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She touched my shoulder. “You’ll do great, no matter what you decide. I don’t hold it against you, like your brother does, and he’ll settle down. I know he will.”
“I wish that I could be here for your treatment.”
She waved her hand at me, brushing the comment aside. “It’ll be fine. The hospital is well-equipped to take care of me. But just because moving back to Lubbock is the right choice for me doesn’t mean it is for you.” She patted my arm twice. “Now, have fun on your date.”
I laughed. “Did you hear our entire conversation?”
“More or less.” My mom winked. “Is it the cute redhead from the party?”
“Yeah. Annie.”
“She’s much too pretty for you.”
I snorted. “I’ll keep that in mind. You’re so uplifting.”
“Hey, have to keep your ego in check. If you always thought you were hot shit, then your head would be too big for your shoulders.”
“Appreciate it,” I said with an eye roll.
“Call if you need a ride home,” she said, wandering after Julian. “And remember to take condoms.”
I groaned. My mother. Dear God!
With one more glance in Julian’s direction, I called an Uber and headed to the address Annie had texted me. She’d said that the party had moved from Walkers to a vineyard with a stage for live music.
The Uber driver gave me a side-eye that I didn’t understand until we pulled up to West Texas Winery.
“Oh,” I muttered, leaning forward to catch a glimpse of the property.
Where the hell had Annie brought me?
“This is your stop,” the Uber driver said.
He pulled up in front of a ramshackle barn that looked like it might collapse at any second. The vineyard behind it at least looked sustainable, based on my experience of drinking my way through Napa. That was what I thought of when I heard the word winery and vineyard in the same sentence.
Not…this.
I stepped out of the Uber, making sure to give a generous tip for driving me out into the middle of nowhere, and then stared at the dilapidated exterior. Hopefully, this wasn’t the part where I got murdered.
“You here for Caprock Crew?” an unenthusiastic cowboy asked, tipping his hat at me.
“Uh…yes?”
“They just got onstage. Beers are two dollar Tuesdays.” The man looked me up and down. “You prepared to get those fancy shoes dirty?”
I looked down at my shoes. They weren’t even that fancy. I’d brought them with me in case I had to work…which I had. “Why am I getting them dirty?”
The man laughed, a full-belly thing, and then kicked the barn door open. “After you.”
I arched an eyebrow but entered regardless and immediately understood what he’d meant.
The floor was…dirt.
And mud from where drinks had already spilled.
Everyone inside was wearing cowboy boots and hats, pressed jeans, and large belt buckles. I could not have been more out of place.
Then I found Annie waving at me from the dance floor. Her smile split her face, and she was easily the most gorgeous person in the room. Her red hair was wild as she finished some intricate footwork in her cowboy boots. She had on high-waisted jean shorts that her ass hung out of and a crop top that showed an inch of her stomach.
And just like that, my apprehension about the location dissipated.
I was here for her.
This stunning, incomparable redhead.
6
Annie
With a final flourish, I finished off the dance and stepped off the dusty floor. My friends tried to call me back out for the next song, but I waved them off. Jordan had walked inside a minute ago and was still staring apprehensively around the barn.
I probably should have warned him.
Okay, I definitely should have warned him.
West Texas Winery was about the shittiest locale in Lubbock. Apparently, a decade ago, it had been the place to go, but the owners had fallen into financial trouble, and everything had gone downhill. It’d chased away the higher-end clientele they had been going for, but the college crowd didn’t seem to mind. We came here for cheap drinks and when they could get halfway decent bands to play. Tonight, they’d actually managed Caprock Crew. Albeit not the best band, they had a good beat, and the place was already packed.
A lot of the local line-dancing groups were out in force. I knew enough to get by, but they made it look like an art form.
I dashed across the barn and right up to Jordan with a smile. “You made it!”
“Yeah. The Uber driver gave me a funny look when I told him where I was going, but I made it.”
“That driver doesn’t know what he’s missing.”
Jordan’s gaze swept the barn one more time, taking it all in. He still looked apprehensive.
“I probably should have told you what to wear.”
“Honestly, I doubt I have anything that would make me fit in here,” he admitted with a shrug. His eyes glimmered as they trailed back to me. At least he was taking it in stride.
