I check out my reflection again and nod. “You’re right. And I’m buying both the shorts and the top.” Especially since they’ll look adorable with my new boots and hat.
The girls cheer my decision. Warmth fills me at their encouragement and support…which is an odd way to feel, given I go shopping all the time with my friends back home.
A voice in the recesses of my head points out that their idea of being supportive isn’t quite the same as it is for Violet, Sophie, and Aubrey. I ignore the voice.
“Now I just hope I don’t look too foolish attempting to line dance.”
“Nobody’s going to care,” Aubrey says. “But if you want, once these two bail on us to go home to their sweethearts, you can come over to my house. I’ll teach you some moves so you don’t feel completely out of place tonight.”
“You would do that for me?”
“Of course. It’ll be fun. I’ll even help you get ready so you look a little less—”
“High-maintenance?” I fill in, grinning.
“Yes, that. I can even teach you how to flirt cowgirl style. I mean, given that you and Noah aren’t dating.”
I choose to ignore the smirk in her tone and the fact that she’s calling me out on being a liar. “That’s even a thing?”
Sophie giggles. “So that’s what I did wrong all those years I was single.”
Aubrey lets out a snorted laugh. “No, your problem was you couldn’t talk to guys you were interested in without getting all tongue-tied. The inability to flirt was the least of your problems.”
I look at Sophie for confirmation.
She nods. “She’s right. Just ask Ryan tonight. The poor man needed a translator to figure out what I was saying to him.”
“But you don’t have trouble talking to Jake.”
“He’s almost the only one she didn’t have trouble talking to back then,” Violet says. “But that’s also because they were best friends.”
I smile. “And now he’s going to be your husband.”
Sophie’s answering smile has the same dreamy expression I’ve seen on Violet.
I pay for my clothes, and we head over to a nearby café for lunch.
“The secret to flirting cowgirl style is letting the guy notice thatyou’venoticed him checking you out,” Aubrey explains after we order our food. “Give him a flirty, confident smile to show him you like what you see while you openly check him out.”
Violet and Sophie look like they’re trying not to burst out laughing.
“Oh, sure you two laugh now”—she flashes them what appears to be a fake scowl—“but I know what I’m doing.”
The door to the cafe opens and a man enters. He’s good-looking, not much older than us, wearing jeans, a checkered green shirt, and cowboy boots. He heads for the counter.
I’m not the only one who notices him.
Aubrey pushes her chair away from the table and stands. “Watch and learn, ladies. Then your homework assignment today is to practice on your husband, fiancé, and boyfriend.”
She messes up her hair slightly, the brown waves falling just above her breasts. She’s wearing a fitted dark-green T-shirt with the vet clinic’s logo—small and white—above her right boob. Paired with the slim-fitting jeans and her cowgirl boots, she exudes a confident brand of sexiness.
One my friends back home would approve of…if they could get past what Aubrey is wearing.
With a subtle, teasing smile on her face, she sashays to the counter as if she has all the time in the world.
“Wow, she’s really good.” My voice is an awed whisper.
“She is,” Violet says, her tone not so much awed as it is on the shocked side of things.
