Chapter 26
September passes by in a blink and somehow, October seems to be moving just as fast.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun. It’s amazing what good sex, a new bathtub, and no more triple-digit days can do for a person’s overall happiness.
“Shut the fuck up!” Gabby chirps like the chicken she’s holding. “I knew you said Celestial was great, but this place is freaking euphoric.”
Her plane landed this afternoon, and it’s been a marathon of giggles and gossip from the moment she leapt into my arms at the baggage carousel.
I’m pretty sure onlookers thought she was my lover, and we were too enthralled in shrill laughter to correct them.
Plus, if there’s one person left on this planet who I’ve loved the longest, it is, without question, Gabrielle Jenea Owens.
She might not be my lover, but she has my heart and that’s enough.
“You can admit that you thought I was lying.” I nudge her with my shoulder.
I could hear the worried disbelief in her voice every time we talked on the phone. I knew she thought I was overcompensating and trying to convince myself the rash move I made wasn’t a mistake. But for once, she was wrong.
“Fine,” she huffs, and even though I can’t see her face, I know she’s rolling her eyes. “But can you blame me? An idyllic farmhouse in a mysteriously inclusive small Texas town? Nobody would believe that shit.”
She sets Leigh-hen Pinnock back on the ground and Gabby scurries off to be with Henda Martell and her Little Chix sisters who are pecking away at the frozen-fruit ice cubes I dropped in the water bowls around the chicken coop.
Dolly Parton and Kelly Cluckson have gone off on their own.
“I don’t know how idyllic the house was when the bathtub fell through the ceiling.” I remind her of my less-than-glamorous experiences over the last few months. “Or when I got locked out during the thunderstorm.”
That was actually terrifying. I thought Colorado had numbed me to extreme weather, but flash floods have nothing on Texas thunderstorms. I damn near passed out when I saw the clouds begin to circle overhead.
Thankfully, I had my library shed to hide out in, but it felt less than sturdy when the thunder caused the floor to shake and the strong winds rattled the windows.
No matter how hard I tried to focus, I don’t think I retained a single word I read that day.
I did, however, find new books for Ciara and Millie.
They’d been on my back for weeks to re-up their reading materials, so at least that was a win.
Needless to say, I now keep a key hidden beneath a painted rock leading to the chicken coop.
“The bathtub that yielded a hot handyman slash football coach slash cowboy?” She’s clearly up to date on his many titles. What kind of friend would I be if I left her in the cold about such important details? “I’m not sure that counts as anything other than a disastrous meet-cute.”
“Heavy on the disaster.” I loved that bathtub. I love my new one more, but still. It was very upsetting in the moment. “Plus, I had already met Tate, so I’m not sure it would technically be considered a meet-cute.”
“I don’t care what your romance books say. This is real life, and here, I make the rules, and I say it’s a meet-cute. But now that you brought him up,” she says, knowing damn well she’s the one who mentioned him, “when am I going to get to meet the man of our dreams?”
My pulse kick-starts, and the giddy little butterflies that take flight every time I think of Tate wreak havoc on my stomach.
“The game starts at seven.” I look down at my watch and calculate how long until I can feast my eyes on my favorite man all over again.
We haven’t spent a day apart since our night together, and it’s still not enough.
My house is too empty without him and too quiet without Duke.
In a matter of months, they’ve imprinted themselves so deeply into my life that I can’t imagine it without them.
“We should probably head over in an hour though. Friday nights are the only time there’s anything resembling traffic in Celestial.
Tate said it might be even worse since it’s the homecoming game and some of the streets are shut down for the carnival tomorrow. ”
“Is the hot cowboy brother going to be there?” she asks, horny mischief gleaming in her eyes. “I wouldn’t mind a little vacation fling.”
“Is it a fling when he’s my next-door neighbor?” I ask. “I barely made it out of the Jacobs brothers’ mess unscathed. We can’t push our luck. I’m going to need you to switch your target.”
“Selfish.” She pouts as I lock up the chicken coop behind us. “I didn’t think you’d turn into a hot-guy gatekeeper.”
Her hurtful, inaccurate words stop me in my tracks.
“Excuse me?” I spin around and point an unpolished nail in her face.
“I would never gatekeep hotness from you and you know it. I’m the one who hooked you up with the owner of that brewery I liked, remember?
” She went out with him three times before deciding that the way he chewed gum gave her the ick and blocked him.
I couldn’t go back to the brewery again without him glaring at me from behind the bar.
“And don’t forget about Jackson. He was hot and you kicked him to the curb after he told you he was a Chiefs fan. ”
“Fuck the Chiefs,” she spits out with the fervor only a diehard Broncos fan could. “He clearly had terrible taste. What would it do to my reputation if I was seen with him?”
She proves my point for me.
“I understand. You’re too gorgeous, brilliant, and wonderful not to have the highest of standards.
Silas is an A-plus guy, but he’s still stuck on his ex, and neither of us wants that for you.
Not even for a vacation fling,” I say before Dante, one of Tate’s equally hot, but less complicated coaches pops into my mind.
“There are some single coaches who will lose their minds when they see you. We can scout the bench when we get to the game.”
She narrows a perfectly lined eye at me. “Are they also cowboys?”
“Probably.” I shrug. “There’s a rodeo at the festival tomorrow. We can cross-reference who rides while we’re there.”
She considers this for a second before giving in and extending her manicured hand. “Deal.”
We shake three times, kiss our thumbs, and smash them together like we have since middle school.
“Good, now that that’s settled, we have more pressing matters to discuss.
” I hold open the back door for her, and we kick off our shoes as soon as we step inside.
“Do you want to pregame for old times’ sake?
Ciara said she’d drive as long as you told her three mildly embarrassing childhood stories about me. ”
Considering I have about 4,972 horribly mortifying stories she could’ve asked for, this was an easy yes.
I would’ve told her anyway if she just asked.
This honestly worked out in my favor because I was able to negotiate the caveat that in return for my friend’s compliance, Ciara must agree to share at least one, but preferably two, adorable tales of the Jacobs children’s time in the rodeo circuit. Pictures were encouraged.
Tate rolled his eyes when he heard about our deal and not because he’s tight-lipped about how adorable he looked in his cowboy hat, but because since our night together, he answers any question I have.
He’s told me multiple stories about the time his horse almost stepped on him or when Silas got his second concussion in a month.
It’s just that when Tate relays his time as a junior cowboy, he states facts.
When Ciara tells us, she waxes poetic. He’s a great coach, but when it comes to his storytelling abilities, he lacks the same lyrical nuance his sister was just born with.
“We’re spending our night surrounded by teenagers. Of course I want to pregame.” She takes a seat on the kitchen stool she helped me pick out. “I am really excited to see a high school football game in Texas though. The Coach Taylor fan in me has been freaking out all week.”
I pull out the pitcher of pineapple margaritas I made under Millie’s close supervision. Apparently, the only beverage that Texans are as serious about as Dr Pepper are margaritas, which is something I can actually get behind.
“You’re going to love it.” I grab a glass from my pink cabinets that bring me as much joy now as the day I painted them. “It’s a whole production. Nothing like our games growing up.”
Nobody does Friday night lights like Texas. I can’t believe I went my entire high school experience without extravagant band performances for halftime, inflatable tunnels, and multiple sets of cheerleaders.
“I’m sure.” She takes the glass from my hand, and her eyes damn near roll to the back of her head after she takes her first sip. “Holy shit!”
“I know.” I try to muster up a kernel of decorum and not gulp mine down. “Fresh-squeezed pineapple juice and limes. Life changer.”
“You know what else is a life changer?” She leans forward and her smile softens.
It’s a familiar look, and my eyes mist over before she can tell me.
“You taking your happiness into your own hands. I know I thought this was crazy and impulsive, but you were right. I miss you like hell in Denver, and that will never change, but I’m so proud of you for fighting for yourself when it would’ve been just as easy to fold. ”
This is why I decided to wait until the very last minute to put on makeup. I’m a dry well of emotions unless it comes to her. She knows the precise way to knock me in my feels.
“You know how much I love hearing you say I’m right,” I say once I’ve blinked my tears away without letting a single one fall.
“But to be fair, now that I’ve been here for a while and I don’t see my home renovations coming to an end anytime soon, I have to agree that packing up and moving to a house sight unseen was not my most level-headed decision. ”
“Level-headed? Maybe not,” she says. “But go big or go home, you know?”
I do.
Because as I look around my house that’s already crammed with memories I’ve made with new—and now old—friends, I realize that when I moved to Celestial I might’ve gone big, but I also found home.
At least I hope so.