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Lights strobed over the faces in a chaotic dance of color.
My attention jumped over each. Searching. Praying for the type of luck I never had that my sister’s face would suddenly be one of them. Like she was just going to appear.
Not in the cards, but a girl could hope.
“This way,” Ryder said, snapping me out of the hunt. He cut through the crowd that seemed to part in his wake, giving us space to shoulder through the crush. My gaze kept scanning the faces as we wound around the right side, passed by a bar that was surrounded by a horde of people, and weaved through the round, high-top tables that surrounded the dance floor.
Two tables up, a woman was standing on a barstool, waving her arms overhead, her long hair so blonde it was nearly white.
I was pretty sure her shouting wasn’t necessary because there was no missing her. She had the attention of every single person in the place. “Doodle Boo, I see you! It’s about time your gorgeous ass showed up! It’s time to get your drink on.”
A giant smile split Dakota’s face as she glanced at me. “That would be Paisley.”
“I gathered as much.”
Paisley hopped off the stool the second we’d fully broken through. She wore a tight white tank emblazoned with silver beads, cut-off shorts, and red cowgirl boots. She threw her arms around Dakota’s neck and squeezed as she rocked her back and forth. “I missed the heck out of you. It’s been so busy at the ranch, I haven’t had a minute to come into town. I couldn’t wait for tonight to get here.”
“You better have been missing me,” Dakota told her, grinning as she pulled back.
“Always.”
I might have stopped believing in it, but I had an inkling this was what real friends meant.
Then Paisley’s attention traveled my way. “And you must be Savannah. It’s so good to meet you. I’ve heard all about you.”
She caught me off guard by throwing her arms around me, too, rocking me around the same way as she’d done Dakota as she whispered in my ear, “My fiancé is a hopeless gossip. Don’t tell him I told you because he will deny it to his dying breath since he considers himself the quiet, strong type, but he told me you made quite the impression on the crew at the café this week.”
She edged back, her eyes gleaming.
I laughed. “I think that might be an exaggeration.”
Was it, though?
Because it was right then that I felt something ripple through the air. An intensity that hadn’t been there before. A feeling that washed through me like the gathering of a summer storm.
Hot and tingly and tight.
The same way as it did every time he came within a mile of me.
I looked up.
Hot Cop was there, carrying a pitcher of beer as he broke through the crowd and wound his way to the table.
Big and burly and sporting a day’s worth of scruff.
Wearing jeans and a plain white tee.
Looking so damned good that he knocked the breath out of me.
SIXTEEN
EZRA
How many times had it been said that life wasn’t fair? The proof of it was right there, standing in front of me, Savannah Ward wearing a red dress that was an outright travesty.
I nearly lost hold of my pitcher of beer as I broke through the crowd, coming in just as Paisley was hugging the crap out of the woman whose presence slammed me like a shockwave.
An avalanche.
An earthquake.
I struggled to regain clarity. To remember my duty. What I was supposed to be focused on right then.
Impossible when those aqua eyes snapped up as if she’d felt me staring, a straight sucker-punch to the gut.
That was right about the time Cody was clapping me on the back and making me jump half out of my skin. He cracked up like my reaction was the most hysterical thing he’d ever seen, and he angled in close as he said just loud enough for me to be able to hear over the level of the music, “You might already be too late to make that claim. Half the bar is already headed this way because that girl is a flame. No woman should ever look that good.”
I grunted at him. “Nothing to be late for.”
Too bad the denial tasted like sandpaper on my tongue.
Cody only cracked a grin, his curls peeking out from beneath his baseball cap. “You just keep trying to convince yourself of that.” He sobered, looking me straight. “It’s okay, you know? You don’t have to keep going it alone. There’s a time for grieving, but there’s also a time when it becomes clear your heart might have space for more. None of us are going to judge you for that, Ezra. We want it for you. Support you in every way.”
