Page 21 of Mountain Pine
“When?” Nick asks.
“Yesterday afternoon. Over the phone.”
They share a look and then Dean runs a hand down his face.
“Did you know Conner got sent home from work earlier today?” Dean eyes me cautiously.
No sense in lying. “Yes. I talked to my dad about how worried I am that he’s working Con into the ground. I told him to give Conner time off.”
“Goddamnit.” Nick lets out a long sigh. “Go home, Taylor.”
“Not until I see—”
“Go. Home.”
Did I just got booted out of the cool kid’s club? I haven’t done anything wrong! But of course, the guys would stick together. “Fuck you.”
I came to knock some sense into Conner because none of them ever will. He only listens to me. If they want to band together and leave me out, fine. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
My cell dings as I approach my car and I almost don’t bother looking at it.
But what if it’s Conner?
It’s not.
Grace: I’ll find out exactly what happened and tell you everything.
That eases the tightness in my chest. At leastsomeoneis on my side here. I shoot her back a thumbs up because I’m too jumbled to say much else.
The only thing I can do now is head to Austin’s and make sure he doesn’t press charges.
Chapter 7
Conner
There’s a marching band in my skull and they play terribly. Everything hurts and my eyes are crusty. Pretty sure a cat shit in my mouth too. Sitting up takes tremendous effort, and as the blurriness clears, I realize I’m in Dean’s living room.
How. The fuck. Did I get here?
My socks hang half off my feet and my blanket’s all twisted. Nothing feels real.
“Good morning, Sunshine.” Grace leans over the back of the sofa, catching me by surprise, and hands me a cup of black coffee.
One sip has me cringing. “Damn, woman, what did you do to this?”
“Hair of the Dog. Heard you had a delightful night with whisky. Figured a little more this morning would ease you out of your hangover.” She sits down next to me and sips her mug. “It’s Johnnie Walker Blue Label. So good.”
I take another sip and cringe. “I actually hate whisky.”
“Hated it so hard you had half a bottle last night?”
I sink back on the couch and grumble. “Who snitched?”
“The whole town is probably talking about it by now.”
Shit. “What did I do?”
Dean strolls into the room with his own steaming mug. “Besides beat the shit out of Austin?” He sits next to me. “Just puked on Bennet.”
