Page 4 of Kept in the Dark

Jason chuckled. “Yeah, well, I would have done it sooner, but you know she wanted to finish school.”

Trey winked. “Better late than never.”

Jason smiled and shook his head. Then, he became silent, looking around as he shifted slightly.

“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet,” Trey teased.

Jason hesitated for a split second before saying, “No, not cold feet.” He ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath, a tell he’d had since they were kids. He did it every time he had an internal battle of wills. You could almost see the little angel and devil on Jason’s shoulders as he contemplated whatever it was he wanted to say.

“You’re doing it,” Trey said.

“Doing what?”

“You want to tell me something but aren’t sure if you should. Just say it. I’ve got shit to do today.” Trey shouldn’t be annoyed but he was. Though a man’s man, Jason was still relatively empathetic in a way that few men were. He’d rather ignore a situation altogether than potentially hurt someone’s feelings by talking about it.

Not Trey. He went looking for trouble, sometimes even created it out of boredom. If there was something going on, he wanted to know about it. He’d deal with the repercussions later.

Jason sighed. “Hailey is coming to the wedding. We didn’t find out until today and I figured you’d want to hear it from me instead of running into her.”

Trey’s heart slammed against his chest at the sound of her name. Memories of her flooded his mind, ones he’d buried long ago.

Thirteen years ago, Hailey left town and never looked back. To his knowledge, not so much as a phone call made its way to or from Auburndale.

Trey chuckled, wondering if this was Jason’s sorry attempt at a joke. “Why would she be coming back for the wedding? She and Angie haven't talked since Hailey left.”

Jason looked away and said, “No, they’ve been talking on and off for years.”

Trey froze and he lifted a brow. He tried to hide his surprise but failed miserably.

He shouldn’t be shocked by the news, though. Like Trey and Jason, Hailey and Angie had been best friends and Angie had been devastated when Hailey left. And poor Jason had been left to deal with the wreckage of both Trey and Angie in the aftermath of Hailey’s departure.

“What are you talking about? You never told me they kept in touch,” Trey said.

“I know.” Jason continued to avoid Trey’s glare. “Angie didn’t talk to Hailey until almost two years after she left. By then, you seemed to have moved on and weren’t a total mess anymore.” He added quickly, “I didn’t want you to get hurt again.”

Trey crossed his arms over his chest. “So, they’ve been talking this whole time and now she’s coming back for the wedding?”

Jason simply nodded.

A pang of jealousy creeped into Trey’s heart. He wished he still held a place in her heart the way Angie did. He spent countless nights wondering when Hailey would come back to him, but she never did.

Now he was sure she wasn’t even thinking of him anymore. She was probably playing house with a man whom she loved deeply with three kids running around. Trey bet she even had a dog and a white picket fence.

And as angry as he wanted to be at the life, he pictured for her, he loved her too much to wish anything else. If she didn’t choose him, he hoped she found someone who gave her butterflies every time she saw him.

Trey tried to hide his conflicting emotions about the woman he still loved. He shook his head. "I doubt she’ll even show up. She’s never come back before, why start now?”

“Look, I just know things were messy at the end and I didn’t want you to be blindsided.” Jason paused for a minute. “What happened between you two, anyhow? One minute y’all was talking about getting married and the next she just up and disappeared.”

Trey could never bring himself to tell Jason the whole story of why Hailey left. Truth was, he was embarrassed he broke things off with her and didn’t want to be called to the carpet. He had tried to reconcile with her a few weeks after her mother’s death, but she refused to see him. And, according to her father, she wanted nothing to do with Trey.

So, Trey never admitted his stupidity and Jason never pushed too hard. Thankfully, Jason didn’t let Trey drown himself in bourbon like Trey wanted, despite Trey’s secrecy.

Looking back, Trey was mortified at how desperate he was when Hailey left. But, then again, he was a kid at the time… twenty, full of life, and naive as hell. He thought he found the love of his life and she had taken his heart the moment she left.

Now, though, he could clearly see it was only a whirlwind romance that had been exhilarating and filled with lust. She had been his first love. And like most first loves, they weren’t meant to last.

As time went on, he found himself thinking less and less of the brunette who lit up his life all those years ago. The sparkle in her hazel eyes was defiant yet soft, daring yet cautious. She was always the balance between his rebellious side and the caution that came with being responsible. She somehow managed to keep him on his toes while simultaneously keeping him in line.

---