Yeah. I wasn’t reading into things.
“Everyone’s heading to Sutton’s,” I say, as brightly as I possibly can. “Were you two saying goodnight to the horses?”
Josie lets out a breath, eyes darting from me to Rafe. “Something like that.”
I look at Rafe. He glances at me with those unreadable coal-black eyes, giving me absolutely nothing, before pulling his hat low on his head. “I gotta get to work,” he mutters.
We both watch him mount his horse and ride into night towards the calving barn.
Josie closes her eyes briefly. “Lila?—”
Carefully, I pull a small piece of straw from Josie’s hair. “You must have really missed the horses,” I say with a smile. “Going for a roll in the hay like that.”
Her eyes open. She looks at me for a second and then laughs, rueful and breathless. “I love you. Please, just… don’t say anything to my brothers about this.”
I blink innocently. “About what?”
She gives me a grateful look.
I gently nudge her arm. “So are you coming to Sutton’s with all of us?”
“Guess I have to,” she sighs. “It’s not a trip back home without a raging hangover courtesy of the roughest bar west of the Rockies.”
We’re halfway across the yard when I hear the back door. Slade comes down the porch steps, jacket on, scanning the dark until he finds me. He crosses straight to me and cups myface briefly in one hand, like he just needed to confirm I was there.
“Missed you,” he murmurs, kissing my cheek.
“Found your sister,” I say, leaning into him.And a little more than just that,I think. But Josie asked me to keep it quiet, and I’m not about to blow up her spot. Not when nothing’s changed since our wedding, not really: I’m not really part of this family, and it’s not my place to cause drama.
Slade’s arm comes around my shoulders. “Ready?”
Josie falls into step beside us, looking between us with a smile spreading across her face. “Two out of three of my grumpy-ass big brothers have now turned into giant softies,” she says, shaking her head. “Love does strange things to us, doesn’t it?”
Slade gives her a look. “Mind your own business, Josie.”
She laughs, easy and unbothered, and loops her arm through mine on the other side. “I’m just saying I love my sister-in-law,” she says. “Slade, don’t you dare mess this up for me. Lila’s a keeper.”
He doesn’t answer Josie. His arm just pulls me closer, and I feel his lips press briefly to the top of my head as we walk back to the house together.
I resolve to put Josie’s words—and Slade’s subsequent silence—out of my head as we all pile in various trucks and head down the road.
Love does strange things to us.
Love. I don’t know if Slade will ever let himself feel that for anyone new ever again.
As for me, I’m just going to live in the moment. Enjoy this for what it is. Heartbreak can wait for another day.
“I’m so ready for this,” I tell him.
“Don’t expect much.” Slade keeps a hand on my knee as he drives. “Get ready for sticky floors. The smell of weed and cigarette smoke floating around. Probably a bar fight or two by the end of the night.”
My post-Thanksgiving sleepiness wears off as theexcitement builds. “I’ve never seen a bar fight,” I tell him. “Nobody ever gets punched at a country club. And trust me, there are more than a few faces that could really use it.”
An eyebrow raise. “Didn’t know I was getting such a bloodthirsty bride.”
“I’m all about justice,” I say sagely. “Rough Justice, you might say.”
And then my gruff, stern, unsmiling husband starts to laugh.
