Page 1 of Back to Me
ChapterOne
Austin
Walkingout of the Ally’s bakery after paying for the cupcakes, I found myself at Hurricane’s, our regular bar in town, instead of going back to my shop. I knew I shouldn’t have, because alcohol was never the answer, but this bar also happened to be owned by my best mate, Tye, or Tyrone if he was in trouble and only by his fiancée, Dallas. He knew by the look on my face that something was wrong, so he didn’t question me being there. Instead, he just put a beer in front of me and left me alone until I was ready to talk about it. When my phone went off for the millionth time though, he couldn’t ignore it any longer.
“Okay, I have left you alone long enough. Who are you avoiding and why?”
“If I had to guess it’s Savannah. She asked me to get something for her from a shop in town, but she set me up and now I know what she knows, she is probably panicking about it because I’m not back at the shop yet. Or she has called Cash and he is looking for me.”
“What does she know that you now know that you are hiding from?” He knew. He knew there was only one person in the world whom can cause this kind of a reaction and it wasn’t the one who was now buried six foot deep across town.
“Ally is back, and my sister-in-law just ambushed me into seeing her, with no warning. Just sent me on a fucking cupcake run like it was nothing! Like I wasn’t about to walk into the shop run by the love of my life.”
“Oh shit!” A thought then hit me. Dallas was best friends with Ally so if she knew then so would he.
“Did you know? Does Dallas?”
“Austin, do you really think I would let you leave your house without a heads-up she was back if I knew? It’s a small town so there would be every chance you’d run into her. I would never do that to you! I saw how fucked up you were when she left. Then again when—”
“Don’t finish that last thought.” He held up his hands and leant against the bar.
“Bud, you’ve got to believe me when I say I had no fucking idea she was back. If Dallas knew, she didn’t tell me.”
“If Dallas knew what?” I looked over to the door behind Tye that leads to their storeroom and back office. I hadn’t seen her, so I had just assumed she was upstairs. She narrowed her eyes at seeing me sitting here as Tye straightened up. She wasn’t my biggest fan and hadn’t been since Ally left town. She told me exactly how much of a dickhead I was letting her leave and knew exactly what happened the night Ally told me she was leaving. Dallas had seen what happened with Holly and hated me for it. “Austin. I would say it was good to see you but that would be a lie. What brings you here?”
I shook my head and picked up my beer, taking a long drink from the bottle. If I said anything now, I was going to be an asshole, so I did the smart thing and kept my mouth shut. I watched as Tye rubbed his temples with a sigh. “Babe.” He used his warning tone, one he never used with her, causing her to frown. He has been in the middle of this. His best friends against each other.
“What’s wrong?” She looked between the two of us. “Has something happened?”
“Ally is back.” As he said the words, my phone went off again. I finally pulled it out of my pocket and looked at who had been blowing it up. Ten missed calls from Savannah, three from Belle, and now Cash. I expected the really big guns, but they must be holding out until all of them had tried. If Ma had picked up Vannah and Cash’s wedding cake from Ally, then she would know too. Great. How many more people knew and didn’t tell me?
“No… She would have told me if she was coming back!” She looked over at me and narrowed her eyes at me. “How do you know?”
“Saw her with my own eyes. She’s been here long enough to set up a cake shop. She made Savannah’s wedding cake a few weeks ago. You honestly didn’t know?” I finished off my beer and Tye swapped out my empty for a glass of something a little stronger.
“No! I had no idea. There is no way I would have kept this from Tye if I did. He would need to be prepared for this.” She motioned to me with her hand.
“Great.” I said through gritted teeth. “Everyone knew but the two people who should have been the first to fucking know.”
Tye relayed what little I had told him as I ignored my phone once again. This time, it was Beau, and I wasn’t surprised. Guess they all knew now.
“How long are you going to avoid them for?”
“As long as I possibly can.”
“You know they are just going to come here. Your truck is in the parking lot.” I shrugged my shoulders.
“I could just hide and get you to tell them that I got a cab home.”
“Really, you want me to lie to your brothers?”
“I said I could, not that I was going to.”
“You could just put on your big boy boxers and face them now to get it over with. Answering their calls would mean you didn’t have to see them. Pick the lesser of all evils and call him back.”
“Him?”
“Well, you know that it’s going to be either Beau or Cash. Vannah got you into this mess and Belle wouldn’t really know what’s going on. It’s too soon for her to dive into that soap opera.”
