Closing her eyes, she let her head fall into her hands. She couldn’t do it. On Saturday she’d told him she was a virgin. On Sunday, she’d slept with Dylan Amos, a guy who just happened to proposition her in the park.
She wasn’t good enough for someone like Joe. He was better off with Eve.
Her phone rang again. This time it was Presley, so she answered.
“Hey,” her sister said.
“What’s up?”
“I was just wondering when you might be getting home tonight.”
Cheyenne checked the time on her computer. It was almost eight. Riley and Jacob had brought her some takeout from Barry’s Burgers and left two hours ago. “Don’t know. Why? I thought you didn’t have to work.”
“I don’t. I wanted to tell you there’s no rush. If you’d like to go out, you know, do something fun, I’ll take care of Mom.”
“Really?” Cheyenne didn’t mean to act so surprised, but Presley abandoned Anita whenever she could. Cheyenne cut her some slack because she knew Anita’s decline was harder on her sister, but she was sure there were times Presley said she had to work when she didn’t.
“Really. She’s having a good night and so am I.”
“I’m…glad to hear it.”
“So what will you do?”
Cheyenne had no idea. Riley and Jacob were beat after putting in nearly twelve hours of exhausting physical labor. They were planning to be back by six in the morning, so they were probably hoping to get to bed early.
“I’ll stop over and say hello to Eve’s parents. Then I’ll drop by Sophia’s. If her husband’s out of town, maybe she’ll want to watch a movie with me.”
“You’ve got a pretty good chance of Skip being gone. He’s always gone.”
“Because he’s such a big deal, right?” Cheyenne smiled. They made fun of Sophia’s husband all the time. He was so full of himself. But he was pretty adept at making money. He traveled the world, raising funds for various venture capital partnerships. Almost everyone in Whiskey Creek invested with him. If they had enough money. He’d never give anyone who lived in the river bottoms a second of his time.
“A legend in his own mind,” Presley replied.
Covering a yawn, Cheyenne leaned back. She hadn’t realized how tired she was, but it made sense, given how little sleep she’d had last night. “Thanks for looking after Mom, Pres. I appreciate the break.”
“No problem. Have fun.”
After they hung up, Cheyenne drummed her fingers on the desk, trying to decide whether or not she’d really go to Sophia’s. She was tempted to call Joe back. She was also tempted to call Dylan. She felt terrible about how things had ended, wanted to apologize to him as Joe had apologized to her.
But she’d be better off to leave both men alone.
She powered down her computer, gathered up her purse and turned off the lights.
A creak from above made her pause, but she didn’t go to investigate. She knew she wouldn’t find any reason for it.
“Good night, Mary,” she said, and smiled as she let herself out.
* * *
Dylan sat in front of the television, his two dogs—a chocolate lab and a golden retriever mix he’d rescued from the local shelter five years ago—at his feet. But he wasn’t paying much attention to the MMA match his brothers had rented on pay-per-view. He liked cage fighting as much as they did. In the early years, when he’d first taken over his father’s business and it wasn’t making enough to support them, he earned extra money by competing. Now he occasionally went to the gym in Jackson, but he didn’t fight. Training just gave him a way to stay in shape.
He should’ve been more interested in what he was seeing but, thanks to his visit to Cheyenne’s house last night, he’d had to work at the shop for twelve hours on virtually no sleep and didn’t have his usual energy. The only thing that kept him from drifting off right there in his recliner was the hope that Cheyenne’s sister would show up. He was eager to hear whether or not Cheyenne had let anything slip. How was she today? Had she told Presley she’d finally slept with someone? Or was she still determined to keep it to herself?
Probably what he wanted to know most was: Did she regret what they’d done?
“Want a cigarette?” Aaron held out a pack of Marlboros, but Dylan shook his head. He hadn’t had a smoke all day.
“No, I quit.”
“You what?”
“I said I quit.” He knew how damaging it was to his health. He wasn’t sure why he’d ever started, except that, once upon a time, cigarettes had given him something to do with his hands when he felt like throwing punches. The nicotine calmed him. Back then, he’d figured smoking was the lesser of two evils. But he was beyond needing that crutch—wasn’t he?
“Since when?” Aaron asked.
Mack, Grady and Rod stared at him, too. Even the dogs, Shady and Kikosan, pricked their ears forward.
“Since today.”
Rod paused the TV. “What brought this on?”
“Maybe I don’t want to get lung cancer, okay?” He didn’t know why they had to make a big deal out of it.
They glanced at one another as if he’d just said he was moving to the moon.
“What the heck?” Grady said. “You just had me buy a whole case at Costco.”
Dylan didn’t want to be reminded of that, and he didn’t want to be questioned about his decision. “So? Aaron smokes.”
“Only once in a while,” Rod said. “And only when you’re having a cigarette.”
“Then we’ll throw the damn things away. Nobody has to smoke them.”
Shady barked, obviously sensing the shift of emotions in the room.
“It’s just kind of sudden,” Grady said. “That’s all.”
“And it’s because they’re unhealthy?” Now Rod was getting into the act.
Dylan gave him a disgruntled look that warned them all to back off. “That’s right.”
Aaron, of course, didn’t back off. He leaned forward. “But they were unhealthy when you started.”
“So you’re going to give me the third degree?” He preferred not to smoke anymore. So what? It was bad for his health. But that wasn’t all. He couldn’t see Cheyenne with anyone who smoked. Certainly no one in her crowd lit up, except her mother and sister—both people she didn’t respect. He couldn’t dismiss that, or the fact that she’d mentioned the smell last night, although she’d claimed it didn’t bother her. He just didn’t want his brothers to know it had taken a woman to make him quit, hated to admit it even to himself. He was stupid to care about Cheyenne. Until yesterday, she’d never paid him any attention. She’d been too busy chasing Joe, thought he was so much better.