The Vincent Brothers (The Vincent Boys #2)(4)

Chapter Two

Sawyer

“You’ve got to curb the temper, man. If anyone could take on Beau—it would be you but you’d still walk away beat up,” Ethan announced as I pulled out onto the country road from the dirt road that led back to the field parties.

“It’s been six months, bro. How long you gonna be pissed over this?” Jake asked from the backseat.

Why was this any of their business? Neither one of them knew what a committed relationship was like. They’d both been through so many girls during our four years of high school I couldn’t even name them all. Explaining to them that I’d planned my life with Ashton as the center from the time I was twelve years old wasn’t exactly easy. So instead, I leaned forward and turned on the radio to drown out any more of their interrogation.

“You can turn on music all you want but the fact is you got to let this go. He’s your cousin and your best friend. A chick can’t come between that. Not for long.” Ethan was watching me from the passenger seat. I knew he was waiting on a response from me but I didn’t give him one. His comment about Beau being my cousin was reminder enough that no one really knew me, except Beau and Ash. He wasn’t my cousin. He was my brother but once Beau found out the truth from his mother, he’d decided to keep that information locked away where it’d been his whole life. He didn’t want to claim my dad as his own and I couldn’t really blame him. It wasn’t like my dad had ever done anything to help Beau’s home situation growing up. Beau held nothing but disdain for my father, our father. He chose to remember our father’s brother as his dad. He’d been the only dad Beau had ever known. Even though he’d died when Beau was in first grade, he’d been a fond memory for Beau—unlike his real father.

“Hey! You passed Hank’s,” Ethan announced, pointing his finger toward the burger place we normally went to eat.

“Not going to Hank’s,” was my only response. They were the ones who jumped in my truck. If they didn’t like my need to get out of Grove then they could walk back to town when we got to where I was headed.

“You leaving Grove?” Jake asked.

“Yep.”

Ethan sighed and leaned back in the seat, “We may end up in Florida before he stops this damn truck.”

“Florida? I’m starving and a cheeseburger from Hank’s would’ve fixed that,” Jake grumbled.

Slowing down the truck, I pulled over and glanced back at Jake, “You’re welcome to get out and walk back.”

His eyes widened and he slowly shook his head. “No man, that’s okay. I’m good.”

I pulled back onto the road and ignored the exchange between the guys. They both thought I was nursing a broken-heart. Well, they were right.

No one said another word until I pulled the truck into the parking lot of Wings. I’d driven about twenty miles south to the next town big enough for decent restaurants.

“You should’ve told me you were headed to Wings. I’d have shut up,” Jake made an excited whoop as he jerked open the backdoor of the truck and jumped out.

This was somewhere I’d never eaten with Ash. There weren’t many places that I didn’t have a memory of her so my choices had been limited. Tonight, I needed to get my mind off her and focus on my future—or at least my summer.

“I’m gonna eat my weight in some wings,” Ethan said in reply to Jake’s excitement over my choice of restaurant. At least I’d made them happy. Not that it mattered.

Opening the door, I went inside and stopped at the hostess stand. A tall girl with long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail smiled up at me with an appreciative gleam in her eye that I was used to. It had been habit for me to ignore that look in other girls’ eyes for so long that I automatically brushed it off. Tonight, I wasn’t going to do that. It was time I started flirting back.

I flashed a grin that I knew was pretty damn impressive because it was one Ashton always commented on. “Three please,” I told her and watched as her brown eyes got bigger and she blinked several times. She wasn’t exceptionally pretty but seeing her get all flustered was a nice balm to my ego.

“Oh...um... okay... yes... uh,” she stammered, reaching for the menus and instead knocking them to the floor.

I bent down beside her to help pick them up.

“I’m sorry. I’m not normally so clumsy,” she explained with two bright red splotches of color staining her cheeks.

“So, it’s just me then?” I teased.

A nervous giggle erupted from her and I realized she’d never do. I didn’t like giggles. Ash wasn’t a giggler.

Handing her the menus, I stood back up and pointedly shifted my attention elsewhere. I didn’t need to flirt with her anymore. She’d get the wrong idea.

“Okay, um, this way,” I heard her say. Both Ethan and Jake quickly fell in behind her. I started to follow when my gaze stopped its uninterested appraisal of the bar to focus in on a female I would happily let giggle all she wanted.

Auburn hair hung down her back and curled on the ends. Two very long legs were bare and crossed as she sat on the barstool and a silver backless high-heeled sandal dangled off the toe of a very dainty foot. I hadn’t seen the face of this one yet but from the back, she was a head turner. Major potential.

“You coming or what?” Jake yelled but I didn’t turn my head to see how far they’d gone or where they were being seated. Instead, I stood frozen watching her. Jake’s loud voice caught her attention and she turned in her seat and glanced over her shoulder toward him. The creamy smooth complexion was dotted with freckles. Normally, I wasn’t a fan of a lot of freckles but the bedroom look to her green eyes and full, almost unreal, looking lips made it all work. She started to turn back around after seeing what the yelling had been about when she froze and her eyes locked with mine.