I filtered through his lyrics, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had a hand in writing any of them. If I were a betting woman, I’d say probably not. Most singers had songwriters. A dream job, if you asked me. Singers themselves were rarely interested in the songwriting aspect of it, but the idea that maybe these words were more than just a paycheck to him was a delightful thought, even if it was a brief one.
“Scarlett…” Delilah’s voice rattled me from my inner dialogue, similar to the sound of nails on a chalkboard. “What a surprise to see you here.”
“Delilah, it’s good to see you too.”
Delilah Boudreau was a girl I tried to avoid at all costs. She was the girl who wanted you to think she was too cool for you, despite her intense desire to be a part of every single damn thingthat happened in Quincey Falls. She’d moved to town a few years ago after her daddy bought a bunch of land, and ever since then, she’d done nothing but run around town chasing cowboys and causing problems.
“How long has it been? You know, since the whole wedding debacle.” She pretended to whisper while purposely speaking loud enough for others to hear. “What, like a year?”
“Six months actually.”
“Well, good for you, girl, for trying to get back out there.”
“Thanks.” I forced a smile.
“I mean, it’s not like we’re getting any younger. I just can’t imagine being thirty and having no idea where my life was headed. Good for you for not letting that bother you.” Her tone was almost believable.
Almost.
However, the shit-eating grin on her face was not.
“What can I say? I’m not one to dwell on the past,” I said, grateful that I was quick on my toes and could appear unbothered even if my insides would tell a different story. “It was nice to see you, Delilah. Have a good rest of your night.”
She’d already moved on to her next victim and could care less about the formalities of the conversation. Her bedazzled silver cowboy boots, bedazzled microskirt—I thought that was what these girls were calling them these days—and handmade crop top were enough to send me spiraling.
Delilah was in her early twenties, at least from what I gathered, and lived the life that every social media gal wanted to replicate. She’d never worked a day in her life, her rich daddy funded all her extracurriculars, and her personality solely relied on the way she looked that day.
Quite frankly, I wanted nothing to do with her, but tonight a touch of jealousy threatened to turn me a shade of green. Itried to get Maggie’s attention without drawing any attention to myself.
I’m going to the bathroom, I mouthed.
She nodded.
The eagerness in my steps was halted when I spotted the line. There were at least ten girls snaked around the wall outside of the bathroom. Guess it was probably too big of an ask to get an empty bathroom twice in one night.
I rerouted my path and ended up on the backside of what I assumed were horse stalls. The horse shimmying behind the metal bars and the smell of freshly bailed hay wafting across my nose confirmed it.
My feet shuffled closer to the 1,000-pound red paint, the snorts coming out of her elongated nose only a few inches from my ear now. Not the silence I’d been looking for, but honestly, this was maybe even better.
“Hey, girl,” I said, pressing the back of my hand up and down her muzzle. The velvety hair sent a warm hug to my insides. “You ready for this party to be over too?” I pushed my nose to her and inhaled deeply. I couldn’t stand this close to a horse and not smell it. That felt illegal, plus the melancholy of the smell calmed the whirling thoughts in my head.
Delilah’s words had worked their way under my skin, forcing themselves into my brain and overstaying their welcome. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t quit replaying her comment about being thirty and having no idea where my life was headed.
Over and over.
This night had been a bit of a rollercoaster. At times I felt high on hope, almost as though everything was going to be okay and it would all work out somehow. Other times, I felt like I just wanted to crawl back into my sweatshirt and get horizontal on my couch as soon as possible.
Right now, I was somewhere in between. Which, ironically, was a place I’d been spending a lot of time lately. The in between.
“Still looking for some silence, I see.” The same rugged voice startled meagain.
A smile danced behind my lips, drawing me from the darker parts of my thoughts, but thankfully only the horse staring back at me saw.
“Still scaring the shit out of people, I see.” I looked back at him.
“Just you. But in fairness, I keep finding you alone in places even though we’re at a party with at least a hundred people.”
This time I could see him better than I had all night. His resting place of choice was a thick metal beam that was anchored behind me, it appeared to be more for aesthetics than any sort of actual stabilizing.
