The red head beside her, who I’ve learned is Lainey Rhodes, pulls her against her chest, knocking the cowboy hat from Daisy’s head in the process.
Without thought, I reach down, pick it up and wait for the two of them to stop celebrating before I gently place it back on her head. She freezes for a moment before her entire body turns to me, and her brown eyes find mine.
“Thank you,” she murmurs quietly, so quietly I barely hear her above the roaring crowd around us, as she adjusts the hat.
“You’re welcome.” I expect her to turn back to Lainey and Bella, who despite her initial scepticism, seems to have really hit it off with the other woman, but she doesn’t. She keeps her attention locked on me, her gaze tracing every inch of my face in a look so intense I find myself fiddling with my own Stetson in a bid to find something to do with my hands.
Every second I spend around this woman, my heart and body war with one another. Every fibre of my being wants to reach out and touch her. To throw my arm over her shoulders and press my lips to her forehead. To breath in her signature caramel scent and beg her to never leave me again.
My eyes travel to her mouth. Her tongue flicks out to wet them, and I track the move. The air around us changes. It cracks and fizzles, the noise from the crowd fades into the background until it’s just me and her.
Fuck, I want to kiss her.
I want to kiss her so bad that my skin tingles, my body igniting from the inside out. An invisible force pulls me forward, urging me to just lean in. To take back everything I lost. To claim her as what she has been all along.
Mine.
But I can’t.
I can’t because even though she kissed me in the privacy of her living room, kissing her now, in front of everyone we know, is a decision that we can’t come back from.
So, I tuck my hands into my pockets and rock back on the balls of my feet like a fumbling boy who gets shy around the popular girl.
With determination in her eyes, Daisy takes a step forward, drawing closer despite my retreat. Her eyes fall to my lips, her mouth falls open on a breath and just as I think she’s about to say damn it all to hell and kiss me anyway, she’s pulled backwards by a manicured hand.
And just like that, the trance we had both fallen into is broken. The play button is hit, and everything comes screaming back to life around us.
I’m not sure if I’m grateful for the distraction or fucking pissed.
I’m gonna go with the latter.
“We’re going down to Cass,” Lainey informs her, completely oblivious to the daggers I’m currently shooting her way.
“We’ll come with you,” Noah says, overhearing Lainey. “I need to speak to Canyon about something, and I think a celebration is in order.”
Cass came out of the rodeo with one of the highest scores in bronc riding, securing himself a place in the championship three weeks from now, so it’s no surprise that Noah thinks that’s cause for celebration, but it still causes my jaw to tighten.
I’ve never met the Rhodes brothers, but I have heard of them. And knowing that they had Daisy working for them and even went as far as bragging about her to Noah, immediately puts them on my shit list.
Do they deserve to be on my list? No.
Are they on it anyway? Yup.
With a resigned sigh, I follow the three of them out of the stands and toward the exit.
Hunter, Savannah and Grayson didn’t come tonight. Hunter decided to stay home with a very pregnant Savannah, fully absorbing himself into the roll of family man. Grayson is pining over Liv, who is still in London. Leaving just me and Noah to tag along with my sister, my ex and her newest friend.
I fall back, a smile tugging the corners of my lips as the three women link arms and skip ahead, their alcohol induced giggles echoing in the empty alley. Noah falls into step beside me, nudging his elbow against mine.
“Should we link arms and start skipping?”
“Fuck off,” I respond, causing Noah to laugh.
“What was that back there?” He asks, ever the observer.
I play dumb. “What?”
“You and Daisy. Looked like you were having a moment.”
