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I never hid the fact that I had a huge crush on him. He and everyone else knew. Mac never put me down for following him everywhere, but he also never let on that he liked me too; except for the lingering glances I would sometimes catch him giving me when he thought I wasn’t looking.
It wasn’t until I was fourteen and he was sixteen that everything changed. It was one of the happiest days of my life.
I’m pulled from my thoughts of the past when Andrew, my outrageous gay friend, puts his arm around me and squeezes my shoulders. “Why the sad look, Mia Pia?”
I elbow him in the ribs to release his arm from around me.
“Nothing,” I mutter, as I turn to face him.
The first thing I see has me rolling my eyes. Standing directly in front of me is a hard wall of muscle covered by a bright pink shirt that reads “I’m not gay, but my boyfriend is.” The thing about Andrew is that he is insanely hot and flamboyantly gay. He’s well over six feet tall and packed tight with muscles; not overly bulky, just very defined. His hair, which is a chocolate brown, is shaggy and in need of a cut. Andrew’s signature is his ridiculously funny and obnoxious shirts. Every day it’s something new, and every day they make you want to laugh.
“Been seeing a lot of Mac here lately. Wonder what his deal is?” Andrew asks, eyeing my reaction to his question.
We’ve been friends a long time, ever since his family moved to town twelve years ago. He knows Mac and I used to date. He also knows something went down between the two of us to cause our breakup. He just doesn’t know what that something was. Andrew is another person I’d worry about if he ever found out what Mac did.
Glancing down from Andrew to hide the pain and anger that I know reflects in my eyes, I mutter, “I have no idea, but the bastard needs to stay the hell away from me.”
“Mia,” he says softly, tipping up my face with his finger. Reluctantly, I look up into his eyes and see sadness. “What happened between the two of you?”
Andrew is one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever known. Yes, he can be very intimidating with his tall, built frame, and sometimes when pushed he has a very volatile temper. Despite his outward appearance and occasional anger, he can be very sweet. We may like to pick on each other at times, but we do it out of love and affection. Even so, I won’t tell him what happened. His temper would reach boiling point if he knew.
Reaching up to grab his hand at my chin, I lay it against my cheek. “You know I don’t talk about what happened, Andrew. Please, just leave it.”
Brows puckered and finger grazing my cheek, Andrew watches me for a moment before replying, “Okay, Mia Pia. I’ll leave it fornow. I see the way you watch Mac when he’s not looking. I also see the way his eyes follow you wherever you go. I hate seeing the two of you like that. Wanting something from the other, but too afraid to go for it.” He drops his hand from my face and takes a step back before continuing. “I’m here when you want to talk.”
I nod, knowing that talking to him about my issues with Mac will never happen. Dredging up the past will only make it hurt more. Even if I didn’t worry about Andrew’s reaction, it would be pointless to bring it up. It wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t make the pain less bearable. All it would do is bring it to the surface, make it fresh. I try every damn day to forget that horrible time in my life. It’s been ten fucking years, and I still struggle with it.
Maybe if I didn’t live here in Jaded Hollow and run into Mac every so often, it would get easier, but I can’t imagine ever leaving. Jaded Hollow is my home. I love it here, and I refuse to let Mac ruin it for me.
I pray that whatever Mac is playing at, he soon realizes it’s a mistake and everything will go back to the way it was. Both of us pretending the other doesn’t exist. Shaking my head, I need to pull myself out of these thoughts. Forcing myself to forget about it, I grab the notebook so I can make a list of supplies that I need to bring up from the basement. It’s a Friday night and we are always busy, so I need to get myself in gear to get everything ready.
2
Mac
Her personality…
FUCK! THAT WOMAN IS so goddamn frustrating. Slamming out of Jaxon’s Pub, I head toward my truck. I rake my fingers through my hair and have to force myself to not turn around, walk back inside, and shake some sense into Mia. It’s been ten fucking years. Ten years of her ignoring me. Ten years of me watching her, pining after her.
I know I hurt her all those years ago. I regret doing so, but she never gave me the chance to explain and tell my side of the story. Hell, there’s a big chunk of the story that she doesn’t even know. Yes, what she walked in on looked bad, but fuck, I thought it was her. I didn’t realize until later, after the fact, that it wasn’t. That’s no excuse, but it is the truth.
Rage hits me at what Tessa put both Mia and me through. If it weren’t for her twisted infatuation it never would have happened. Tessa knew how I felt about Mia. She just didn’t care. Everything was all about Tessa and what she wanted. Crazy bitch had anobsession with me back then and did what she could to make sure Mia and I split up. She saw Mia as a threat and eliminated her. And Mia definitely was a threat; she was my whole world back then. I would have done anything, given anything, just to see one smile grace her beautiful face.
After the night of the shit storm that ruined both our lives and happiness, it was a rare sight to see Mia smile. When she did, it was never directed toward me. No, as soon as she caught me staring at one of her stunning smiles, her lips would drift down and it turned into a scowl.
When I reach my truck, I yank open the door and climb inside. I grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turn white. From the time I was sixteen years old my life’s mission was to make Mia happy. Hell, even before sixteen, it always brightened my day to see Mia and witness her special kind of light.
From the day that Jaxon and I became friends, Mia was always around. She followed us everywhere. You would think that two boys would hate having a little girl trailing after them, but we never minded. Jaxon was always close with his sisters, and I thought Mia wanting to be around her big brother and his friend was sweet.
Over time, I knew that Mia developed a crush on me. Again, that didn’t bother me. She was just a cute, innocent little girl with her long midnight black pigtails and rosy cheeks. I thought eventually she would move on to her next big crush, but she never did. She held on to her infatuation with me, and eventually I developed one of my own for her. I always thought she was an adorable kid; the older she got and the more developed she became, the more I noticed her turning into a beautiful young woman. A young woman I started to realize I wanted for my own.
I was sixteen and she was fourteen. We were at the back of Jaxon’s property, swimming in the lake. She was wearing a light purple bikini. Nothing skimpy, but to my horny teenage mind it was sexy as fuck. It took everything I had to keep my hands off her and my dick from poking a tent in my shorts.
Mia and I were sitting at the end of the dock, dangling our feet in the water, while Jaxon and a couple of our friends, Nick and Kaylee, were playing around in the lake. We were alone, sitting in silence, watching the others goof around, when suddenly Mia reached over and kissed my cheek. Even though it was an innocent peck, I was still shocked at her bold move. It took me a minute to gather myself and look over at her. What I saw made me fall a little harder. She was peeking up at me with her deep blue eyes through her lashes. Her cheeks were flushed, and I could tell she was embarrassed.
Reaching over, I grabbed her hand, flipped it over, brought the inside of her wrist to my lips, and kissed it. With her wrist still at my lips, I asked her, “Are you sure this is what you want?”
Without hesitation, she nodded vigorously, which caused her small tits to jiggle a little. It took everything I had to keep my eyes on hers and not let them drift down.
