Page 49 of Slow Hands Cowboy

Maybe that was the big problem now. It wasn’t so much that she was stepping out with Walker in the wreckage of her wedding, but the fact that she was stepping out with him at all.

Because it was like exposing this secret that she had kept for so long.

But it wouldn’t be exposed, not to him, because he thought that she was just playing a game. And everyone in town needed to buy into it, so it would be completing the objective.

All she had to do was think of all the things that she had felt back in high school, and say them now.

She felt bolstered by that, for some reason. Or maybe she was having a manic episode, it was really difficult to say. Because the last couple of weeks had felt like a hallucination, or some kind of mental health break, so who could say in the end.

But it didn’t matter right now. Right now, what she had to do was channel 15-year-old Addison, and let her say everything that she had ever wanted to.

“You always look handsome, though,” she said, smiling.

And suddenly, it was like she had found some channel into herself, a part of herself that she had repressed for a very, very long time.

“That’s always been the case. Even in high school. Especially in high school. That football uniform… Please. That did things to me.”

He had gone still. Like a predator who was watching the movement of his prey, but who seemed a little bit surprised by that prey.

“Really?”

“Really. Half the time when I saw you, I couldn’t even think of what to say.”

“Shocking. Because you always had plenty to say.”

“I suppose so. But it was all me trying to throw you off the scent. Nobody wants to have an unrequited crush.”

“An unrequited crush? Is that what you had? What a trial that must’ve been for you.”

His voice was hushed, practically a murmur, and his blue eyes were hot. No one would be able to hear exactly what he was saying; they would only be able to hear his voice, low and smooth, so they would have no idea what exactly he was saying to her.

She felt like she was caught. Like she had walked into some kind of a trap, and now she was in danger.

“It’s fine. What teenager has an experience like that?”

“Most of them, I assume. How terrible for you to have been lost in the throes of your desire for me.”

She smiled tightly. “It was.”

“Is that why you didn’t go to prom with me?”

She looked down, tapped her finger against her fork, and prayed for the waiter to appear.

He didn’t.

“No,” she said quickly. “I did that because I was trying to prove that I didn’t like you.”

That was when the waiter graciously appeared, asking if they’d had a chance to look at the wine list. They hadn’t, but she told Walker that he could order, and he did, and quickly, without even looking. He was an expert on local wines, which, she had discovered during the planning of the wedding. Because he had a great many relationships with local wineries, that allowed them to serve wines at their ranch for a good price. They also sold whole bottles from local vineyards in the shop at the resort.

Those relationships were probably all because of Walker.

He was a relationships guy. She was the one who had never had one with him.

And she was dangerously close to telling him why.

Because he was probably going to figure out that she was telling the truth.

If she wasn’t careful, he was definitely going to figure that out.