“Should I? Ezra was just a guy. There are a million more of them to choose from.”
And honestly, I know I can do way better. He was fun, I guess. At least at the start. I may only be twenty-one, but I knowI don’t deserve to be with a guy who wants to change me. The first time he complained about the horse hair on my shirt, he started losing his shine.
“Ooooor, maybe you just realized that Rowe didn’t care whether you dated Ezra or not, so you decided to cut him loose,” Lacey suggests, her words slurring into one another.
I whip my head to the side and glare, hoping it burns her face. “Ouch. You’re lucky you’re drunk enough that I won’t hold that against you tomorrow.”
“You know it’s true. I’m not judging you, girl. It’s the oldest trick in the book.”
I dig my teeth into my cheek, tugging at the skin. “Do you think he knows that’s what I was doing?”
“Rowe?”
“Yeah.”
Lacey hums and haws for a minute before shaking her head. “I doubt it. Guys are dumb.”
“They are, but Rowe’s not like every other guy. He’s . . . different.”
“Are you admitting that you have a crush on him?”
I roll my eyes and straighten my shoulders, trying to brush it off like it means nothing. In reality, it means too much. My feelings are growing too fast. I can’t even be alone with him anymore without wanting to say fuck it and kiss him just to see if he’ll push me away or pull me closer. Clearly, I haven’t done that yet.
He hasn’t given me any sort of hint as to how he felt toward me, so I opted to try and force his hand. I went out on more dates, cut my shorts shorter, and even tried putting more makeup on because I’d heard him tell my brother that he thought one of the girls at the rodeo was hot. She had red lipstick on, so obviously, I went out and bought three different shades ofit. He didn’t even look at my lips once when I wore it, so I threw them all into a dumpster.
Ezra was a Hail Mary. And turns out, he didn’t give a shit about him either. I should have taken that as a clear answer, but then I saw himstaringat my stomach last week. I’d just ordered a few new shirts online, and Ash, being an idiot, shrunk them in the dryer, so they didn’t fall past my belly button anymore. I hadn’t thought much of it when I showed up at the ranch wearing a black one, but then I’d felt eyes on me, and sure as shit, there Rowe was.
Sitting atop Diesel, he held himself with perfect posture, staring hard at my bared stomach. For a solid two minutes, he just looked at me. Then, I cleared my throat and forced his attention to snap upward. I’ve never felt more beautiful than right then, which means something, considering I know I’m an attractive person.
That tiny glimmer of attention made my interest that much stronger, and I’ve been chasing that same high every day since. I have an entire drawer of crop tops to prove it.
“You have loose lips when you’re drinking. I’m not admitting shit to you right now,” I say, closing that door.
Lacey huffs heavily and pokes my cheek. “That’s rude. I’m supposed to be your friend.”
“And you are. I went to the bathroom with you, even though I didn’t have to go. That’s something only a friend would do.”
“You know, for a while, I thought you were into Shade,” she admits with a loud hiccup.
I pause, twisting my mouth on instinct. My nose crinkles high on my face while I blink three times in quick succession. “Shade? Like, the guy who just tattooed hisownname onto his fingers?”
“Okay, so clearly, I waswayoff.”
In all fairness, Shade and Lacey know each other only because we kind of force them to. They aren’t close by any means, and that’s just fine with all of us. Shade is what I assume the very opposite of Lacey’s type is, in every way possible.
When we approach the campsite, I slow our steps, not wanting any of the guys to hear what we’re talking about. They’d never let us live this shit down, and I don’t need to give them any more reason to think they’re cooler than they are. We still have the rest of summer together to suffer through.
I spin in front of Lacey and grip her by the shoulders. Her eyes strain to hold my stare as she grins loopily. “We’re never mentioning this again, right?”
“You got it,” she agrees.
“Alright. Let’s go back and get you some water.”
Smoothing my hands down the wrinkled sleeves of her shirt, I nod one last time. We fall into step together again as we work our way back to the site. It’s quieter than it was when we left, even with Lacey’s music playing in her hand.
A foreboding sensation trickles up my neck the closer we get, and once we step through the throng of trees, it transforms into a tight squeeze around my nape. The chairs are empty, but the fire is still blazing. I do a slow circle before taking a few steps back onto the road. There’s a set of headlights up ahead that I didn’t notice before.
“Where did they go?” Lacey asks.
