Free Misguided Heart by Amanda Bennett Page A

Damn, he has gotten HOT!” She hung her head and I could tell she wanted to go talk to him.
    She was right though. Braden had always been a looker with is dark buzzed hair, emerald green eyes and tattoos stretched over his then thin muscles. He had since filled those puppies out. He now resembled a professional football player, with how big he had gotten. And the tattoos had seemed to multiply. Yum! I shook the dirty thoughts, clouding my drunken state of mind away before I threw out the next chunk of knowledge about him that I knew.
    “He is here with his girlfriend. Oh and get this, Darren got married.” A look of disgust settled into my expression.
    “WHAT? No way! You know, I would have thought that the two of you would have gotten married once upon a time.” She laughed.
    “We almost did. You don’t remember our impromptu trip to Vegas?” I replied.
    “Oh my god that’s right. The one where Braden and Darren thought it would be a good idea to get shit faced in the back seat while we drove.” We both began hysterically laughing. “And Braden swore he had an allergic reaction to the alcohol they were drinking.” Our laughing began to get louder.
    I was doubled over in my chair trying to catch my breath when I felt a hand touch my lower back. I turned instantly to come face to face with whoever felt the need to be touching me. My jaw dropped and I flung my hand up to my mouth and then turned to look at Shelby. She just gave me a wide-eyed expression and spun her finger around to tell me to do the same. I turned back around and he was still standing in front of me. All five feet eleven inches of pure muscle was now staring right back at me. He looked so different in so many ways, but exactly the same in other ways. He looked older than me, despite our two-year age difference. He used to have a much smaller frame but apparently that was nothing but muscle these days. He still had the same sandy blonde hair that he insisted on shaving down and his piercing blue eyes still struck a chord in my heart. God, he looked good. Oh and he had more tattoos too, visible ones.
    Oh my!
    “Hi!” I managed to choke out.
    “Hi.” He replied.
    He was suddenly very fidgety in his own shoes. He didn’t look me in the eyes except for when I first turned around. I wanted to give him a huge hug, but his body language was telling me to stay away.
    “Braden said you were at home.” I knew I sounded stupid the moment the words came out of my mouth. So much for playing it cool. Dumbass!
    “He lied. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to you or even see you for that matter after I saw him run into you.” He still made no eye contact.
    “Oh, I’m sorry.” I ran my fingers through my hair slowly and by doing so we finally made eye contact. My heart began doing somersaults just like it used to when we had first met each other.
    “So what have you been up to since the last time I watched you leave me.” He growled.
    I bit down on my lip knowing that he was still upset wi th me. I guess I thought after eight years he would’ve gotten over the fact that I up and left with my family; well the family I had left. Darren and I had a complicated relationship to say the least. It all started out wonderful. We instantly hit it off and spent basically every day together when he wasn’t working, but eventually when you get down to the nitty gritty, you see things in someone you didn’t know existed, until it is too late that is.
    “Wow, really that’s how you want to start our first conversation after eight years?” I snapped. “I mean seriously , how mad could you really be; you’re the one who got married.” I scoffed.
    “Wow, I see you’ve matured so much in the last eight years.” He snapped back.
    “Okay so I can tell that this conversation is going to end up like most of our old conversations, so I think you should just walk away now.” The intensity that was there had now dissipated. I suddenly remembered why things didn’t