“I feel like there’s gonna be a gunfight that breaks out here,” I whisper to them.
“Oh, don’t worry. The last gunfight was five years ago, when the lumber buyer caught his wife cheating with the delivery guy.”
“What?” I ask in disbelief.
“The driver still walks with a limp,” Max says. “Slowed up his delivery time a bit, but still faithful. About the only thing heisfaithful to.”
Both Nash and Max throw back their heads and burst out laughing like this is the funniest joke they’ve ever told. Whoever said boys grow up has not spent time with two men who are best friends, watching the birth of dad jokes.
Nash lets us me and Max walk in first.
Country music is playing, the smell of warm food fills the air, and there are families in here. I look around; it’s not exactly the bar or saloon I was expecting. Bars are twenty-one and over.
Nash points to the actual bar and the sign hanging above the mirror.
Twenty-one and older seated at the bar only. Kids have to eat at the tables.
It’s a hand-painted sign, but the font is neat and clear. I guess that works.
There’s a small crowd and the hum of conversations. Nash leads the way to a small table toward the back of the building, and Max and I follow him there. It’s not a straight shot to get there. Nash has to stop and say hello to several people, and he pauses to greet another rancher who’s sitting with his wife and daughter—at least I assume that’s who they are.
The girl has dark hair and a warm smile, and she jumps up to shake my hand. She’s a few years younger than me, so somewhere in her early twenties. I glance at Max and then back at Nash and realize that I’m standing closer to Nash.
“Hi, I’m Bliss. Are you Max’s girlfriend?” She smiles brightly at me. “I’d heard he was dating someone but hadn’t met you yet.”
I shake my head. “Oh no. I’m not—I’m not with Max.”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “You must be with Nash, then.”
“Well, not really,” I start, because we don’t have to pretend here.
But then Nash steps in behind me and rests an arm on my shoulders.
“Bliss, this is my fiancée, Magnolia,” he says dryly.
He leans over and whispers in my ear, “Grandpa talks to his friends in Pine Ridge a lot, so I’m sure the rumor mill might get back to him if we don’t pretend to be engaged.”
It doesn’t look like she believes anything we say now, and I don’t blame her.
I lift my hand by way of explanation. “And I haven’t decided if I’m gonna keep him.”
Her eyes drop to the ring on my finger.
“Make sure you keep that,” she says, “because it is beautiful.”
“He has good taste. He picked it out by himself,” I say as I rest a hand against his arm.
He looks at me warmly, and my stomach drops.
I want him to look at me like that all the time. There are moments where it’s easy to forget the faking. And there are moments where I think that he truly sees me, that it’s not just an act.
And I don’t think I can live with myself if I never know for sure if we could be anything more. But what if I say something and ruin everything?
CHAPTER 29
Nash
“Doyou think it would cause bad feelings with the locals to put a distillery and bakery in town?” Magnolia asks me quietly as we sit down at the table. Max stayed with Bliss at her table, chatting with her about a rogue Hereford bull that’s on the loose breeding everyone’s Black Angus cows. It’s the kind of thing people probably got shot over in the Old West, but now they just gossip about whose fault it is. A lot less harmful.
