No, it feltreal.
That was my thought right up until I headed back toward the guys. When a hand grabbed my arm, I thought nothing of it. I simply offered a tipsy smile at the man I was sure had to be another bull rider - and stopped hard.
This cowboy was not one I knew. He was also bigger than the average bull rider, had his hat pulled down low, and his buckle did not have a bull on it.
"Hey, cutie," he tried. "My turn?"
"Nope," I said, turning away. "Sorry, my friends - "
But he pulled me back. "Hey!"
I turned around and braced up. "Get. Your. Hands. Off - "
"Her!" Jake snarled, appearing out of nowhere to put his body between this guy and me.
And then he shoved. Hard.
Chapter 47
I'd foundthe nicest place I knew of. Considering I'd grown up in this town, I knew it a little too well, so this place was fuckin'fancy.When we walked in wearing our country chic, they may have batted an eye at us, but no one in the restaurant dared to say anything.
Instead, they got us to our table with a lot of "gentlemens" thrown around. The first person to stop by asked for our wine choice. Now, I hadn't expected that, but I wasn't a real fan of the shit. When I asked for beer instead, Tanner agreed. The person with the fancy menu seemed a little confused, but not in a bad way.
Instead, we got to pick from a list of locally brewed ales, beers, and such. I found something nice and dark. Tanner got one that was light and sweet, just like him. Then, we had a little pause to decide on our meal.
"You know," Tanner said as he opened his menu to look through the food options, "there aren't any prices."
"It's a date," I reminded him.
Which earned me one of those smiles that made me feel fucking stupid. I didn't know what to say, so I didn't bother. Instead, I read through and picked out something that soundedboth good and new. When the waiter - a different person from the beer guy - stopped to check on us, Tanner said he was ready. I gestured to show he should order first.
"This one," Tanner said, pointing at the menu.
"Yes, sir," the waiter said, making a note. Then he went over the options for sides before turning to me. "And you?"
"Venison," I told him. "Haven't tried a lot of fancy food, but I wanna. So maybe help me get something good to go with it?"
"Rissoto," the waiter offered. "We also have a lovely potato dish that would complement the venison nicely."
"Sounds good," I agreed.
The man dipped his head. "Yes, sirs. And let me know if you two need anything else so I don't interrupt." The way he caught my eye made it clear he'd already figured out this was a date.
Ok, so he was getting a real fat tip. Not just because of that, but if he'd figured us out so fast, I had a feeling the service here was just as good as people said. Hopefully the food would match.
"So, you think Cody actually went out?" Tanner asked, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, because Jake will make sure of it," I told him. "I may have sent him a text when you were changing and told him she couldn't back out."
"Nice," Tanner said, pausing to sip his beer. "So how many people know about us now?"
All I could do was shrug. "Enough."
"Yeah," he mumbled.
"Is that a bad thing, babe?" I reached across the table to touch his wrist lightly. "You still good with this?"
"Yeah," he assured me, but the way his head was rocking around had a little bit of no in it as well. "Nervous, I guess?"
