Chapter 8
LUCY
“Colton, can I get you a beer? Tea? Water?” my mom asks, hurrying around the table on her crutches.
“Sweet tea would be great,” he says, taking a seat and taking his cowboy hat off. When he does, he looks at me and shoots me a quick wink. I feel myself blush at the gesture, remembering what he said last night. “I hit my two beer limit for the week last night at The Watering Hole.”
“Two beer limit?” I ask, sure the confusion is clear on my face.
“Yeah, apparently alcohol isn’t the best way to heal from a brain injury,” he says, running his fingers through his curly hair.
“Oh,” I whisper, putting together that Colton was Hayes’s friend who was hurt earlier this year. My heart pangs at the thought of him being so badly injured, but I push it aside to focus on what Mama is asking him.
“Goodness, Darling, I can’t believe I haven’t asked you yet. How are you feeling? You look great,” she tells him, and I have to admit she’s right. If I didn’t know he’d suffered a career ending injury just a few months ago, I would have never guessed that he had gone through something so traumatic.
“Wait, Lucy didn’t Mom say that you were at the Watering Hole too last night when she called you? Y'all probably saw each other and didn’t even know it,” Hayes says with a laugh.
Colton and I make eye contact before I laugh awkwardly, “Oh, yeah, probably.”
“So, Colton, tell me more about yourself,” my mom says, taking her usual seat at the table while Hayes and I grab the poppy seed chicken, rice, green beans, and rolls off the stove.
“Oh, well, to be honest, I came to Mills Corner looking for a fresh start. You all know that I had a little excitement about six months ago with the accident, so when Hayes told me about the place next door, I jumped on it. I’ve got some calls out on some animals I’ve had my eye on, and then I decided I’d figure the rest out when I got here,” he explains.
“And how’s that working out for you?” my mom asks.
“Well, we’ve had some ups and downs already, but I don’t have any regrets,” Colton says, looking directly at me.
I smile, understanding the double meaning of his words. Now that we know who the other is, the fling we had going probably can’t continue, but it feels good to know he doesn’t regret it.
We settle into a comfortable silence, the four of us filling our plates and eating quietly.
I try to keep my eyes from drifting over to stare at Colton, but God, it’s hard.
He’s by far the most attractive man I’ve ever seen, and just like last night, the sight of his mustache and cowboy hat has me feeling a little desperate for him.
My face flames a little at the reminder of what we almost did last night.
Truly, only I could get myself in this position.
In hindsight, I guess it seems a little obvious that he and Drake were the same person, but honestly, the idea never crossed my mind.
“So, Colton, I know you’ve spent a fair share of your time riding bulls, but that’s about all Hayesie here has told me about you,” my mom says, and Colton laughs.
“Oh, Hayesie, I’m hurt,” he starts to tease, causing my brother to groan.
“Really, Mom? I’ve told you for years to quit calling me that, and now this asshole is never going to let me hear the end of it,” my brother complains, and my mom shoots me a wink across the table.
I stifle a laugh, and Colton continues, “Well, Miss Philips, to be honest, the rodeo has been pretty much my whole life the last fifteen years. I started riding when I was a teenager, but my mom was adamant that I needed to finish college before I started trying to ride professionally. So, I got my degree in business from a small school close to our house in Tennessee, and the day I finished my degree I entered every qualifier I could find within a three-hundred-mile radius.”
“Oh, wow,” my mom says before asking, “so you were living in Tennessee before you moved here?”
Colton and Hayes both chuckle as Colton shakes his head.
“Nope, I became somewhat of a nomad for a while, living out of a camper and competing as much as I could. My parents divorced when I was a teenager, and about ten years ago, my mom decided to move off to California with her sister, so I’ve gotten used to being by myself. ”
“Oh, bless your heart,” Mom says, smiling at him before she takes a sip of her tea. “So how in the world did Hayes convince you to settle down here?”
“It didn’t take much. I’ve heard him talk about this place for years, and since I didn’t have anywhere I was tied to, it sounded like the next best move. So I spent the last few months recovering and selling off the camper before moving here. And minus the squirrels, I have no complaints."
While he continues to talk, he catches my eye a few times across the table, and I fight the urge to blush each time.
Come on, Lucy, stop acting like a little schoolgirl with a crush, and get it together.
You’re a grown woman. I remind myself, but feeling my cheeks continue to heat anyway.
By the time my mom goes to grab the cake out of the oven, I’m desperate for a moment to collect myself.
“I’ll be right back,” I say, pushing up from the table and walking to my bedroom. Blowing out a breath and throwing myself on the bed, I rub my eyes. Knox jumps on the bed with me, and I reach out to pat his head.
“God, Knox, how in the world did I get myself into this?” I ask him, but he just blinks at me before leaning in to lick my hand.
“Does he ever talk back?” a voice says, accompanied by a knock on my door. I nearly jump out of my skin in surprise at the sight of Colton standing in my doorway.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, as Knox gets up and leaves my side to go check him out. He sniffs him twice before his tail starts to wag, and he sits at Colton’s feet, waiting for pets. Traitor.
“So Drake,” I say, putting extra emphasis on the name he gave me. “Some mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, huh?”
“Okay, first of all, I’m sorry about that.
I was planning to tell you tomorrow night when I saw you.
But Drake is my middle name. So I swear it wasn’t a total lie.
After spending so long with the rodeo, I got used to the girls only wanting me for my money or to say we’d been together, and I just did it out of habit. Do you actually go by Lulu?”
“No, not really,” I admit. “Usually, it’s just my mom and Amelia every once in a while.
But Amelia convinced me to go out with her last night, and we’d joked that if we met any out-of-towners we’d give them our nicknames.
It sounds dumb now. Obviously, she didn’t really hold up her end of the deal, but it just slipped out. ”
Colton nods before stepping further into the room and leaning down to pet Knox.
“Listen, I don’t regret what we did last night.
I know it probably shouldn’t happen again, but I really enjoyed spending time with you.
But at the same time, Hayes is my closest friend, and I know he wouldn’t want an asshole like me anywhere near you.
And it’s obvious we’re going to be spending a good amount of time together over the next few months.
So, I’d still like to be friends. What do you say? ”
The word “friends” sounds like a dirty word coming out of his mouth, but I have to admit he’s right. Nodding, I tell him, “‘Friends’ sounds good to me,” adding air quotes around the word friends.
He smiles, straightening back to his full height, and the sight of him in my bedroom makes me realize just how tall this man is.
He’s got to be over six foot four, and I have the brief thought that I wonder if he’s as big everywhere else before I shake my head to free the thought.
That was not a friendly thought, Lucy, I remind myself, as Colton steps out of my room.
Clearly, this is off to a great start.
“God, Amelia,” I groan, collapsing onto her sofa the following night and reaching out for the large glass of wine she’s holding out for me. “My life is such a disaster.
“I’m gonna need a little more to go off here, babes,” she tells me, as we both curl up on our ends of the couch.
I take a long sip of my wine and try to figure out where to start before blurting out, “I almost had sex with my brother’s best friend, and now he’s living in my house.”
Amelia’s blue eyes widen in surprise, and we sit in silence for a minute before she says, “Okayy,” dragging out the sound, obviously deep in thought. “I’m gonna come back to the part about him living with you in a second, but first of all, I need details. How did this happen? Is he hot?”
I laugh, knowing Amelia is never going to let me hear the end of this. “Okay, so you know the guy I was with at The Watering Hole on Friday?”
My best friend blinks at me in confusion, and I blow out a sigh of frustration. “Right, of course you don’t. You were too wrapped up in that jerk.”
Amelia blushes and at least has the decency to look embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Lulu. I was drunk and sad, and it felt so good to be back in his arms for a little bit. I know it was dumb, and I never should have left you the way I did.”
“Yeah, I get it,” I mumble, not wanting to fight with her. “So are y’all back together?”
“I don’t think so. We were having such a fun night, and I thought we were great, but the next morning he texted me and said that he still isn’t ready to settle down.
He wants to stay friends while he works on himself, though,” Amelia says, and I feel a stab of frustration at the fact that my best friend continues to let herself be drug around by this guy that really doesn’t give two shits about her.
“Let me guess, he went out again last night, though, huh?” I ask, noticing that Amelia’s eyes are red. Clearly, she’d spent earlier today crying, and I brace myself for what’s coming next.