Undone (A Country Roads Novel) by Shannon Richard Page A

up your alley.”
    “It is actually,” she said, reaching for the other can of soda and popping the top.
    “Don’t sound so surprised.”
    “Why? That I could actually fit in around here? It does surprise me.”
    “Why?”
    “I’m not used to this whole small-town thing, where everybody knows everybody and their business.”
    “Yeah, that’s one of the things about small towns that sucks,” he said, opening a bag of chips and holding it out for her.
    “You can say that again,” she said, reaching for a chip. “Why don’t you have oil stains on your hands? I thought all mechanics had oil stains.”
    “I wear gloves,” he said, grabbing a few chips for himself and popping them into his mouth.
    “Right.” She glanced down and frowned, reaching out for his arm.
    “The tree,” she whispered, grabbing his elbow and pushing up the sleeve of his shirt.
    Her soft, delicate fingers lightly traced the lines of his tattoo. It took only one simple touch from her for him to completely lose his mind again.
    “I knew I’d seen it somewhere.” She looked up to the oak tree in front of them and then back down to his arm. “Why do you have that tree tattooed on your arm?” she asked, looking up at him.
    She must have seen the heated look in his eyes because she let go of him and started blushing.
    “Sorry, I just…yesterday when I’d been looking at your tattoo, it just sort of fascinated me, and…and it’s that tree,” she said, pointing to the tree in front of them.
    “It is.” He cleared his throat and finished his sandwich. He grabbed an orange from the bag on the table and started peeling it. “My mom loved that tree,” he said, looking up at it for a second. “She would bring me and Grace here all the time.”
    “Loved?” Paige asked.
    “She died,” he said, turning to look at her. “Twelve years ago from breast cancer.”
    “Oh God, Brendan. I’m so sorry.”
    “I am too. She was a great woman. Grams still can’t talk about her without losing it.”
    “Wait, your mom was Lula Mae and Oliver’s daughter?” she asked, confused.
    “Yeah,” he said, looking over at her. “I know a little bit about being the center of town talk too. My dad walked out on us before I was born, and Grace’s dad, well, no one knows who Grace’s dad is. My mom wouldn’t tell anybody. That was a source of gossip for years,” he said, handing her half of the peeled orange.
    The orange was still cold from being in the refrigerator. Brendan stuck a slice in his mouth, the juice bursting across his tongue. Paige sat next to him in silence, eating her half.
    “How do you do it?” she asked, looking at him.
    “Do what?”
    “Accept stuff like that? Move on? I lost my job, my apartment, and my boyfriend all within a span of a few months and I thought that everything was falling down around me. But you? God, Brendan, you had a girlfriend run off with another man, your dad abandoned you, and your mom she…” Paige trailed off. She looked down at her empty hands shaking her head. “You make my problems look trivial.”
    “Paige,” he said, edging closer to her and pressing his thigh against hers.
    She looked at him, her hair falling in her eyes. He reached out and pushed it behind her ear, letting his fingers trail down to her chin.
    “That stuff happened over a long span of time, and I’ve had years to deal with it. You had to deal with a lot over a very short amount of time, and it didn’t happen so long ago. It isn’t trivial,” he said, rubbing his thumb across her jaw. “One day, you’ll wake up and it won’t hurt as bad. You’ll be able to move on.”
    “I think I had that breakthrough a week ago,” she whispered, her eyes dipping to his mouth before they came back up to his eyes.
    “Really?” He smiled, moving in closer. “And what was the catalyst for that development?” he asked, moving his hand to the back of her head, his fingers tunneling in her hair.
    “A cracked radiator,” she