A brow rose over Gigi’s eyes.“Negotiate?”
She shouldn’t have used that word.“Yes, they wanted tounderstand how the whole Scott incident changed things.Originally, Garrett wasgoing to stay at the motel and Keane was going to be in the bunkhouse.”
“I thought they lived together,” Miranda said.“A lot of menlike that don’t like being apart.You should know that.Your papa would neverwant to be apart from your dad.Mine don’t even have sex with each other butthey still sleep in the same bed.Even when my mom’s not around.”
“I didn’t think about that at the time.I was mean to them.I didn’t mean to be, but it happened.”She would be lucky if they weren’t goneby the time she got home.She thought about calling them, but she didn’t havetheir numbers.“I know it was wrong.”
“Which part?”Miranda asked.
All of them, but Olivia focused on one.“I shouldn’t haveasked them to help me.I know a bit about them now.They’ve been through a lot,and I shouldn’t blow through their lives and cause more damage.”
“Why do you think you would cause damage?”Miranda’s eyeswent distinctly sympathetic.“Olivia, you don’t cause damage.You’re a bornprotector.You’re the one people come to when they need help.Why would you saythat?”
She didn’t know.Her parents loved her.She didn’t have alot to worry about, and yet there was part of her that worried she wasn’tworthy of the kind of love her parents had found.Her brothers had found.“I’venever had anything that worked out.”
“Livie, you have.Bobby worked out,” Gigi said with surety.“Not in the way you wanted, but he’s going to be there for you for the rest ofyour life.I know the whole thing with Scott cost you a lot, but you can’t letthat hold you back.Or is this more about Bobby?”
“It’s not.I’m at peace with where Bobby and I are.Ithought I was over Scott.Not himself.I’m one hundred percent over thatasshole.I’m talking about what he did to me.What the guy from high school didto me.I’ve got a great family, but it feels like the minute I’m out of theinsular world Dad and the uncles built for us, everyone thinks I’m nothing morethan a walking bank account and access to power.Bobby is the only one who everreally saw me.”
“My brothers do not care about your bank account,” Mirandapointed out.
Olivia snorted.“They care about humping every woman inColorado.”She sighed and stared at her friend for a moment.“Miranda, do youhonestly think they’re ready to settle down?”
“No, but I want you for my sister-in-law,” Miranda repliedwith a pout.“They hang out with the bitchiest women.”
“Because they’re not ready to settle down, and they wouldn’tbring home a woman who isn’t nice,” Gigi pointed out.“It’s like a fail-safefor them.So the question becomes are you going to go back and negotiate withyour guys?”
They weren’t her guys.
But they could be.For a little while.
She picked up her margarita.Maybe tequila would help herthink.
Chapter Seven
Keane stared up at the bright neon light thatproclaimed this space to be The Barn.And it looked a lot like one except therewas rocking music coming out of it and a whole bunch of people partying inside.
“Do you want to set a pickup time, boys?”Gwen had the frontwindow of the station wagon down, and sure enough his old friend Muffin waslooking out beside her.The dog had switched to her lap after he got out of thecar.“My business closes down at eight.Muffin needs her beauty sleep.”
Garrett looked around the parking lot and then walked off,leaving him to hand Gwen a twenty-dollar bill.
He wasn’t sure how Muffin was alive.This time around he andGarrett had gotten a long recitation of everything that was wrong with thatdog.
Anxiety, bad knees, perpetual weird sneezes, terriblebreath, and whatever made her eyes so bugged out.
But he kind of liked that she liked him.Maybe it wouldn’tbe terrible to have a dog.A working dog.A shepherd or a retriever.
And he also kind of liked Gwen.She was weird.He likedweird.Huh.It was funny that he spent so much time trying to survive and thentrying to keep his job and please everyone around him so he didn’t fuck thingsup for Garrett, that he had never considered what he liked outside of sex andfood.
He liked dogs and weird people.“Ms.Gwen, we’ll make ourway from here.I think Garrett already found what we’re looking for.”
They were looking for the vehicle their pretty princess hadsped away in.
“It’s the same SUV from the security footage.”Garrettjogged up.“She’s still here.I checked the plate and it matches.”
It had been hours since Olivia walked out on them, and Keanewas equal parts ready to leave and ready to spank her ass silly and explain whyshe was never going to do that again.
She ran.She’d been on the edge of agreeing to Garrett’sproposal but she’d run, and wasn’t that interesting.
