I nod. “When were you going to tell me about New York?”
He takes my arm as I turn away for the taps. “Mace.”
I snap my head back to him. “What? What do you want me to say? That as you fly over Darcy you can wave good-bye to me? Or maybe as you fly over the cow pasture where we made lo—”
Fuck.I cannot believe how far I just took that.
Free and Blake are staring at us, and I have to blink back my sudden tears.
Logan bends his head so he can whisper into my ear, so quietly nobody else could possibly overhear. “Please don’t get emotional. It’s just…temporary. Nothing’s gonna change.”
I lift my head so I can meet his eyes. “Are you really that naïve, or are you just getting that good at lying to yourself? Gigi Phillips willneverbe able to exist in Darcy, Texas. And the sooner you admit that, the better.”
I flip my hand in the air to make my point, but Logan grabs my wrist. I try to pull it away, but he holds on as his gaze fixes on Jamie’s commitment ring.
“What’s this?” He looks down at the fake diamond and then back at my face.
I recognize the flash of panic in his eyes, panic he tries to push away, and I have half a mind to tell him the diamond is real. Instead, I pull my hand away.
“Just a little commitment ring. From Wal-Mart. No big deal.”
“Commitment to what? To marry him?”
“Nooo.” I purse my lips. “You know I’m not the marrying kind. Not unless I’m drunk and in Nevada.”
Logan exhales. “So who is he? When did you start seeing him?”
“Just recently.”
He grabs my wrist again and looks the ring over. “So this is a replacement? For the ruby one?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The hotness in my neck moves up to my cheeks. “No. Not even close.”
Logan’s eyes hook into mine, and he says in a tone I have to strain to hear, “Macey, you don’t understand. I wish I could tell you more. But please don’t…”
“Logan!” Daddy leans over the bar toward us. “Look up at the news, son!”
The local newscaster is standing in front of a fake backdrop of an old English countryside. The book jacket ofPride and Prejudicedominates the corner of the screen.
“Gigi Phillips as Darcy’s heroine is a very romantic tale,” the newscaster says. “She was swept off her feet in the deserts of West Texas by our town’s Mr. Darcy, the dashing, ruggedly handsome, extremely witty…”
I elbow Logan in the side.
“Mr. Logan Wild. Logan is the youngest of four sons of Hank and Brenda Wild, who run Wild Ranch in Darcy. Logan, sometimes affectionately called Little Lo by his older brothers, fell hard and fast for the blond New Yorker, and one only has to look at her…” Here comes Gigi’s big head again on the screen. “To see why. The girl is gorgeous!”
Loud screams from the booth across the bar can only be a match to Gigi and her two sisters.
“However, while the Gigi and Logan pairing may be the most Hollywood story out there,” the newscaster continues, “The Ginny Rattles and David Lucas pairing is a local favorite.” The TV suddenly shows my face on the screen. “Macey Henwood, manager for The Cowherd Whiskey Saloon & Chapel, is firmly on Team Ginny and Dave and is heavily involved in the planning process of their wedding. We think of this as an extra touch of good luck. Macey, with her office in the liquor room where the jail cell sits, has closest tabs on Jane Austen’s ghost, and her opinion may be the most important one of all.”
The whole bar cheers as the broadcast mercifully comes to an end.
Skip takes a seat on the barstool closest to me, and I glance behind him as Jon positions his camera on Gigi’s sisters.
“Hi Skip,” I say with forced friendliness. “How are you?”
“This last week has been the greatest of my life. Such rich history here in Darcy. I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
