"Thanks for last night. I'm sorry for how I acted but thank you for being there for me. Would you maybe want to hang out sometime so I can prove I'm not a complete ass?"

I smile to myself and throw my phone onto the grass beside me, following it as I flop backward. "Your brother is so..." I trail off, not quite finding the correct word as I slap my hand to my head.

"Annoying?" Lottie offers, propping herself up with an elbow.

"Confusing." I roll to my side to look at her. The sun is getting close to the edge of the field, turning the sky a brilliant shade of yellow. Crickets chirp and skitter across the grass like a symphony of odd-sounding instruments. "He wants to hang out to make up for something he said at the party last night."

If I'm being honest with myself, hanging out with him again isn't an idea I hate. Last night proved that the old Tay is still in there somewhere underneath all that pain and anger. Maybe I can help him find himself again.

Lottie purses her lips. "Was it bad?"

I look down at my hands and rub them together. "Not really. He was lashing out, trying to push me away. But I refused to let him do that to me."

She presses her lips together at the corner. "Yeah, he does that a lot. Mainly to my dad, but I think that's just because he knows our dad cares about him, even though they haven't always been super close. Travis and Jackson, too. I'm surprised they put up with it, sometimes."

So, I'm not the only one he's trying to push away. That's kind of comforting to know.

"You said he wants to hang out?" Lottie asks.

"Yeah. Why?"

She shrugs. "No reason. He just won't go out much anymore, let alone ask someone else to go."

My eyebrows knit. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No."

I lean back and look up at the sky, watching the clouds drift. "Besides, it's not like it's a date."

"Unless it is."

I bolt upright and gawk at her. "What?"

She props herself up with an elbow. "I'm saying, what if he likes you? I mean, he doesn't tell me much about those things but it wouldn't be totally unbelievable." She sits up and dusts herself off. "Of course, if you're still worried, you can ask Travis what he thinks. As much as I hate to admit it, he's known Tay longer than me."

Talk to Travis. Oh, yay.

"What's with that face?" When my eyes meet hers, she laughs. "That bad, huh?"

"You don't even know." I roll my eyes. "I get that he wants to be friends, but I can't get the past couple of years out of my head."

"I don't blame you." She waves her hand. "He can press a lot, but he knows when he's wrong and he always tries to fix it. Plus, if he thinks Tay has even a little interest in you as more than a friend, he won't press so much."

"But what if Tay does like me as more than a friend? Would you be mad" I ask. I don't know Lottie well enough to know if she'd be okay with that. Especially since she and I are just starting to be friends. Plus, I can't deny the fact that I've always had a crush on Tay, even when we were younger. For a while, I thought I'd grown out of it.

She smiles. "I think you could do a lot better than Tay, but I wouldn't hate it if it works out well between you two. Granted, that's if I'm right and he likes you."

"Time to come in, y'all," Pawpaw calls from the porch. "Don't want coyotes getting you."

"Coming, Pawpaw!" I sigh and stand up, my knees popping in protest. My butt is sore from the hard ground, and I fight the urge to rub it.

Lottie yawns as she stands up, twisting her body left and right. "Coyotes, huh? Will they actually hurt people?"

I shake my head. "Not really. They don't come close to houses, usually. Pawpaw's shot a few of them for killing sheep, but I've never heard of anyone getting attacked."

"Hm." Lottie looks over the hill into the pasture full of sheep. They mill about, munching on the grass as the alpaca looks over them. She chews on her lip for a moment before turning back to the house.

I run my hand through my hair. I'll have to call Travis once we get settled in. If Tay's offer is a date, I'd rather know ahead of time. Plus, I'd rather not ask Tay and embarrass myself.

"Hey, Miss Thinks-A-Lot. You coming?" Lottie cocks her head to the side when my gaze turns to her. She jerks her head in the direction of the house.

I shake my head to clear it. "Yeah, sorry." I follow Lottie to the porch, stretching my arms as I go.

The inside of the house is the same as when I was younger. Heck, it was probably like this when my mom was a child, too. It's old, I know that. It's made primarily from wood and even has newspaper mixed with the insulation from the depression.

I run my hand over the dusty photos in the hall with a smile. Years of family photos all in one place. Memories.

"You've got a lot of pictures, Mr. Rodney." Lottie stops in front of the oldest picture and wipes a spot of dust off it.

Despite being in a frame, the corners of the photo are yellowing. The surface is turning grey, making it hard to see it, but the smiling faces on the front are the most important part of it. My great-great-grandparents stood proudly in front of the house back when it was no more than a skeleton.

Pawpaw looks up at her from his spot at the sink. "Taking pictures of almost everything was a habit in this family. There are even more that aren't hung up." He shuts off the water, shaking his hands dry. "It feels nice to be surrounded by family, even if I never met most of 'em."

Lottie nods as if she agrees and continues to browse the photos. Her hand trails over faces that aren't as happy as the rest. She looks at me and then at the photo again. "They look like you."

I take the photo from her outstretched hand and examine the emotionless faces. "Yeah." I turn it over in my hand. "It's Gramma and Mom right after my aunt left without so much as a proper goodbye. They weren't exactly the happiest at this point in time."

"That seems like an understatement," Lottie comments as she returns the photo to its spot on the wall. "How can a woman that seems so happy now have been so... unemotional then?"

"I don't know." Shortly after the photo was taken, Gramma died, so for a while, Mom wasn't happy. It wasn't until she met my dad that things started to get better.

"Hey, let's head to the extra room. You wanted to call Travis, remember?" Lottie motions toward the rest of the house, waiting for me to lead the way. "Do you have his number?"

I nod, pushing open the heavy oak door of the extra room. Inside is a queen bed covered in a hand-made quilt and a tall mahogany dresser in the corner. On the walls are the same decorations as there were when my mom moved out. I smile at the writing on the back of the door. My mom and Aunt Phoebe had written a bucket list, a list of guys they'd dated before, and who they had crushes on. Many are marked off-limits.

"A lot of time must have been spent in this room," Lottie comments as she runs her fingers over the writing.

"My mom and aunt were very close when they were teenagers." I pick up a stuffed koala that was perched on top of the dresser.

"What happened?"

I sigh and set the koala down. "I don't know."

Lottie frowns and takes a seat on the bed. "We should call Travis."

I nod and sit down beside her. "Here nothing." I click the dial button and watch my phone. The longer the phone rings, the more my anxiety reaches nail-biting levels. When he finally answers, I let out a breath.

"What's up, buttercup?" Travis's drawl is dripping with sweetness. Annoying sweetness. I have a feeling he has something to do with Tay's text.

"Were you with Tay when he sent that text?" No pleasantries this time. If I let him go too far, I'll never get him on topic.

He sighs, his tone returning to normal. "Yeah, but it was all him. I just provided feedback. Why?"

"Do you think it's supposed to be a date?" Lottie leans close so he can hear her.

Travis hums thoughtfully. "I know he had an interest in Emori a few years ago. He just didn't have the courage to say anything. Travis and I weren't even allowed to tell anyone else."

"Then why did you guys bully her for so long?" Lottie asks.

The annoyance in his tone is palpable. "I wasn't bullying her. I was just..." We remain silent, waiting for him to complete his sentence. "Fine. Maybe I was an ass. But I didn't know Tay still liked her like that. I would never treat my best friend's girl like that."

"I'm not anyone's girl." Even though I feel the need to point it out, my heart still flutters a little at being called someone's girl. Like someone cares for me like that.

He lets out another sigh. "I didn't mean it like that, Emori. You ought to understand what I'm saying."

I open my mouth to respond, a snarky remark in mind, but Lottie interrupts.

"You still didn't answer the question."

Travis remains silent for a moment. The longer he waits, the more I'm afraid he doesn't have an answer. If he doesn't, I'll be too worried about it to hang out with Tay.

"Yes. Most likely, anyway," Travis admits, and I let out a breath. Now what? I don't want to hurt Tay's feelings. "But don't tell him I told you that. He'll kill me." Then he hangs up.

"I highly doubt he'll be mad." Lottie sprawls out on the bed. "So, this is quite a dilemma." She snorts, sending a glance at her Hamlet homework, and with a dramatic Shakespearean voice says, "To accept or not to accept."

Right.