Trevor said, “You gotta put in a mechanical bull, Bubba. No matter what.”
“The tacos are what’s important!” Maria said. “You have to get them right! And we all have to be there for Manny’s final night in business, too.”
“I like where this is going,” Baxter said. “Ethan, you probably know enough country singers to keep big acts circulating. And you could use local bands in between, even perform yourself.”
“Say more about moving the parking lot to the back,” Willow said. “I think it might be brilliant.”
“Say more about the dance floor!” Drew added.
Everyone was smiling, throwing ideas around, talking over each other. But not Ethan. Lily watched him looking from one cousin to the next. His expression was kind of vacant. Yeah, they were doing just what Lilly had predicted they would.
She leaned closer. “They’re acting like it’s a done deal, aren’t they? Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all.”
Then Orrin, who’d been silent throughout, spoke into a lull in the noise. “Place has a basement, you know.”
That silenced everyone. The gift of being the silent type was that when you did speak, people listened. “I didn’t know,” Ethan said. “How do you?”
“Was getting quesadillas with friends when that twister came through, my senior year. Manny hustled us into his sótano. It was so quiet down there you wouldn’t’ve known there was a storm.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Might make a good recording studio.”
Lily shifted her gaze in time to see the change in Ethan’s face. Behind his eyes, she thought she detected the same kinds of sparks and tiny fires that were hopscotching across her own brain. There was definitely a light that hadn’t been there before.
And then Willow said, “Or, you could sell it to strangers who’ll do whatever they want to it, and go back on the road like before.”
Baxter tipped back his beer, lowered it, thumped his chest with a fist and burped simultaneously. Drew rolled her eyes and Willow laughed at him. “If you want to change the output, you have to change the input,” he said. “You keep doin’ things the same way, you can’t get anything other than the same result.”
“Basic science,” Harrison agreed.
Maria’s husband tended to be way more vocal when he agreed with his in-laws than when he didn’t, but that was okay. He was a good guy, for a Yankee. Fit with Maria like he was made for her. Though Ethan wouldn’t have believed it on paper, seeing them together left no room for doubt.
Everyone was still discussing. Drew was reciting a wish-list of restroom features, that had Maria and Willow shouting back affirmations like hallelujahs in church. Trevor was wondering aloud about how much land came with the place, and whether there was enough for a rodeo ring. Baxter argued that a rodeo ring beside a bar would be a recipe for disaster. Orrin was quiet, like always, and Ethan was just taking it all in.
Lily leaned closer to him. “I don’t know, Ethan. I’m not hearing too many arguments against keeping the place. At least for now. Do you actually have any yourself?”
“Yeah,” he said, tipping his head, so it came nearer, speaking to her alone. His mouth was so close to her ear she felt his warm breath with his words. She shivered, and it was delicious, and she imagined him saying something sexy or at least flirty to her, and shivered even harder.
But what he said wasn’t sexy or flirty at all. It was a plea. “One big argument against it,” he said softly. “What if I fail?”
Chapter Five
Ethan had several beers, but no buzz. He was a big guy; he metabolized it faster than he drank it, so he rarely got tipsy unless he was specifically trying. Like when his manager Ang had told him if he didn’t have an album for them by year’s end, his label intended to cancel his contract.
Five beers in, he was uninspired and stone cold sober. He cracked another can.
Lily, on the other hand, was feeling no pain, dancing fireside with the She-Brands, Willow, Maria, and Drew to music spilling from a pickup’s open doors.
Eventually, though, the pizza was gone and the beer was warm. One by one, the cousins peeled off. Maria and Harrison went home. Obviously, the newlyweds wouldn’t want to bunk down with the whole gang. Harrison drove, since he’d stopped drinking early on.
The others headed into the bunkhouse one at a time, until it was only him and Lily.
She stood near the dying fire with her back toward him. The warm yellow glow lit her bright angel’s hair, and outlined her body in that clingy sleeveless, shiny blouse, and butt-hugging jeans.
She rubbed her arms. He spotted her sweater on her chair, got up slow, and slid it over her shoulders.
“Ooh, thanks.” She put her arms into the sleeves and hugged the cardigan around her. “I was too warm a minute ago.”
“Fire’s dyin’ down. Probably oughtta douse it and head inside.”
“Oh.” It was sad, that syllable. Disappointed. She heaved a sigh, then she turned around and put one hand on his chest. She looked up at him and said, “I’m not who everybody thinks I am, you know.” She hiccupped, and looking surprised, pressed her fingers over her lips.
