ami’s never asked me.”
Thea chews her bottom lip. “But you wanted to spend time with Violet.”
“No. Not…really. I mean, yes, I agreed to. The whole festival, competition thing, sounded fun. She seemed nice and needed a date. But we are notdating.”
“What about the wedding… the accident…the ER…” Her eyes widen. “Did younotsave Violet from the accident?”
“No. That’s all true. I met Violet at Perks and Rec earlier that night. I actually came to town to visit Harley.”
She looks surprised.
I shrug. “It was spontaneous. I was feeling restless. He was on my mind, so I just drove over and stopped at the house.”
“Oh…wow.”
