“Me! There! I said it! She’s moving away from me, Dad. Walking away from…us.”
“Then go tell her how you feel.”
“I was going to. That’s why I was at her house. I was going to ask her to stay here, with me, but I was too late. She picked him dad. She picked him.”
I drank the rest of my beer before slamming the bottle onto the counter. “I just need to forget and move on. Find someone who will…” I swallowed. “Who will love me.”
My father let out a gruff laugh. “Because Liza doesn’t? Is that what you think, Walker? You think she doesn’t love you? You’re wrong. I see the way she looks at you. Everyone sees it, son. She doesn’t look at this Keith guy that way.”
I turned to my father. We looked so much alike. My father was even wearing a backwards baseball cap. “I need to be alone, Dad. Just for tonight, I need to be alone.”
My father glanced back over to the hot bartender. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret, son. I’m telling you that from experience.”
He stood up and threw a couple twenties onto the bar and squeezed my shoulder. He slapped the hell out of my back and headed out the door.
AN HOUR LATER, I found myself leaving the bar with a blonde. I had no idea what her name was.
“Follow me home, handsome?”
I nodded and jumped into my truck. I followed her to a small brick house about five blocks from Joe’s. Pulling into her driveway, I parked behind her car. She motioned for me to follow her. Unlocking her front door, she reached in and turned on a light. I followed in and shut the door. Before I could say anything, she pushed me against the door and kissed me as her hand made its way to my dick and squeezed.
“Oh, hell yeah,” she said as she pulled her lips away and quickly pulled her shirt over her head. I checked out her chest. Her tits were practically falling out of a bra that was clearly too small for her. I cupped her breast as she tipped her head back. Moving my lips to her neck, I kissed her and pushing up her bra up, letting her breasts fall free. I moved my lips down to her nipple and sucked on it—hard. Her little moans made my dick jump.
“That’s it,” she murmured as she turned and pressed her ass against my dick. “I want it from behind, and I want it hard and fast.” She pushed off of me and walked into her living room.
I took off my baseball cap and ran my hand through my hair. Placing my cap back on, I glanced around. The walls were tan and there was hardly any furniture in the place. She had a small sofa and coffee table. Nothing else. What the fuck am I doing?
I reached for the doorknob as she called out, “I have condoms if you don’t have one.”
Rolling my eyes, I opened the door and didn’t look back as I made my way to my truck. What I needed was to get out of Llano for a few days. Back in my truck, I called the only person I knew I could count on to help me.
SITTING AT MY kitchen table, I stared at Keith, listening to him go on and on about his damn hiking trip with his father. He’d assumed I’d cried because I’d been happy to see him. I glanced at my father, and he looked bored out of his mind. I knew that deep down inside he was praying I wouldn’t marry Keith.
My mother raised an eyebrow at me and tilted her head toward Keith.
I nodded to let her know I got the hint. I needed to talk to Keith. I needed to tell him we were over. I needed to tell him I was in love with another man.
My father looked at me with pleading eyes. I couldn’t help but giggle. I finally stood and placed my hand on Keith’s shoulder. He turned and met my gaze.
“Keith, can we step outside and sit on the porch? I need to talk to you.”
Keith’s smile faded. He turned to my parents and said, “If you’ll excuse us.”
My mother and father both nodded.
Keith took my hand as we walked out and onto the back porch. I pointed to the pool and we made our way to a table. Keith pulled a chair out for me. Sitting down, I looked up at the clear sky. The stars were probably the brightest I’d seen them in a long time.
“Thank you,” I said.
He walked around the table and sat across from me. I took a deep breath and was about to speak when Keith laughed and said, “Jesus, I’ve been waiting hours to be alone with you and this is where you want to talk?” He used air quotes around the word “talk.”
I looked away. I’d been trying to figure out how to do this ever since he’d arrived.
I turned back to face Keith. He was staring at me, concerned. He finally chuckled.
“Keith, there isn’t an easy way for me to say this.”
Shaking his head he said, “Don’t do this, Liza.”
I chewed on my lip and stared at the ring on my finger. I slipped it off and tried to talk. When nothing came out, I cleared my throat and wiped my tears. “I never wanted to hurt you, Keith. But I think I’ve always known that my place was here, in Llano.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “You’re not marrying me because you want to stay in this town? You’re really picking Llano over me, Liza?”
I swallowed and sucked in a shaky breath. “No, I’m not marrying you because I’m…I’m…” A sob escaped my throat and I placed a hand over my mouth.
“What? You’re what?”
I closed my eyes and counted to five as I tried to catch my breath. When I opened my eyes, I extended my hand to him, offering back the ring.
“My heart belongs here, too. I’m in love with someone else. I’ve always been in love with him. I’ll always be in love with him. It’s not fair to you for me to keep pretending.”
Keith looked away for a few seconds and quickly wiped away a tear. He didn’t bother to look at me as he asked, “Walker?”
I whispered, “Yes.”
His head snapped back to me. “Did you ever love me, Liza?”
I gasped. “Of course I did. I just…I mean…I…”
He smiled, but the muscles in his neck were flexed. “You loved him more.”
I couldn’t speak. My mouth went dry. Deep in my heart I always knew Keith was not the guy I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
Keith took the ring from me, got up, and walked around the table to stand in front of me. “I could’ve given you the world. Anything you wanted, you would’ve had. I hope you won’t look back and realize this was the biggest mistake of your life, Liza.”
I was briefly taken aback. Shaking my head I said, “The biggest mistake of my life was walking away from him in the first place.” I stood up and looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry, Keith. I never meant to hurt you.”