Page 42 of The Bridges I've Burned

“Zander.” She said my name like she was seeing a ghost.

I kind of wanted to respond by leaning forward and whispering, Boo, but I didn’t.

“Hey, Molly.”

Before I could barely get the words out of my mouth, the woman reached out and pulled me into a tight hug. I nearly groaned.

No one has any fucking boundaries in this town.

“All right, Mols. I think that’s enough. You’re gonna suffocate the poor guy.”

I’d been so focused on Elena and Molly that I hadn’t even noticed the man hovering nearby. I looked and found another familiar face.

Molly took a step back. My eyes went wide. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one seeing ghosts tonight.

“Jake?”

“Hey, Zander,” he said, swinging a possessive arm around Molly.

“You two…” I didn’t even know what I was going to say, but they both held up their ring fingers.

“Married,” Jake said with a wide grin. “Four years. Two kids.”

Hadn’t these two broken up, like, eons ago? Jake had packed up and left after graduation, which broke Molly’s heart. It was literally all anyone could talk about for months. I remembered it vividly because it happened to be the same time Macon left for boot camp, and no one seemed to give a flying fuck about that. Well, no one but me…

Had I stumbled into some alternate universe?

“I think I need a drink,” I said, making both of them laugh.

“It boggled my mind, too, when I came back, but shit actually does happen when you’re not here,” Jake joked as all four of us made our way to the bar.

I suddenly turned. “Wait, you’re at my brother’s engagement party?” I questioned.

He sighed. “Yeah. Weird, right?”

“Does he know?” I smirked.

Jake and Macon had never gotten along. He never really explained it to me, but it went way back. If something had changed between the two of them, it had to have been major.

“He knows,” he said as we waited for the bartender.

Elena and Molly stood on the other side of Jake, quietly chatting. I tried not to get distracted by the way her ass looked as she leaned over the bar.

“Marin and Molly are really close. Molly’s even in their wedding.”

Well, I guessed that would classify as major.

“So, because they’re friends, you were able to put years of bad blood behind you? Just like that?” I didn’t know who I was asking for—him or me.

“No,” he confessed as I steepled my fingers along the polished wood. “Not just like that. But little by little. It helps to see Marin and Molly so happy when we’re all together. But we’ve talked some, and honestly, we’re just kind of letting things play out.”

“How so?”

“By realizing the past is just that—in the past—and there isn’t shit we can do about it. So, instead, we just have to focus on what we can control, and that’s right now.”

“But how do you forget about the past?”

He looked over at me, keenly aware that I wasn’t talking about him and Macon anymore. I knew I was his brother, but I was not that invested in the future of Jake and Macon’s friendship.

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