Chapter 28
LENNON
Curiosity pricked at me. What was their deal? And why did I genuinely care? Because I did care, that was the crazy thing. These people. The animals. This place. All of it mattered to me. The cowboys, Emma and Grace and Tamilee, Amos and Cecily.
Even Holly, somehow. I hated having enemies, but having a nemesis was fun as hell.
I had been here only a month and felt more connected to the people and place than I did after a full decade in New York.
That wasn’t New York’s fault. It was all me.
I had closed myself off. Never made any real friendships.
At Mercy River, I cracked myself open. Maybe it was the wide open vistas that made me feel brand new.
Or maybe it was because my stay here was temporary and therefore felt safer.
Who cared if people got to know me? I would be long gone before they could be done with me.
Or maybe it was the cowboy standing in front of me wearing a fuzzy green frog onesie and a scowl.
He kept showing up.
Even when showing up meant wearing a frog onesie.
I didn’t know what was more terrifying: that eventually he’d figure out I wasn’t worth it, or that I was starting to believe I actually was.
“Any chance you’re going to change your mind?” he asked.
“Nope. But listen, you don’t have to go out there with me.
Emma said she couldn’t remember a single time you had done a song.
Do you get stage fright?” The slightest twinge of guilt had taken hold.
Holly was his friend. More than that. They’d taken gunfire together. That was not a bond I wanted to break.
He rubbed his fuzzy green head. “Well, I don’t know. I’ve never been on a stage.”
“You don’t have to,” I repeated. “I can’t sing a note, but I think my outfit will make up for it.”
I twirled to give him the full picture. Cowboy boots and a ridiculous red cowboy hat that no real cowboy would ever wear.
I’d had to order it online. Cutoff denim shorts that barely covered the crease of my thigh.
A red plaid flannel that I’d borrowed from Jeremiah.
I’d tied it in a knot at my waist so an inch of skin showed above my shorts.
His gaze licked down my body like a flame. I felt hot everywhere. “You’re wearing my shirt.”
“It’s mine now,” I taunted.
He grabbed the knot and pulled me against him. His lips stopped an inch from my mouth. “Mine.”
His mouth descended before I could ask whether he meant the shirt or me.
He kissed me like he didn’t care who was watching—although no one was.
We were safely hidden behind the haybales stacked tall to provide a backdrop, since the lodge dining room didn’t have an actual stage.
I didn’t want anyone to see Jeremiah before our song.
Still, anyone could have walked around and found us.
I didn’t care, either. I didn’t care about secrets or revenge or stalkers. Jeremiah was kissing the fuck out of me, and nothing else mattered. Not even besting Holly.
“You really don’t have to,” I whispered as he pulled away.
His lips quirked. He rubbed his nose along mine. “Sure I do.”
“I meant you don’t have to do the song with me.”
“I know what you meant.”
I leaned back so I could fully look him in the face.
“Why? You and I both know that this is supremely silly. All of it. My feud with Holly—although I want it on record that she started it—and what I’m about to make you do.
A grown ass woman shouldn’t be behaving like this.
I don’t know why it matters so much to me. ”
“It matters to you. That’s enough for me.”
“Don’t you think you should be the voice of reason here?”
He laughed. “I already tried that. It didn’t work. So, okay. I’m in.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. “All right. You really don’t have to do much for this to work. You’re out here wearing a green frog onesie. That’s enough to blow their minds. Just stand there and look cute, okay?”
He smirked. “Let’s do this.”