Page 23 of Sugar Coated Secrets

He means Summer. I didn’t care if he slept with her. Despite what she thought, it’s not like she was my real girlfriend, and Trent knew I didn’t love her. He knew why I was with her. Chris, too, but I stopped talking to Chris when I told him I wanted to leave. He hated it. He was a good friend in the beginning. He was adopted when he was thirteen. It was always Trent and me at first, but then Chris showed up, and we hit it off until I left.

“What’s up with Chris? What’s he up to?” I ask, my voice carrying a light probing quality.

Trent looks up from his phone. I can tell it’s not good. “He left for college and was kicked out three months in.”

“How come?” I probe.

He shakes his head. “Don’t know. He wouldn’t talk about it, and his parents wouldn’t say. You know how reputation is around here.”

“Where is he?”

“He bought a house with the rest of his college fund when he moved back. His parents flipped the fuck out. They wanted him to take over the real estate company in town, but he told them to go fuck themselves. He isn’t the Chris you know when you left, Ford. He’s changed. Spends his time having wild parties. Races on the backroads with the high school seniors and whoever wants to race. Fucks around. Smokes weed. Drinks. It’s like he’s running a frat house.”

“What’s his deal with you?” I ask, wondering why he went off the rails all of a sudden. Trent stayed and is doing what he planned to do after high school. Why did Chris change? Chris was the nicest one out of all of us. The most liked and easy to talk to.

Trent looks away, but I know there is more he won’t tell me. “I don’t know. We don’t talk anymore.”

I look around his office. I notice he doesn’t have any pictures—just him and his classic cars. “Are you seeing anyone? Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend?” I ask, wanting to know more.

“Nah. A couple of girls come and go, but nothing serious. I don’t have time since I opened. Mine is the only one in town now. Old Theodore closed his shop before we graduated. He was too old to work on cars anymore.”

I smile. “So you saw an opportunity and took it.”

“Damn right, I did. My parents hate me right now, but I don’t care.”

I see the way he taps nervously on the desk. He looks at me and then looks away.

“I was planning to open the first exotic sports garage in Airy,” I confess.

His eyes light up. “What about driving?”

I shrug. “I need a break. I’ll go back to it. I have contracts and sponsors, but I’m tired of living out of a suitcase.”

He nods, scratching the scruff on his chin, and asks, “What do you need?”

“Nothing right now,” I tell him, looking around. “I came to see what you have been up to. I need to buy land to start everything up.”

“Do your parents know you’re back?”

“They should. It’s already all over social media.”

He chuckles and asks like he doesn’t already know. “Where did you head to first?”

“Sugar Coated Sweets,” I confess.

He clears his throat, but his eyes are unfocused and distant. “You saw her?”

My eyes cut to his. “I did.”

“Told you to fuck off?”

I nod slowly but don’t like the way the hair on the back of my neck stands.

“Pretty much.”

He lets out a shaky chuckle. “Let that go, man.”

I sit up and lean my forearms on my thighs. “I can’t,” I admit truthfully.

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