Page 115 of Wylder Ranch
Cinnamon buns must be the magic word because he slides out of the booth, takes Haven’s outstretched hand, and they walk off to the bathrooms together without looking back.
I sit down in the only dry spot.
Hendricks grabs another pile of napkins and wipes up what’s left of the spillage. “Congratulations, Al. I’m really happy for you. You deserve it.”
“Thank you,” I reply, but I don’t want to talk about me. “Hen, what’s up?”
One hand is curled around his coffee cup, while he presses his fingertips into the crumbs Max left on his plate. He’s so quiet that I assume he’s ignoring me. Unfortunately for him, that doesn’t work.
“Henners, c’mon, talk to me. What’s going on?”
His eyes flick to the bathroom door where Max and Haven went. When they come back to me, there’s a decent amount of anguish behind them. “I fucked up.”
Out of all of us, Hendricks is the quietest. Not that any of us are particularly quiet, but compared to Miles, he’s practically mute. Unlike Miles, he had to grow up quickly when Max came along. His party days stopped overnight, and he concentrated on being the best father he could be.
If anyone in this family’s going to fuck up, it’s not him.
But the look he’s wearing is one I recognize from my days earlier this year. It’s the look I carried all those months I didn’t hear from Haven.
So I take a wild stab in the dark. “Is this about Story?”
He gives one deep nod, picks up his coffee cup, and drains what’s left. “Yeah.”
I debate on telling him what Haven told me, before deciding it might help him open up. “I heard you went to the tree stand.”
“I did.” He shakes his head. “Fucking stupid thing to do. But I had to see her.”
“What happened?”
He knows I’m not talking about the tree stand. “I broke us.”
I expect him to stop because even those three words are more than he’s ever uttered when it comes to what went down between them.
“One day we were best friends, the next she’s movedto Australia without telling me. And I never heard from her again.”
My brows knit together. I’m waiting for him to continue, but he doesn’t. “Never?”
He shakes his head.
“You weren’t more than friends?”
“Did I fuck her, you mean?” Hendricks looks up from his coffee cup and shakes his head. “No. Nothing ever happened.”
“Did you want it to?”
This time, the anguish is palpable. “Yes.”
“So why?—”
“Because I knew Story and I could never be casual. Miles and I...we liked our fun. I didn’t want a girlfriend.” He scrubs a hand over his face, like he can’t decide if he’s made a lifetime of bad decisions. “She was my best friend, and I loved her. I wasn’t going to jeopardize that.”
“So what?—”
“I’ve gone over and over it.” He shrugs. “She was so mad when I told her Sienna was pregnant . . .” His head drops in his hands. “She stormed off, and her parting words were ‘fuck you, Hendricks.’ We’d never argued before.” He huffs a laugh. “My head was all over the place anyway, and I was dealing with the pregnancy news, so I left her to calm down. But when she wasn’t answering her phone, I went to her parents’. Giles told me she’d been accepted on a teaching course in Australia and decided to go at the last minute.Fucking Australia. She didn’t even tell me she’d applied.”
I can see in his face that he’s reliving it all again. There’s pain in his eyes I wish I could take away, but nothing I say will make it better. “And youhaven’t heard from her since?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. She never replied to anything I sent her.”
