Even though Copper Mule is as familiar as the ranch, I’ve learned through trial and error that alcohol can increase my anxiety. Clint, the bartender, learned how to make Italian cream sodas a few years ago, so I can have some fun drinks when I’m out with friends.
Shiloh, Cillian, Clayton, and a few of the workers from Cillian and Clayton’s dad’s place, Reclamation Ranch, fill in the tables or play pool along with some of the locals in town. Shiloh catches me up on her latest dating fiasco, and I try my best to pay attention. Really, I do, but I can feel Addison’s watchful gaze on me.
It’s distracting.
I find myself fixating on whether the way I say things sounds cute or if my lips look funny when I talk. I’m keenly aware of the way this dress hugs my breast, and I wonder if she thinks I’m pretty. Obviously, she did at one point, but does she think I am now?
Every time I get the nerve to glance over at her, she’s already looking back. One time, she had just taken a sip of her old fashioned, and she held my gaze as she slowly licked the remnants of the alcohol from her lips.
I swear, Clint turned the heater on at that exact moment.
“What’s new with you, Juni?” Shiloh asks, bringing my attention back to her. “Any hot new escapades?”
“None as of late. You know how it is right before we open. So much to do, so little time.”
Shiloh rolls her eyes, flipping her dark hair over one shoulder. “So, you’re telling me you haven’t hooked up with the hot blonde who won’t stop staring at you?”
“Shiloh,” I say, my face heating. I hope Addison didn’t hear her.
Clayton perks up. “Oooh, Juniper’s banging an employee?”
“No!Well… not again. But she wasn’t an employee when we did.”
Shiloh’s jaw drops. She leans forward and whispers, “Tell meeverything.”
God, I look over at Clayton, my eyes wide, silently pleading for him to stick up for me. I should know it’s in vain; he loves gossip more than the ladies down at the salon in town.
I turn to Cillian, Bea’s brother. “Did Daddy already get you on the schedule this summer?”
“Yep. But talking about that isn’t going to stop Shy from interrogating you, so you’d better tell her now.”
Damn him.
Shiloh taps her wrist like she’s tapping a watch.The clock is ticking.
“Ugh. Fine. Remember when I went to visit Briar in Vegas a few years ago, and I told you I went to the rodeo and had my first and only one-night stand?”
Shiloh gasps loudly, garnering the attention of a few tables next to us.
Addison’s included.
“The woman you told us made you wonder if you’ve ever orgasmed before? It’s her, isn’t it? Ooo, Juni’s getting a little messy this summer. I like it.” Shiloh holds her fist out for a bump that I ignore.
“No.Well… yes.” I did tell her that, didn’t I? I wasn’t inexperienced when I met Addison the first time, but the things she did to me… I’d never experienced pleasure quite like that, and it made me think I hadn’t truly felt the full force of an orgasm before. “It’s her. I was plum shocked when she sauntered into the office the first day.”
“And you two aren’t going to fuck again?” Cillian asks. “Seems like that has the makings of a good summer fling.”
I slap his shoulder. “I don’t fuck employees. Besides, she made it clear the day she arrived that she doesn’t want to remember me. We’re pretending nothing ever happened.”
They all give me varying degrees of pitying looks. I don’t want them to feel sorry for me.
Shiloh breaks the silence, “Do you want me to kick her ass? Oh! Or you can flirt with Cillian. Make her jealous.”
Cillian shoots her a glare.
“Or not. Jesus. Who peed in your Wheaties today?”
I don’t know why, but that makes me giggle, which makes Shiloh giggle, and pretty soon our little table is in fits over nothing, the conversation about Addison forgotten as we move on to other topics.
