Theirs (5 page)

“I guess I understand how you feel. I guess I don’t have the same affinity for this town as you do. I mean it’s all I know, but there’s got to be more out there than just this.”

To her surprise,
Cash
reached across the table and took her hand. “Alex, look, I want you to know how sorry I am for the past couple years. It killed me to see you and not be able to say anything.”

Her breath caught in her throat and her pulse raced.
This unexpected turn in conversation took her by surprise. She didn’t know what to say at first, but
finally
,
she manage
d to whisper
the first thing that came to mind.
“Then
,
why did
n’t
you?”

“Because—”

“Alex, your break is over,” Della yelled from across the
diner
.

She didn’t know
what
Cash
was about to say, but she wasn’t sure if it really mattered. “I’ve got to go.” She attempted to pull her hand away, but he held
on to it
.

“Can we talk later?”

“I guess so.
Call me later? That is if you haven’t forgotten my number.
”

“
Ouch. Okay, I deserved that but yes, I remember your number. I’ll never forget it.”

The way he looked in her eyes as he uttered that last statement sent shivers up her spin. In that moment she wondered if Cash was trying to rekindle the friendship they once had, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up but her heart wouldn’t stop racing.

Later as she walked home
after
her shift, she was surprised to see Rusty waiting for her. He leaned against his pickup truck. “Need a ride?”

“I had planned on walking.”

“Your house is three miles from here and it’s getting dark. Come on, get in.
Anyway
, I think it’s time for you and
me
to talk. Cash told me he saw you earlier.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. We need to cl
ear the air about a few things.”

Alex wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. It still hurt to know he was dating the girl with whom
her
nightmares were made of. “I don’t think your girlfriend would like it if she found out you were giving me a ride.”

“Fuck her. Besides, she’s not my girlfriend.”

This was news to her. It was true she hadn’t seen Rusty and Tabitha together that much anymore but she hadn’t heard about them breaking up. That news would have been all over the
school
if it had happened.
“Fuck her?”

“Just get in, okay?”

“Are you asking or are you telling?”

He took a deep breath. “I’m asking. Please.”

Against her better judgment
,
she slid in the
truck
with him and they took off. “It’s been a while since we’ve been together like this.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

When he pulled away from the
diner
,
he was quiet for a few moments.

“Well,
are
we going to talk or
ride
in silence?” Alex
prompted.

“I didn’t mean for things to happen the way they did. I thought I was doing the right thing but I realize
,
maybe
,
I should have handled things differently.
”

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about.”

“The Tabitha situation. You have no idea how much I despise
that girl. She’s
rotten to the damn core.”

“Are you referring to your girlfriend
,
Tabitha
?”

He slammed his hand against the wheel. “She’s not my goddamn girlfriend!”

“
Okay
,
…she’s not your girlfriend. But according to her and everyone else in school, she is. If you two aren’t dating
,
then
what are you exactly? You escort her to school
dances
and take her around town. You even b
r
ought her into the diner a few time
s
. It was like you wanted to humiliate me. So pardon me if I don’t believe you.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just…she
’s
good at manipulating people to get what she wants.”

Alex looked out the window and noticed that he missed the turnoff to her house. “Hey, you just passed my street.”

“I know. We need to talk and I
’d
rather it be in private.
”

“We’re alone now. I don’t understand why you can’t tell
me
what you have
to say
here.”

Instead of answering
,
he continued to drive until they were on the outskirts of town. She knew better than to keep asking where they were going because once Rusty dug his heels in. He could be hard to dissuade. He was one of the most stubborn people she knew
,
but from that stubbornness was born a determination
,
the trait of a man who didn’t easily give up. He was loyal to a fault
,
whic
h is why it had hurt when he started dating Tabitha
even though he was aware of how she was a thorn in Alex’s side.

They drove in silence until Alex recognized the area. When Rusty turned down a long dirt road,
Alex figured out where he was taking her. “Lake Underwood.” She whispered.

There
was
some land
called Lake Underwood
the Bradford family owned that had a small fishing cabin on it.
When
Cash had
earned
his driver’s license
,
he would drive the three of them
there whenever they all had free time.
They
would fish, hang out and sometimes take a canoe out on the lake. It was their little hideaway.

“Dad left this
the
property
to Cash and me. My mother didn’t particularly care for it and he knew how much we loved it.”

“That was generous of him.”

Rusty gave her
a
tight grin. “He knew we would take care of the land.”

Alex was surprised
to see Cash’s car parked in front
of the cabin. “What’s going on?”

“We’re going to have that talk we should have had a long time ago.” He pulled his vehicle alongside
Cash’s
.

“You two aren’t going to kill me
,
are you?” She laughed uneasily.

“If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it when you put that frog down my back when we were ten.”

She couldn’t help but giggle at that memory. Those we
re happier times that she thought they had forgotten. Alex didn’t know why but she was giddy that he still remembered that and hadn’t completely toss
ed
all memories of her aside. She was a marshmallow when it can to these two.
“Okay. But if you two murder me, I swear to God, I’m
going to haunt you until the day you join me in the afterlife.”

“Duly noted. Let’s go.”

She followed him inside the cabin where Cash was waiting. The inside was sparsely decorated but it had a cozy feeling about it. It brought back so many good
times
.
It made her sad that they had spent the last three years virtually ignoring each other
. She
wasn’t sure if they could go back to where they used to be
or what they had been
to each other
.

“Okay. I’m here. I’m not sure what all the secrecy was for, but talk.”

“Maybe
,
you should sit first?” Cash gestured to the closest chair.

Alex folded her arms over her chest.
“I think I’ll stand.”

Rusty grinned. “Suit yourself.”

Cash started to pace back and forth as
he
began to speak. “With my father’s death, I realized how precious life is and how I don’t want to spend it living a lie. We’ve been friends since we were
kids
, but along the way, I fell in love with you. I tried to fight it by telling myself it was just hormones or any
oth
er silly excuse that came to mind
. But
every time we were together
,
I wanted to tell you how I felt, and how you make me feel. But I couldn’t
,
because I didn’t want to destroy the friendship we had. I figured I would rather
have
you as a friend than as nothing at all. But
,
that was until this guy told me that he had feelings for you as well.” He jerked his thumb toward his brother.”

Rusty offered a sheepish grin. “Yeah. What he said. Look, I’m not as eloquent as Cash and a lot of times I end up saying the wrong thing, but I know what my heart wants and it’s always been you.”
He took a step forward, reached out and gently caressed her cheek with the
back of his hand.

Her mouth fell open. Alex wasn’t sure if she should pinch herself. This had to be a dream. There was no possible way that Cash and Rusty
,
her best friends since she’d been in diapers
,
had both declared their love for her.

“Say something,” Rusty whispered.

“I
,
uh
…
I think
,
I need that seat now.” So
mehow she made it the couple
of
fee
t to the chair and plopped down on it.
It seemed incredulous that after almost two years of ignoring each other, suddenly
,
they were in love with her. Both of them. “Is this a joke?”

Cash shook his head. “Trust me. Neither one of us would joke about someth
ing this serious.”

“The last couple of years
,
we haven’t exactly been on friendly terms. Besides,” she cut her gaze toward Rusty, “you were dating Tabitha.
I felt so betrayed. You both knew she was my mortal enemy and has been since middle school
. A friend wouldn’t do that to another friend.”

“You’re absolutely right.” Rusty nodded his head in agreement. “But a friend would sacrifice
his
own happiness for the sake of someone
he
really cared about.”

“I don’t I follow.”

Cash stopped pacing the room to face her. “We pretty much figured our mother had said something to you after you stopped coming around. She’d been dropping hints for months about how she didn’t think it was
such
a good idea that you
were
around us so much. Knowing our mother the way we do, it was only a matter of time before she confronted you. Whenever you’d come by the house, we made sure you were never alone with her for a second to give her a chance. What we didn’t count on was her actually going to your house. And for that
,
we’re sorry.”

Rusty placed his hands on top of his head and sighed. “As for the Tabitha thing. It was my fault. If I hadn’t been so impatient to show you how I felt
by kissing you in the hallway that day, Tabitha and I would never have happened. We were so caught up in our conversation that none of us noticed
that
she had slipped around the corner and watched us. She snapped a picture of us on her phone of me kissing you. And then
,
Cash kissing you. She confronted us with the pictures and told us to stay away from you or else
she’d
make copies and post them all over town. If that happened, our mother
would have probably
fire
d
Miss Ida Mae. So
,
I had to pretend we were
seeing each other. Every time she touched me and tried to kiss me, I was sick to my stomach. But I did it for you because I wanted to protect your reputation and your grandmother’s job.”

“And
,
I had to promise to stay away from you. Even though
,
it killed me to do it,” Cash added.
“We also made a deal with her
that she
leave you alone. No more bullying.”

Alex figured that Tabitha and her crew had stopped harassing her because she had finally gotten what she wanted. Now
,
it made sense. It was because Rusty and Cash had told her not to. She had no right to be upset with either of them for the deal they had cut with Tabitha. Hadn’t she done the same thing when she’d had vowed to stay away from them because
of
the conversation she’d had with their mother
?
But it had been more than the threat made by Mrs. Bradford. Alex didn’t want them to know
she’d
discovered her new found feelings for them.

She pinched the back of her hand with more force than she’d intended. “Ow.”

Cash raised his brows. “Why did you do that?”

“I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t a dream I’m going to wake from.
It
has to be
,
right?”

Rusty
stalked across the room until he was next to her. He took her hand and pressed his lips against the spot she’d pinched. A wave of heat flared through her body
. “No. This isn’t a dream. I know it’s a lot to take in but I’m tired of living a lie. I needed you to know how I feel. How I think I’ve always felt for you
,
even when we were just kids.”

Alex
opened her mouth then closed it. Words
escaped
her. What could she say when the past couple
of
years
,
she had died a little inside every t
ime she saw them
,
knowing their friendship was dead
?
Now this. She tugged her hand out of Rusty’s grip. “I…uh, I mean, are you both okay with having feelings for me
?
” She swung her gaze toward Cash and then back at Rusty.