Folding Hearts (8 page)

“Nine months ago you were all up in that shit. I recall the night pretty clearly.”

“Speaking of that, we need to talk.”

I rolled my eyes and walked back outside with Colt. “Whatever you have to say isn’t goin’ to change my mind. I can’t stand up there and watch her promise to love you forever.”

“I thought we were past this. You know how much it would mean to Savanna. She cares about you.”

I shook my head and ran my hands th
rough my hair, trying to grasp
the words that needed to be said. “It still hurts. I know that she and I are over and honestly I don’t know if I even want to be with her again, but the fact that she is with you is what drives me crazy. If it was some stranger, I think I could have let go by now. You were my
idol and now you are marrying who I always thought was my
dream girl. It’s like a kick in the balls.”

Colt got one of his famous half smiles. “I can’t force you to change your
mind, but I hope by next summer
you will have. I love her and I want her to be happy. She wants you there with us. Just think about it.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “When I was younger and got engaged you were the one person I wanted standin’ next to me. I know the past year has been hell, but I haven’t changed my mind.
You are like my brother and my best friend. I hope you reconsider.”

Why was it that he and Savanna could make me feel bad for them?

“I will man. I promise I will.”

Chapter 9

Miranda

I wish everyone would just leave me alone. Couldn’t th
ey see how much they were addin
g
to my frustrations? I needed time to get over the shock of the previous night and what happened this morning, before dealing with even more drama.

My brother was gettin
g
on my last nerve. He needed to understand that my heart was breakin
g
for myself and my daughter. I could tell that he was lookin’ out for me, but
he needed to back off and let me
breathe first.

While the baby too
k her nap, I sat in my room as
Van lectured me on what I need to do next to keep me and Bella safe. She didn’t have a kid. She had no idea what it was like being responsible for a child. She meant well, and I could tell she
believed
she was doing
the right thing, but it
wasn’t
helpin
g
me at all.

The father of my child had said the most painful words that a mother wants to hear. He didn’t want our child. He didn’t even love her.

The stinging
of my eyes felt like it was goin
g
to be permanent with my new found drama. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I asked Van to give me some time alone. I appreciated her, just not right now.

While burying my head into my pillow, I heard the fancy doorbell ringin
g
. Voices followed the sound of the door openin
g
and I knew it was only a matter of time before they called me to come down. This was a bad idea with a capital B. This would push Tucker over the edge. They thought the vandalism was major. I had no idea what would come next.

Two hours later the officers made their way out. My brother looked far too pleased at what he had done. I felt the knot in my stomach tightening.
The repercussions of his actions were not goin
g
to be what he thought. Conner always had to be in control.
This was going
to end badly.

The officers said that since they were familiar with Tucker and his family, they would pay his mother a visit later in the day. He didn’t talk to her much, but she would make sure he knew what my family had done to him. It was a good thing that my mother and aunt were due home sometime in the evening, otherwise I wou
ldn’t have even considered going
out tonight with the whole gang.

I hadn’t seen Ty since we were outside together, but I was actually happy about that. While he and Conner were havin
g words, I was upstairs standing
at the bathroom window bein
g
nosey. It wasn’t lik
e I wanted there to be something
between me and Ty. He was tellin
g
the truth about our friendship, but fo
r some reason it hurt my feeling
s. I didn’t understand why, but it just did.

He was such a big help with Bella and everyone could tell that he loved her. In light of my newest daddy issues, it made me happy that someone cared about my daughter. I always had my family and that meant the world.

Knowing
that my family wanted to go out to one of o
ur local establishments
meant that I needed to get my ass in gear and find something to wear. Since this was the first official night in months that I was single, I wanted to take advantage of the situation. I picked out a tiny little black dress. The bottom was a short skirt that puffed out a bit, but the top was just two separate pieces of black fabric that covered each of my breasts and tied around my neck.

I had these great red high heels that I had never worn before that popped with the dress, so I knew I had to wear them with it. I
pulled
my hair up and had small
curly
pieces falling out of the
up-do. I did the makeup around my eyes to look
smoky
, making the blue
color in them pop, and added just a bit
of powder and lip gloss. For an added touch I put on some of the lotion that my aunt had gotten me on my birthday. Last night I had gotten dressed up to seduce my then boyfriend, tonight I just wanted to forget he ever existed. I needed to feel eyes on me and know that I didn’t have to answer to anyone.
I deserved to have a little fun or at least feel better, even if it was temporary.

There was a bunch of commotion when I finally walked downstairs. It seemed that
everyone must have been waiting
on me and Ty to be ready. I hadn’t even noticed that he was getting ready upstairs, my only focus had been on myself. Van was holdin
g
Bella and pointed toward me when they saw me walkin
g
downstairs. My little girl got the biggest smile on her face when she saw me. A part of me just wanted to stay home and cuddle with her all night.

Everyone’s eyes were on me as I grabbed my daughter and showered her with kisses. The front door opened and my mother and aunt came rushing in the door causing their own interruptions. They immediately snatched up my daughter and began telling us about everything they had bought for her while they were away.

I was used to them spoiling her. It was just what the two of them loved to do.

When I noticed Conner moving in on them, I grabbed him by the arm and shook my head. “Not tonight, please.”

He shook his head, but didn’t say a word.

We were all standing around chattin
g
when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
Ty was in dark jeans that had holes randomly placed on them. His hair was
disheveled
all over his head
and down around his ears
. His shirt was tight against his hard chest and it was a dark red like my
shoes that
popped against his olive skin. The V shape in the neck showed off some of the definition to his chest. I tried not to be obvious about checking him out, but as he caught my eye, I caught the scent of his
cologne. He smelled better than any smell ever to exist on a man. I felt like one of the girls in those Axe commercials. I wanted to pounce on him right there in front of everyone. With no regard to anyone else, he looked at me and got a huge grin on his face.

Our eyes froze into each other for only a few seconds before Van cleared her throat. 
“You two ready to go?”

Without turning around
again
to see his face, and give away
any obvious signs that I was swooning over
him, even when I shouldn’t be, I kept my eyes fixed on my daughter as I kissed her goodbye.
I caught up to everyone outside. Conner had to pick up his girlfriend, so Ty and I rode with Colt and Van. Colt gave me a dirty look as I climbed into the backseat behind him. Van let Ty sit in the front seat because he was so much taller. The Mustang didn’t have that much leg room in the back.

The ride to the bar was uneventful. Ty and Colt talked about some baseball game when they were kids, while Van and I played on our phones in the back. I went into all my social networking apps and changed my status to say single. While Van seemed occupied by her own phone, I pulled up Ty’s profile on mine. His profile picture was a group of his
friend’s
doin’ keg stands. I had to laugh when I pictured hi
m holding
my daughter bein
g
so responsible. After goin’ through a few more photos I found a bunch of he and Van. It made me sad. I heard him sayin
g
that there was
nothing between us except for fr
iendship, but this just confirmed that he was not ready to move on.

Still, when we climbed out of that car to go into the bar, I felt his eyes on me again.
I
wasn’t
denying that I worked hard to make myself look irresistible, but the fa
ct that Ty wouldn’t stop lookin
g
made me all tingly. The night was lookin
g
up, well that was until my brother and his girlfriend pulled up. Sitting in the back was Courtney Timmons, former Ms. Kentucky.

They got out of the car and
immediately
approached us. By the look on Conner’s face, I could tell this was a setup. She came here to be hooked up with Ty. I should have known that my brother would cover all his bases to prevent anything from ever happenin
g
between us. This was low, even for him. How could he bring the prettiest girl in all of Kentucky to paw all over Ty?

Right away I could tell he was interested in her. They shook hands and both got ridiculous smiles across their faces. I
wasn’t
sure whether I wanted to scream or cry first. I tried to shak
e it off and concentrate on all
the other available guys around us, but my eyes kept going back to the one I couldn’t have. His strong arms led Courtney out onto the dance floor.
I had never wanted Ty. Sure, he was one of the most gorgeous guys I had ever seen, but I never really looked at him as available.

“You okay?” Van
asked, breaking my train of thought.

“Yeah, fine
. Just didn’t know she was going
to be here.”
I pointed toward Courtney and Ty.

She led me over toward the bar. “Conner thought it would take Ty’s mind off of my engagement. She seems to be doing a good job.”

“Yeah, whatever!” I said sarcastically.

Van looked over at me with a concerned look on her face. “You can’t like him Miranda. You know that right?”

“Are you sayin
’
that because you still want him for yourself?”

“Of course not!” She said immediately. “I just don’t think it is a good idea for the two of you to get involved, especially so soon after what happened.
Plus, he is family.
”

“We are just friends anyway. He made that clear earlier today with my brother.”

She started laughing and made a quick glance over my shoulder. “You should stay that way. He is better at being a friend than a boyfriend anyway.”

Van didn’t warn me that Ty and Courtney were coming up to the bar. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to his smiling face. The more I looked at him, the more I felt like a teenager with an impossible crush.
“Hey.”

Get a grip.

“Hey, you look like you are havin’ fun. Good thing Courtney came along.”

He shrugged and looked over at her talkin
g
to Van. “She’s alright.”

“You do know she is the former Ms. Kentucky?”

“She told me, like ten times already. It’s getting old.” He said close to my ear in an almost whisper.

I pulled away from him and looked at his face, but before I could say anything else he smiled at me and looked down at my
body. I started to shiver as his eyes start
ed at my face, but slowly moved down every inch of my figure. When his eyes met mine again, I felt like they were on fire, burning into me. Before either of us could say anything, he was handed two beers by Courtney and being hauled back out to the dance floor away from me.

He turned to look back at me as he walked away, giving me a half smile.

Van filled the empty gap between us and giggled as Colt came up behind her. I spotted my brother and his slutty girlfriend grind
ing
all over each other in a corner of the bar, while Colt and Van made company next to Ty and Courtney. I found a stool located at the bar and sat down on it, spinning around every now and again to watch everyone else havin
g
a good time except for me.