Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Of course not. I love dirt.”
“It’s not dirt, really.” She frowns. “It’s more me. It turned out to be my problem, not theirs.”
“Okay…”
“In high school, the four youngest Steel girls—Angie, Sage, Brianna, and Gina—were known as the awesome foursome.”
I chuckle. “Angie mentioned that nickname.”
She nods. “Yeah. Well, awesome they were, of course. And then you have to know that I’m the youngest of three amazing older siblings. Jesse is the only guy, the one who’s married to Brianna, and he’s an incredible musician. Then Rory, my oldest sister—married to Brock—also a fantastic singer, is widely considered to be the most beautiful woman in Snow Creek. She and Jesse are in a band together. Dragonlock.”
I scratch my chin. “I see where this is going. I have a ridiculously talented older sister too.”
She holds up a finger. “There’s more. My other sister, Callie, is a freaking genius. She’s in law school, and she’s married to Angie’s cousin Donny.”
“You’re married to a Steel too,” I remind her.
“Right. But I’m talking about before all that.”
“Okay. Go on.”
She draws in a breath. “Mmm… I love the smell of vintage.” She pauses. “Anyway, my family bought a ranch adjacent to the Steel property years ago. We were all in elementary school. I’m the same age as the four youngest Steel girls, so we became friends. The five of us hung out quite a bit. But I felt left out a lot. Like they’d forget to include me. I don’t think they did it on purpose, but they’re all family, and I’m not. I wasn’t then, anyway.”
“Did you talk to them about it?”
“No. Not until recently. Bree felt terrible about it, and she ended up inviting me to go to Europe with her along with Jesse and Rory’s band. So I went, and things got better after that.” She beams. “And that’s where Dave and I fell in love, too.”
“Wow.” I widen my eyes. “To fall in love overseas… That’s the stuff romance novels are made of.”
She laughs at that. “I know. I’d crushed on him forever, too. I honestly never thought he knew I was alive. Dave was a huge womanizer, and I figured I was just a fling for him.”
I nod.
Boy, can I relate, but I don’t say so.
Am I just a fling for Henry?
I’m not even sure I was a fling. I was a quickie in a barn. A fling implies some sort of emotional element, shallow as it may be. Henry made it clear that he doesn’t give a flying fuck about me.
It was a fuck. Nothing more, nothing less.
And I’d do well to remember that for the rest of this weekend.
I move closer to a gorgeous cherry table and run my fingers along the edge. “This town is weird,” I say quietly, not meaning it in a bad way.
Maddie doesn’t look up. “Yeah. But it grows on you.”
I glance around again. The ticking of a grandfather clock fills the silence.
Maybe it already has grown on me.
One part of it, anyway.
Except he’s a mess, and he’s ghosting me.
Eighteen
Henry
Jason’s not a huge talker, and that suits me just fine. After lunch, we walk around town. As we walk by the antique shop, I peer inside.
My heart skips a beat.
Maddie and Tabitha are in there, looking at an old map.
“So what’s going on tonight after the rehearsal dinner?” Jason asks me.
I shrug. “Nothing that I know of. Hasn’t Angie filled you in?”
He rubs at the back of his neck. “I’ve had back-to-back cases for the past two weeks. I haven’t gotten to talk to Angie as much as I’d like. Just our good-night-I-love-you call.”
“Understood. But as for any plans after the main event, I honestly have no idea.”
Unless… Is he expecting me to throw him some bachelor shindig tonight? I’m the only one in his party.
If we had a bigger wedding party, I’d have absolutely planned a bachelor party. Maybe I’d have even hired a stripper. But one stripper for a party of two guys just feels…weird.
And I have a feeling that’s not Jason’s MO, anyway.
“You and I could head into town to a bar for a couple of drinks if you’d like.” I pull up the maps app on my phone and search. “I’m afraid we don’t have a strip club here in town.”
Jason lets out a guffaw. “That’s not what I was talking about. Strip clubs aren’t my jam anyway.”
“Glad to hear that.” I pocket my phone. “They aren’t mine either.”
He chuckles. “Not that I don’t enjoy looking at beautiful women, but my wife-to-be is about the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, and any strip club I’ve ever been in, the women just seem… I don’t know. I know a lot of them do it because they need the money, but they always look so hard and strung out.”
“Agreed.”
I think about my birth mother.