Page 64 of Taming the Wild Cowboy

“Will you answer my question?” His heart was actually starting to hammer.

The phone buzzed again.

“I’m not going to do that, Trev.” She turned back to him, chin lifted. “I’m not ready to.”

Mac grabbed her phone as if needing something, anything to break the tension in the room, then let out a low curse.

“What?” he asked automatically.

“I have to go meet someone earlier than expected.”

He knew the answer before asking the question. “Who?”

“Brooke. We have things to discuss.”

*

Brooke had not only changed their meeting to an earlier time, she’d also changed venue. Mac pulled into the first available parking space near the Main Street Diner, then stopped to take a fortifying breath before reaching for the door handle. She was fighting on too many fronts—personal, professional, and emotional.

But if she could put this issue to bed, then she’d only have two fronts—her job hunt and her feelings for Trev. Make that her freaking scary feelings for Trev. He had not taken the news that she was meeting with Brooke all that well, but he also seemed to realize that he had no say in what went on between her and his ex. After all, Brooke was her ex, too.

Brooke was sitting toward the rear of the diner, and she lifted a hand when Mac came in, just as if they were still friends and travel buddies. Mac wished they were. Life would be easier that way.

Easy didn’t seem to be the path Mac was destined to follow, however. She slid into the booth and then glanced at the server who’d followed her to the table, coffee pot in hand.

Mac turned her cup right side up and the server filled her cup and topped off Brooke’s.

“Would you like menus?”

“We’re only having coffee,” Brooke said, flashing a smile that faded as soon as the woman nodded and walked away. She poured sugar into her coffee, stirred, then set the spoon on a napkin. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

She spoke as if the meeting were her idea. Typical Brooke. Back in the day, she’d laughed at her tendency to take over and actively encouraged her friends to rein her in when she started managing. Her self-awareness had been captivating.

“Didn’t you try to cancel?”

Brooke made a face. “I did. Then I realized that you were right. In our small world, animosity makes no sense.”

“I didn’t say I was giving up animosity,” Mac replied before sipping her coffee. She barely tasted it.

“You shouldn’t,” Brooke agreed, making Mac wonder if she was about to spring a trap or was simply being candid. Brooke folded her hands together in front of her. “We were friends. I destroyed that.”

“You did. Why?”

“Fear.”

Mac tilted her head as her fingers hugged the cup in front of her.

“I … did a bad thing before the wreck and a horrible thing after.”

“Agreed.”

Brooke studied her for a few silent seconds. “You know?”

“I know that you had a reason for saying I was driving. I know that you hoped that by saying you’d pay for damages that Trev would leave well enough alone because the season was almost over and I was done with rodeo that year. He didn’t. It took a few weeks for him to confront me about insurance.” Brooke’s cheeks were taking on color. “To save you having to pay.” Mac sipped again, watching her former friend over her cup. “When I called to ask you why you’d told such a lie, you blocked me. I didn’t know where you were until a few days ago.”

Brooke’s hands were clasped together tightly enough to make the knuckles go white. Maclyn had never seen that actually happen before. “Anything else?”

“You met a guy at a bar who was in the truck with you that night.”