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“Sounds like you have more than one these days.” Quinn held up his hands when Adam glared. “Sorry, sorry. Can’t help that I miss you when you’re off living life like a country song.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Adam ducked into the garage and grabbed two beers. He walked back, dropped into the chair next to his friend, and passed one over. “You’re ridiculous.”
“It should be my middle name.” Quinn took a long drink of his beer. “So why are you getting your ride all shined up?”
He didn’t want to admit it, but his friend would pester him if he tried to avoid the topic. “I’m taking Jules out on a real date.”
Quinn threw back his head and let loose a booming laugh. “Oh God, that’s the funniest shit I’ve heard all day. Sounds like you’re doing a hell of a job of keeping things in perspective with her.”
“Something like that.” He was doing such a good job, he’d gone from pretending to date her to actually dating her. He took a deep breath and turned the conversation, grateful when Quinn allowed it this time. They chatted about cattle and Adam told a few of his wild rodeo stories, and before he knew it, it was time to go pick up Jules.
His friend stopped by the driver’s door and Adam rolled down the window. The joking expression on Quinn’s face dropped for the first time since he’d shown up. “Daniel’s cousin is a good girl.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He expected this from his mom and the townsfolk in general—it even made sense for Daniel to be warning him off since Jules was his cousin. To have Quinn doing it, too…it stung. A lot. “I’m not stringing her along. I’ve been honest with her from the beginning, and she’s been with me every step of the way. Jules is a grown-ass woman, and I doubt she’d take kindly to everyone and their dog being so sure that I’m going to break her heart.”
Quinn raised his eyebrows. “Touched on a sore spot, didn’t I?”
“I get tired of everyone thinking I’m a piece of shit.” Even if he agreed with them most days.
“Nobody thinks that—or at least no one worth mentioning.” He shook his head. “All I was going to say, jackass, is that I think she might be good for you.” He turned around and walked off without another word, leaving Adam staring after him.
He’d done a spectacular job of proving to his friend that he was managing to keep calm and rational about this situation. He headed for Jules’s place, kicking himself again for letting what everyone else thought of him get under his skin. She knew the score. Fuck, she was the one with a future that didn’t fit him in the least. She’d be a fool to let her heart get involved.
Except she asked you to be her boyfriend. And you said yes.
It didn’t mean anything—not really. Even if they were dating for real—which wasn’t that different from them pretending to date—she knew he was leaving. He knew he was leaving. The entire fucking town knew he was leaving. It’d be fun while it lasted, but it couldn’t last.
He stopped in front of her café, shut off the engine, and headed inside, still arguing with himself. He wasn’t some monster, taking advantage of little innocent Jules Rodriguez. She’d come to him. She was the one who wanted sex. Yeah, he’d taken them all the way up to that point, but she’d pushed them over the edge.
If anything, people should be worried about how he was going to take the goddamn breakup. He’d never been with a woman like this before—someone who seemed to bring joy into any room she stepped into, someone who always had a new and wacky perspective on life, someone who was happy. Grant might have set her on her heels temporarily, but that wouldn’t last. Jules was the type who bounced back, better than ever, and she would this time, too.
Just like she would after he left.
It was Adam who wasn’t sure how the hell he was going to go back to life on the road after he’d known what it was like to hold her in his arms.Chapter NineteenJules walked out of the kitchen to find Adam standing in the doorway of her café, glaring down at the trio of cats twining around his feet. She eyed them—Cujo, Rick, and Dog—wondering if they’d done something to deserve the look. With those three, there was no telling. They got into more trouble than the rest of the cats combined. But Adam didn’t seem to be bleeding and there were no suspicious wet spots on his pant legs—talking down Mr. Lee the last time that had happened had taken all of her not inconsiderable persuasive skills—so she was almost afraid to ask what was wrong.
