Something Like Sunflowers

Chapter 15

Hunter

I ‘m not an idiot. I know what she and Lemon are doing right now. I know they’re trying to get me worked up dancing all over Gary and his friend . Devyn, rubbing up on him in her tiny fuckin’ dress and legs for miles. His hands on those legs.

I grind my teeth, flicking my gaze when I see her look my way. She can dance on him all she wants. I’m not playing her games. If Devyn wants my attention, she can come get it.

I’d give it to her freely.

At least, that’s how I wish I could react, but I can’t keep my cool if he keeps touching her like that, getting more handsy by the minute, rubbing across her hips and thighs while they sway to the music. He spins her and throws her into a pathetic excuse for a dip before pulling her up and barely managing to get her steady again.

Lemon doesn’t seem impressed by him, but that’s because she knows him like I do.

He’s a snake . And I wish I could say it was his own damn fault, because it’s not like he was a saint when we were kids or anything either, but it isn’t only that. I’m unfortunately tied to Garrison Presley in a way I wish I never was. In a way where he and I understand one another.

And I’m pissed at Lemon for not steering her clear of him to begin with. She might have had a rivalry with Dev when we were kids, but she and Shana are thick as thieves now. Come to think of it, over the last few years, she’s become one of my best friends too. She wouldn’t mess with Devyn like that.

Still, it doesn’t seem like she’s done a very good job of warning her off him. Probably hasn’t gotten stubborn-ass Dev away from him long enough to listen.

She knows nothing of my history with that man. Of the way he took his own tragedies and allowed them to harden over his heart, taking his pain out on the community who tried to offer him a helping hand. And he made it clear to me how he feels about my family. My name.

But you don’t get to take your anger out on others. Not when everyone’s out here fighting their own personal battles in this little town and finding a way to get by.

To love.

A community I’m trying to rebuild while he continues to do stuff that puts us right back where we started. Hell, I could throw that asshole out of here right now if I really wanted. I own fifty percent of this bar, after all. Because it brings tourists here, which brings patrons for shops, gas stations, hotels, and more. Our town lights up on the map now, when before nobody knew its name. And the money I make from my investment profits? I pump it into the community farming program.

Devyn has no idea that this fucker shoots his animals up with steroids or cages them inhumanely. She doesn’t know how he lets his waste run directly into the spring that contaminates everyone’s drinking water, with no repercussions because he’s the governor’s nephew . Doesn’t see how he treats his own kid. I don’t even think Garrison can see it through the liquor that’s probably replaced the blood in his head.

But Devyn just sees a pretty face willing to spin her around on the dance floor. She has no fuckin’ clue.

She seems into him.

Oh, hell naw.

I stalk to the dance floor, tugging Lemon away from Garrison’s creepy friend.

“Thank you.” She lets out a sigh of relief. “That guy was so gross. His hands were sweaty.” Her nostrils flare, and she shoots a quick glance at him over her shoulder, shuddering.

“Just what the hell is the princess thinking?” I ask Lemon in a hushed whisper. “And what are you doing letting her feel all over him? You know what he is to me.”

Lemon shoves me away from her face but keeps dancing with me for show. “It’s your fault, Isaac. Don’t blame me. If you weren’t such a liar, letting her believe the pageant was still a thing, she wouldn’t be all hellbent on finding someone who looks enough like you that she can—and these are her words, mind you—fuck you out of her system.”

My mouth drops open.

“She’s gonna…what? With him? He looks nothing like me!”

“Um…” Lemon hesitates and then sucks air through her teeth. “Yeah, he really does, hon. Like, your identical twin or something.”

“Evil twin is more like it. Please, Lem. You have to help me get her back. She can’t fuck my evil twin.”

Lemon thinks, tapping her purple fingernail to her chin and chipping away at my patience with each long, agonizing second. She’s as bad as Dev.

Are all women born this sassy or is it just the ones in my life?

“Come on, Lem, please!”

“Do you still love her?”

“What?”

“Do. You. Still. Love. Her?” She claps…annoyingly, I might add. “It’s a simple question. And it matters because I’m not wasting my time or Devyn’s helping you if it’s just for shits and giggles. She can have a fling with Garrison if that’s the case, and everyone will be better for it.”

“He can’t have her,” I growl, and I can’t rightfully tell you what’s taking over me, but the thought of her with Garrison Fuckin’ Presley makes me want to knock him the fuck out.

Right here. Right now.

Him and his stupid sweaty-handed friend.

“She’s mine.”

Her violet eyes light with a twinkle. “That’s what I needed to hear.” Lemon pats my shoulder, reining my neanderthal in a little. “I’ll help you. But we do it my way.”

I hesitate. Lemon’s ways are usually unconventional. But what choice do I have?

“Deal.”

She smiles and moves aside, giving me full access to Devyn and the asshole known as Garrison Presley.

“You need to swoon her,” she says. “She doesn’t know what you’re like now. She remembers the boy who wasn’t in a good place when she left. She remembers someone who got under a lot of women to get over her.” She casts me a knowing look and offers a small smile. A smile that pierces me with guilt.

I never fucked Lemon Perkins, Devyn’s childhood rival. Just made it look like I got with her two best friends from Valley High right after Dev left.

And when she came back.

I recognize I didn’t handle the breakup well. I was fucking seventeen. I lost just as much as she did that day. I didn’t have any other options like she did.

I’ve changed .

Lemon places her hands on my shoulders and fixes my shirt. It’s a T-shirt, so I’m not sure what there is to fix, but she seems to find quite a bit, fluffing my hair and then tilting her head for a final inspection before she nods in approval.

“Good. You’re all set. Now, go woo her!” She turns me around and uses all hundred and ten pounds of her tiny five-foot-two body to shove me in Garrison’s direction.

Lemon’s a boss.

“Garrison.” I announce myself, earning a huff and a nod from the man of the hour.

“What’s it to ya, Isaac?” The edges of his lips quirk up, but he sighs as if I’m inconveniencing him. “Crop season been good?”

Devyn stops dancing but doesn’t move from Garrison’s side as she eyes us back and forth cautiously. I wink at her and watch the pink spread across her cheeks, and that gives me every bit of motivation I need, because it means nothing’s changed. Not really. Not when her body says otherwise.

“Crops been fine. I got a different problem right now, Gary. I’ll be plain and simple.” I cock my head to Devyn. “I need a word with my girl.”

Devyn gasps, her eyes widening to huge discs. Garrison shifts his gaze back to her.

He steps forward, handing his beer out to Devyn like he’s plum ready to fight me for her, and my skin prickles with the challenge in the air. He knows it, too, lifting his chin in invitation because the bastard thinks he can bait me.

She doesn’t take his beer, though. She purses her lips, narrowing those forest-colored eyes of hers. She doesn’t want to be on my side, but she so the fuck is.

Because she doesn’t want me out of her system.

“Come on, man. Doesn’t have to be a fight, Gary.”

Wouldn’t be the first time I took a punch in Dev’s honor, but I clench my own fists at my sides and force my body to keep them there. I’m no longer that kind of man. And he hasn’t really disrespected her honor.

But it’s Garrison, and he doesn’t give a shit what I say. Once a teammate, someone I swore to stand beside, he’s nothing more than the town drunk now. His nostrils flare, and he stalks toward me, rearing back, and I decide I’ll let him. If he wants to, I’ll let him.

I tense my face as his fist swings out and slams into the wall behind me. “You look like your fuckin’ brother.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Devyn interjects, throwing her body between us and shoving us apart, Garrison’s chest heaving possibly as fast as my heart. “I was having a very nice time with…” She eyeballs Garrison and squints for a moment.

“Sorry, man. Looks like she doesn’t even remember you. Can’t say I’m surprised. I hardly recognize you either, these days.”

I grab Devyn’s hand and tug it lightly. “Come on, Dev. Have drinks with Lem and me. We’ll catch you up on—”

“I’m sorry, what?” She tugs free from my grip. “You come over here like some sort of caveman talking about crops, like a touch-her-and-die romance, and all of a sudden, I’m not allowed to fuck who I want?”

“ Fuck?” Garrison chokes on his drink, and then smirks triumphantly. “Your girl, Isaac?”

I shoot a look at Dev, pleading with her through a mind-channel only she and I seem to share, but she’s got my damn number, twisting her lips into a coy little smile and linking her arm through Garrison’s, even though she knows good and well she’s not going home with him tonight. I see the game she’s playing.

What she’s forgotten is how attractive I find just about anything she does. Including throwing herself at another man who—I clench my jaw even admitting it in my head—looks like me.

I’ll play along. I look her straight in the eyes and turn my mouth up in amusement. Her eyes widen, but the slight parting of her lips when she looks my way and the twinkle lighting up her eyes tell me her anger is thickly coiled in an entirely different emotion altogether.

One I have every intention of exploring.

“You aren’t gonna fuck him, and you know it,” I whisper as they meander back to the dance floor. I try my best to ignore the intentional sway of her hips, taunting me and ensuring my eyes follow her every move.

As much as I hate seeing her within the slightest proximity to Garrison Presley—or any other man, for that matter—I can’t deny how much I love this little game she has going on.

Because I see right through it.

She’s teasing me.

And that means she wants my attention. Whether she realizes it or not, I’ve already won.

I’m still smiling wide like this is the best damn day of my life. And that right there makes her madder than hell, huffin’ and puffin’ like she always does when she’s worked up. I love it. Probably why I fuel the fire.

“You never did like it when someone told it like it was, did you, babygirl?”

Devyn spins on her heel, hair whipping against her face. “Stop calling me babygirl!”

She licks her lips, narrowing those sexy little eyes to dangerously sharp green points.

Come at me , they say.

We find ourselves in these standoffs far too often. Always have. And I’m gonna do now what I always did then.

Fight for my girl .

Thirteen Years Ago

G et home now, or I call Dad.” His voice shakes the floor. So much that people have started coming upstairs and peeking in from the doorway.

Dustin turns away from his sister, who’s tugging on my hoodie like it’s her lifeline. It only makes me want to hold her, but that’s what got me into this. I was right. I shouldn’t have been making my own decisions tonight.

My best friend is solid muscle and force. The fact Shane even thought it was a good idea to try anything when he knew Dustin would find out eventually, is beyond me. He looks at my bloody face, and the hoodie around Devyn’s waist, and his eyes narrow.

I don’t think my secret is a secret anymore.

But he doesn’t call me on it. No, he turns abruptly and gets right up in Shane’s face. Shane looks like he might shit himself, and I would, too. Shane might be older and the best on horseback, but my boy, Dusty? He’s got anger issues and a juvie record. Granted, it was only six months, and the bully he got in trouble for putting in his place had it coming. My man might have anger issues, but he’s fair.

Fuck around and find out, they say. That’s Dusty.

He looks between Shane and Garrison and rolls his neck so every pop is heard by the whole damn room, and then his voice is low. It’s scary. I kind of want to be his sister, too. Nobody’d ever mess with you.

And that’s what he reminds us as he slams his fist down on the bar top and shoves his way to the center, taking his time circling the room and making careful eye contact with each and every one of our teammates.

“If I catch any of you fuckers so much as breathing in my sister’s general direction ever again, mark my fucking words, I will put you in the ground.”

“How could you!” Devyn shouts from across the room. Tears run down her pretty face, washing her makeup off in streaks. But she’s still the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.

Dustin whips his angry glare toward her, and I can feel the energy coming off him in waves. He’s rightfully worried. There are some shady guys on the team from not-so-great upbringings. Devyn loves with so much of her heart, but you can’t just trust everyone in our little town. Dustin…well, he and I both, we’ve always protected her from that, even as kids.

I feel kind of sorry for her. She shouldn’t have been up here, no. But she’s not a little kid. Not in the way her brother just made her feel. If I’d told her how I felt by now, she’d already be with me.

Tears like those would never touch her face.

“Not a single fuckin’ one of them is good enough, Dev,” Dustin spits out, disgusted, it seems, that she’d even consider it. “And if you don’t get your ass home—”

But she cuts him off before he finishes, slamming the door to the hangout.

Dustin rubs his hand across the back of his neck, kinda like how my dad used to do before he’d rip us a new one. He chats with Robbie for a bit, gesturing to the table we just shattered. They must come to an agreement, because they bump hands before Dustin makes his way back to me.

“Thanks for looking out for her.” He helps me to my feet. I pull my shirt off with a groan that I feel over my whole body and wrap it around my busted knuckles. There are little pieces of glass embedded in my fist, and no matter how I hold my hand, it’s going to feel like hell until they come out.

“Shiiit.” I wince. “This is all my fault.”

“Your fault? Are you kidding me?” Dustin squeezes my head in his hands and checks my eyes, like he’s worried I’m concussed. I might be. Shane hits hard.

“I should have taken her downstairs the minute she showed up. I thought I could protect her, ya know?”

Dustin furrows his brow like he’s holding something back, and it isn’t the first time I wonder if he doesn’t know my secret.

That Devyn is more than just his sister to me. So much more. Even if she can’t be.

Even though I know that.

“Why’d you hit him?”

I open my mouth but don’t immediately answer. We both just let the silence sink in. It does a good enough job of saying what I can’t seem to get out in words.

The room has cleared out now, and it’s just Robbie and a few senior girls from the cheerleading team, cleaning up the glass and wooden splinters I created. Dustin clears his throat, breaking our silence.

“Did he kiss her?”

“He would have.”

“And would that have been so bad?”

“Bro.” I step back. “It’s Devyn…and Shane!”

“I know.” Dustin smirks. “But I’m her brother. I’m supposed to wanna hit a douche like Shane if he tries to kiss my sister.”

I look at him.

Yeah, without needing to say it, he knows.

I always felt like letting that out would feel huge. A secret I’ve kept since we were kids.

I’m in love with my best friend’s little sister.

“You knew?”

“For pretty much ever. No ten-year-old boy in his right mind gives away that many of his holographic Pokémon cards to a girl without motive.”

That makes me laugh. Yeah, I did that. And I’d do it again.

Truth be told, I’d give her anything she wants.

“So…” I clear my throat, avoiding as much eye contact as possible and pretending to inspect my injuries.

Shit, this is so damn awkward.

“Go get her,” Dustin says.

“You won’t put me in the ground?”

He shoots me a glare that tells me maybe he will if I don’t stop while I’m ahead, so I throw out my palms.

“Just needed to double check. I kinda like it where there’s oxygen and all.”

Dustin laughs, running a hand through his hair.

“You’re my best friend.” He wraps me in a hug and squeezes my shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes with green ones that match hers. “Just don’t break her heart.”

I bro hug my best friend tighter than I ever have before, because he knows, and he gets it. He knows how much I care about Devyn.

And soon she will, too.

I run down the stairs, out the front door, and onto Robbie’s street as fast as I possibly can.

“Devyn!”

I spot her a few mailboxes up and run ahead, but she keeps a steady pace, putting considerable distance between us.

“Devyn, stop! Can we talk?”

She whips around and stalks toward me with full force, and damn, I thought she was gorgeous before, but she lights the world on fire in an emerald blaze when she’s angry.

“And tell me, Hunter Isaac. Just why would I listen to a word you have to say? First, you tell me I can’t hang out in the big boys’ club. Well, newsflash, I’m all woman now!” She yanks off my hoodie and throws it at me, hiking up her skirt as high as it will go without showing her actual private parts, and holy…I hold my hands over my eyes…I mean, I peek too, because we’re in the middle of the road and all, and I can’t help that she did that, but I wait to really take my hands down until I hear her scoff at me and finally tug her skirt back to a normal place on her thighs.

I run my teeth over my bottom lip and shake my head at her.

“You’re definitely not a little kid.” I watch my words hit her, lips popping open on a shiver as the wind blows her hair around. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Well, you sure said it like that,” she crosses her arms over her chest and takes a power stance that would be hot as hell if she didn’t want to kill me right now.

“And you cockblocked me.” She huffs.

I choke at that.

It’s something I love about her. She’s never let being a girl…woman…stop her from doing anything. She’s a force who demands to be heard on her own terms, in her own way.

“I…cockblocked you?” I force out. “With Shane?”

“Well, whatever the kissing version of that is.” She steps closer, her brow creasing. “You told me you liked me at the lake.”

“Because I do,” I say.

“Then what’s with all the games?”

“I was scared to ask you out.” It’s true, even if there’s more to it than that.

“Scared? To ask me out?” Her brow remains creased, and I can tell it’s insane to her that I would need courage for that. But I do.

“I’ve always needed courage when it comes to you, Dev.” We walk in tandem for a moment, and when she grabs my hand, my heart takes over my whole chest. It’s warm. It’s strength. It feels so damn right.

“Because of my brother?”

I nod. We stop walking to face one another.

They say when you feel something with all your heart, you’re supposed to listen to that feeling. I never knew what they meant until this moment right here, standing in front of the girl I’ve dreamed about my whole life.

“Tell me that if we do this it won’t ruin our friendship, Dev. It’s not just Dusty I worry about. It’s you, too. I can’t lose either of you.”

“You wouldn’t lose me,” she whispers. Her lips are right beside mine. So close. Closer than they’ve ever been before.

I want to kiss them. I want to claim them as mine. I want Devyn Lynn Campbell to be my girl.

“Do it,” she breathes.

“But—”

“I dare you.”