Page 97 of Heart Set on You

“I’ll take a Coke,” I say, sitting down.

“I’m starving,” Liam says, opening up his menu. We all do the same.

While we’re scanning the menu, we talk about work and families and give each other the gears, all of us catching up on one another’s lives.

Dylan tells us about the girl at the gym who he’s been wanting to ask out for forever. “At the pace you’re going, D, I will have four kids by the time you ask this chick out,” Liam tells him, rolling his eyes. “Man up. What the fuck are you waiting for?”

Dylan shakes his head. “You gotta make a girl want you. You can’t rush the process. There are steps involved. You idiots could learn a thing or two from me.”

“I’ll remember that for future reference,” Colten says. “If I want to die single and alone.”

We all laugh. Catching up with these guys when I’m in Reed Point always reminds me how much I miss hanging out with them. It would be nice to just call them up for a beer after work rather than waiting for the three or four times a year I’m back in town.

My phone dings in my pocket. It’s a text from Georgia and I check it quickly in case it has something to do with my flight tonight. The good news – it doesn’t. The bad news – Georgia has updated my calendar for the next fucking forever and left me with no free time at all.

I lean back in my chair, wondering where Rylee fits in to all of this. Maybe I should have known when I suggested long distance that it was going to feel impossible. Maybe I was too love-drunk to see it.

Parker looks over at me as I scrub my hands through my hair.

“By the way, you look like hell,” my brother says.

“Thanks, Parks,” I sigh.

I miss her.

“He has a point,” Liam says from across the table. “You look like your dog just died.” I feel five sets of eyes staring at me. My leg starts to bounce under the table.

Parker puts his glass of water down on the table and looks at me. “Okay. I’ve held back long enough, thinking you would figure this out on your own, but obviously you haven’t, so here are my two cents.” He taps the table with his index finger twice to drive his point home. “I’ve known you a long time and I’ve seen you with a lot of women. A lot is probably an understatement.”

“Get to the fucking point, would you?” I warn.

“My point is,” he starts, “I’ve never seen you act like this before. You’re different when you’re around Rylee. You’re in love with her. Anyone with two functioning eyes can see that. And she loves you too.”

“It’s not that simple,” I say, my voiced laced with frustration. “If it was, I’d be sitting here with her instead of you assholes.”

“Maybe it could be. Does she know how you feel about her? Have you told her you love her?”

“No.”

“Then you are an idiot. A massive, dense, incredibly stupid idiot. Why the fuck not?” my brother demands, giving me a verbal beatdown. I know the answer to his question, though it probably won’t make sense to Parker. I haven’t told her I love her because I don’t want to complicate her decision to move back home with her grandparents. I’m making things easier on her.

“Because she left. That’s why,” I say, like the answer is obvious. “Her heart is in Tennessee with her family. She needs them. They need her too.”

He scoffs. “She needs you, Miles. Most of all she needs you,” he says, his voice softer now but no less insistent.

“She left.”

I wanted her to stay.

I’m still so angry that she’s gone. I’m hurt and sad and stuck in this terrible rut. Angry that she left and angry with myself for letting her go.

“She’s probably scared. You never told her how you feel about her. Do you love her?” Parker asks, leaning forward in his chair.

I do love her, but I’ve never said the words out loud.

“Do you love her?” he repeats.

The table is silent for a minute. Simmering on the question, my heart sinks. I fucked up. I let her go. It’s my fault that she left. I never told her how I felt. I never told her I was falling for her. The truth is, I’ve been falling for her for months. I never fucking told her that I love her.

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