Page 24 of Stay With Me

Magnolia stands next to him with her arms crossed and rolls her eyes, but I see a hint of a smile at his obnoxious antics.

Landen snorts as our idiot brother struts around the store like he’s hot shit. Meanwhile, I’m dreading my turn.

I’m happy for my sister and Fisher, but watching them plan their wedding brings back unwanted memories of Billy from high school. We’d joke about growing old as best friends and being each other’s best men when we finally settled down. I can’t even imagine going through another major milestone without him. I already had to graduate high school without him by my side, and celebrating that felt like a knife to the gut.

Knowing it’ll never be possible to share these types of special moments with him as I get older has my chest tightening in what I know is an oncoming anxiety attack. I focus on my breathing so my heart slows down.

“Tripp, hello?” Landen kicks my boot with his. “You’re up.”

I blink up at him as if he’d been calling my name and see Magnolia studying me with concern.

“Doing okay?” she asks.

I shake my head, set my hands on my knees, and stand. “Great. Where do I go?”

“Shannon’s waitin’ for ya in the back. She’ll take your measurements and grab you some options,” Magnolia explains.

“And she’s a fuckin’ fox.” Wilder comes over and nudges me. “I already got her number, though, so don’t even think about askin’ her.”

My eyes dart to Magnolia and she flinches at his words. And to fuck up my life even more, she looks even more gorgeous than usual.

Her long brown hair is pulled back into a braid that wraps around her shoulder, with loose hair pieces framing her face. She looks goddamn adorable. A forbidden temptation I’ve spent years keeping my distance from.

“Thanks for the heads-up,” I murmur to Wilder, then follow Magnolia to the back.

“Hey, you alright?” she asks when we fall into step.

“Yeah, why?”

“You just seem like something’s on your mind. You dazed out back there.”

I shrug dismissively. “I’m fine. Just thinkin’ of all the work shit I gotta do later.”

“Oh really? Landen said y’all finished for the day.”

My shoulders are tense as I silently curse how much she talks to Landen. They’ve become close friends over the past couple of years, and I swear they gossip more than she and Noah.

But I don’t want to lie to her, so I need out of this conversation as soon as possible.

“I promised my dad I’d help him with some maintenance at the retreat cabins.”

Technically, it’s not a lie, but it’s not the truth either. Dad asked me to stop by after dinner to discuss some tasks we needed to focus on this weekend, and I know one of them is about the cabins.

“Noah told me he couldn’t come today because he has a meetin’ this afternoon.”

The hint of suspicion in her voice has my throat going dry. If she wasn’t so perceptive of how I was acting differently, she would’ve never asked me if I was okay, and I wouldn’t be scrambling to get my foot out of my mouth.

I force out a cough. “Yeah, he does. We talked about the tasks he wanted me to do earlier.”

“Oh, okay. Well, this shouldn’t take too much longer.”

When our eyes meet, the corner of her lips pulls up into a sweet smile reserved just for me.

I almost give her one back.

Shannon greets me in one of the back rooms and explains what to do. I zone out while she takes my measurements, then leaves to grab a tux and shoes in my size. The minutes pass, and my heart beats harder. Blood rushes to my ears. My fingers twitch as I sit and my leg shakes up and down, desperate for this to be over.

“Alright, here we go.” Shannon walks back into the dressing room with a handful of hangers. At least ten random items are displayed as she explains what Noah and Fisher picked out for us. “If you need help with anything, please holler. I’ll have you do the squat and bend test when I’m back.”