My stomach drops. Not just because of what’s about to happen, but because I’m still soaking wet, my clothes clinging to all the wrong places, the McCoy brothers’ eyes burning into me.
“Oh, no,” I breathe.
“What?” Jesse asks, stepping closer.
That’s when we all see Mrs. Delaney, bearing down on us in her bright pink golf cart with her phone held high like she’s documenting a wildlife expedition. She pulls right up into the McCoy’s driveway like she lives there.
“Smile, everyone!” she calls out cheerfully. “This is going straight to Facebook!”
The camera clicks rapidly as she snaps photos from every angle: water still dripping down my chest, Jesse standing close enough that we look intimate, Wyatt glowering with that dark intensity that makes my pulse race, Boone waving like he’s in a parade while trying not to stare at my transparent shirt.
“Mrs. Delaney,” I start, but she’s already typing furiously on her phone.
“This is perfect,” she says without looking up. “Absolutely perfect. ‘Thompson girl caught red-handed on McCoy property.’ No, wait. ‘Secret rendezvous at water trough.’ Even better: ‘Sleeping with the enemy?’”
The phrase “sleeping with” combined with the way all three brothers are looking at me makes heat flood my face. And other places.
My phone pings. Then pings again. And again.
“No, no, no,” I mutter, pulling out my phone to see notification after notification flooding my screen.
Cedar Ridge Community Facebook Group:
Mrs. Delaney has posted a new photo.
Cedar Ridge Community Facebook Group:
Mrs. Delaney has added you to a post.
I click on the first notification and immediately want to throw my phone into the dirty trough I just pulled Rita out of.
In the post, I am in living color, soaking wet and practically indecent, standing next to Jesse McCoy with water dripping from my hair and his hand clearly visible near my face. The photo captured the exact moment his thumb brushed my lip, and the expression on my face is pure, undisguised want.
The caption reads:
Young love blooms where you least expect it!
#EnemiesToLovers
#SmallTownRomance
#TeamThompson
#TeamMcCoy
Then the comments pour in:
I KNEW IT!
About time those families made peace!
She’s too good for any McCoy.
Plot twist of the century!
Someone call the newspaper!
Look at the way she’s looking at him!!!
