Page 43 of Fueled Fury

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Lainey

Pulling the dress off over my head, I toss it aside. It punctuated the fact that I was trying too hard. I’ve taken the time to curl every strand of my hair, for crying out loud. I’ve applied more products to my face than just my basic lip gloss and mascara routine. But, why? I’ve been to the Hale ranch a million times. Pulling on my jeans, I grab a white loose-fit button-down and slip it on. As I’m walking out of the closet, I hear a knock on my door.

Swinging the door open, I expect to find Eli but instead find a fully dressed and enticingly delicious-smelling Austin. He looks much different than when he rolled out of my bed this morning wearing only boxer briefs.

“Are you ready to go?” he asks, pulling at his neatly tucked-in black polo shirt.

“I thought you weren’t going,” Eli comments from behind Austin.

“I changed my mind.”

Great. I’m glad Austin changed his mind. I hadn’t wanted to spend the day without him at his family’s ranch, but I’m not looking forward to the friction humming around these two constantly. Maybe their mom can help me out. Shirley would want her kids to get along, I hope anyways. A nervous shiver flows through me. I know why Austin doesn’t want to go—his parents. They’ve always been so different with him than with Eli, which is why I didn’t press the issue of him joining us for the dreadful party.

“I’m ready.” As ready as I can be.

“You can ride with me,” Eli quickly offers.

Grabbing my keys off the dresser, I head to the door. “I’m gonna take my car.”

“I’ll ride with you,” Austin responds, following me down the stairs.

“Okay. Eli, you want to ride with us?”

“Your back seat isn’t exactly comfy, Lainey.”

“We’ll all ride in my truck then,” Austin says as we enter the garage.

“Or mine,” Eli retorts as he motions to his.

Yeah. This is gonna go really well. They give a few points back and forth on why they want to take their respective vehicles, both similar in seating, just with two vastly different motorists behind the wheel.

“Enough.” I hold my keys up and point to Lucy. “I’m driving myself. I’ll see y’all there.”

I hear a few muffled words behind me as I hurry to my car and drop into the driver’s seat. Quickly pressing the garage door remote, I back out of the drive and spot both trucks doing the same.

This is preposterous. We’re all three going to the same place but taking separate vehicles. Great family barbecue coming right up.

On the drive to the ranch, I see Austin’s truck in my rearview, but Eli isn’t following. Instead, he opted to speed ahead a few miles into the drive. As I pull through the property’s gate and make my way down the winding driveway, I note the ranch looks exactly the same. Apparently, the birthday party consists of more than a few people because there’re vehicles lined along the driveway for a good quarter mile before reaching the house. I pull onto the grass and Austin parks behind me.

In a flash, he’s beside Lucy, holding his hand out to me as I step out of the car. As we walk to the house, he doesn’t let go, and his grip grows tighter with each step we take.

All of a sudden, he plants his feet, stopping me in my tracks with his ironclad grip. “Promise me we’ll get through this together.”

“Austin, it’s your party.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Why did you come then?”

“You already know the answer.”

Yes. I do. He came because I would be here. Things have felt out of sync—not physically, that’s never been a problem. And I still feel the connection, the same one we had during the summer before everything changed.

“Lainey, please.”

“Yes. We’ll get through this together. There’s no other way.”