“It’s my job, Mason. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to Atlanta?”
“When?” He threw his hands up in frustration. “You mean all those times I call you and you don’t answer. I called you today.”
I didn’t have a response because he was right. I hated lying to him, so I avoided talking to him as much as I could.
“You all need to leave.” I looked toward the door to make sure Hank wasn’t coming back. I didn’t want them to cause a scene. I couldn’t afford to lose my job.
“We’re not leaving here without you.” It wasn’t the words that surprised me but who they came from.
“You don’t have a say, Parker.” I stared up at him. He was still about six inches taller than me even in my heels and his green eyes were on fire.
“He’s right,” Mason growled. “You are coming home.”
I searched the room full of his friends who were all staring at us but pretending not to. I didn’t recognize any of them, and it hit me how far I had removed myself from my brother. I barely knew anything about him anymore.
Wanting to go home with him wasn’t the problem. I just didn’t want to get hurt again. Parker had practically destroyed me once and being around him made my chest ache. I couldn’t risk losing myself to him again, but I couldn’t tell my brother that. I had been nothing more than Parker’s secret, and my brother would shit himself if he knew what happened. If he knew that Parker was the reason I ran.
So instead of telling him, I put a smile on my face and tried to avoid the topic altogether.
“Who’s getting married anyways?” I looked around the room again. Some of the guys were covered in tattoos like Parker and some looked clean cut like my brother.
It wasn’t until my gaze landed back on the two men that my world used to revolve around that I realized how fucked I really was. All it took was one word from Parker’s lips.
“Me.”
L I V
Four years and six months earlier
Everyone was laughing at a joke Parker was telling. He was animated, using his hands as he spoke, and the group around him was eating it up.
I took a sip of my water since my brother was a party pooper and wouldn’t let me drink like everyone else. Mason was only a year older than me, and we were all too young to drink. But he thought he was my dad and the only way he agreed to let me come to the party was if I swore I wouldn’t drink.
Like I said, party pooper.
I watched Parker as he pushed his brown hair out of his eyes. His girlfriend, Madison, stood attached to his side, and she hadn’t taken her eyes off him. I wanted to tell her to back off because Parker was mine.
Except he wasn’t.
He was hers.
I was just a girl who was in love with him.
She giggled loudly at something he was saying, and I rolled my eyes. Parker was funny, but his joke wasn’t that funny.
With every second that passed, I could feel the oxygen leaving the room. I was suffocating in my jealousy, and there was only so much I could take. Parker looked up at me when I stood, but his girlfriend quickly drew his attention back to her when she touched his arm. Her eyes flicked to me, and I could see the warning there. Parker was hers, and I better back off. It was loud and clear.
But she didn’t need to worry about me. I didn’t stand a chance.
The back deck creaked under my weight, and I filled my lungs with fresh air.
Keeping my feelings for Parker in check had become a full-time job, and it crushed me to watch him with another girl. It killed me.
There had been plenty of girls over the years too. He had been my brother’s best friend for as long as I could remember, and there wasn’t a time when I wasn’t in love with him. It felt like it was the only thing I had ever known.
Everyone liked Parker. He was funny, athletic, and handsome as hell. But there were so many things about Parker that those other girls didn’t see. He was a fiercely loyal friend, and he had my brother’s back more times than I could count. He was also sweet. It wasn’t a side of him that he let many people see, but I saw it. He treated his momma like she was a queen, and although he probably wouldn’t admit it out loud, I knew he went once a week to visit his grandfather.
His art though. That was how I knew the true Parker.
I jumped when I heard the door open behind me, and I held my breath with hope that Parker came after me. But just like the bloom of hope that I always held in my chest, this one was destroyed just as quickly as it formed.
A head of shaggy blond hair poked out the door, and I quickly recognized him as Thomas Alexander, a guy who graduated with my brother and Parker.
“Hey, Olivia.” He walked out onto the porch before closing the door quietly behind him. I wanted to tell him that I hated when people used my full name, but for some reason, I stopped myself.
“Hey, Thomas. How are you?” I took a sip of my water to cover how awkward I felt being out here alone with him.
Thomas was cute. Really cute actually, but he wasn’t Parker. I didn’t get butterflies in my stomach when he walked into the room. I didn’t hold my breath waiting for him to say my name.
“I’m good. I’m just in town visiting from school.” He pushed his hair back out of his face, and I noticed how blue his eyes were for the first time.
Maybe this was what I needed. I couldn’t get over my crush on Parker unless I tried to move on with someone else. Right?
“That’s awesome. How is school going?”
“It’s great. It’s weird being so far away from home, but I love it. I’m in a fraternity and my brothers are cool as shit. We throw parties that are so much better than anything that’s thrown in this town.”
Blah. Blah. Blah.
I looked out over the deck railing and watched the moon’s reflection beam against the ground. The moon was so grand and larger than life, and when I looked up in the sky and saw it surrounded by stars, it reminded me of Parker. He was so far out of my reach. I could admire him from afar just like everyone else except the stars. They were the only ones that were in the same realm as him. I would never be one of the stars. I would never be the girl who got Parker James.
“Did you hear me, Olivia?” Thomas’s voice finally broke through, and I realized that I hadn’t been listening to a word he said.
“I’m sorry. What?” He had moved much closer to me when I wasn’t paying attention, and he was only about a foot away now. I could easily reach out and touch him.
“Have you decided where you’re going to go to school yet? You graduate in just a few months.”
“Oh, school. Umm…” I tucked my hair behind my ear. I would be lying if I said that Parker wasn’t the biggest factor in me deciding where I wanted to go. “I’ve been accepted to a few schools that I’m interested in, but I’ll probably stay home and go the University of Tennessee.”
“Really?” He snarled his lip and my back straightened.