“I’m down,” Jess adds.
I look between my friends. I know they’re right. The four of us are all business and have not had the typical college experience. Kelsey was right; we were all so focused on getting straight A’s and doing everything necessary to extend our time at A&M that we spent more time in the library or getting field experience than anywhere else. It’s why I’m dressed way out of character in a short, body-hugging red dress and heels for the night. My normally dark hair has so many highlights running through it that I identify more as a blonde now.
I’m this far out of my comfort zone. I might as well jump all the way in.
“Okay, I’m in.”
“YES!” Avery and Kelsey squeal at the same time.
“I have names picked out for us…”
“Sex and the City, I’m assuming,” I giggle.
“Okay, well, now I’m rethinking it,” Kelsey pouts.
“Am I Samantha?”
“Yes.” She grins. “I’m Carrie, Jess is Miranda, and Avery is Charlotte.”
“Fine. So, what? I just go up to some random dude tonight and tell him my name is Samantha?”
“It’s fun, I swear,” Kelsey squeals excitedly.
Anytime Kelsey saysIt’s fun, I swear, it usually ends up being a blast but also gets us into trouble.
What could go wrong?
An hour later, the music thrums through the dimly lit bar, the bassline vibrating in my chest as I sip my margarita and glance around the room. The air smells like spilled beer, leather, and faintly of cheap cologne.
Reminds me of home.
“To future doctors!” Kelsey shouts, holding her shot glass high. Her blonde hair bounces as she beams at the rest of us.
“To future doctors!” we echo, clinking glasses and downing the shots. The tequila burns its way down my throat, but I welcome it, chasing it with a gulp of my margarita.
“We’re gonna kill it,” Avery says, grinning at me. “And by killing it, I mean save all the animals.”
“Hell yeah, we are,” I giggle. The pride swelling in my chest is almost enough to make me forget how exhausted I’ve been for the first four years of my college career. Almost.
We’re crowded around a high-top table near the bar, the four of us—me, Kelsey, Avery, and Jess. Jess is already scanning the room, her dark eyes sharp as she leans in toward us.
“Okay, we’re celebrating, which means we’re also flirting. Sutton, what about that guy over there?”
I follow her gaze and immediately roll my eyes. “Jess, he’s wearing cargo shorts.”
“Fair point,” she says, wrinkling her nose. “But what about… oh, wait. Oh my God. Look at the guy by the jukebox.”
I turn my head, and my breath catches. Standing by the old-school jukebox, scrolling through the selections, is a man who looks like he walked straight out of a cowboy calendar. Fitted jeans that hug his hips just right, a button-up shirt rolled to his elbows, and a well-worn Stetson that casts his face in shadow. But even from here, I can see the sharp line of his jaw and the way his shoulders fill out that shirt. He’s tall, broad, and every inch the kind of man who could make a girl forget her own name.
“He looks exactly like my childhood crush,” I breathe. “Wade Callahan.”
“Maybe it’s him,” Jess replies as she tries to nudge me forward.
“He doesn’t leave Hicks Creek. He’s probably still running his family’s ranch, just like he always said he would. There’s no reason for him to be in Texas, let alone this bar.”
But the resemblance is uncanny. The way he leans casually against the jukebox, his thumb hooked into his belt loop. The tilt of his head as he studies the song list. Even the way he shifts his weight like he’s ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.
“Sutton,” Jess says, her voice taking on a teasing lilt. “You’re drooling.”
