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Chapter 30
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2022-10-26 14:20:02Related chapters
Small Town Girl Chapter 31
It was after eight when we got back to Harden, and the dinner crowd had died down, not that there was much of one in this town. Most of the places to eat were fast food, and the few real restaurants only opened on weekends. I pulled into the parking lot of Starla's Diner, better known as the Diner to the locals. I didn't have a clue where the name came from since there was no Starla that I was aware of, and since there wasn't another diner in town, no one used the actual name to reference it."This place is so quaint." Peyton grinned from ear to ear when she saw the fifties décor. It wasn't intended to be retro; the place was just old.I led them to a booth in the back and slid in. Peyton took the other side, and Beau sat next to her with a dopey grin. I kicked him under the table to quietly tell him to knock that shit off. He took it upon himself to wail like a dog at a full moon. "What the hell, Lee? That hurt.""Sorry, my foot slipped." He knew me well enough to decipher th
Last Updated : 2022-10-26Small Town Girl Chapter 32
"Where's Masyn? I didn't think you two ever did anything without the other." Her question was directed at me. It dawned on me, since the two of us were always together, that no one had ever mentioned it. Now that Masyn had been MIA for a couple of days, everyone looked to me for her whereabouts. Any other time, it wouldn't have gotten under my skin, but knowing Masyn was avoiding me made every inquiry painful.I had a mouthful of food-because I came here to eat-so I didn't answer. And before I swallowed, Verna got called away by another table and lost interest in pulling gossip from our table.Peyton poked at her okra with her fork and dipped it in the bowl of gravy she'd requested. "Where is Masyn, Lee?"I shrugged, still eating. "He hasn't seen her since she showed up at his house on Saturday while you guys were swimming.""Not true." I washed down my food with some of the amazing sweet tea Peyton had refused. "I saw her at work today.""Fine. If you want to split hai
Last Updated : 2022-10-26Small Town Girl Chapter 33
It appeared we were going to hash out the details of everything that took place since Peyton got to Harden. "No, Peyton," I deadpanned. "I won a bet with Masyn on Friday afternoon...before I ever met you. And my prize was dancing with her on Saturday at Beau's wedding."Her perfectly arched brows drew in, creating a fine line in the center. "But you told me you don't dance." Peyton was back to being confused. There were too many years when she wasn't around for any of this to make sense, and I wasn't interested in explaining the dynamic. "He doesn't. That's why it was such a big deal to Masyn. But then the wedding got called off, and he danced with you at Sadler's instead of her. Then he left with you. And later she showed up at his house and you were there. And again, yesterday when you called, we were at her brother's house, and she stormed out.""It doesn't matter. Peyton, don't worry about it. I'll straighten it out. And Beau, you need to shut up."Peyton reached across th
Last Updated : 2022-10-26Small Town Girl Chapter 34
After dropping Peyton off at her hotel and Beau at his parents' house, I made my way across town to Masyn's. Peyton might not know our history and Beau might be full of shit, but I couldn't let this keep going on. Two days without my best friend at my side was two days too long. The entire way there, I psyched myself up for what I wanted to say, what I needed to say. She could very well shoot me down, but I'd never know if I didn't try. And if Beau and Peyton were right-although I wasn't a hundred percent certain they were-then letting this go on only served to hurt the person I loved.It wasn't all that late when I got there, and all the lights were on in the house. Masyn was still up at ten o'clock. Even after several deep breaths, cutting the engine didn't help calm my nerves before I stepped out of the truck. This should feel like a relief, but instead, I dreaded spitting the words out. The fear of rejection was real, even for someone who never had any problems attracting the opp
Last Updated : 2022-10-26Small Town Girl Chapter 35
Hesitantly, I reached out and took Masyn's hand. It was cold and clammy from clutching the beer bottle. "Masyn..." My heart threatened to pound out of my chest, and I couldn't get enough air. "It's not Peyton that I'm in love with.""I should have known better." She made a feeble attempt to sit upright without letting me finish what I wanted to say. "I knew when Beau called off the wedding everything would get messed up. He's home. Petyon's here. And my best friend is falling in love."Sober Lee didn't understand drunk Masyn. "What are you talking about?""Peyton. She's got both of you at her fingertips, and both of you want her.""I don't want her.""Beau does.""So what if he does?""One of the Holstein girls is going to take him away.""From you?" I asked, unsure of where she was going with this."Duh." That was a response I hadn't heard since middle school."Do you have any idea how hard it was to talk to him when he was with Felicity?"I did, although I wa
Last Updated : 2022-10-26Small Town Girl Chapter 36
I couldn't figure out why we kept coming back to Peyton. "You realize she's leaving on Friday afternoon, right? And going back to New York." Peyton was a non-issue. Beau couldn't date her, and I didn't want her. Masyn began to sway. And when she closed her eyes, all the color washed from her cheeks and was replaced with a hint of green. I didn't have any idea how much alcohol she'd consumed tonight, but it was dangerously close to making an appearance. Before I could get up to find a trash can or carry her to the bathroom, her mouth opened and she leaned forward, covering me in everything she'd drank tonight. And it just kept coming, wave after wave. All I could do was hold her hair out of it. Trying to move her would only make the mess worse and leave a trail down the hall or into the kitchen that one of us would have to clean up. As it stood, most of it was being absorbed by my shirt and jeans, or pooled in my lap. When the retching finally stopped, I took the beer from her han
Last Updated : 2022-10-26Small Town Girl Chapter 37
Masyn slept like the dead through the night, and when her alarm went off, she jumped at the obnoxious noise. We both had to be at work in an hour, and I still had to go home to change. She bolted upright, twisted over me, and slapped the snooze button on the nightstand, and the realization hit her that she'd spent the night with me in her bed."Oh, God. Lee...what did I do?" Her hands went to her head where her fingers massaged her temples. There was no doubt she'd have one hell of a hangover to contend with today. "Did we...?" She looked down at my swim trunks and then back at my face. "You know?""No." I'd never take advantage of any woman who was drunk. "After your confession, you threw up, and I brought you in here. You asked me to stay, but we didn't do anything." I hated being the one to remind her of all she'd admitted last night, knowing how much would change between us."My...confession?" she repeated, unsure she'd heard me correctly. With pursed lips, I nodded. "Yeah
Last Updated : 2022-10-26Small Town Girl Chapter 38
I managed to clock in before the buzzer rang, signaling the start of the shift. I hadn't had time to look for Masyn. My head was far too fucked up to try to interact with her, anyhow. She may want to forget everything that happened last night, but I'd done nothing other than agonize over every word she'd said, trying to make sense of it. None of it aligned with what Beau told me at the diner, and I had a hard time believing Masyn would twist things around to create reasons to talk to him when he was at school. That was the kind of shit every other girl in town would do, not Masyn Porter. I had to remind myself over and over, I specifically asked if she was talking about Beau, and even through her rambling, she'd answered yes without hesitation. As much as my mind wanted to convince my heart that I'd misunderstood, there was no misconstruing her message-not even as tired as I'd been. My head pounded from all the noise in the shop, coupled with a lack of sleep, making it harder to wor
Last Updated : 2022-10-26
Latest chapter
Small Town Girl Chapter 66: Masyn-Epilogue
"Mama, this dress isn't going to work." "Masyn, honey, you're walking down the aisle in five minutes. It's going to have to work.""I don't know how I let you talk me into this. The courthouse would have been much simpler." Not to mention cheaper. After Lee asked my daddy for his blessing, my mama had gone hog wild planning the only wedding she'd ever get to be involved in. It didn't matter that I wanted to keep it small or that I wasn't interested in having a ceremony in a church. In her mind, there was only one way to do things, and now, here we sat, six months, two weeks, and four days after Lee proposed.We were in the same church Lee and I had bailed Beau out of seven months earlier, and I sat in the same room I had that day, as well. Only this time, I wasn't surrounded by snotty women who wore too much makeup and thought Harden was the armpit of America. My aunts and cousins were all here, and Peyton had fussed over me all morning the same way my mom had. I didn't ge
Small Town Girl Chapter 65
It turned out that Masyn's family wasn't as opposed to a wedding as she believed they'd be, and all those men she swore had no interest in attending a ceremony had a real issue with not seeing her walk down the aisle. After spending the week with Beau in Atlanta, the three of us came back to Harden worn out. My dad was getting stronger each day, but he had an uphill battle to fight. If it weren't for the drill sergeant responsible for his physical therapy, he would have had everyone on that floor living in fear. But, Patty didn't put up with my dad's shit or his sass. I didn't want to leave him, and we'd argued over my need to be there-in the end, I lost. My dad thought it was a waste of my time and insisted we go home. Although, he didn't have a problem with us coming back every weekend so he wouldn't be by himself. I didn't stand a chance in hell of telling him no. Masyn was practically doing cartwheels at the thought of spending the weekends in Atlanta.By the time we'd spent t
Small Town Girl Chapter 64
Waking up, I still had Masyn in my arms, but she was flat on her back, and I was wrapped around her. She had her hand extended in front of her, tilting it from side to side and staring at the ring I'd put there last night."You regretting your answer?" My eyes were still clouded over and my voice groggy."Nope. Not at all. It's beautiful, Lee. I can't wait to thank your dad.""About that..."She dropped her hand and turned to me, unsure of what I was about to add that I hadn't told her last night. In my defense, she had been naked-and still was-and telling her she couldn't move in wasn't at the top of my priority list. Getting inside her was. Granted, I was only heeding half of the old man's advice, but I wasn't sure how she'd take the conversation at all. I wasn't willing to stop showing her how much I loved her body and taking her to places where she screamed my name like I'd never heard. So, not living together before we got married might sound like a copout. "What?" s
Small Town Girl Chapter 63
After leaving the hospital, Masyn and I met Beau for dinner at a barbeque place down the street from his house. It was okay, but definitely not worth the price. Another reason Atlanta wasn't for me-paying more for lesser quality wasn't my idea of living high on the hog...it was just stupid."Dinner was good." That was Masyn's way of saying she didn't like it when it came up an hour later right before we went to bed. Caging her in against the dresser, I kissed her and said, "You're a shit liar."Her head fell back with laughter. "Okay, it wasn't great, and who pays that much for a pulled-pork sandwich?""It was probably that fancy roll it was on.""Yeah, they'd be better off to head to Piggy Wiggly and pick up a bag of generic hamburger buns.""The tea was tasty." "It was ungodly sweet, I don't know how you drank it.""That's how Southern boys like their tea." I nibbled her neck, not leaving her any room to move when she wiggled. "And their women.""Is that so?" Her
Small Town Girl Chapter 62
I had to put his address into the GPS on my phone. His house was easy to get to from Harden, but I didn't have a clue where I was in relation to it from the hospital. I sighed when I saw that an eight-mile drive was estimated to take over an hour with the current traffic. By the time I got back, he'd have Masyn taking a vow of celibacy and entering a convent to maintain her purity to keep her from allowing me to ruin her good name. There was probably nothing in the damn box. Knowing my old man, it wouldn't surprise me if he'd sent me on a wild-goose chase to give him time for a fatherly talk with a girl who wasn't his daughter. I thought about texting her to warn her, but Masyn loved my dad, and she'd blow me off anyhow, so I didn't bother. At the very least, my dad would tell her he'd sent me to run an errand and reassure her I'd be back. My phone started ringing when the GPS gave me my next turn, making it impossible to hear, and I nearly missed the ramp to get onto the interst
Small Town Girl Chapter 61
My dad moved down two floors, and we followed, even though he'd gone to sleep by the time they allowed us back in his room. At least now we didn't have to sit in a waiting room and stare at the walls...and there was no more Nurse Ratched to deal with, although I was certain every floor had their own version of her. This room was a little larger than the one in ICU and had a loveseat to sit on and a television to watch. Masyn flipped through the channels and settled on some talk show I wasn't interested in. It held her attention, which I was grateful for since I'd gotten lost in my thoughts and my father's warning. Sitting in the corner of the two-seater couch, I'd angled my body toward the TV slightly, and Masyn had situated herself with her back against my side. She played absentmindedly with the fingers on my left hand, and all I could think about was the weight of a ring on the fourth one she held. My future always included Masyn. I never knew if it would be as my wife, since
Small Town Girl Chapter 60
By the time we crawled out of bed the next morning, the house was quiet and we were alone. Beau had left a note on the counter that he'd gone to work and would call later. I wasn't sure if anything I'd said sunk in or made sense, however, I was glad to know he'd heeded my advice not to just bail but, at the very least, to figure out a plan. Even with GPS, I had to turn around twice while navigating the streets of Atlanta to get to the hospital. The same roads we'd traveled last night were quite different when they were bogged down with traffic and people driving like maniacs. Normally, it would have gotten under my skin, and I'd be hollering out the window at the morons causing problems, yet today, with Masyn next to me, it didn't seem all that important. It gave me a little extra time alone with her before I had to face whatever happened in the CICU. She took my hand when I clicked the button to set the alarm on the truck, as if we'd been doing this since the dawn of time. I had
Small Town Girl Chapter 59
The lights were off when I got to our room. I had to count the doors to make sure I was in the right place. If Masyn were asleep, turning the light on would likely wake her up. I softly closed the door behind me and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark. Once I could see my hand in front of my face, I toed off my shoes and got undressed. Masyn had found the remote for the ceiling fan and turned the place into an icebox. As quietly as I could, I eased under the blankets. My head hit the pillow, and Masyn popped up like a weasel. "Jesus, you scared the hell out of me. Why didn't you tell me you were awake when I came in?""I was half-asleep until I felt the bed shift. Is everything okay with Beau?"I snaked my arm under her head and pulled her into my side, finding her completely naked. "No. But it will be.""Felicity really messed him up."I kissed the top of her head before responding. "I don't think it's just her. I think Beau's spent so much of his life trying to be
Small Town Girl Chapter 58
After I showed Masyn where our room was and got her towels so she could shower, I traversed the mile across the house to Beau's bedroom. The lights were on, so he was either still up and ignoring me, or passed out and unable to hear me. When I knocked and he didn't answer, I ventured in to the second set of doors and tried again."Yeah?" So, he was up."Can I come in?""Depends. You going to keep kicking me while I'm down? Beating me like a dead horse?" he pouted.That was the closest thing I'd get to an invitation, so I took it. "You know that's not my goal.""Then what is? I'm not going to cry if that's what you're hoping for." The sounds of my chuckling weren't what he wanted to hear, either, so I stopped. "All bullshit aside, it's like you flipped a switch this afternoon. I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from.""She drove three hours not knowing what she'd find or if she'd even be able to get to you.""Masyn?" My voice rose with surprise when I sai
