Amy Vastine - The Girl He Used To Love

“Did you get a look at what just walked in?” she asked, nodding toward the entrance.

The man Josie was ogling must have swum here. That or his clothes had just come out of the washing machine without going through the spin cycle. Faith would have bet that if he took off his shoe, he could fill a glass with the water that was inside.

“He must not be from around here.” The dimly lit bar made it difficult to see his face.

“Maybe I can convince him to change that,” Josie said with a wink.

Every able-bodied, single guy in Grass Lake had been on Josie’s list of potential replacement husbands since she had decided to jump back into the dating pool. She had yet to catch one in her net, so this fresh blood made her absolutely giddy.

Faith couldn’t blame her for staring at the newcomer. His red shirt clung to his chest and when he stepped further in, she could see his dirty-blond hair looked a little darker from being wet than the short, close-cropped beard he was sporting. With great effort, he shoved his hand in his jeans’ pocket and pulled out his phone. The only way that thing was going to work was if its case was waterproof.

His frustration showed as he pressed the same button over and over without a positive result. Giving up, he headed in their direction. Josie readied herself for the big introduction by primping her hair with one hand and putting the other on her hip.

“You don’t happen to have a pay phone I could use or maybe a cell phone I could borrow?” His voice was deep and husky. Now that he was close, his intensely green eyes made Faith’s heart stop. She hadn’t recognized him from afar, but those eyes...she would never forget those eyes.

“You can use my phone, stranger,” Josie said, completely unaware of who she was talking to. She hadn’t lived in Grass Lake long enough to know the man was no stranger. “You look like you’ve been standing in the rain all night.”

“Something like that,” he answered. “Got a flat on Highway 14 and had to walk here.”

“Dean?” Faith choked out, her heart pounding like crazy.

Water from his hair dripped into his narrowing eyes. She could tell the moment he recognized her. She watched the muscle in his jaw tick before he exhaled her name.

She never thought she’d see Dean Presley again, and certainly not in Grass Lake. If there was one thing she remembered clearly, it was his desire to leave this town for good. Part of her had been relieved by his decision. It had saved her from having to face him after what had happened.

She forced herself to breathe as she pulled a clean dish towel out from under the bar and tried to act like there wasn’t a heartbreaking history between them. With a plastered-on smile, she handed it to him. “This won’t help all that much, but you can at least dry your face.”

He tentatively took it and wiped his brow. “It’s been one heck of a night.”

Josie put a hand on his shoulder. “You two know one another?”

Faith and Dean exchanged a look. Faith had known a Dean Presley who was probably very different than the one standing on the other side of the bar right now. His sister had been the best friend she’d ever had. He had been her first love. She had lost them both one fateful night a dozen years ago.

“You could say that,” Dean said, handing the towel back to Faith.

“Hey, Josie!” Bruce Gibson called from a table across the bar. He and his buddies were celebrating his fortieth birthday. “Another round!”

Josie glanced at Faith, silently checking if it was okay to leave them alone.

“I’ll let you two catch up, then,” she said once Faith gave her a nod.

Faith’s throat was too dry to speak. For a fleeting moment she thought about how Addison would make fun of the two of them staring at each other like a pair of idiots.

“You look great,” Dean finally said. “All grown up.”

He had always treated her like she was a little kid. Faith and Addison had followed him around like puppies. He used to get so annoyed, but that changed the summer Faith was eighteen. That was the year he’d finally looked at her as someone other than his baby sister’s friend.

“That’s what happens. Time passes, we grow up.”

Dean swallowed hard and nodded. “That’s true for most of us.”

She really was an idiot. Not everyone was lucky enough to grow old. Seeing him had caused her to lose her mind. She pulled the cordless phone out from under the bar. “You can use this,” she said, setting it in front of him.

He thanked her and seemed anxious for their reunion to come to an end. She moved on to another customer and tried to keep her emotions in check.

Josie cut the music that played throughout the bar and welcomed Sawyer back to the tiny stage in the corner, barely big enough for the two of them to stand on. Josie stepped down as Sawyer strummed his guitar. He gave Hank a shout out before singing his version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

For some reason the song seemed to give Dean pause. He hung up and set the phone down. Dean had always had a thing for country music. People used to tease him given his last name and his complete inability to carry a tune, but Dean didn’t have to play music to love it. Addison used to call him obsessed. When Faith was a kid, she wished he was as passionate about her as he was about music. Now, she’d give anything to go back in time and make sure he never gave her a second thought.

She realized she had been staring when Dean waved her over.

“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked him, his eyes returning to her brother.

“No, but you can tell me who that guy is.” He pointed in the direction of the stage. Maybe he was as surprised as Hank that a young guy could make such an iconic country song his own. That was what Sawyer did best, take something old and make it new.

“That’s my brother.”

His wide eyes showed his surprise. He held a hand waist high. “That’s your little brother?” Twelve years ago, Sawyer had been a scrawny middle-schooler.

“That’s what my daddy told me when they brought him home from the hospital. Although, I often wonder if the doctors pulled a switcheroo.” Her attempt at lightening the mood fell flat. Dean went back to watching Sawyer with intense interest.

After the cover song, Sawyer sang one of his originals about chasing fireflies. He’d never admit it, but that song had something to do with their mom. She had run off and left them behind when Sawyer and Faith were just kids, but before that she had been the one who would take them out on a hot summer night armed with a pickle jar and a lid poked with holes. He pretended to hate her. Maybe a little part of him did, but there was another part of him that missed her as much as Faith did.

“Can you reintroduce us when he’s finished?” Dean asked when the song came to an end.

“Why? You want him to help you change your flat tire?”

“No,” he answered as if she hadn’t been kidding. “I want to make your brother a star.”

CHAPTER TWO

DEAN SHOULD HAVE left the moment he realized he was sharing space with none other than Faith Stratton. At the very least, he should have stayed on the phone, begging his business partner to come rescue him so he could get out of this town before anyone else spotted him. Though, given their history, it was unlikely Faith would go running to his parents’ house to announce his arrival.

Gone was the little girl who had been attached to Addison’s hip and the sweet, doe-eyed teenager who had made him lose his mind and his sister in the process. In her place was a gorgeous, dark-haired, grown-up woman. Those warm brown eyes were still capable of stopping a man’s heart, but everything else had changed...matured.