1. Lips Now, Logic Later #2
Ash suddenly appeared at the edge of our conversation, leaving his bride behind, like he sensed trouble. I watched his expression go from curious to granite in about half a second; no love lost between the Brewster family and the ranch.
“I don’t recall your name on my wedding invitations,” Ash shouted, his voice carrying his usual authority, the one he used effectively as foreman of the ranch.
He glanced at his men; some ex-military communication passed between them that didn’t require words.
Knox straightened by our side, and the ranch hands, too, all standing on alert, ready to protect me at his command if needed.
Somehow over the past couple of years, the Wylde sisters and the men of the Off-Duty Rescue Ranch had become like a family. Like we had several brothers to watch over us. And if ever there was a day to show it…
As if working in a pack, in unison, they all took a few steps closer to Seth.
His face shifted, and he held up both hands in a mocking gesture of surrender. At least he was smart enough to know he was outnumbered. “Whoa. Only came here for a beer. Not looking for trouble.”
“This is a private function,” Smitty, the club owner, yelled from behind the bar.
“Fine. I’m only in town to pay my respects to Dad now that I’m paroled. Don’t plan to stay in this shit hole any longer than I have to,” Seth conceded and scowled at me, giving me one last glance over his shoulder before the door swung shut behind him.
Ash nodded at the guys, as if giving an order to stand down, and it was over. Everyone exhaled. He went back to dancing with Willow and Ro. The guys returned to their beers at the bar, and the Sapphire kept right on humming like nothing had happened.
“You okay now?” Colt asked, leaning toward my ear from behind.
Shaking head to toe, I could only pray Seth was telling the truth and getting the hell out of here. I needed air and to clear my head before the facade I’d built over the last few years crumbled like tissue paper.
Colt found me ten minutes later in the storage room behind the bar. I needed a minute to breathe without an audience, and this was the only door that didn’t lead outside in case Seth might still be lingering somewhere.
I sat on an overturned crate between shelves of liquor bottles, my hands pressed flat against my thighs to stop them from trembling. The bass from the music pulsed through the wall behind me. The room smelled like old wood and spilled bourbon. I swallowed deep breaths trying to calm down.
Colt had quietly entered and leaned against the doorframe with his thumbs in belt loops. The steadiness in his face was so complete that it actually made my throat ache. He’d followed me, worried about me, like a good friend would.
“He’s gone. Left on his bike. Knox watched him head down the road.”
I exhaled and released all the tension in my shoulders. “Thank you. And I’m sorry. For the… the kiss. That wasn’t fair to you.”
“I’m not complaining.” He crossed his arms and studied me with those quiet blue-green eyes. “You want to tell me what that was about?”
I owed him that much. The least I could do was give him the truth, or the version of it I was willing to say out loud.
“Seth and I were together once. Things were bad. I’d wanted out for some time, and finally got it when he ended up in prison.
I was able to come back here and start over.
With him put away, I thought that was the end of it.
But now he’s out on parole?” I shook my head.
The rest of it was still tangled up in my chest. His father must have used his influence as a congressman to see his son got out early was my suspicion.
Colt stayed quiet for a moment. He didn’t push or offer sympathy or advice or any of the things people said when they didn’t know what else to do.
“I panicked. He was walking toward me, and I needed him to think I wasn’t alone. If I were with someone, maybe he’d leave me be. You were the nearest person who—” I stopped.
That wasn’t the whole truth either. Colt hadn’t been the nearest person. He’d been the one person I’d walked straight to, past a dozen other options, because something in me had known he was the one who’d make me feel safe. But I wasn’t ready to say that.
I wasn’t in the right place to do relationships right now. I didn’t trust myself with them, not after Seth, and the years of bad choices with men that had nearly swallowed me whole.
“The nearest person who looked like he could handle a kiss like that?” Colt offered, eyebrow cocked, and the faintest trace of humor crossed his face.
A humorless laugh escaped me. “The nearest who was a friend I could count on.”
“Friend. Got it.” He nodded once, like he was filing the entire story away in some organized place in his mind where he kept things that mattered. “Look, Wylde, if that situation ever comes up again, you don’t have to explain. As your friend, I’ll be there for you.”
The words landed somewhere behind my sternum, warm and unexpected. I looked down at my hands. They’d stopped shaking at least. “I hate dragging anyone into my mess.”
“I don’t get dragged anywhere I don’t want to go.” He pushed off the doorframe and held his hand out. “Come on. It’s a wedding. If you sit in here much longer, your sisters are going to come looking for you, and then I’ll have to explain why I’m alone in a closet with you.”
I chuckled at how right he was and took his hand.
His grip was firm and warm and calloused in the right places, and he pulled me to my feet with an easy strength that didn’t need to show off.
We stood there for a beat, our breaths mingling closer than friends should, his hand still wrapped around mine.
If I kissed him again right now, in this room with no audience and no ex-boyfriend to perform for, it would feel different.
I cleared my throat and let go of his hand. I smoothed my skirt and hair. “How about a friendly little dance or two?”
“I can handle that.” He opened the door and held it for me, and we walked back into the noise and the light and the celebration like nothing had shifted between us at all.
In my mind, something had. I could still feel the ghost of his mouth on my lips. My skin still tingled where he’d touched. If we weren’t friends, we could be unmistakably more. But as we danced, I turned my face before I could give any of these thoughts away.
I didn’t trust myself with love anymore. I was building a new life in Forest Grove, brick by careful brick, and I would not let a panic kiss with Colt in a honky-tonk bar undo any of it.
Even if it had been the best kiss of my recent years.