one
HOLDEN
I’m not normally a honker. My mom raised me better than that. But sometimes on the DC beltway, when Joe Blow is meandering down the fast lane like he’s out for a Sunday drive, you gotta do it.
I pounded my hand into the center of the steering wheel, blaring my custom horn noise. “Moooooooo.” Nobody expected to hear an angry cow in the middle of rush hour traffic. Just a nod to my Dupree Ranch roots. Which was fitting, since that’s where I was headed.
Slow Poke rewarded me with the middle finger and a hard brake tap. An opening in traffic appeared to the right, and I sped around, putting him squarely in my rearview and out of my mind.
Just then, my car’s digital voice, which I’d brilliantly nicknamed Tessie, announced an incoming text in her silky, smooth tone, “Sullen Silverado said, ‘Seriously, tool? You didn’t think to tell me Christy was the new principal of Seddledowne High?’”
I snorted, annoyed at my brother Silas’s text. Because first ofall, I’d just been trying to think up a better nickname for him now that, according to our mother, landing his dream girl had turned his disposition perpetually smiley. Pshaw. Apparently, not today. And second, it was irritating that he thought I had some kind of pulse on his ex-fiancée, Christy, and her life plans. And third…just wow.
Christy had accepted a job in Seddledowne?
As a principal?
I mean, yeah, I’d known she interviewed for a job with the Seddledowne School District for an eighth-grade teacher position. I would’ve told him that if I’d thought there was any point. But I’d assumed that, when everything fell apart between the two of them, she’d headed straight back home to Laramie, Wyoming. Why poke the bear with useless information?
My stomach did a backflip at the realization that she was in my hometown, not two thousand miles away like I’d thought. My heart kicked into a trot.
Snuff it out, loser. She’s not for you.
I pressed the button on the steering wheel to reply. “Man, I honestly didn’t know. That’s crazy. Thought she went home weeks ago.” I held my breath as I flipped the blinker and merged onto I-66, headed west.
Christy was moving—no, it was the first day of school—she’d already moved…to my hometown? The question was why. She couldn’t actually think she had a chance of getting Silas back, could she? Then again, she didn’t know he and Lemon were already married. At least, I hadn’t told her. Maybe that’s exactly what she thought.
Jealousy growled like a beast in my throat.
Tessie again. I groaned. “Sullen Silverado said, ‘You didn’t discuss that in between all the face sucking?’”
“Whatever,” I muttered. It was one kiss, not a one-nightstand. And I’d written Christy off the minute Silas had caught her kissing me. Yeah.Shekissedme.
Had I kissed her back?
Yes. Because as my fourteen-year-old niece Anna liked to say, I’d caught feelings. A rare occurrence in my world and something I always steered away from. But when Christy—who is extremely attractive, and smells like berries and honey, I might add—had grabbed the back of my head and smashed her lips against mine, my primitive manly instincts took over and I “leaned into it” for a minute. Or fifteen. Sue me.
I laughed at my lawyer pun. But then I scowled. Because the minute Silas had arrived, Christy had steamrolled right over our situationship—as Anna called it—to get to him.
And that was that.
I’m pretty sure Silas thought The Christy Kiss had happened the other way around. That I’d put the moves onher.But I didn’t care. Christy had been through enough, so I’d quietly take one for the team.
You’re not a team, noob. And you need to stop thinking you are.
I shrugged at the shoulder angel trying to steer me in the right direction. Whatever. It didn’t matter. Besides, people had thought a lot worse things about me in the past. I was used to being the scapegoat. Pile it on.
Tessie once more. “Sullen Silverado said, ‘Would’ve been nice to know before they named me assistant principal. But once again, you weren’t thinking with your head, were you?’”
My fingers clamped down on the steering wheel. “Okay, d-bag.” Then I exhaled. Silas was just stressed right now. He didn’t usually act like this, I reminded myself.
Not sure how having Christy as his boss was my fault, but that’s what happens when you make out with your brother’s former fiancée. You get to be the bad guy for a while.
I clamped my jaw, determined to be the bigger man, and pressed the button to reply. “Just told you I didn’t know. Haven’t talked to her since the last time you saw her. Don’t care if you believe me. Congrats on the new job, though.”
Truth was, I couldn’t be mad at him for acting like a brat. I’d done him dirty, and I knew it. I was single for life. I knew that too. A confirmed bachelor, as my mom had called it ever since watching a particular Dr. Phil episode—even though I’d tried to tell her it wasn’t the sixties anymore and it didn’t mean what it used to. She said it as more of a joke anyway. She made it clear, always with a pat on my cheek, that my time was coming.
My family thought I played the field because I was on the hunt for a wife. It was easier to let them believe that. But I knew. Had known for years. Happily ever after was not in the cards for me.
