Page 1 of That One Night (The Heartbreak Brothers Next Generation #4)

Chapter

One

Emery Reed placed the engagement ring in her fiancé’s palm and stepped back, the weight of it still burning her skin.

“Seriously?” Trenton stared at her like she’d just slapped him. “You’re really doing this?”

Her heart thudded painfully, but she forced herself to hold his gaze. “We agreed. If it didn’t work out, we’d walk away without arguing.”

“We?” He let out a humorless laugh. “ You said that. I nodded. There’s a difference.” His voice was tight, jaw clenched. “You have no idea how bad this is going to look. You’re walking away from ten years. Just like that?”

She didn’t answer. What was the point? She’d spent three months trying to make it work. Again. Trying to ignore the app she found on his phone, the late-night messages, the excuses.

Now she was done. Even if it broke her heart.

“You don’t have to worry about seeing me. Or things being awkward,” she told him. “I’m heading home for the summer. To Hartson’s Creek. My mom needs help getting the farm ready to sell.”

It still felt strange saying that. Getting the farm ready to sell.

Her dad had only passed a few months ago. Everything was still raw. For her, for her mom. But the work had to be done, and Emery couldn’t bear to let her mother do it alone.

“You’re going to disappear back there and pretend none of this happened?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. I’m going to try and start over.”

To remember who she used to be, before she twisted herself into knots trying to be the perfect fiancée. The perfect daughter. The perfect everything.

Trenton stared at her, like he couldn’t believe what she was saying.

“Can we at least wait until the end of the summer until we tell people we’ve broken up and the engagement is over?

Until my parents get back from their cruise.

I don’t have time to deal with this now.

I have that project. It’s important.” He sounded almost dismissive.

Like she was just another item on his to-do-list.

You never have time , she thought. Not for me.

He stepped forward, his voice softening, like he could sense a chink in her armor. “Come on. Let’s keep it quiet until we’ve both processed it. Just for a few months. It’ll be easier for both of us. You know that.”

She knew it would be easier for him, that was for sure. And Trenton always put himself first. It just took her this long to realize it.

Sensing a chink in her armor, he went in for the kill. “Come on, Emery. You owe me this. After all these years.”

She looked at the ring in his hand. The same one he’d given her after college, when the future had felt bright and uncomplicated. When she still believed in him. In them.

And just like always, guilt curled in her chest. Not because she was doing the wrong thing. She knew she wasn’t. But because she was so damn tired of being the one who upset people. The one who caused ripples. And telling everyone now would feel like setting off a bomb.

Especially with her mom still grieving.

Especially in a town where everybody knew everybody.

And especially because Trenton’s family lived there too.

Which meant she’d have to lie. Smile. Pretend, just for a little longer.

So she’d do what she always did.

She’d make it easier. For him, for her mom, for everyone but herself.

“Fine,” she said quietly. “I won’t say anything. Not yet.”

“But it’s over?”

She turned away before he could see the tears brimming in her eyes. “Yes,” she told him, her voice low and ragged. “It’s over.”

ONE WEEK LATER

There was something bittersweet about standing in an empty classroom after the last bell of the year had rung. Emery gently pulled the final poster from the bulletin board, smoothing it out before placing it on her desk with the others she’d made months ago.

Everything was clean. Quiet. Done.

“Please tell me you’re ready,” Maisie called from the doorway, her tote bag slung over her shoulder, sunglasses pushed into her curls. “Because I’m one silent scream away from cocktails and freedom.”

Emery glanced over with a tired smile. “I think I’m gonna skip it.”

Maisie frowned. “You’re going to miss the end-of-year celebration? The others are already at O’Hara’s. They’ve got tequila and questionable karaoke. Come on, it’s tradition.”

“I’m not in the mood.”

Maisie walked in and began gathering stacks of cardstock from Emery’s desk, carrying them toward the supply closet. She didn’t even have to ask where they went. After four years of teaching second grade together, and being best friends, Maisie knew Emery’s system by heart.

“And you weren’t in the mood last night either,” she pointed out. “Or the night before that.”

Emery followed her, locking up the cabinet after she’d stacked the last of her things. “Because I’m leaving tomorrow. I’ve got a long drive, and a lot of work waiting for me.”

“You also just ended a ten-year relationship,” Maisie pointed out, her tone gentler now. “You’re allowed to wallow. Or rage. Or scream-sing breakup songs at an Irish bar.”

Emery huffed out a laugh. “I’m too tired to scream-sing. And I don’t feel like wallowing over Trenton.”

Maisie paused, then gave her a look. “Good. Because I wasn’t planning to let you for long. I’m still hoping you’ll come with me to Europe, where you’ll fall in love with a gorgeous Italian who doesn’t own a single dating app.”

“You know I can’t.” Emery’s smile faded. “My mom needs me there to help her. The farm’s too much for her on her own, and with Dad gone...”

Her voice caught. Just a little.

Maisie softened. “I know. I just hate seeing you tied in knots over this. Especially when you’re still wearing that.” She nodded at Emery’s ring finger.

Emery looked down at the diamond that no longer meant anything. “It makes things easier. For now.”

“Easier for who?” Maisie lifted a brow.

“My mom. She’s still grieving. The last thing she needs is to worry about me too.”

Maisie crossed her arms. “I still can’t believe you agreed to this charade.”

Emery couldn’t quite believe it herself. But she’d given her word and she’d stick to it. Even if Trenton never stuck to his.

Muttering something under her breath that definitely wasn’t school-appropriate, Maisie walked out of the closet.

Emery followed behind, trying not to smile at her friend’s obvious annoyance. “It’s not like I’ll be seeing him,” she pointed out. “He’ll be in Charleston, I’ll be in Hartson’s Creek.”

“But no guy is even going to look at you with a ring on that finger,” Maisie said.

Rolling her eyes, Emery locked the closet behind her. And there it was, school was out for summer. “I have zero desire to start dating again.”

“Not even a tiny desire?” Maisie asked, looking disappointed. “Surely there have to be some hot single guys in Hartson’s Creek.”

“Considering I’ve known 95% of the male population there since kindergarten, I think I’ll pass.”

Maisie narrowed her eyes. “So you're telling me you're going to spend your entire summer working on a farm, pretending you're still engaged, and not even making one bad decision?”

“I’m going to be too busy for bad decisions,” Emery said firmly.

Maisie sighed dramatically. “That’s what I was afraid of. Which is why…” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of lined paper. “I made you this.”

Emery took it, raising an eyebrow. “Is this a to-do list?”

“It’s a fuck-you-Trenton list,” Maisie said proudly. “Handcrafted. Emotionally charged. And guaranteed to jumpstart your post-breakup glow-up.”

Emery glanced down at the blue-ink scrawl:

Go skinny dipping

Get a tattoo

Get drunk at least once

Stay up talking all night

Dance on a bar

Ride on the back of a motorcycle

Have sex with a man who isn’t your ex

“Maisie!” Emery blinked. “I’m not doing these. Especially not number seven.”

“Yes, you are.” Maisie refused to take the list back. “You’ll spend the whole summer meandering around the farm like a sad sack unless someone forces your hand. You need this. You need fun. Make some reckless decisions, you might even enjoy them.”

“I’m not sleeping with a stranger,” Emery said, though she couldn't quite stop the laugh from bubbling out.

Maisie rolled her eyes at her. “Okay. Because I’m such a generous friend,” she said, pulling a pen from her bag, “we’ll revise.” She struck through number seven and wrote beneath it:

Kiss a man who isn’t your ex.

The words made something flutter low in Emery’s stomach. The kind of flutter that reminded her she hadn’t kissed anyone but Trenton in nearly a decade. Hadn’t even thought about it.

Until now.

“I’m serious, Em.” Maisie’s voice softened again. “You already did the hard part. You left. Now it’s time to remember who you were before all of this. Before him .”

Emery swallowed hard, her throat tight.

Maisie had been through her own heartbreak last year. When her boyfriend moved to Texas and left her behind, she’d cried for a week. Then she’d booked a solo backpacking trip through Europe. That’s where she was headed tomorrow, until school restarted in the fall.

And Emery? She was heading back to a town she’d tried so hard to outgrow.

But apparently she was going with a list.

“Okay,” she said, folding the paper in half and tucking it into her bag, because she was all out of fight right now. “I’ll do it. I’ll do your damn list.”

Maisie beamed. “That’s my girl.” She pulled Emery into a fierce hug. “Now get out of here and go do something totally irresponsible. Preferably involving tequila.”

Emery smiled against her friend’s shoulder.

She had no idea what the summer would bring, but for the first time in a long while she wasn’t just bracing herself for survival.

She was heading home to start again.