Page 52 of Chasing Forever

It had been a week since Warren left those roses on my car. In that time, Zach had lived up to his promise and put up security cameras around the lodge and at the entrance to the ranch.

There’d been no sign of Warren anywhere, and with no more ominous messages, I assumed he’d gotten the hint he couldn’t intimidate me and had decided to move on.

Without him lurking around the corner, life carried on like normal, and my new normal was amazing.

The only thing casting a shadow on all the light in my life was the fact that one of my friends seemed to be struggling.

That argument between Lennix and Raylan the day of the rose incident hadn’t been the last tense interaction between them, and people were starting to talk. Mainly Ivy, Rae, Holly, and me. We’d noticed Lennix’s sour mood lately and were starting to worry.

That was why I’d decided to head to the Tap Room on my day off to check on her and make sure she was okay. The comment about the spine ripping had been in answer to me asking what was going on between her and Raylan.

I cleared my throat and dropped the fry onto my plate next to the burger I ordered for lunch. “That’s... vivid.”

“I’m sorry.” She flopped back in her chair on a huff. “I know I sound a little unhinged.”

I shot her a grin. “Just a little.”

“He makes me so mad.”

I placed my straw between my lips and took a sip of water as I watched my friend closely. “Has it always been like this between you guys?”

She threw her hands up in frustration. “No, that’s the thing. I’ve known him my whole life, and recently he’s turned into this raging asshole.” Her sigh sounded like it weighed a ton. “He and Zach have been best friends since before I was born, so I grew up with him. I knew we weren’t as close as he and my brother were, but I always thought we were friends. Things have been strained since my brother and Rae got married, but it didn’t start getting ugly until recently.”

Leaning forward, I braced my elbow on the table and rested my chin in my palm. “What happened to make your relationship strained?”

A flush hit her cheeks at my question, and she lowered her head like she was trying to hide behind the curtain of her ebony hair. She curled her lips between her teeth, and I got the distinct impression she hadn’t meant to reveal as much as she had.

“Lennix?”

“Ugh! I told him I had feelings for him, okay?” she blurted out in rapid fire, her admission nearly bowling me over.

My eyes went wide and my hand slapped the table as I moved in even closer. “Oh my God, are you serious?” I hissed in part shock, part excitement. “You like Raylan?” All of a sudden I couldn’t shake the thought; they would make the cutest couple ever.

“Liked,” she stressed. “Past tense. I don’t feel that way about him anymore.” But something in the way she held herself as she said it made me think she wasn’t being completely honest.

I decided not to push her for the time being. “What did he say when you told him you had feelings for him?”

She slapped her hands over her face, muffling the pained groan she released. “I don’t want to say. It was so humiliating.”

I reached up and took hold of her wrist, slowly pulling her hand down so she could see the sincerity in my eyes when I said, “You never have any reason to be embarrassed around me. I’m your friend. And I’d never judge you.”

She gave me a tiny smile. “You really are an amazing friend. You know that?”

“The feeling is more than mutual, Len. And, hey, if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. I will respect whatever you decide.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll tell you. I need to tellsomeone. This has been eating me alive for months.” She took a bracing breath. “When I told him I liked him, he basically said it was never going to happen. I was his friend’s little sister, and was practically still a kid.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “He didnotcall you a kid.”

She nodded. “He said I was too young to really know what I wanted, and he was flattered, but he didn’t see me that way.”

“Of all the condescending, bullshit excuses... You know what? Heisan asshole.”

Lennix’s eyes got wide, and she let out a bubble of surprised laughter. “Wow, babe. Aside from when you were stomping those roses to death, I don’t think I’ve heard you curse that much.”

I smiled bashfully. “I’ve tried to tone it down since I got Levi, but I think this moment called for it.”

She lifted her glass. “Amen to that. Anyway, sure, I was crushed he didn’t feel the same way I did, but I tried to get past it. It was awkward around him for a while, but I did my best to put it out of my mind and go back to normal. I thought we were finally moving beyond all the awkwardness when, all of a sudden, this switch flipped in him. Now it’s like he goes out of his way to make me all rage-y. I’ve started fantasizing about all the different places on the ranch where I could hide his body so it would never be found.”

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