Page 124 of One Wild Chance

I curl my hair, then head back to the barn to make sure everything is ready before I get buried under an avalanche of last-minute details.

Three of the Chance brothers, Wyatt, Grady, and Rhett, walk in together in custom suits and their matching cowboy hats. They are, in one word, stunning. I am not an idiot—they’re part of the reason half this town is showing up tonight. I figure the barn will do the rest of the convincing.

“If that doesn’t make an impression, I don’t know what will,” I tell them with an approving smile.

“You really think so?” Wyatt asks, dragging a hand over his lapel and adjusting it. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was nervous. Which is so not Wyatt.

“You think Larissa will like this?” he asks, dead serious.

Rhett barks out a laugh. “That’s why you’ve been acting strange today? There’s a girl.”

“She’s not just a girl.” Wyatt rounds on him. “She’s Summer’s best friend. And an extremely talented performer.” He turns back to me. “Is she here yet?”

“Not yet.” I narrow my eyes. “Wyatt, is there something you’d like to tell me?”

Wyatt adjusts his tie again. “I, uh, wondered if she needs help carrying her guitar.”

“Because you know so much about guitars,” Grady says dryly.

“Is that right, Wyatt?” I ask.

He gives me a golden retriever smile that tells me he has absolutely no idea what we just said. “Uh, what?”

“Nothing,” I say, patting his arm. “Nothing at all.”

Rhett crosses his arms. “He’s been down bad for Larissa since the day they met.”

“I have not!” Wyatt says.

“Oh yeah?” Grady cuts in with a knowing grin. “Then why’d you cancel that date next weekend? With the actress?”

Wyatt’s jaw clenches. He points at both of them. “Not. One. Word.”

The barn door bangs open, and Larissa comes through it sideways, guitar case in one hand, garment bag slung over her shoulder, and hair half out of its clip.

“I am so sorry, Summer!” she apologizes before she’s even fully inside the door. “After I left your house, I had a string break twenty minutes before I needed to leave, and then I couldn’t find my good capo, not to mention I got behind every single tractor in Golden Springs on the way here, which should not even be possible at six thirty on a Friday night!”

She stops dead in her tracks, the rest of her monologue fading the second she sees Wyatt standing there in his suit.

“Oh,” she whispers. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Wyatt returns, shoving his hands in his pockets, like he doesn’t know what else to do with them.

He’s impossibly handsome, and my extremely capable best friend, who becomes intensely shy around Wyatt, is turning the same color as my fall mums.

“Let me get that,” Wyatt says, crossing the room for her guitar case as if she’s carrying an impossibly large suitcase.

“Oh, I do this all the time.” She shakes her head. “You don’t have to⁠—”

“Please let me.” He takes it out of her hand carefully, like he’s afraid of messing this up. Wyatt is not the least bit frightened by a linebacker the size of a bear. And yet, he’s looking at Larissa like she’s the most intimidating person he’s ever met.

“I’ll just show you where to set up,” she says, throwing me a panicked look for help.

“Lead the way.” Wyatt gestures for Larissa to walk in front of him.

They head off toward the stage together, while Grady and Rhett both grin mercilessly at Wyatt’s back.

“I’ve never seen that man so flustered before,” Rhett says.