Page 73 of Friends With Benedicts

I only wished I had something to keep me afloat too.

28

For The Heart

SEBASTIAN

The bonfire crackled in the middle of one of Wyatt’s open pastures, and up above us were a billion stars, catching all the cheer floating up in their direction.

After the vote today, it’d been announced around nine that we had won.

Half the town was here, and a hundred percent of them were tanked, even Mr. Buttoned Up Lawyer Evan, who was rarely known to partake. Tonight, he was rip-roaring drunk and taking his turn doing keg stands like a frat boy.

I sat on my tailgate watching the party from the fringes. The relief was palpable—we’d dodged defeat in the eleventh hour, and no one knew who the informer to the paper was. All we knew was that we owed them a debt of gratitude for helping us impose a ruling that would limit store capacity, keeping any store in our city limits small. Evan warned us that they’d likely try to go to neighboring towns to campaign for their store, but he already had a plan to do outreach that would quite possibly stop the mega-store before they got their hooks in another town.

There was a call to unseat Mitchell, but it didn’t have enough steam for action. Not yet, at least.

I should have been happy. I should have been celebrating. But I wasn’t drinking for fun. I was drinking to forget.

It wasn’t working.

Not after spending the day with Priscilla, throwing her around in the pool, knowing our time was almost up. Not tucking her into bed, reading her a story, managing the half-dozen times she came out of her room with a new guise every time.

Not when every single second I spent with Priscilla left me longing for Presley. But what was done was done. She was leaving, running after her dreams. Running away from here. Away from me.

Maybe I was going to do the same. If I was going to be miserable, might as well be in Africa where I could do some actual good.

Wyatt sauntered up with a couple of Solo cups in his massive hands. He extended one when he reached me and took a seat at my side.

“What are you doin’ pouting over here by yourself?”

“Pouting?”

“I dunno what else you call this.” He gestured to me with his drinking hand.

“Can’t a guy observe?”

“Well, sure. Except you’re pouting while you do it.”

I chuckled and took a drink with my eyes still on the crowd.

“You lookin’ for her?”

Yes. “No.”

“The Blum girls are here. If she was coming, she’d be with them.”

“I know.”

He went quiet while we watched the bonfire eat up logs. “You decide what to do?”

“Nope.”

“I reckon if you’re having this hard a time deciding, there’s no wrong answer.”

“There’s always a wrong answer.”

He rolled one gigantic shoulder. “Nah, there’s only whatever you choose to do and what you do afterward. Can’t get that wrong unless you don’t learn anything from it.”

“You get that on the inside of a Snapple cap?”

“Dove chocolate.”

Laughter rumbled out of me. But my smile fell almost immediately. “She’s leaving in a couple of days.”

“I know. I’m goin’ to her party. Are you?”

“I don’t know that either. Feel like I should for Cilla, at least.”

He snorted and took a drink. “Right. She’s the only one you should go for.”

I shot him a look. “What do you want me to do?”

He gave me a look right back, a hard, judgmental look. “Stop being a jackass, for one. Y’all are driving me nuts.”

“Pardon me for the inconvenience,” I snarked.

“Quit being a baby. Are you really gonna let her go without telling her how you feel about her? Or what you want?”

“How do you know what I want? I don’t even know what I want.”

“I wish I preferred women—they’re smarter than us.”

“And they smell better.”

“Amen.” He held up his drink and took another slug. “And yeah, you’re about as mysterious as second grade math on this one. You love her, and you don’t want her to go. I don’t get what’s so fucking hard about that.”

“You’re right—it’s so simple. Thanks, Wyatt. I hadn’t thought about that at all. I’ll call her now, clear the whole thing up.”

“Good.”

“No, it’s not good, dumbshit. It’s too complicated. I can’t ask her to stay.”

His face flattened. “Of course you can’t. But what’s keeping you here?”

I blinked, jerking back in surprise. I was prepared to leave until Presley and Priscilla. Without them, there wasn’t a thing keeping me here. When she left, this place was going to be a black hole of memories. I’d have to get out of here or risk disappearing with all the rest of my hopes and dreams.

Because those hopes and dreams had changed.

They were for Presley and Priscilla now.

And if they were going to leave, I could follow.

“There it is,” Wyatt said, shaking his head at the moon with a laugh. “You should see your stupid face right now.”

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