Ten minutes later, I remembered the phraseDon’t judge a book by its cover. Emma might look like something I could fold up and put in my pocket, but the way she dug into the knots in my lower back was nothing short of fierce.
And the girl was a talker.
“I heard you won Blood Ball,” she said as her elbow followed the line of my shoulder blade with ruthless precision.
“Guh,” I grunted.
“That’s amazing. No one has ever beaten them before. I mean, they don’t usually let guests play because no one wants to see the ranch sued, but some of the ranch hands have given it a go. Two bruised ribs, onedislocated shoulder, and one broken ankle. Lots of blood.”
“Mmph,” I managed.
“Apparently no one got close enough to you to draw blood or even stop you from scoring.”
That had been my whole strategy. I had known they didn’t view me as a threat, and I had taken advantage of that. They were so busy knocking each other down that not one of them paid any attention to what I was up to. It wasn’t a strategy I could pull off twice, but who cared? I had won.
“Seb said you have Jeremiah to thank for that.” Her elbow paused. “Jeremiah,” she repeated. “That’s so funny. Every time I say his name, your muscles tense. Jeremiah.” My shoulder twitched, and she laughed. “Oh, girl. Looks like the stoic cowboy has the city girl in knots, too.”
There was no point in denying it. My body had betrayed me.
“He protected you, you know.” Emma’s hands glided up my back, her thumbs following the tight muscles next to my spine. “I worked on Seb yesterday and he told me all about it. It wasn’t until they watched the video that they figured it out. Do you know that man didn’t hit his own ball through a wicket a single time? He was too busy knocking anyone down who came too close to you.”
Jeremiah had protected me? That hadn’t occurred tome. I’d kept a tally in my head of everyone’s points to make sure I didn’t end the game when I was down. When I knocked my ball into the home pole, ending the game, it put me in first place by a mere ten points. I’d known what all their scores were, but I hadn’t given any thought to why they played the way they did.
Why would he do that? I wasn’t in any real danger. Liam, Seb, and Mateo wouldn’t have knocked me down. Even Holly would have gone easy on me. Maybe she would have drawn a little blood, but nothing that would require a hospital visit.
“You should come out with us tonight,” Emma said. “Me, my sister Grace, Tamilee, and Cecily. We’re going to Sundown. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s always a good time.”
I considered. Hector had told me to lie low, but a dive bar in a town boasting a population of four hundred was still lying low, right? No one in Mercy River cared about some New York City millionaire getting arrested for tax evasion, even if that millionaire had criminal ties. Anyway, it had been a while since I’d had girl time.
But what was the point in making friends when I’d be gone in six weeks? On the other hand, friendship didn’t have to sprout roots. Some people were meant to be in your life for only a short time. That happened to be all my relationships, so why should Cecily and Emma be any different?
“Sure. I’d love to.”
I didn’t ask if the cowboys tagged along.
But I wanted to.
With the sunlow in the sky, turning the mountains to fire, I found myself at a saloon called Sundown with a shot of tequila in one hand and a wedge of lime in the other.
“To our ancestors,” Cecily said, raising her shot glass. “May they look the other way tonight.”
“Lord, no, I’m not drinking to that,” Tamilee protested. “In this honky-tonk? I don’t think so. My ancestors better have their eyelids peeled back and their prayers ready. I did not surviveDon’t Ask, Don’t Tellin the Marines to be taken down now.”
“What? There’s no way you’re old enough for that.” My eyes scanned her uncreased face. “I’ve been in Wyoming all of a week and a half, and my skin already feels like a dried-out mummy. I’ve aged ten years. What moisturizer do you use? Tretinoin?”
Tamilee patted my hand. “It’s not the moisturizer, baby. It’s the melanin. The same reason I’m not toasting to my ancestors closing their eyes.”
Emma laughed. “I don’t know how much trouble wecan get into anyway with every one of our bosses sitting in that booth over there.”
For the thirteenth time since I had walked through the door, my gaze slid to where Jeremiah had claimed the outer seat of the booth. Seb was next to him, with Holly and Mateo sitting across from them. Four beers were on the table, but I hadn’t seen Jeremiah take a single sip of his.
“Liam’s not with them,” Grace Sherwood noted. Grace was Emma’s older sister, and they had the same white-blonde hair, but her eyes were blue, not green. She didn’t work at the ranch, but her fiancé, Alex, was a ranch hand there. Grace taught fifth grade at the local elementary school. “Babysitting duty?”
Emma nodded with a little laugh. “Blair is probably painting his nails as we speak.”
“Um, excuse me, hello?” Cecily wiggled her fingers at the shot glass she still held up high. “Are you all really going to leave me hanging like this? We still have salt on our arms.”
Laughing, Grace clinked her glass to Cecily’s. “To girlfriends and cheap drinks.”
