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“Before these two start bickering, as always,” Talia remarks, “we are here to invite you out.”
“Invite me out?” I reply at the same time Gabriel groans. “Does that mean the same thing it means in the city?”
“It does,” Kasey Leigh confirms. “We are hitting the town tonight.”
“No fucking way,” Gabriel snaps. “You go out tonight. You do it at my bar.”
I turn to look at him as if to say oh no you did not. “Excuse me?”
“Ohhh,” Kasey Leigh chirps, “I love her.”
“You guys go out, you do it at the bar or not at all.” Gabriel leaves zero room for anyone to say anything. “I’m going to put Fireball away, and then I’ll take you home.”
“Fine by me,” Aubrey states. “Means I don’t have to pay for anything.”
“We’ll take her home,” Talia counters. “Give you a break.”
I see Gabriel wants to say something, but he just lifts his chin. “See you guys tonight,” he says, looking straight at me. “Don’t fuck around. I find out you guys went somewhere else, I’ll come and get you.” He turns on his heel and walks back to the barn, and I feel bad I didn’t say goodbye to Fireball.
“Will you guys give me a minute?” I hold up one finger before running back into the barn and watching Gabriel or, better yet, watching his ass as he walks. “Hey,” I say as he looks over his shoulder, “I didn’t say goodbye.” His mouth goes into a big smile as he takes off his cowboy hat, leaning down to give me a kiss. “I mean to Fireball.” I move past him toward her. “Thank you for today, Fireball.” I rub her neck. “I will never, ever forget it.” She nudges my hand with her muzzle. “I’ll see if I can come back and see you soon.” I swear I think she smiles at me. “Now, I’m going.” I turn to walk away from him when he wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me back to him.
“I wasn’t kidding,” he whispers, or maybe it’s a growl, in my ear. “Your ass is in my bar tonight.”
His tone leaves me pissed and wet at the same time. “Actually, let me come and find you.” He chuckles, but the sound gives me goose bumps. “I haven’t turned your ass red yet.”
“My gut is telling me to let you find me.” I look back over my shoulder at him.
“Your gut also is telling you to let me drag you into the back room and fuck you until you forget your own name.” It’s like he can read my thoughts. “But my sister is out there, and you don’t want them to know about this thing between us, so I’m going to let you go.” He lets me go, but not before adding the last two words. “For now.”
I turn to face him. “See you tonight, Cowboy.” I wink at him and turn on my way but stop. “Or maybe not.” Holding up my hand, I wiggle my fingers. “Byeee,” I sing and walk out of the barn, listening to him growl.
I don’t have to go far because the girls have moved their truck closer to the barn. “Thank you so much for waiting,” I tell them, getting into the truck. By the time they drop me off, I can’t wait for them to pick me up. Thankfully, we went out to eat before I got home since there is literally nothing left in my fridge. I really have to hit up the grocery store tomorrow.
I rummage through the clothes I brought, but nothing screams country bar, so I take out my black jeans—that I know I look fabulous in—and a black silk spaghetti-strap top that is tight and goes into a V, so you can’t wear a bra. It shows a bit of cleavage, but it’s tight enough that nothing is going to come out. I look through all my shoes, pulling out the pair of leopard sky-highs I threw in there last minute. I even laughed at myself when I did it.
I put the shoes on the bed, going to the bathroom and put on a touch of mascara, looking at the color on my face that I got from riding the horse today. If you had told me two weeks ago that I would be standing in this bathroom, excited about going to a country bar, I would have told you that you were nuts. Two weeks ago, I was engaged to a man who I thought I loved with everything I had, but walking away from him was so easy that I have to ask myself, did you really love him or were you just going with it? This past week has me question a lot of my life. It made me see, no matter what I did, there was nothing that was going to change what Daniel did. Fuck, he didn’t even stop fucking her when we were together. He asked me to marry him while he still fucked her. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I’m not beating myself up over it. It’s his cross to bear and not mine.
I apply my lip gloss before touching up my hair and heading back to the bedroom to grab my shoes and the black leather jacket I brought with me. I’m waiting downstairs when the phone rings, and I see it’s Zoey.
“Hey there,” I greet, putting the phone on speaker.
“Hey,” she says, “I was just shutting my computer for the night, and I thought I would call and see what you’ve been up to.”
“I’m getting ready to go out.” I proudly state that I’m not sitting alone in the dark, curled up in a ball, crying over the disaster that is my life.
“Going out for the night?” She’s as shocked as I am.
“I am. The girls came by while I was horseback riding.”
“Horseback riding?” she yells. “When did you start that?”
“Today, and I have to say, it was one of the best times I’ve ever had.” I go on to tell her all about Fireball and how I rode her without anyone, and I sound like I did when I started riding a two-wheel bike.
“You sound so happy,” she finally says. “Like I thought for sure you would, I don’t know.”
“Should I be this happy, though?” I ponder. “Maybe it’ll hit me once I get back to the city.”
“I don’t know.”
