"No way. This is not happening." Oliver folds the letter back up, shoves it into the envelope, and hands it to Brandi.

As if that settles it.

"They can't do this," he continues as he slowly shakes his head no. "They'd have to hear from the victims first and -"

"They did," Brandi says. "Well, me he was only charged with the crime against me, remember? And Hell, yes, I spoke out."

"And they're still letting him out!?" Oliver's eyes are filling with anger. "How!?"

"Oh, come on Oliver, you know why," she says tiredly. "In their eyes, he made a mistake, he feels remorse, so they are more than happy to release that fucker back into society. I always knew he wouldn't serve his whole sentence. I'm surprised they kept him in this long."

"I know and I am too but it still sucks," Oliver grits out. "There has to be some way to appeal this."

"This ain't right," I agree.

"I know it ain't right and no there ain't a damn thing I can do," Brandi says. "Believe me they heard from me when I got this letter. I got some song and dance about how he'll be required to stay away from me and whatever."

"Like that'll stop him!" Oliver spits out irritably. "Don't you remember what he said in court? He said he'd get you back for this someday."

Wait what?

"He didn't say anything like that," I say with a confused look. "He sat there all quiet, wiping his eyes pretending like he was crying over the testimony."

"Kinz... that was the day you were there," Brandi says as she fills some lowball glasses with ice and then tops them off with whiskey. "I had to go back and testify a second time." She slides a glass toward me and one toward Oliver and then she comes and joins us, sitting on the stool between us.

"You did, why?"

"The lawyers called me the next day," Brandi explains, pausing to take a sip from her drink. "There wasn't any proof for the other girls and Wade's attorney was making a strong case for him. They needed me to give a lot more than I did on day one. They wanted to hear everything about our relationship. From when it started with me being underage to him attacking me when it ended. My story of that night was the only way they'd secure a conviction. So they needed to know it all."

She pauses to take a small sip of the glass closing her eyes for a moment as if to ground herself. "Every detail."

I can't imagine living with memories like Brandi's. It breaks my heart.

"Fuck," I mutter. "You had to go in and tell them everything in front of him?"

Why didn't she tell me that? I would have been there for her!

"Yes, it was so hard," Brandi eyes get misty as she looks at Oliver. "I couldn't look at him, I kept finding Olly out there and it kept me strong enough to get through. But once I got to talking, I just went off in there, that along with the pictures you took, is what landed his conviction."

"She was something else," Oliver agrees and there is so much awe in his eyes as he recalls this, they even water a bit. 

She slams back the rest of her shot and pours one more for herself and Oliver. When did he drink his?

I'm stunned, shocked actually...I knew she went back to court for a second day. I didn't know she had to testify again.

"You didn't tell me," I say with a slow shake of my head. "I would have gone with."

"Kinz that night was nearly impossible for me to relive. When I found out I had to, I flipped out right there in my driveway and started screaming. Olly heard me and came over."

They exchange a look, the shared memory clearly means something to them. I'm so confused, she'd told me she only shared her story once. I assumed that she meant in court when I was there. It wasn't the full account of everything that happened, but I thought she said enough to make it clear what did.

"Olly convinced me I could tell the story if I only had to do it once. He said to pretend I was talking to him, only him. So that's why he was there and that's what I did."

"So, you know? Everything?" I glance at Oliver and the deeply haunted look in his eyes answers that.

"Yeah," Oliver says, his voice breaking up slightly as his eyes fall on that blasted letter. "I'll never forget. Fuck! He can't come back here."

"I'm going to run him out of town the second he gets here," Brandi says. "I'm not scared anymore."

"No, you are not. I'll run him out of town," Oliver says firmly. "You aren't going anywhere near that bastard, B."

"I can't ask you to take a risk like that," Brandi argues, "And before you argue with me it's your companies too. You got a lot of people counting on you, you know?"

"Yeah but..."

"But nothing" Brandi is topping them both off again and I never even drank my first one. I don't care for it now and slide it over to Brandi.

"Sorry, Kinz went straight for the hard stuff when he came up, you want wine instead?" Brandi asks.

"No that's okay, I'll need to leave soon," I say. "I still need to talk to my mama and dad more about the whole Julian thing now that they're back."

"Another asshole," Oliver says. "Julian deserves prison. Wade deserves prison. Billy does not."

"I know, Olly," Brandi agrees with a long sigh. "But you get why he can't get out now, right?"

"Are you so sure Billy would act so rash?" Oliver asks. "He's a pot dealer, a former bully, not a killer. Sure, he'd try and run Wade out of town, maybe hurt him, but... I can talk to him we can talk to him. We can come up with a plan."

"Like what?" Brandi asks.

"I don't know but don't you think you and Stephanie will feel safer with Billy there?"

When Oliver gets his head set on something he doesn't let it go and I can see this is one of those. 

"You got your, I ain't giving up on this face on," Brandi teases. "Look you're right, but we got to figure out how we make it work so he don't come home only to end up back there forever." 

"And we will, maybe not tonight but we will," Oliver assures her.

"I really ought to get going, but you sure you're alright, Brandi?" I ask.

"I'm okay," Brandi promises. "I've had a lot of time to heal. It'll always haunt me, and I will always hate him. But I'm not breaking down over this shit. Hell Oliver, even accidently said Wade a few times tonight and I didn't even flinch at it."

"Shit sorry B!" Oliver says quickly.

"It's alright. His name doesn't have power over me anymore that's a good thing."

"You got this," I give her a soft smile and she leans over to hug me.

"You get on home to your folks then."

I study her for a moment to be sure then glance at Oliver, he looks tired and stressed.

"Night Oliver."

"I'll walk you out," he offers as he stands.

He opens the door for me as we step out to the balmy summer night.

"Sorry I got angry earlier. I get why you told her," Oliver says as we walk over to my mama's van.

"Us bickering and snapping at each other, some things never change," I joke.

"We weren't always like that," Oliver says with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"No.. we weren't," I agree.

"We were pretty great once," he says so quietly I hardly hear it.

Our eyes lock. The air stills and I know I'm not the only one standing here as bittersweet old memories surround us.

"Anyway, I better get back in there," Oliver says and just like that the moment evaporates like a soap bubble into the air. "She pretends she's good when she's not."

"Yeah.. glad you were there for her," I say and I don't mean for the slight edge in my tone.

"I know you're mad I didn't ever tell you," Oliver says.

"I'm not.."

"Yes you are," he argues. "Kinz I would've told you but she asked me not to."

"I get it, it's fine," I lie and I can see he knows it's not because his eyes flicker, but he doesn't argue.

"Night, Kinz."

"Night, Oliver."

He turns and heads back inside.

I'm sure he thinks it's annoying and that I'm being melodramatic by being upset about this. Considering this is the most traumatic night of Brandi's life, and I'm out here making it about me, I get it.

...But a part of him has to know what's going through my head. Because, neither of us has forgotten what he said to me that day that he shattered my heart.

I get in the van with a heavy sigh. All this time I thought Brandi never told her full story to anyone and she did.

Am I upset that she didn't come to me, or I'm upset that she went to him?

I was always so understanding about them, about their bond. I guess maybe part of that was because I saw myself as the number one for each of them. Olly's best friend since birth, and Brandi's first best friend ever.

I never realized that they were as close to each other as they each were to me.

... and just how many times did she call him Olly tonight? He never corrected her, not even once.

I pull off the main road heading towards the farm.

"Stop it," I tell myself out loud. "He wasn't correcting her because of the topic. Of course, she was thinking of him as the Olly she knew."

They have a tight bond, it never bothered me before. Why should it now? It got deeper because of what she went through. Oliver always felt guilty over what happened, as did I at first, but I came to understand that it wasn't something to blame anyone but Wade for. Oliver never did get that.

I bet the guilt is even stronger now because like he said, when he left me, he also left Brandi. 

That makes perfect sense. So why does it feel like there's more to this?

"Thank you so much, James for your damn open mind, fresh eyes crap," I mutter.

***

I can smell cinnamon and vanilla when I step into the house and a smile finds my face despite the tense night. It sure is good to be home, even if I stepped back in time twenty years in coming back here.

I find my folks at the kitchen table, Dad is munching on some cinnamon toast with apple butter, and Mama is thumbing through a magazine.

"Hi, sweet girl," Mama says.

"You sure did a good job on the apple butter," Dad comments.

"Yeah? Good, I sure had enough distractions during it," I say with a scoff.

"You mentioned earlier needing to talk to us about Julian? Is it about the debts?" Mama asks.

"Sort of," I say slowly. "Turns out when Oliver did some digging he found out Julian and his company are involved in some criminal activity."

"What?" Mama gasps.

"What kind of criminal activity?" Dad frowns.

"Fraud," I say bluntly. "His whole company travels around and scams elderly people out of their retirement."

"That's terrible!" Mama exclaims.

"The no good son of a gun," Dad mutters.

"They're going to storm into his offices tomorrow with a warrant."

I nearly forgot about that with everything else going on and now I'm on edge over that too. Will they arrest Julian tomorrow? Or let him go? What if he comes here ranting and raving and looking for Oliver knowing it leads back to him?

"They should let you out of the debts then," Mama says.

"They should anyway! He ran those cards up not you." Dad chimes in. 

"Oliver is going to try and help plead them down for me," I say. "Hopefully he can, and I'll be making a little money this week helping with the duplexes."

"Shoulda' married the football player," Dad teases and Mama snorts back a laugh.

"Nice Dad," I say dryly with an eye roll. "Hunter made the same joke."

"And I bet he got a laugh out of you," Dad says with a wink. "Speaking of men you should have married."

"Dad!"

"Franky, hush," Mama scolds him.

He stands up from the table and starts walking into the living room.

"Dad?" I call after him with a short laugh. "Where are you going?"

 "At my age, when two women are scolding me, I'm smart enough to wander off," he calls back.

"But...speaking of Hunter," Mama prompts as she stands up. "The tension between you two this morning was as thick as maple syrup." 

"Yeah," I bite my lip as my cheeks flush with warmth. "The kiss last night was... intense."

She starts to make her way to the kitchen.

"Tea or wine?"

"You really have to ask?"

She chuckles then as she reaches into the cabinet for a bottle of red and a few glasses, before returning to the table.

"What brought the kiss on?" she asks as she opens the bottle and pours us each a glass.

"It's been coming on for a long time with us," I admit. "We always had this flirty thing that pushed the boundaries of friendship pretty hard, especially after graduation. But it always remained at a simmer, I was always too scared to be rejected again, my brain refused to believe he saw me that way."

I pause and we each take a moment to sip our wine before I continue.

"But coming home both of us being older, I felt it again and it's like the pressure kept building and it was going to start to boil no matter what we did. Last night was one of those moments, I was feeling so much, and I just had to know what it felt like to kiss him."

"And...?" Mama asks with a little smirk.

"Oh, Mama it was a toe-curling, mind-bending, leaves you passed out on the porch kind of kiss."

"Left you and your dad confused," she says gleefully as she gulps back her wine.

I laugh and roll my eyes. "That was cute this morning, Mama."

"I had fun with it," she jokes. "Best not to give him any hint yet though, he'll be booking the wedding venue before you can blink."

"Right?" I chuckle. "How did you and Dad never tell me Hunter liked me?

"We did! Well hinted anyhow," she laughs. "Every weekend when you came home from college, we'd say when are you two going to get together already?"

"I meant when we were teens. I've been finding out lot lately regarding Hunter and the past, all those years I assumed he didn't want me. While I got over the hurt from the rejection. I never got over the unrequited feelings and now I'm finding out he had feelings for me all along too." 

It feels good to say this all out loud and some of the tension I have been carrying eases a bit. 

"He was too bashful to say anything about it to us then. I always suspected as much though, that boy was always over here wanting to help Franky with this or that," she chuckles softly. "And he still is."

"He said he never didn't love me." A warm feeling fills my body as I smile at those words.

"Oh, what a sweetheart Hunter is," Mama gushes. "A kiss that good, a man that handsome, who adores you, yet you're here having wine with your mama. Instead of in there," she motions to the window. "Not having wine with Hunter. Why?"

"Like you have to ask," I say for the second time and we both chuckle.

"Oliver isn't the only reason though," I tell her. "Hunter has been such a solid part of my life for so long. The idea of risking the friendship we have terrifies me."

"I understand why it would," Mama offers. "However, I think you could be missing out on something special over a fear and that's not fair is it?"

"No... and we've had enough unfairness," I say with a sigh.

"What do you mean?"

"I found out some stuff," I tell her. "There were a lot of reasons Hunter and I never were, but Oliver had a little play in that at first."

"How so?"

"Long story but he sort of manipulated Hunter into not dating me."

"Really?" Mama looks stunned. "Olly? Did he admit this?"

"He did, far as he sees it he was fighting for us to happen," I say. "I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it all, on one hand, I'm upset that he saw me so heartbroken and did nothing, but on the other, I know seeing me crying over Hunter hurt him, and I feel bad about that. It's just so confusing."

"Poor girl," Mama pats my hand. "Has anything happened with Oliver?"

"No," I say as I sip my wine. "That's the thing. I have no clue where he stands and to be honest, I don't know where I do either. There's a lot of unresolved shit between us, but.. every so often there are these moments with him, where I feel like, something is still there... But it's like as soon as it comes it goes."

"As you said, you both have a lot of hurt to sort through. I'd say to start there," she suggests.

"Yeah I know we need to," I say. "It's not just him leaving and the huge fight we had when I found him. It's... everything. I talked to James and he told me all this stuff about how Kris never really approved of the relationship. They knew I'd hurt Olly and I don't know. I guess Kris thought we picked each other for the wrong reasons. He's got me looking back at everything that happened, and now I'm doubting everything!"

"Oh Sweetheart," Mama says softly. "I never agreed with Kris on all that. I didn't see any reason to meddle in your love lives. I stood firm for you two."

"Of course, you did," I squeeze her hand.

"James said Kris thinks said we chose each other because it was the safer option for each of us and that's bugged me ever since," I say.

"Intersting why do you think that is?"

"Why do I think she thought that? Maybe because she liked Brandi better than me, or–?"

"No," Mama cuts me off. "Why does it bug you so much, what Kris thought some seventeen years ago?"

"I guess because... it makes me wonder if she's right at least on his part," I say. "As far as I knew I had no chance with Hunter and I was ready to move on. Olly was literally with Brandi deep into a relationship when we got together. Yet somehow I never doubted us.. until now."

"He was starry-eyed over you his whole life," Mama says.

"But I can't deny their bond," I say.

"I suppose not," she agrees. "But is it any different than your bond with Hunter?"

"That's the thing," I confess. "It's not that different, no, and I can see now why Oliver was so jealous of Hunter and I."

"That puts a lot of your later-day issues with Oliver into a new light I'd guess," she muses.

"It does," I agree. "But I'm still pissed at him for leaving."

"As you should be." she agrees. "But... don't hold a grudge, allow him to explain, allow him to apologize, and regardless of where you and Oliver end up after all this, forgive him for that. It's not good for us to hold unto these things."

"You're right, mama," I agree.

We sit quietly for a moment as we sip our wine.

"You know Kris was right though, we did hurt each other, badly," I admit.

"Yes you did, and you both picked yourselves up and moved on, Olly certainly did just fine despite all her worries over it," Mama says dismissively.

"So you think he did better off without me too?"

"Of course not," Mama says quickly. "He may have succeeded just the same had you stayed together. But, we can't go back and do things differently, so that isn't the question you should ask yourself."

"What question should I ask then?"

"Where does your heart lie? That's the question you need to answer," she says, and as I open my mouth to speak she holds a finger up to let her continue. "And I know you're going to tell me you don't know."

"That's exactly what I was about to say." 

"Want to know what I think?"

"Always."

"I think deep in there." She gestures to my heart. "You do know. But first, you have to get through all that noise of the past, and when the smoke clears, you'll see it, and you won't have a single doubt." 

**With this chapter I'll be taking a little break, I want to get the remaining flashback chapters written and then work on the layout a bit before I resume posting live updates.

About two to three weeks or so, I'd say. But you never know I might start missing y'all and put one up, before that LOL.

This felt like a great spot to leave it on hold, a nice moment with Mama about both boys.