Boys South of the Mason Dixon ~ Abbi Glines Read online

  I gathered enough willpower to break the kiss and put some distance between us. I didn’t look at him in the eyes, knowing the love I’d find in them would break my resolve. But I needed him just one last time, I needed that connection between us, I needed to feel Asher inside me one more time, before I let him go. He had to decide all on his own after that if he was going to fight for me or not.

  “Fuck me,” I said while my mind was screaming to beg him to make love to me. To love my body gently, to show me that I was not alone in this.

  He ran his hand down my bare arm. “Tonight, let me take it slow.”

  I knew that if he took it slow, I’d break into a million pieces. I desperately wanted it, but I was too weak to have it. “Not tonight. I need you inside me. Now.”

  His pupils grew larger and the sweet left his eyes, replaced by raw hunger. He wanted it as much as I did. He didn’t order me to get naked this time around. Instead, he did it for me, jerking my tank top off first, then pushing me back onto the grass so he could pull my shorts and panties off. “I spent a fucking hour in the shower this morning thinking about this,” he growled tossing his shirt aside and unbuttoning his jeans. “How tight your pussy is, how wet it gets, how it feels when you claw my back.”

  I let my legs fall open and his eyes went directly to my wet opening. “Keep talking like that and I’ll orgasm without you,” I panted, my chest rising and falling rapidly.

  “You sure you don’t want me to take my time? I could eat this pussy until you’re screaming for me to stop. Then fill you up nice and slow.”

  What woman wouldn’t want that? But my heart begged me not to take it.

  “Please, Asher,” I pleaded.

  His body came down over mine and with a firm thrust he was inside me. I screamed, curving my back and lifting my legs to wrap myself tightly around him. He started moving immediately. His arms flexed with each thrust, his breathing deep then short and shallow. He murmured words in my ear that I had to close my eyes to block out. Hearing him tell me how much he loved me and what I meant to him was splintering my heart because I felt the same way and couldn’t tell him. Not before it was safe for me to do so.

  When I began to tremble and cry out in release, he held me close. I let myself just inhale his scent, feel him inside me and everywhere around me, and a small tear tricked from the corner of my eye and hid in my hair. In that moment, we were as we always should have been. We were happy, connected, complete. A second tear followed when I realized we might never have this again.

  Asher Sutton

  YELLING PULLED ME out of my sleep the next morning. I was up in the attic but I could still hear the words being hurled downstairs. Jumping out of bed and grabbing a pair of sweats to quickly pull on, I ran down the stairs as quickly as I could. We’d been waiting for things to escalate between Brent and Bray and it sounded like that moment had arrived.

  I came to a stop as I turned the corner and walked into the kitchen. Bray swung his angry snarl at me. “Go the fuck back upstairs. We don’t need a referee,” he scowled knowing well why I was here.

  “The hell you don’t,” interjected Dallas. “Calm them the fuck down.” He was looking at me now.

  “Or why don’t y’all let me deal with this myself? The motherfucker was screwing my girlfriend. Dixie broke up with Steel, but not because she was fucking Asher. Because Asher wouldn’t do that to his own brother.” Brent’s tone was hard, but calm. He was angry, but he wasn’t on the verge of hitting anyone.

  “It ain’t you we’re worried about. It’s the crazy ass one,” Steel said looking pointedly at Bray.

  “She left. She fucking left. She left us both. What the fuck does it matter now? She obviously didn’t feel the same way either of us did,” Bray said without the anger I expected to seep from his words. He sounded hollow. Empty. A feeling I understood all too well.

  “I just want to know why? Am I asking too much, Bray? Can’t you even give me a fucking reason why?” Brent was getting angrier now.

  He slowly turned his gaze to his twin who simply replied, “No.”

  “You motherfucking asshole,” Brent roared and moved fast. He was almost on top of Bray when Steel and Dallas grabbed him by the arms.

  “He’s already got a black eye and swollen nose because of Asher,” Steel said holding him off Bray.

  “Let him at me. I’ll give him one shot. Then I’m fighting back.”

  I just watched it all unfold, not sure if this was their fight to finish. There was pain on both sides. They were closer than the rest of us. They had a bond none of us had. But what had happened with Scarlet was hard to overcome.

  “You just take whatever you want, not caring about anyone but yourself, and when you end up hurting people, you use your temper as an excuse. You pitch a damn fit whenever you can’t get what you want.”

  I was the oldest. They were waiting on me to arbitrate between them. To stop them when things got out of hand. It was what I had always done. But this was different. They were men, not boys anymore. “Let Brent go. This ain’t our fight to stop. But if you’re going to hit each other, take it outside and out of Momma’s kitchen.”

  Brent stormed past everyone and opened the screen door. “Then get your ass outside,” he said shooting a challenge back at Bray.

  Steel and Dallas looked at me like I’d lost my mind. I turned to them and shrugged. “It’s their fight. They need this.”

  Bray was at the door when he put his hand on the screen and glanced back at Steel then me. “Since we’re all getting our shit out and dealing with things, why don’t you tell Steel about the fact you’ve been fucking Dixie down at the lake since she left him.”

  I turned just as Steel’s fist met my face.

  “Better take that shit outside,” Bray drawled, disappearing out the door.

  “Holy hell,” Dallas muttered as I followed Bray outside. “Are y’all really about to just beat the shit out of each other?”

  No one looked at him. No one even acknowledged his question. We all heard it but there was too much anger in the air to stop any of it now. I watched as Brent slammed into Bray and they went rolling down the grass hill behind them. Then I turned and looked at Steel. “You can have one more. Then I’m getting mine. Because I had her first. She was mine before she was yours.”

  Steel glared at me. “You broke her heart.”

  “And you know I had a good reason.”

  Steel advanced on me. “We never even had sex.”

  “Good.”

  That was all it took. Steel’s hand connected with my jaw again and I let him. I took in two hits and then I just wrestled him until he was out of breath, evading his hits as well as I could. He put his hands on his knees and stared at the ground for several moments before tilting his head back and looking at me. “I loved her.”

  “I still do. Never stopped and you knew it. Just didn’t care.”

  He winced and looked away. “Always wanted her. She was my age. Too young for you, but she only ever saw you.”

  “We didn’t plan this. You can’t plan what your heart wants.”

  Steel sank down and sat on the ground. He stretched his feet out in front of him and got in a relaxed position. “Fuck if I know that.”

  “I never touched her when you were with her.”

  He nodded. “I know.”

  I looked down the hill where grunts and hits were still filling the air. “Think we should stop them yet?” Steel asked.

  “They’re gonna fucking kill each other,” Dallas said glaring at the two of us like we had lost our minds. “If you two are done, then help me save Brent’s face before Bray bashes it in. All this over damn women. Jesus, could y’all not just find other women and stop falling for the same ones?”

  “Wait until you fall in love,” Steel said to him.

  He shook his head. “Sure as hell won’t be Scarlet or Dixie. I can abso-fuckin’-lutely promise you that.”

  Steel grinned and I knew we were going to be okay.
Eventually. Maybe not tomorrow or next week, but one day, all this would be behind us. One day we could all be happy for each other.

  “Come on, let’s go stop them. Not sure they’ll stop on their own,” I told Steel, standing up.

  “About damn time. You two take a few swings then chat it out while Brent’s getting beat to death,” Dallas said running down the hill.

  “Get your asses up off that grass and stop that nonsense. I’m not having it. It’s ridiculous and a waste of time. That girl’s done run off. Get over it, the both of you,” Momma’s voice rang over the yard as she stood with a basket full of tomatoes from the garden.

  Both of them paused.

  “I mean it. Go wash the blood off,” she looked our way. “All of you. Then get to work. I ain’t making no breakfast for the likes of this bunch. Acting such a way as that.”

  Brent and Bray didn’t make a move to continue.

  “What about me? I didn’t fight with anyone.” Dallas said looking panicked over the idea of no breakfast.

  “I’m sure you did something to be punished. Fix yourself some cheese toast. I got work to do.”

  She didn’t wait to see if we did as she said. She just knew we would. Brent didn’t look as bad as Dallas was sure he would. They looked equally beaten to me. Brent’s anger and hurt had given him more of a fight.

  Their hurt wouldn’t heal any time soon. What Bray had done couldn’t be forgiven easily. Brent would need a lot of time.

  He looked at Bray. “This doesn’t make it okay.” That was all he said before walking up the hill and out to the barn to wash up.

  “Fucking women,” Dallas said shaking his head.

  One day he’d meet one that made him change his mind.

  We didn’t get all washed up nor did we get ready for work.

  The ambulance siren stopped us all. It was close. Too close.

  Luke Monroe

  STANDING OUTSIDE THE barn, I heard Charlotte screaming hysterically. I think I died a thousand deaths in that moment. The terrified sound coming from my wife was unlike anything I’d ever witnessed. The time it took for me to run from the barn to the house seemed forever although it was only seconds. My whole world was is that house. With each foot I got closer to the house, I knew I wasn’t ready to face what was awaiting me inside.

  Bursting through the door, I found Charlotte bent over my daughter’s limp body doing CPR. For a second, my vision went blank. I quickly moved her out of the way and took over.

  “Ambulance is on its way,” she wailed. “She was just standing there when she suddenly went pale and collapsed. I thought she’d fainted. But her heart,” Charlotte let out a loud sob. “Oh, God, please don’t take our baby. Please, God, please,” she begged as I continued doing chest compressions to get Dixie’s heart beating again. My own seemed to have stopped. My baby girl was lifeless under my hands. No parent should ever have to experience this.

  The siren came, but I didn’t stop. I heard Charlotte run to the door, screaming at them to hurry. I just kept pressing on her chest, begging her heart to start beating. I wasn’t letting my girl die. She was too young and so full of life. This wasn’t happening.

  I felt hands on my shoulders trying to move me back, but I fought against them. “No! She needs me!” I screamed.

  “Luke, let them save her,” Charlotte pleaded. “Please, save her!” she cried out at the EMTs who were now using a defibrillator on Dixie. Right there on our living room floor.

  “It’s beating,” One man yelled as another moved her to a stretcher.

  “Life Flight is here,” another said.

  I ran after them as they hurried my baby out the door and to the helicopter that had landed in my front yard.

  I saw the Sutton boys running up the hill just as they were loading Dixie onto the helicopter.

  “We’re taking her to Memorial,” a woman explained to me and hurried in behind them.

  “We can give you a ride in the ambulance. It will be quicker,” the man who had moved me off Dixie offered.

  Charlotte was weeping uncontrollably. I turned to her only to realize my own vision was blurred from tears. What had just happened?

  “Mr. and Mrs. Monroe, are you ready to leave?”

  I couldn’t move. My little girl was unconscious and being taken to a hospital in a helicopter. “What happened?” I asked, shaking my head in confusion.

  “We don’t know yet. But they will soon.”

  Charlotte buried herself against my chest, her sobs turning into full body shakes.

  “What happened?” Asher Sutton roared from nearby, his face void of color and the same terror running through my veins mirrored in his own eyes.

  “We need to go. Get you there as soon as possible,” the EMT insisted.

  “They need to get to their daughter, so we’re going to have to ask you all to move back,” the man said addressing the Sutton boys who all stood behind Asher, looking stricken.

  Climbing into the back of the ambulance, I felt like I wasn’t in my body anymore. It felt like I was hovering above, watching all this unfold. This couldn’t be real. This wasn’t happening. I heard Asher Sutton demanding answers and pleading for some hope. I heard them give him the hospital name before the doors to the ambulance closed and the sirens started to howl.

  Never had I felt so helpless.

  Charlotte Monroe

  I had just finished cleaning up the breakfast table when I realized that Dixie hadn’t come down as early as she normally did on work days. I’d called up to her and she’d said she’d be down in a minute. When she walked into the living room, her face looked ashen and her eyes tired.

  “Are you sick, sweetheart?” I had asked.

  She frowned. “I think I might be. I was fine when I woke up, but as soon as I started walking around, I began to feel funny. I feel weak and I can’t take really deep breaths. It’s weird.”

  I became concerned. “I hope you’ve not got that flu going around. It’s a nasty stomach one. You may be dehydrated. Let me get you some juice. Sit down. I’ll call the salon and let them know you’re not well.”

  She nodded. “Okay.” But she didn’t move. Her eyes appeared to lose focus as she stared at me. As if they were suddenly empty.

  Then she’d just collapsed right there. On the floor.

  I closed my eyes as the horror of those moments replayed over and over in my head. I’d checked her pulse then and couldn’t find it. If it was there, it was weak. Too weak. The screaming, calling for help, and then working to bring her back all ran together into one horrifying memory. I felt paralyzed by fear.

  A loud sob startled me and I felt Luke’s body shudder against mine. He wailed. The sound of pure pain. One that only a parent could feel for his child. His little girl. Another wail ripped through him and I held onto him. He’d been strong. Worked on her heart without pause. Now he was breaking apart and I wasn’t whole myself. We were slowly shattering together.

  “My baby,” he sobbed as he held onto me. Tears streamed down my face. This was the first time I’d ever heard my husband cry. I wanted to tell him she would be okay. That she was going to be fine. But I needed someone to tell me that. She wasn’t mine by blood, but she’d been mine by heart for many many years. And if she didn’t make it, she’d take my heart with her, too.

  Asher Sutton

  BRAY WAS DRIVING. I didn’t remember much about getting in the truck. I heard the EMTs say her heart had stopped and that they didn’t know why. That was all I knew. Nothing more. Then they drove off, leaving me only with the name of the hospital to which they took her.

  This didn’t seem real. It was as if I’d been stuck in a nightmare unable to wake up. The horror and fear on her parents’ faces said all I needed to know.

  I had to get to that hospital. She wasn’t leaving me. She was too young. Healthy eighteen-year-old girls didn’t need Life Flight. They’d fix this. She’d be fine. She had to be fine.

  “Breathe, Ash, Breathe,” Brent said as his
hand touched my back. I inhaled sharply and my lungs burned. Similar to the way they did when we were kids and would compete against each other to see who could hold their breath the longest under water. I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped breathing. That was the second time Brent had to remind me.

  “Not much further,” Bray said glancing up at me through the rearview mirror. I couldn’t respond. Speaking required too much. I was doing all I could to keep it together. My cheeks were wet from silent tears. Fear, disbelief, pain, all mixed inside me, reminding me I couldn’t live without Dixie.

  My brothers weren’t talking either. Not much, anyway. Dixie was special to all of us. She’d been in our lives as long as we could remember. Momma was on her way, too. Dallas was driving her. She was getting the people in the local churches to pray and she also packed me some things because she knew I’d stay there with Dixie. I wouldn’t leave until she could. And Dixie would leave. She’d come back home with me.

  “Think they’d tell us anything if we called the hospital?” Steel asked.

  “Doubt it. Family only,” Brent said.

  I just stared out the window. We had to get there. She needed me there.

  “Did the EMT say anything more, Bray?” Brent asked. Bray had talked to them more than any of us. I’d been out of my mind. I still was. I wouldn’t okay until I saw her. Talked to her.

  “No,” he said glancing up in the rearview mirror again with a concerned look. He knew more, he just wasn’t telling us.

  “If you know something, then I want to know,” I told him, speaking for the first time.

  Bray didn’t look at me this time. He remained silent.

  “If you know something,” I started and Steel looked at me.

  “Don’t. None of us know any facts. Let’s just get there.”

  He was right. I needed facts.

  It had been a helicopter. Motherfucking Life Flight. I’d only ever seen one after a car accident. When someone had almost died from the injuries. Not at someone’s house. And not there to collect an eighteen-year-old.