“So…what’s got you down?” Charlie asked, sliding into a seat beside me, nudging me with her shoulder.
I grunted, but the softest smile curved my lips upward. She and I had gotten close since Ryder joined the PBR team. Turns out, Charlie sucked at cooking, so I’d been giving her lessons… Well, that’s what she liked to call them. She’d just sit on the counter chatting away about any and everything that came to mind, while I cooked.
It worked though. I liked to cook, and she liked to talk. She didn’t hover or pester me like Cash, and I didn’t interrupt her stories. It was a win-win.
I shrugged, then thought of Cheyenne and how she’d called me out on that. Did I really shrug that much? I guess I did. I fought the urge to shrug again. “Nothin’,” I muttered.
Her head tilted to the side, her soft smile dipping into a scowl as she placed a hand on her hip. “You’re as bad at lying as Cash it at staying sober.”
“So basically, shit at it?” I offered lightly, a crooked smirk forming on my mouth.
“Yep.” She laughed, before sobering a moment later. “Seriously though, what’s going on?”
My gaze flicked to Cheyenne across the bar, talking animatedly to that same cowboy. Letting out a breath, I glanced back at Charlie. “I fucked up.”
Her brow furrowed. “How? With who?”
“With Cheyenne.” I drummed my fingers against the polished wood tabletop, trying and failing to keep from looking back at her. But I was little more than a moth drawn to a damn flame.
“Ah…you finally realized she was into you?” Charlie’s lips pulled up into a knowing smirk.
Had everyone known she was into me but me? Was I really that oblivious? I launched into an abbreviated retelling of what had happened between us outside, even going so far as to mention how she’d even said something to Cash about our conversation.
“I don’t even know what to do at this point,” I huffed, my shoulders curling up into a shrug.
Charlie pursed her lips before settling on a soft smile as she pressed a hand to my forearm. “Oh, Mav…. She wants you to chase after her. To talk to her. To play the game.”
“I ain’t good at games,” I admitted.
Clearly, Ashleigh had been playing games with me since we were kids and I still always lost in the end. Besides, I didn’twantto play games. I wanted…hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted.
Charlie squeezed my arm. “Then just go talk to her.”
“About what?”
She chuckled. “About anything. Her. You. Your interests. It doesn’t matter. Just…talk to her.”
Ryder returned just then, a bottle of water for Charlie in one hand and a beer in the other. “What’d I miss?”
“Mav was just saying how he was gonna go talk to Cheyenne.”
I speared her with a harsh glare, my mouth popping open. “No, I—”
Her lips curved into a challenging grin, even as Ryder clapped me on the shoulder. “Good on ya, man. It’s about damn time you noticed her.”
Seriously, had everyone known but me? Maybe Cheyenne was right. Iwasoblivious. That, or I’d just been so wrapped up in Ashleigh I hadn’t really been paying attention. My gaze settled on Cheyenne once more. Well, I was paying attention now.
A flicker of jealousy writhed within me as I watched her across the way. She laughed at something the guy said, but from the tightness in her smile, the way she sat turned away from him, how she’d stopped drinking her cocktail… I knew she wasn’t into him.
Was it bad of me that I wanted to go over there? That I wanted to be the one who made her laugh? Earlier today all I could think of was Ashleigh, and now here I was, jealous over a girl I didn’t even know?
Charlie nudged me once more, pulling my stare. “Go save her, Mav.”
“She don’t look like she needs savin’,” I muttered, some of my nerves getting the best of me.
What if she was still pissed at me? What if she was actually enjoying herself and didn’t want me to interrupt her?
What if…what if…what if, the little voice in my head mocked.
