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Natalie rolled her eyes. “Of course,” she said. “Everything always has to be perfect—”
“Perfect? Fat chance. Look at me,” I said, then quickly changed topics to talk about the singer instead. “I wonder where Mazzie found this guy? He’s really, really good.”
Lucas is here. In Kitchi Falls. In this bar.
“I heard she had him flown in from Scottsdale. But you know the rumor mill.” Natalie took a sip of her vodka soda, watching the singer, who strummed his guitar like he’d been doing it all his life.
“I do.” The rumor mill in Kitchi Falls was as legit as Lucas’s new and improved body. “Sounds right though. Her dad owned a honky-tonk there, so it makes sense if she had connections, and what better time to get someone that good here than opening night?”
We fell into the kind of companionable silence that was comfortable between old friends. The bar hummed with conversation and laughter. The singer fired up a new song, “Wagon Wheel.” By all accounts, it was the kind of night most people would probably picture in a town like this. One that just yesterday I might have been content to enjoy.
“Is he still here?” I couldn’t help asking.
Natalie peered around me.
“Maybe a touch more subtle?”
She gave me a “seriously?” look and continued to search for Lucas. Apparently without luck. “I don’t see him. He’s either in the men’s room or. . . gone.”
“He’s gone,” I said.
“How do you know?” Natalie looked toward the bathroom.
I just. . . knew.
There was a reason I hadn’t seen Lucas in ten years, despite the fact that he’d been back at least twice since joining the Army and leaving Kitchi Falls. The same reason that, even though I would not mind shaking my sheets and having Lucas Warner fall out, it would probably never happen again. We hadn’t ever slept together, but I was sure sex with that man would be unlike anything I’d experience in my life. Even back in high school, the man could kiss better than anyone before or after him. Could do things with his fingers I couldn’t forget if I tried.
And I had tried really fucking hard to forget.
“He hates me.”
Natalie stopped searching for him and began to sway her hips to the song instead. “Maybe not,” she said, unconvincingly.
But we both knew it to be true.
Sure enough, Lucas never materialized. Maybe it had nothing to do with me. Maybe he was tired, as if a man that looked like that got tired. Or bored.
And maybe my father would stop attempting to control my life, I would win the lottery, and Lucas would come running back to me?
More likely Lucas hated me and had left Boots and Brews to avoid me.
So, he was home and had declared his intentions, I concluded. One hundred percent had seen me and decided avoidance was the best strategy. Looked like shots had been fired across the bow. The first salvo, as it were.
You know what? Bring it on, Lucas.
I never backed down from a fight and wouldn’t start now.
CHAPTER TWO
lucas
I’d managed to stay under the radar for the past few weeks, but there was no way I could avoid Mazzie’s opening night. She’d been like the sister I always wanted, looking out for me as the shop got cleaned out and inched closer to opening.
Coming back after ten years had been as shitty as I’d expected. The welcome from my father went exactly as I imagined it would. Since I’d come home, he’d only sobered up once, just long enough to ask questions I didn’t want to answer.
Was it a mistake to come back after all these years?
Time would tell.
