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I never expected a trip to Lexington for my godfather’s wedding to knock me on my ass. But that’s what happened the moment I laid eyes on the bride’s beautiful sister. I couldn’t help myself and had given into all my needs. I did something terribly wrong but inevitable when I spent the night with her. She’d been the second woman I’d ever slept with, but the first woman I’d made love to.
No matter how hard I’ve tried to forget Charlotte McKenzie, she’s been in my mind every day. She’s the last thing in my conscience as I close my eyes at night, and the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning.
I miss her morning text messages, which had started when I’d been in Lexington and had ended during the summer. I have only myself to blame for that because I’d stopped replying for my own health. But it kills me not knowing how she’s doing or what she’s up to.
“Don’t you think it’s about time you told me what happened in Lexington?” Bo says, glancing at me before he goes back to his beer. “You’ve looked like the back end of one of your cattle since you’ve been back.”
Raising a brow, I stare at Bo, and then spend a few minutes thinking as I watch the bartender freshening drinks and filling orders to be delivered by the wait staff.
“It’s true,” Bo mumbles. “You’d think you were about to be hanged, not getting married. I was happy leading up to my wedding.”
A chuckle bursts from between my lips. “You spent the month before your wedding drunk,” I remind him.
“Exactly! I was happy.”
Shaking my head, I thump him on the shoulder. “You can say what you want, but you can’t live without your wife.”
He grins. “I love her with everything in me, and have no shame admitting that… Do you love Emma?”
I blink at his question and turn my gaze back to my beer and shredded label on the bar. “I’m in love,” I say, being evasive as I silently add, “with Charlotte.”
“Not with Emma though,” he mumbles and I look at him out of the corner of my eye. I can’t read the expression on his face but I know he’s concerned. “I think when we were at school you confused hormones with love, which we all do. Now though, we’ve grown up, and even before she fucked someone else, I don’t think your heart belonged to Emma...and not for a long time.”
Staring hard at Bo, I’m wondering what happened to get him talking. We usually just sit here drinking beer silently—watching the game playing on the television or playing a game of pool if we were up to it. “I can read your mind, you know?” He grins and laughs. “Okay! I admit Joanne put the seed of doubt in my head. She said something that made sense about you coming back from Lexington a different man. She even went as far as to suggest you met someone out there…”
“None of that matters, Bo. I’m getting married in less than a month’s time.” I drain the beer and shake my head to refuse another from the bartender when Bo nods for one. “I’m driving back tonight.”
Occasionally, I’ll crash in Bo’s spare room, but tonight, I want to be in my own bed. I’m just not in the mood to stay anywhere but home. “If you’re getting married,” Bo continues, refusing to budge off the subject, “why do you never spend time with your fiancée? People are noticing, and a lot of them are wondering whether or not it’s true about that trucker she fucked.”
Cursing, I whip my head around to face him. “Leave it,” I snarl. “I promised to marry her and that’s what’s going to happen.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” He grins ignoring the scowl on my face.
“I was okay until you sat next to me,” I grouch.
He roars with laughter before becoming serious again, saying, “The last I’m going to say on the subject for tonight is don’t marry her because you feel like you have to keep a promise…marry her because you can’t live without her.” He waits for me to acknowledge his words and then a slow smile spreads across his face. “I’m a good friend, huh?”
“Debatable,” I mumble and sigh when my eyes focus on Emma walking through the bar as though she owns the place.
“That says it all my friend,” Bo comments before he moves toward the back of the bar—away from Emma.
“I thought I’d find you here as you’re not answering your phone,” Emma complains as she takes Bo’s seat. “I want to
come and stay at the ranch with you until this snowstorm passes.”
I give her the side eyes. “We’ve talked about this, and decided it was a bad idea.”
She scowls. “You decided it was a bad idea. I didn’t really get a say in anything.”
Looking at her now, I know that I fell into lust with her in high school. Maybe it had been love...that young, schoolboy love that was fleeting, but it’s gone now. Bo is right—I have outgrown her. I did a long time ago. I think we’ve both clung to the past rather than move forward because it was easier to do just that. I also think there is something else going on with her and that’s why she keeps pushing this wedding.
She’s still as pretty as she’d been in high school with her snow-white skin and blonde hair. Her waist is trim with legs that do justice to a pair of fitted jeans, but I’m not in love with her.
But a woman is out there who I do love. Charlotte is nothing like Emma, and I fell hard for her the minute our eyes connected. I was rude and abrupt when Garrett had introduced us, but that didn’t last. She snagged my heart that night we shared, and I’ve lived on those moments for months.
I didn’t know it was possible to miss someone as much as I do her, until after I let her go. She’s probably with someone else by now thinking I no longer think about her.
“You’ve been doing that for months,” Emma hisses. “I ask you a question and you get lost inside your own head. It’s rude and annoying.”
