The Vincent Boys 02 - The Vincent Brothers

choose. She’s a chick. She’ll pick some awful boy band shit,” Jake complained from the backseat. “Umph, ow, what the hell,” he snapped. I turned to see Ethan glaring at him.
    If only Sawyer liked me as much as Ethan obviously did. Then again, Ethan was more in my league.
    “I’ve a good mind to let her crawl back there and slap you,” Sawyer said with an amused tone to his voice.
    “S’okay, I think E bruised my ribs. I’ll shut up.”

    The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. There wasn’t much talking except for Sawyer asking me if I was comfortable. He’d turned the air vent toward me and told me to close it if I got cold. He’d changed the channels several times and always asked if I liked that song. This was the Sawyer I was used to. The attentive, polite one. Not the moody guy I’d witnessed all night.
    When Sawyer pulled onto a dirt road, that I knew led out to the field parties, I searched the parked cars for Ashton’s car or Beau’s truck. I wasn’t sure I was ready to witness Ashton with both of the Vincent boys just yet. If Sawyer was still hung up on her it would almost kill me.
    “I’ll see y’all later. I’m going to go ahead and take Lana to Ash’s.”
    Ethan cleared his throat drawing my attention from the parked vehicles to him.
    “Uh, I can take her,” he said in a cautious tone as he stared at Sawyer. Sawyer, on the other hand, hadn’t even turned around to look at him.
    “I got this, Ethan,” he replied in a cool hard voice.
    Ethan shifted his gaze from me to Sawyer, then let out a defeated sigh and opened the door and got out.
    Once he’d closed the door, Sawyer backed up and turned around. I was silently thrilled he’d wanted to take me to Ashton’s but then the nagging reminder that he was probably doing it in hopes of seeing Ashton squelched my joy.
    Instead of torturing myself with different scenarios in my head, I decided to ask him about Ashton.
    “So, how are things with the three of you?” I didn’t have to elaborate. I knew he would know exactly who I was talking about.
    He tensed up then let out a breath and cocked his head to the side and cut his eyes toward me, “Would you believe me if I said we were doing great?” The sad smile on his face broke my heart.
    “No,” I replied.
    He let out a small chuckle and ran his hand through his dark hair. “You knew about them last time you were here, didn’t you? I remember that time at the field party. Something had been off about that whole scenario. For starters, you weren’t Beau’s type and Ash wouldn’t have gotten all worked up if he had flirted with you because they’d mended their fences,” he shook his head, “guess you were the only reason I believed that story. I didn’t figure you for a liar.”
    I always knew that lie was going to come back to haunt me. When Sawyer had found Ashton and Beau having a lover’s spat because Beau had followed Ashton into the woods so he could sneak a kiss, I couldn’t stand the thought of Sawyer finding out the truth that way. So, I’d lied and told Sawyer that Beau had hit on me and Aston didn’t think he was good enough for me. I’d told Ashton later that she had to choose or let them go because what she was doing to Sawyer was wrong.
    “I’m sorry,” I replied. Because I was.
    Sawyer nodded, “Yeah, me too.”
    The rest of the drive over to Ashton’s was fairly quiet. He didn’t ask me if I was comfortable and he didn’t turn on the radio. Why had I opened my big mouth? Reminding him about my part in his cousin and girlfriend’s deception had been stupid.
    “Ash’s car is here but I doubt she’s home. She was with Beau at the field earlier.”
    I nodded and reached for the door handle. I’d said enough tonight. I needed to get out of his truck before I said anything else stupid.
    “Wait, Lana,” Sawyer’s hand reached out and his fingers wrapped around my upper arm. Chill bumps from his rough warm skin popped out all over my skin.
    “Uh, yeah,” I managed to choke out.
    “Look, I was a jerk. I’m sorry. It isn’t your fault. That crap with Ash and Beau, none of it was your fault. I just needed an outlet to vent and you were the only person around. I was wrong,” he paused and I glanced back at him. “Forgive me?”
    The sincere look in his eyes made me melt. He was like a sweet wounded puppy. Ashton had been crazy to hurt him. I mean, who does that? He was so perfect. How can you hurt someone so incredibly