Page 41 of My Three Hometown Hard Hats

He steps back, and she stands there, frozen. Con and I step toward her at the same time. We both give her a quick hug and kiss.

“Drive safe,” I tell her.

“Text us when you get home,” Con adds.

Her eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “I don’t have any of your numbers in my phone.”

“Yeah, you do,” Con says. “I put all of them in there earlier tonight.”

“Oh, okay.” She nods a few times. Turning, she opens the door, glancing back at us over her shoulder.

“Think about it, okay? Just because I want this doesn’t mean any or all of you want the same thing.” Her eyes linger on Austin.

He nods. “We will.”

The door closes behind her, and we all stand there in silence until we hear her tires moving down the driveway.

“I guess we’d better have a talk,” my brother says, running his hand over his face.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Austin

Why didthis run have to happen today?I’ve been driving alone for over an hour already, with way too much time for me to get lost in my own thoughts.

Just like I already have a dozen times, my mind runs through the conversation the guys and I had last night after Hadley left.

I knew the two of them had shared women between them when we were in college, but I’d never thought anything of it because it didn’t have anything to do with me.

Now it does. They both have feelings for her, and as much as I’d like to say I don’t feel the same way, that would be a lie.

Despite the sparks I feel sputtering to life in my cold, dead heart when I’m around her, I don’t know if I can let her in.

What if she leaves? What if I get my heart broken?I can’t go through that again.

I certainly can’t put Evelyn through that. She was tiny when her mom abandoned her, so she has no memories of it. If she got attached to someone now and they left, it would break her poor, innocent heart.

As scared as I am of letting someone in enough to hurt me, the thought of it happening to Evelyn is enough to chill me to my core.

It’s better this way. Grayson would kill me if anything ever really happened between Hadley and I.You’ve already kissed her… multiple times.

I groan loudly as I turn off the highway onto a country road. Maybe I can just back off and let Brooks and Conrad be happy with her.

But the thought of this makes an ache build in my chest. I try to relieve the sensation, pressing my palm over my confused heart.

My phone’s ringtone comes through the Bluetooth in the truck. “Hey,” I say, pressing the button on the steering wheel to answer.

“Hey, son,” my dad’s voice says over the speaker.

“What’s up?”

“I know we were supposed to pick Evelyn up from school today, but we went for a quick drive to look at the leaves this morning, and now the road is closed because of an accident. They said it’ll be a few hours before we can get back to town.”

Shit.I look down at the dashboard. There’s no way I’ll have time to get back to town before school lets out for the day.

“Are you guys okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, we’re fine. I’m sorry we can’t be there.”