“I believe your date for the night is waiting for you. ”
Josh grabbed the side of the barn, like he was trying to hold himself up. I instantly wanted to run into his arms and beg him to take me back to Jeff and Ari’s house. I started to take a step toward him when he looked at me. His eyes were different. The look from earlier was replaced with anger. I stopped dead in my tracks.
“I’m sorry that I made you feel that way, princ, um Heather. I guess we’re clear on where we stand with each other so…. ”
I just stood there and stared at him. Am I really going to just let him walk away from me?
“Yeah, I guess we’re clear. Excuse me, I’d like to find out how Ari is doing and what happened with Jeff and Rebecca today,” I said.
I started to walk past him. When he took me by the arm, I stopped and looked up into his beautiful green eyes. I’d give anything to see him smile, giving me that dimple he had on his right cheek.
“No matter if you believe me or not, I’ll always love you,” he whispered.
I sucked in a breath of air. I couldn’t move.
Josh leaned down and kissed me on the cheek.
“Please come back to Jeff and Ari’s tonight. I promise that I won’t bother you. ”
With that, he turned and headed back up to the house. The moment he left, I leaned back against the barn and started to cry. I cried so hard that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. What is wrong with me? Why did I just push away the only man, besides my father, that I’ve ever loved, ever needed?
I tried to calm myself down. I was sure Ellie would come looking for me if I didn’t come back right after Josh.
Sure enough, I heard her call out my name.
I looked up at her with tears streaming down my face.
“Oh my god, Heather! What did he do to you?”
I let out a laugh.
“He didn’t do anything I didn’t ask him to do. ”
“Heather, this is insane. What the hell is going on between you two? Josh just walked up and grabbed Lynda. He told Gunner that they would meet us at the bar. I thought you two were working it out. ”
It took me another minute or so to stop crying and start breathing normally again.
“Shit, Ellie, I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life, but I’m not sure. My heart is telling me one thing, and my head is telling me another. ”
“Take some deep breaths and just start at the beginning,” Ellie said as she walked me over to two chairs.
I told Ellie all about how great Josh had been with Matt all day and then about what had happened between us before Garrett had shown up.
“By the way, y’all better keep your doors locked. Garrett just walked right into Jeff and Ari’s place without even knocking. I was naked for Christ’s sake!”
Ellie was laughing her ass off, which was just pissing me off even more. “What the hell is so funny?”
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know if I’m in shock from what happened between you and Josh or the fact that Garrett did the same damn thing to Jeff and Ari the other day!”
I told Ellie about Josh’s text message to Lynda and then Josh’s explanation about it.
How he kept trying to say he wouldn’t have done it. Then, how he told me he loved me and would always love me.
“Holy hell, Heather. Josh told you he loved you?”
I nodded my head as I felt another tear roll down my face.
“Heather, did you ever think that maybe Josh is telling you the truth? I mean, I’ve heard Jeff and Gunner talk about how they’ve never seen Josh go this long without hooking up with a girl. I’m not trying to say he was right, thinking about sleeping with Lynda to forget about you, but…he is a man. Their thinking is pretty fucked-up to say the least. ”