“Real life,” Logan finally says in a voice so low I have to strain to hear him.
“Fascinating,” Mama says. “What about you, Mace?”
I reach over and grab the microphone out of my mother’s hand.
“My pillar would be acceptance, flaws and all.”
“And a peril?” Mama asks.
I swallow. “Logan said it very well. I feel the same as him.”
I turn to Logan and whisper, “I think we’ve done our duty here. Meet me outside.”
I walk through the crowd and grab the bag of clothes off my chair that Ginny packed for me. And then I keep walking, past the tables of staring eyes.
As I exit The Cowherd, the warm night air hits my skin.
I stop on the front porch of the bar to wait for Logan, but when I hear my father calling for me, I take off down Main Street.
I’m not exactly dressed for a night stroll, but I’ve got a tank top and cut-offs in my bag. I just have to find a place to change.
11
Logan
* * *
Macey disappears out the door of The Cowherd in a cloud of dust.
I drop the mic onto the bar and make for the door. But Macey’s father grabs me and tries to get me to stay.
By the time I politely tell him goodnight, George is offering the crowd a round of free half-shots.
Getting around everyone pushing up to the bar is like trying to step through a moving herd of cows. It takes forever. When I reach the outdoor porch of the saloon, Macey’s disappeared.
I take off my jacket and sling it over my shoulder. Macey’s on foot, and I know exactly where she’s going.
I turn around and head for Wild Ranch to get my truck.
I find Macey walking down Main. She looks like she had some sort of shoe mishap because she’s carrying her heels in one hand, and her feet are bare. My breath catches in my throat as I watch her traipse down the dirt path next to the road. Her dress is so unruly she’s going twice as slowly as she normally would. I cut the truck engine and roll along quietly until I’m alongside her.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but if you’re looking for sex, you went the wrong way.”
Macey screams. “Shit, Logan, you freaking scared me!”
I laugh and lean across the front seat to open the passenger door. “Slide in.”
She climbs up into the truck and drops her shoes on the floor. “God, these fucking heels. This is why I never dress up. And I can’t breathe in this damn corset.”
I put the truck in park. “I can help you with that, you know.”
My gaze locks with hers, and she inhales sharply.
And I know in that moment—Macey’s back. I lost her for a little bit at the bar, but she’s here now. She’s with me, and nobody else is around, and I’m not letting her go again tonight. Not until dawn when we’ll go our separate ways. But that means I’ve got about—I glance over at the clock on the dash—seven hours to make good on my promise to her. My pulse quickens, and I swallow hard.
“Logan…” she begins in a halting tone. “Do you think we’re hard to handle?”
“Yep. But if we were easy, we wouldn’t be us.” I touch her warm cheek with my hand. “And I want you exactly how you are.”
