Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Jasper! Sutton! Long time no see,” Lacey called.
I looked over to see her at a billiards tables with Paula—because of course women we’d both slept with would be there together. Allison, a friend we hung out with sometimes, was there with her husband, Chet; and next to them were Duke, Earl, and Earl’s cousin Clyde, who lived about an half hour or so away, though we knew him well because he was Earl’s family. Unfortunately, he was also a bit of a dick.
“Looks like the whole crew is here,” I said, wondering if this changed anything, if Jasper would suddenly wish we hadn’t come. We’d sat at this same bar a thousand times before with these same people, but everything felt so different now that we were together. Sometimes it felt like we lived in a whole new world from the one we’d been raised in.
Jasper clamped a hand on my shoulder. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
We made our way to the group. They were sitting close to the pool table, and were sharing a few pitchers of beer.
“Y’all been hidin’ way too much lately! I missed seeing you around.” Lacey hugged Jasper, then me.
“Things have been real crazy,” I said, just as Paula approached.
“Yeah, last I heard from you was in the winter, Sutton Manning. You can’t at least send out a text or come say hi?” Paula kissed my cheek, staying close to me. While I didn’t owe her anything and she didn’t me, we were definitely used to fucking each other when the mood fit, and I knew Paula well enough to know she was thinking about it tonight.
“Sorry. Like I said, things have been real crazy. Jasp and I got a million things going on.”
I took a step back just as Earl, Duke, Allison, Chet, and Clyde all gave us hellos, and for a moment it felt like old times. We were laughing and talking shit to each other. They offered us to get glasses and share their beer. Clyde was playing a game of billiards with Chet and getting his ass kicked.
I was sitting at their table, nursing a beer, Jasper ten or so feet away talking to Duke, Lacey, and Earl, when Paula approached me. “I feel like you been avoiding me.”
“I ain’t avoidin’ you. I’ve been avoidin’ everyone,” I said, hoping it made her laugh but also didn’t feel personal.
Paula stepped between my legs. “I texted you a few months back and you didn’t reply.”
Shit. I’d forgotten about that. My gaze darted up to see Jasper looking at us.
“Wanna come to my house tonight?” This was typically how Paula and I worked, so she had no reason to believe things had changed.
“I, um…can’t. I’m with someone. They’re, um…it’s serious.” Jasp and I should have discussed this before we arrived. I’d been letting him tell people about us when he wanted to. But his aunt and the real estate agent were a lot different from a bunch of drunk people in the bar, half of them people we’d known and been friendly with our whole lives.
“Be still my heart. Sutton Manning has a girlfriend,” Paula said, a little too loudly, playfully clutching her chest.
My gut twisted up in knots.
“Wait. What? Sutton’s seein’ someone? Who is she?” Lacey asked.
Girlfriend.
She.
My gaze met Jasper’s as I tried to figure out what to say. He looked slightly panicked, which made my heart plummet. I tried not to feel that way, tried not to let it bother me, but it did. He’d been more open, so I’d told myself it was getting better, that he wasn’t ashamed of being with a man. The look in his eyes told me he still was.
But then the look changed. There were nerves there, but something else too that I couldn’t quite read…until I could. Slowly, I nodded, telling him it was okay, that it was up to him. Jasp gave me a nod in return, took a drink of his beer, and said, “Actually, he’s with me.”
I swear the whole bar got quiet, though really it was likely only the people in our group.
Duke laughed, then let it fade out when he realized it wasn’t a joke. “Wait. You ain’t shittin’ us?”
Lacey hugged Jasper. “Good for you. I’m happy for y’all.”
“Well,” Paula added, “if y’all aren’t the best couple in the history of the world, I don’t know who is,” and I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Hear, hear!” Allison said, which was followed by Chet’s, “Congrats, guys.”
“Didn’t know you swung that way,” Earl said, “but I don’t care. I’m just here to drink beer and play pool, if these two ever finish their game.” Earl pointed to Chet and Clyde, which was when I saw the look of disgust on Clyde’s face.
I immediately tensed up.
“We ain’t supposed to care these two are takin’ it up the ass from each other?” Clyde spit.