I was sweating so hard. Never in my life had I been this nervous, and through it all, Ellie was smiling, trying to cover hermouth to hide the worst of her laughter. And somehow, that put me at ease.
“But there’s one man sitting here today that can tell you all about the plans for this spectacular event,” I said, grinning as I eyed Jeff. “Jeff Parker!”
Everyone turned in their seats, looking for Jeff, who was doing his best to sink into the floor. Finally, the heat was off me, and everyone would focus on him now.
“Come on, Jeff. Make your way to the stage!”
Reluctantly, Jeff stood and stomped his way up to me, scowling the whole time for tossing him in the middle of this disaster.
“Thanks, Ryder,” he said, slapping me hard on the back. “Well, I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Highland games, but it’s full of lots of athletic events, good food, and um…what are those things with the?—”
He mimicked playing an instrument.
“Bagpipes,” I clarified.
“Right. The idea, as of right now, consists of all of those things, but also pulling other towns in to compete as well. We figure that the first event will be fun and draw in a small crowd, but as word of the event gets out, we’ll pull in a much larger audience, and increase our visitation by…a very large number.”
“What about the cost?” one of the citizens called out.
I took over that one, knowing I was probably the only business in town that could afford to sponsor such an event. “Lawson Law will sponsor the first event.”
Mav stepped forward, taking over the mic from both Jeff and me. As I faded into the background, my heartbeat finally dropped to a normal pace, but the moment I looked at Ellie, it kicked right back into overdrive again.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from that gorgeous smile, and the longer I stood there watching her, the more I came to realize thatmy life would never be the same if I didn’t find a way to keep her in it.
Jeff leaned in and whispered, “Dude, you are so screwed.”
I didn’t know if he was talking about the Highland games or Ellie. But either way, he was absolutely right.
And I had to figure out how to deal with that if I had any hopes of surviving in this town.
31
ELLIE
Dabbingsome concealer over the biggest zit known to man, I sighed at my reflection. It wasn’t perfectly covered, but it would do the trick. At least the bar had dim lighting and would mostly conceal the atrocity.
Grabbing my phone and purse, I was about to walk out the door when I saw a waiting message on the dating app. Opening it, I should have been excited to see that my date was already at the bar, waiting for me. Instead, my shoulders deflated just a little.
I didn’t want to get out of the date. Not exactly. I was just disappointed it wasn’t Ryder.
“Get him out of your head, Ellie. He doesn’t want to date you.”
I took my time getting to the bar, even stalling for a minute outside, working up the nerve to go inside. I just wasn’t feeling it, but the only way to get over Ryder was to move on.
That’s what I told myself, anyway.
Tugging the door open, I strode inside with a smile on my face. Garret stood from his seat, walking over to shake my hand.
“Ellie. It’s nice to meet you.”
He leaned in, giving me a kiss on the cheek, which should have felt amazing, but instead, made me miss Ryder even more.
It’s not like Ryder ever approached me like that when we first met. Instead, he only talked about random things that didn’t mean a thing.
“Garret, right?”
“Yeah. Here, let me get your chair.”
