Page 34 of Something Like Sunflowers

“He can’t have her,” I growl, and I can’t rightfully tell you what’s taking over me, but the thought of her with Garrison Fuckin’ Presley makes me want to knock him the fuck out.

Right here. Right now.

Him and his stupid sweaty-handed friend.

“She’s mine.”

Her violet eyes light with a twinkle. “That’s what I needed to hear.” Lemon pats my shoulder, reining my neanderthal in a little. “I’ll help you. But we do it my way.”

I hesitate. Lemon’s ways are usually unconventional. But what choice do I have?

“Deal.”

She smiles and moves aside, giving me full access to Devyn and the asshole known as Garrison Presley.

“You need to swoon her,” she says. “She doesn’t know what you’re like now. She remembers the boy who wasn’t in a good place when she left. She remembers someone who got under a lot of women to get over her.” She casts me a knowing look and offers a small smile. A smile that pierces me with guilt.

I never fucked Lemon Perkins, Devyn’s childhood rival. Just made it look like I got with her two best friends from Valley High right after Dev left.

And when she came back.

I recognize I didn’t handle the breakup well. I was fucking seventeen. I lost just as much as she did that day. I didn’t have any other options like she did.

I’ve changed.

Lemon places her hands on my shoulders and fixes my shirt. It’s a T-shirt, so I’m not sure what there is to fix, but she seems to find quite a bit, fluffing my hair and then tilting her head for a final inspection before she nods in approval.

“Good. You’re all set. Now, go woo her!” She turns me around and uses all hundred and ten pounds of her tiny five-foot-two body to shove me in Garrison’s direction.

Lemon’s a boss.

“Garrison.” I announce myself, earning a huff and a nod from the man of the hour.

“What’s it to ya, Isaac?” The edges of his lips quirk up, but he sighs as if I’m inconveniencing him. “Crop season been good?”

Devyn stops dancing but doesn’t move from Garrison’s side as she eyes us back and forth cautiously. I wink at her and watch the pink spread across her cheeks, and that gives me every bit of motivation I need, because it means nothing’s changed. Not really. Not when her body says otherwise.

“Crops been fine. I got a different problem right now, Gary. I’ll be plain and simple.” I cock my head to Devyn. “I need a word with my girl.”

Devyn gasps, her eyes widening to huge discs. Garrison shifts his gaze back to her.

He steps forward, handing his beer out to Devyn like he’s plum ready to fight me for her, and my skin prickles with the challenge in the air. He knows it, too, lifting his chin in invitation because the bastard thinks he can bait me.

She doesn’t take his beer, though. She purses her lips, narrowing those forest-colored eyes of hers. She doesn’t want to be on my side, but she so the fuck is.

Because she doesn’t want me out of her system.

“Come on, man. Doesn’t have to be a fight, Gary.”

Wouldn’t be the first time I took a punch in Dev’s honor, but I clench my own fists at my sides and force my body to keep them there. I’m no longer that kind of man. And he hasn’t really disrespected her honor.

But it’s Garrison, and he doesn’t give a shit what I say. Once a teammate, someone I swore to stand beside, he’s nothing more than the town drunk now. His nostrils flare, and he stalks toward me, rearing back, and I decide I’ll let him. If he wants to, I’ll let him.

I tense my face as his fist swings out and slams into the wall behind me. “You look like your fuckin’ brother.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Devyn interjects, throwing her body between us and shoving us apart, Garrison’s chest heaving possibly as fast as my heart. “I was having a very nice time with…” She eyeballs Garrison and squints for a moment.

“Sorry, man. Looks like she doesn’t even remember you. Can’t say I’m surprised. I hardly recognize you either, these days.”

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