Page 25 of This Time Around
He grinned.“I like her.Before she comes back why don’t you tell me who that guy is by the dartboard, shooting glares at you ever since we walked in like he wishes your face was his target.”
I didn’t have to look, Gavin had been staring at me since we walked in.“Gavin Jefferson.He’s the son of the man who owns land next to ours and is trying to get me to sell.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a chick and chicks can’t run ranches as good as men and because they’ve always wanted it because we have more access to the river and they want it for their land.Also because in high school, Gavin tried getting me to go out with him, thinking that someday he and I would be married and our lands would be easily combined and he’s never been the kind of guy who hears no and moves on.”
“He hurt you?”Cooper’s voice had deepened so quickly, so severely, I focused on him.
“No, he was just a jerk.When I brought Joseph home our senior year of college he turned into a bigger one.”
“And now?”
“I don’t trust him.I’ve had more cuts in my fence lines that aren’t natural and a few cows got out.I got them back from them, but I feel like they’re messing with me.I can’t prove it, though.It could also just be my own paranoia.”
“So,” Brooke said, returning to the table.She plopped down a round of drinks for all of us.“Now that I think I’m calm.Why is the hunk acting like he wants to punch someone and you look like you’re going to vomit?”
God, my friend.She was crazy.
“Gavin’s here.”
“Ah.So are Ryan and Kelly.”
“They are?”I whipped my head around and found them at a booth.Ryan’s eyes, like everyone else’s, were stuck on Cooper.Kelly’s though were glimmering.As our gazes caught, she smiled and waved, and turned back to her husband, slapping him on the arm.“Shit,” I muttered, turning back around.I hadn’t even thought.
“Who’s Ryan?”
“Brother’s best friend.Kelly’s his wife.I’ve known them my whole life.”I drained my first glass and reached for my fresh one.“Which means Jordan will be here in thirty minutes or out tomorrow morning.Which means I’m getting drunk, because I can have my friend freak out about knowing you, I can handle Gavin glaring at me, planning his next move, and I’m sure Kelly will be blowing up my phone all day tomorrow, but I cannot handle Jordan right now.Or ever.”
I chugged my wine, waved down the waitress as she passed by and got another, all while Cooper and Brooke both stared at me like I’d lost my last marbles.
Maybe I had.
Fortunately, Jordan didn’t show.
Kelly didn’t make an approach.
Gavin didn’t do anything.
But Cooper and Brooke and I hung out and talked and laughed so hard it became easier to ignore everyone and everything.We told him all the stories we could think of, one-upping each other on the embarrassment scales, and by the time Brooke’s husband Andrew came to pick her up and get her home and Cooper helped me into the truck, I’d laughed so hard and drank so much, I didn’t feel any pain at all.
Somehow, those few hours—helped along with copious amounts of wine—had obliterated all my stress and my fears and my grief, and I was so damn thankful for the temporary relief.
I closed my eyes once Cooper started the truck, turned to him, and right before I passed out, said, “Thanks, Cooper.That was a pretty great date.”
