“You liar. Why are you lying to me, of all people? The man rescues you from a ditch, pays for your rental car repairs, and has already kissed you.Youhave a cowboy. You’re a cowboy magnet! And why isn’t your magnet in bed next to you? Why are you talking to me instead of riding him until the break of dawn?”
“Wyn,” I mumbled, my cheeks flaming.
“Ah, there’s my girl.” She chuckled.
“To answer your question, he’s in his room and I’m in mine because I needed to clear my head. And he didn’t like the idea of me staying at the new apartment until he can put in a security system and change the locks.”
She frowned. “Wait, what apartment?”
“Oh, right. I hadn’t gotten to that part of my day yet.” I sighed. “You know the empty storefront next to Sweet Teeth?”
“Yeah . . .”
“Lucy owns it and there’s a vacant apartment above it. And guess what? She got together with Muddy and furnished it for me. So now I have a place to crash while I’m in town.”
“That’s . . . kismet.”
“Or convenient,” I quipped.
“They’re trying to convince you to stay,” she stated. “They’re removing every roadblock, so you stay there, leave me alone in New York, and go on to live your happily-ever-after life with your new cowboy.”
“It seems that way, yes,” I agreed. “But I’m not sure what I’d even do here.”
“Poet,” she said quietly. “You know what you want to do. You’re just too afraid to finalize the decision.”
“Uh.Ouch.”
“Come on, the writing is on the wall,” she said. “You know it. I know it. I hope you just admit it by the time Hadley and Salem get back into town.”
“You expect me to have a new life plan by then?”
“Yes. I do.”
“I can’t move here,” I protested.
“Why not?”
“People don’t just decide to move across the country, away from everything they’ve ever known.”
“Sure they do. Your life wasn’t working in New York. You suffered through because you had a job. Now you have no job. You stayed because you had friends. Well, Salem and Hadley left. I’m the only one still here. And your grandfather is across an ocean spending the semester in England on sabbatical. He’s living his life.”
“And I’m not living mine. That’s what you’re saying.”
“What’s got you scared, Poet?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?” I sighed. “I’m scared of everything.”
“The guy, too? Is it because he’s an . . .”
“Ex-con,” I finished for her. “And no. That, oddly enough, isn’t what terrifies me. I’ve never felt this way about someone. He makes me . . . I’ve only just met him. But I wouldn’t be moving here for him.”
“Maybe not, but it sounds like it would be hard not to factor him in, at least. The potential of a relationship? Two of your three best friends in one place?”
“It’s all gonna change.”
She laughed. “You’re funny.”
“What?”
