Page 24 of Cowboy Crush
“I mean, I’ve been watching you from a safe distance all day. You’re pissed, man. Everything you’ve done today you’ve done in anger. Now tell me what’s going on.”
“She left,” I blurt out.
“What?”
“She left,” I say again.
“The girl you’ve been seeing all summer?”
I nod.
“Shit, man,” he breathes out. “When did she leave?”
I shrug. “Any minute now,” I say, looking at my watch.
“And you didn’t tell her goodbye?”
“Even worse than that, I ruined our last night together.”
“I’m sure you didn’t ruin it,” he says.
“I told her we never had a connection and that I didn’t love her after I fucked her for the last time.”
His eyes widen, and a grin spreads across his face as a chuckle escapes. “Okay, maybe you did ruin it,” he tells me. “But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make up for it now. Go get her. Tell her how you feel.”
“You don’t think it’s too late?”
“It’s never too late to make things right, Jameson.”
Without another word, I get off my ass and run to the truck. I jump behind the wheel and kick up rocks and dust I leave so fast. I take the mountain curves faster than I should, but I don’t care if it’s dangerous. All I care about is getting to her before she leaves to tell her that I am sorry for how I acted and tell her that I did fall in love with her.
I pull into the drive, but her car is already gone. With a surge of hope, I tell myself that maybe one of the girls just ran into town to grab food before they left. I leave the truck running as I hop out and run up to the door. I knock again and again, but nobody answers. I move to the window and peek inside. It’s dark. It’s clean with no personal items left out for me to see. Still refusing to give up, I run around the house. It takes a running jump, but I manage to lift myself up enough to see over the privacy fence. The pool is empty, no ice cream float that’s always there. The hot tub is covered. The cooler is gone, and the trash can full of beer bottles is now empty. She’s gone. She left. It is too late.
15
HANNAH
“Are you sure about this?” Summer asks as she grabs her luggage out of the trunk of the car.
“I’m sorry, I just…I can’t leave. Not yet. I have to see him. I have to make things right,” I tell them.
“You’re not the one who fucked things up, Hannah. He did. Leave him in your dust. You have a life that’s waiting to start,” Chloe says.
I nod and force a smile. “That’s what I thought too,” I explain. “All these years, all my life, I’ve been waiting. Waiting to be old enough, waiting to graduate college, waiting to move to New York, waiting for that perfect job. Then I realized that I’ve spent so much of my time waiting that life was passing me by. Love was passing me by. I haven’t waited all summer, and you know what I found? A great guy who I know loves me. He’s the love of my life, and I can’t leave without letting him know. So please, get on the plane and go home. I’ll drive home by myself after I see him.”
Summer wraps her arms around my neck. “Be careful and call us. A lot!”
“I will,” I say around a smile.
“Love you,” Chloe says, hugging me.
“I love you guys too.” I watch them carry their bags into the airport, then I climb back behind the wheel and drive back to town. The drive is long, and night is falling before I make it back. When I do, I drive straight to his house. The lights are off, and his truck isn’t in the drive. I pass it by and go to the only other place I can think to check. The bar and grill.
I pull up, and the parking lot is almost empty. With it being a Sunday night, they close earlier than any other day of the week. The lights are even turned off, but his truck is here, and that’s enough to make me park my car and go inside.
I push through the door, and the server gives me a smile. “We’re closing up, hun,” she tells me.
I offer a smile as I lean on the bar. “Jameson here?”
