Read In a Second (Friendship, RI Book 3) By Kate Canterbary
Today’s vocabulary word: recognize
I didn’t have a lot of experience in sleeping with Audrey Saunders.
We’d shared plenty of nights when her parents were out of town but they’d been the kind where sleep was the last priority. Back then, it was about gulping down those frenzied, forbidden moments. I’d been too caught up in the primal, screaming need of it all to slow down and appreciate the simple goodness of being close to her, of sleeping with her.
It wasn’t simple anymore.
When I returned to the room last night, Audrey had a small cylinder plugged in beside the bed—a white noise machine or something like that—and a pillow cleaving her side from mine. She’d been asleep, or doing an excellent job of faking it, and I couldn’t believe how thoroughly I’d fucked this up.
I really didn’t know how I thought this plan would come together for me. For months, I’d told myself all I had to do was find a way to get Audrey on board and everything else would fall into place. I dodged the technical details wherever I could. I did everything in my power to avoid thinking about the reality of being with her again.
But the trouble with Audrey was that she changed me. It’d always been that way, right from the start. I hated it at first. Hated the way the back of my neck prickled and blood pumped harder in my veins and my chest seemed to open up, like I hadn’t known what it meant to take a deep breath until she ignored the shit out of me in school. But also, I couldn’t breathe at all when she was around. Couldn’t think, couldn’t function until I learned everything about her.
And when I knew her, she changed me a little more. She softened the pointless anger I’d clutched tight like a security blanket and smoothed my self-righteous rebellion into something useful. She allowed me all the contempt I wanted because she came armed with her own supply of it.
More than all of that, she gave me a sense of calm I’d never known before and never since. There were days when I didn’t trust the memories to tell me the truth. How could I? The only other time I’d felt anything close to that calm was when I had a tooth pulled and the drugs hit me all at once.
But now, waking up in this nightmare of a motel room, I realized the memories barely did it justice.
We’d abandoned our mindful posts on the far edges of the bed and turned toward each other in the night, our heads bowed together on the pillow meant to separate us. There was a light, gentle scent to Audrey, different from what I’d remembered but I still recognized it as hers. I stared at the long braid draped over her shoulder and the way her lips pulled together in a pouting frown. She’d wrapped her hand around my forearm at some point, her fingers pressed to my pulse.
I’d been a fool, all those years ago, to think sex could ever be more important than waking up with her like this.
And I was still a fool because I thought I could pretend with this woman. That I wouldn’t bend toward her every chance I got. That I wouldn’t let her destroy me all over again.
I stared at her for another minute before prying myself from her grasp. We’d slept late and there were things to do. I had to check in with Woody to see about progress on the car, apologize to my mother another fifteen times, confirm that my son wasn’t being left to wander the shores of Saginaw Bay on his own, and let my attorney bill me two hundred dollars for a five minute call.
The most important item on that list was getting out of the bed and into the shower while Audrey was still asleep. If she woke up to find us sharing a pillow, we’d be finished here. The fact we’d shared a bed was some kind of miracle, but if she realized she’d reached for me in the middle of the night, she’d shut right down. And I wouldn’t blame her. It was fucking with my head too.
The shower was about as awful as I’d expected. Dark and oddly narrow, and the pipes made noises I didn’t trust.
I’d been in there about ten minutes when the bathroom door banged open and Audrey said, ‘Jude, I need you.’ I blinked water from my eyes as she pulled back the curtain, a towel waiting in her grip. ‘Now. Please?’
Instinct took over as I turned off the water. ‘Anything, baby. What is it?’
She didn’t glance away while I wrapped the towel around my waist and all the anatomy that sprang to life whenever she was around. That should’ve raised a red flag about what was to come, but saying she needed me overrode everything else.
She pointed to the door, her other hand looped around the tail of her braid. ‘There’s a lizard on the curtains.’
‘Slow down, sweetheart, just—’ As I brought a wet hand to her shoulder, I finally comprehended her words. ‘Did you say lizard?’
‘Yes, a lizard and it’s on the curtains in the room we slept in and I need you to get it. Now. Please.’
‘Shit.’
‘Yeah, basically.’
I darted out of the bathroom, Audrey close behind me. The metal bed frame and leak-water barrel stood between us and the window. I stepped around the frame and focused on the heavy curtains. The fabric was gray, though I didn’t think it’d started out that way. I could tell from here it was thick and textured.
‘Up there,’ Audrey said from behind me, her fingertips barely pressed to the center of my back. ‘Near the rod. I heard something—like soft scratching—and then I saw the curtains move.’
I spotted the creature then, and while it didn’t help anything, I let out a snarled, ‘Holy fuck.’
‘Yeah, I know, don’t remind me. I’ve already died several times,’ Audrey said.
It wasn’t one of the little guys that sunbathed in my mom’s backyard. It was probably a foot long and I was pretty sure it had horns. In this area, there was a solid chance it was poisonous too.
I didn’t have a game plan here. I searched the room but the best I could come up with was ripping off this towel and catching the lizard in there, which was a terrible plan because it left me naked and holding a pissed-off, possibly poisonous reptile.
Then I caught sight of Audrey’s scones. I pulled the lid off and dumped the remaining chunks and crumbs on the dresser. ‘When I tell you, open the door and get out of the way.’
I stepped around the bed frame, the container and lid in hand, and kept an eye on the lizard as I went. When it seemed like I had the best angle possible, I took my shot. I felt the thunk of that big boy as he landed in the dish and then held the lid down like her life depended on it.
‘Open,’ I yelled, striding toward the door.
She flung it wide and pressed herself to the wall. I jogged across the parking lot, the pavement like a hot griddle on my bare feet. When I reached a cluster of cactus and scrub brush, I set my friend off on a new adventure.
The motherfucker definitely had horns.
On the way back, I chucked Audrey’s container in the dumpster. I had a feeling she wouldn’t be using it again.
As I approached the room, I saw her peeking around the edge of the door, her eyes wide. ‘Taken care of,’ I said.
She nodded, still clinging to the door as I stepped inside. She shut it behind me and we scanned the room as if we’d find more uninvited guests waiting for us. Nothing jumped out at us—thank god. I didn’t think we’d survive that.
Audrey twined her legs together, the bottom of one foot layered over the top of the other. I knew this wasn’t the time, but I followed that bare skin and devoured every inch of her silky pink pajamas. Tiny shorts and a shirt I could unbutton in five seconds flat. I could probably run my hand up the inside of her thigh and— No. No.
Fuuuuck. I fucking hated that she did this to me and I hated that I didn’t want to live another day without her. And more than all of that, I hated that I invented this whole stupid situation. If I hadn’t lied to my mother, I could’ve gone about my life without sleeping beside the woman who broke me—twice—and rescuing her from a small dragon. And I damn well would’ve been happy about it. Or something close enough to happy.
‘I’m obviously never sleeping again,’ she said, fully immune to the nonsense running through my head.
‘Valid,’ I replied. ‘Really fuckin’ valid.’
‘Can we agree we’re burning this place to the ground now?’
Best idea I’d heard in days. ‘One hundred percent. Hand me the lighter fluid.’
She laughed but it sounded like a cringe. ‘How long do you think that thing was in here?’
‘I really don’t want to know,’ I said.
‘Yeah, the more I explore that thought, the more I want to sit in a simmering pool of acid because what if the lizard was on me last night? What if it licked my ear or—’
‘Stop.’ I held up a hand. ‘Don’t do that to yourself. Or to me, because it could’ve licked either one of us.’
She gave an irritable shrug that told me she didn’t like it when I was right and glanced at the discarded bits of scone strewn across the dresser. ‘Thanks for getting rid of the container.’
‘I didn’t think you wanted it back.’ I nodded as I picked up the wastebasket and cleaned up the debris. ‘Sorry about this.’
She glanced at the towel around my waist and then quickly away. ‘Sorry about barging in on you.’ Pink rose in her cheeks. She rolled her lips together, still avoiding my eyes—and towel. She had noticed her effect on me, then. ‘I panicked and didn’t think about what you were—well. I didn’t think.’ She ran her foot up the back of her opposite leg and twisted a finger around the end of her braid. ‘I should probably let you get back in there.’
I was suddenly very aware of how thin this towel was and how very much my body missed being close to her. ‘It’s all good,’ I said. ‘I was just about at the ‘contemplating life’ stage anyway.’
‘Oh. Okay.’ She brushed the end of her braid over her lips and along her jaw. I heard myself swallow. ‘If you don’t mind, I’m going to—’ She pointed to the bathroom door.
‘All yours.’ I closed my hand around the towel’s knot. Couldn’t believe it’d held up through all of that. ‘I’m going to touch base with Woody and see if he has any updates on the car and then make a few calls.’
She swept a gaze around the room like she expected something to jump out and bite her. I didn’t blame her for that but it occurred to me she might not want to be left alone. Before I could offer a change of plans, she said, ‘That’s great, actually, because I was thinking about walking over to the fair.’
‘Yeah. Okay.’ I nodded as she went on teasing her hair over her lips. If she kept that up, this towel would start telling all my secrets. ‘I’ll message you with any updates.’
She grabbed a few smaller bags and ducked into the bathroom. The door snicked shut and then the lock popped into place, and I let out a long groan as I rubbed a hand down my face. ‘What the fuck just happened to me?’
Read In a Second (Friendship, RI Book 3) By Kate Canterbary Chapter 19 –
Today’s vocabulary word: detours
‘What do you mean, the road is closed?’
‘I mean what I said,’ Woody replied, his focus on writing out a receipt. ‘There’s a monsoon rollin’ in.’
I pinched the bridge of my nose. I’d spent the entire day in this gas station, alternately reaming out the rental car agency for that fuckup, waiting for the part to arrive because I didn’t trust Woody to not forget about it until the morning, and distracting myself with work.
I was also avoiding Audrey, though I preferred to think of it as giving her space. We’d be back in close quarters soon enough, and arriving at my mom’s house as a happily engaged couple before bedtime. Assuming Woody was wrong about the road closure.
‘Monsoon season doesn’t start until next month,’ I said. ‘Late next month.’
‘That’s how it usually goes,’ he said, stroking a hand over the beaded lariat tucked into his collar. ‘But it’s stirring up early this year. Big one too. That’s why they closed the passes.’
I pointed to the endless blue sky on the other side of the windows. ‘Show me the storm, Woody.’
‘Oh, it’s comin’. You can’t see it, but it’s comin’. The winds and dust storms tend to miss us up here but we’ll get the rain, the floods. Thunder and lightning too.’
I pulled up a map on my phone, zooming in on the area. Sure enough, the roads leading out of the mountains popped up with hazardous condition warnings and local access only restrictions, and the major highways around Flagstaff and then Sedona were already ruby red with flash flood warnings. Only an hour ago, it’d been smooth sailing all the way to my mother’s house.
‘Fuck.’ I dropped an elbow on the counter. We couldn’t spend another night in this town. For so many reasons. ‘If we leave right now—’
‘Then you’ll get stuck in the worst of it and I don’t think that pretty wife of yours wants to find out what a water rescue’s all about.’
I dug a knuckle into my temple and didn’t bother correcting him about my wife. ‘Fuck.’
‘I know our little town isn’t much but it’s not that bad,’ Woody drawled.
I dragged my gaze up, taking in his deeply tanned skin and salt-and-pepper hair he kept tied back in a thin braid as I went. ‘The town’s not my problem,’ I said. ‘The problem is that we needed to be in Sedona two days ago.’
‘You’ll get there when you get there,’ he said. ‘We’re havin’ ourselves a rodeo tomorrow. You should come along.’
I gathered up my laptop and notebooks, and shoved them all into my backpack. ‘Thanks for the tip,’ I said on my way out the door.
The car was up and running now but I didn’t drive back to the motel yet. I sat there, staring at the mountains and the fine layer of dark purple clouds pressing in on the distant horizon. After a few minutes of letting my frustration boil over, I put in my earbuds and called my mother.
It rang for longer than I thought possible but then she picked up and I heard Gloria Estefan playing in the background for at least fifteen seconds before she said, ‘Hello?’
‘Hey, Mom.’
‘Oh, Jude! I’ve been wondering where you were,’ she said. ‘Please tell me you’ll be here before the storm. We’ve been out bringing in all our outdoor cushions because everyone says they’ll blow away if we don’t. Gary up the street says his got stuck in a tree last summer. Had to hire some kids to get ’em down.’
‘Gary up the street, huh?’
‘He’s a real character, that one,’ she said. ‘He likes to know what’s going on in the neighborhood.’
‘I bet he does,’ I said. I wanted to meet this Gary from up the street. ‘About this storm. It doesn’t look like we’re going to make it there tonight.’
‘I don’t think I believe this story about delays.’ She chuckled. ‘I think you’re hiding out in the middle of nowhere and having fun in that motel.’
Memories of sprinting across the parking lot with a lizard trapped in Tupperware flooded my mind. ‘Yeah, that’s not really what’s happening here, Mom.’
‘You know, you could’ve just told me that you wanted a few nights alone,’ she went on. ‘You think I don’t understand what it’s like? Being a young parent and wanting to get some adult time—’
‘Let’s just end that thought there,’ I said. ‘Believe me, no one wants to get to Sedona more than Audrey. We’re just having a run of bad luck.’
‘Or it’s very good luck,’ she said. ‘Road trips and middle-of-nowhere motels can be very romantic.’
I pushed past the memory of Audrey’s palm on my forearm while she slept. Of her turning toward me in the night. Of her brushing that braid over her lips. My lips. ‘We’ll be there tomorrow,’ I said, the words crisp. ‘It’s a five-hour drive but we’ll hit the road early and be there by noon.’
‘What’s the rush? Sleep in. Enjoy yourselves. I’ll be happy to see you whenever you roll in.’
I didn’t know how we’d gone from a packed itinerary with events scheduled morning, noon, and night to What’s the rush? but I wasn’t going to call her on it. ‘I’ll let you know when we’re about an hour away.’
‘Give my love to that darling girl of yours. Tell her I have lots of plans for us,’ she said. I wouldn’t be telling Audrey that unless I wanted her to ask fifty-four thousand times what it meant. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow. And stay safe out there, kiddo. Gary says it only takes a few minutes for flash floods to wash you right outta town.’
‘Good ol’ Gary,’ I said. ‘I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Mom.’
She made kissy sounds that I used to find annoying and now I just appreciated I still got to hear them. ‘Love you, kiddo.’
‘Love you too.’
I headed toward the motel, and the minute I made the turn into the parking lot, I spotted Audrey sitting in a metal chair outside our door. She had a book in her lap and her hair gathered over one shoulder, big sunglasses blocking her eyes from view.
She paid me no attention when I pulled into the slot in front of her. I drank her in, allowing myself to study the long line of her legs and the slight downturn of her lips as she read. She’d grown and changed so much that there were moments when I barely recognized her, but this quiet woman lost in her book, this one I knew better than anyone else on earth.
And she was going to kill me when I broke the news about tonight. That, or she’d insist I deliver her to the closest airport and put an end to this adventure.
After this morning and the…reactions I’d had, it wasn’t the worst idea.
I grabbed my backpack and climbed out of the car. I slammed the door behind me but the book kept her attention. I strolled into her space and tipped the book back to get a look at the cover. Inkheart, I read. ‘Must be good because you’ve been lost in those pages for a few minutes.’
‘I’m thinking of reading it with my class next year.’ She fidgeted with a skinny pink highlighter. ‘It’s a little longer than I usually prefer but it’s a great story.’
I skimmed the back cover. ‘This might be Percy’s vibe.’
‘What does he like to read?’
I rocked back on my heels because that was a loaded question. My kid had some wild preferences. ‘Many things, but especially stories with connections to mythology.’
‘Do you want any recommendations? Because I spend half of my fifth-grade years on world mythologies and modern retellings, and I’ve read everything out there.’
‘That’d be a big help. Thank you.’
She blinked as if just now noticing the rental car at my back and shot to her feet. ‘It’s fixed? We can go?’
‘It’s fixed,’ I started, ‘but there’s another problem.’
‘No, there’s not.’ She tossed the book and highlighter to the chair. ‘There are no problems because we’ve already had all the problems and we’re done with problems. The only problem is that we’re standing here talking and not getting the hell out of this town.’
I slipped my hands into my pockets. ‘There’s a storm coming in. A big monsoon. I guess some of the roads have a tendency to flash-flood and they shut them down as a precaution.’
‘We are not stranded here for another night,’ she said, the words frayed. ‘We can’t stay here. I won’t.‘
‘Believe me, I want another option as much as you do.’
‘I don’t actually believe that,’ she cried, flinging her hands out at her sides.
‘That’s tough shit, princess, because it’s the truth,’ I said.
‘We should’ve waited for the rescheduled flight to Phoenix,’ she said, shaking her head as she paced away from me. ‘We’re going to arrive at the exact same time, but instead of spending that time in my dry, lizard-free home, we’re out here roughing it like settlers on the Oregon Trail who’re going to die of dysentery.’
‘We’re nowhere near the Oregon Trail.’
She whirled around, her hands fisted at her hips. ‘Would you just shut the hell up? Because I get it. You want to punish me. You want me to suffer.’
‘That’s not true. It’s not true at all. You know it’s killing me to be stuck here when we’re missing everything my mom planned for us.’
Her scoff could’ve cracked ice. ‘Right, because dragging me in front of your mother and making me put on the fiancée show isn’t one more punishment. Because this entire week isn’t full of opportunities for you to make a fool out of me and watch me squirm.’
‘That’s not what I’m doing,’ I said through gritted teeth.
‘Maybe you didn’t plan the delays or the broken-down car,’ she said, pacing again. ‘But you can’t tell me you didn’t love shoving me into a damp, dingy motel room. It’s almost better revenge than trapping me in this heinous lie of yours.’
‘Would you just calm the fuck down?’
She turned toward me, a murderous glare in her eyes. I’d swear I heard fangs descend. ‘Do you want me to calm the fuck down? Or have you just been waiting for me to throw a spoiled little rich girl tantrum? It’d give you all the permission you need to confirm every terrible thing you already think about me.’
I closed the distance between us and leaned in, just enough to pick up the scent of her shampoo. ‘I’ve come by all my knowledge of you honestly. I don’t need confirmation of anything. You’ve done enough of that on your own.’
‘You have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said, the words low and cold.
‘Yeah? Then consider the possibility that neither do you.’
I shouldered my backpack and, once again, walked away from Audrey Saunders with no clue where I was going or what I’d do when I got there.
Read In a Second (Friendship, RI Book 3) By Kate Canterbary Chapter 20 – Today’s vocabulary word: imperious
One of the many problems with being stuck in a remote town in the high desert was that there was nowhere to go. Short of wandering into the mountains and feeding myself to the coyotes, the pickings were slim.
The diner was closed for the day along with the general store. I ended up parking myself at the laundromat—they had free wifi—and throwing myself into work for a couple of hours. The steady hum of the machines took the edge off some of the tension that’d gathered between my shoulders but I still wanted to march right up to Audrey and explain why she was so fucking wrong about everything.
And she was wrong. About all of it.
Once the sun melted behind the mountains and I heard the low rumbles of thunder off in the distance, I hiked back to the motel. Audrey wasn’t there, though I didn’t think she would be. She’d wait until the last possible moment to return, if for no other reason than to prove to me that she could.
She wasn’t the only one who could prove a point.
I ditched my backpack and headed for the bar across the street. Or, I assumed the low-slung building was a bar. No name, no sign, just two dozen pickup trucks and the throb of music bleeding out the doors and into the evening air. I’d be able to burn a few hours in there.
The place was packed but it added up when I remembered what Woody had said about the county fair and tomorrow’s rodeo. I found an empty spot at the end of the bar and ordered a beer.
I was halfway into a one-sided argument with myself when a laugh snagged my attention. It was like a fishhook right through my gray matter, pulling me against the currents of noise and bodies until my gaze landed on a smile so wide it was like I was staring straight into a floodlight.
There she was, her cheeks pink and her hair loose around her shoulders as her laughter cut through the country music.
And some fucking guy in a cowboy hat tucked her into his arms as they danced across the floor. She’d changed into jeans that fit her like a dream and a shirt that fluttered with every move. A few wisps of hair curled around her face from the heat. She’d been at it awhile.
All I could see were his hands. On her hips, her waist. Around her shoulders. His smile pressing against her cheek. But I realized my mistake too soon. The song was finished but Audrey wasn’t. Another guy in a cowboy hat offered her his hand and she took it, laughing like the night belonged to her and not to the history between us.
The songs blurred together as Audrey moved from one partner to the next, each with big, shiny belt buckles and well-loved boots. The cowboys tipped their hats at her and she took their hands without a second thought. She kept dancing and laughing through each tune while I tried to remember the last time I saw her so completely happy. It was the only thing that kept me from bolting off this stool and flipping every table in this place.
‘Those bull riders found themselves something fun to play with,’ the bartender drawled when he caught me staring. ‘Thinkin’ about askin’ for a dance?’
I rolled the beer bottle between my palms. It was warm now, mostly untouched. I watched her hair whip her face as her partner spun her away and then back until she was flattened against his chest. When she shifted out of his hold and into the next sequence of steps, her gaze tripped over mine. She went on smiling but raised a brow in challenge. She held my eyes for a second before picking up the dance but it was enough to remind me she still knew exactly how to gut me without saying a word. ‘Maybe.’
He tipped his chin at the beer. ‘Another?’
I nodded, my gaze still locked on Audrey while I tossed down a few bills. She threw her head back and laughed at something the guy—the bull rider—said. She had one hand laced with his and the other between his shoulder blades, and the way she leaned into him, completely at ease, made my jaw clench so hard I gave myself a headache. I went on gripping the beer bottle, running my thumb over the raised marks along the neck while reminding myself to keep my ass on the barstool.
She was smiling and laughing and having fun, and the last thing she wanted was for me to interfere with that. Still, each time her smile flashed at someone else, it sparked in my chest like a dare. Like she was reminding me just how thoroughly she’d lived without me—and how little she cared that I was right here, watching. Waiting.
My muscles pulled taut with every next song, every wild spin, until even the barstool seemed to whisper Get the hell up. It shaved years from my life but I fought off the urge to stride across the room and steal her away for myself.
Until one of those bull riders draped an arm around her shoulders and steered her toward the door. I was off that stool and across the bar in a blink.
I rounded on them, saying, ‘Thought you’d save the last dance for me, Saunders.’
The rider glanced between us and tugged her closer. ‘Do you know this guy?’ he asked, his lips nearly brushing the shell of her ear.
Audrey nodded but made no move away from her new friend. If anything, her smile sharpened like she knew exactly how deep this knife was sinking and wasn’t about to pull it free. She wanted me to watch, to stew in it, to suffer, and god help me—I was. And she knew it too.
I swallowed down all the words scraping the back of my throat—the warnings, the promises, the questions that’d burrowed into the back of my mind for too long. If I took one step closer, I knew I’d forget all the bullshit stories I’d told myself about what I wanted from her and why we were doing this.
‘Is he bothering you?’ the rider asked. When she didn’t reply, he turned a hard-jawed glare in my direction. If I wasn’t busy being furious at Audrey, I’d appreciate him squaring up on her behalf. ‘When a lady says she isn’t interested, we don’t hang around and make them uncomfortable. We move the fuck on.’
‘Heard.’ I held my hands up as I took a step toward Audrey. ‘But you should know that’s my fiancée you’ve been dancing with and she won’t be leaving here with you tonight.’
‘Oh my god. Would you stop it?’ she snapped, shrugging away from the bull rider. ‘I wasn’t going home with him, you fuck mollusk. We were getting some air.’ She waved a hand at her face, damp and rosy from dancing. Her shirt clung to the dip between her breasts. I had to wrench my gaze away before I let myself drown there. ‘Because it’s hot in here and some of us aren’t sitting in a corner and chewing on glass.’
The rider glanced between us several times like he wasn’t sure what to believe. To Audrey, he asked, ‘Is this a safe situation for you? I think some of the barrel racers have space in their trailers over at the campground. If you’d be more comfortable there tonight, I could ask around.’
Audrey dropped a hand to the center of his chest. ‘You’re such a sweetheart,’ she said. ‘And it’s good of you to worry about me, but if there’s one thing I know how to do these days, it’s looking after myself. I’ll be all right. Thank you for checking.’
She anointed him with a loving smile and a lot of truly unhinged thoughts moved through my mind but the worst of them was Mine.
The sick truth was that I’d do anything to carve that instinct out of me. To free myself from her, once and for all. Because I’d never stopped loving her, not even when she walked down the aisle and gave herself to someone else. I didn’t know how to stop loving her any more than I knew how to stop my heart from pumping blood. And there was a part of me that always wondered whether I even wanted to stop. Whether I liked tracing my fingers over the scars I couldn’t see but still felt. Whether I wanted every thought to circle back to her in one way or another, simply because her fingerprints were on every inch of my life.
‘If you’re sure,’ the rider said to her, still raking me over with a glare.
‘Thanks for the dance,’ she said.
He tipped his hat at her. ‘Thank you, ma’am. It was a lot of fun. You’re a damn good dancer.’
‘It’s nice of you to say so.’ Then she swung her gaze in my direction and I found unbound fury waiting for me. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a conversation—with my fiancé.’
She turned on her heel and stormed away. I knew it was wrong to enjoy riling her up but I loved it when she was too pissed off at me to be anything but real. I loved all her reactions, even the ones I had to mine for the truth, but especially when she dropped the filters and hit me with her worst.
‘This is none of my business but I don’t think that girl’s gonna marry you,’ the bull rider said.
‘Probably not,’ I said, watching the door slam shut behind her. ‘Still worth a shot.’
