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I’d had a job offer in Fort Worth; a job actually related to my degree that actually paid real money. But I hadn’t had the heart to tell Charlie yet. Not before her wedding. I’d tell her when she got back from her honeymoon, I told myself.
Charlie hesitated then answered. “Yeah, the guys were pulling the carpet up right as I was leaving. It was ruined.”
Dammit!
“But it was probably gonna get screwed up one way or the other. It was really those dumb contractors’ fault for putting down carpet before painting, anyway. Everyone knows that you work from the top down.”
“Starting with the ceiling, apparently,” I said sourly.
Charlie threw her hands up. “Well, what are we supposed to know about finishing up house construction! I knew painting needed to happen so I offered and said we could help. No one told me to start with the ceilings.”
My fingers tightened on the wheel as she continued, “Reece said he thinks they can put down some planking that looks like hardwood instead of carpet anyway. So it will turn out better in the long run.”
“And how long will that take? It’s Sunday and your parents get in on Thursday. We need to get it decorated and make it comfortable for them. There still isn’t even a toilet installed in the ensuite. From what you’ve told me, they aren’t going to be comfortable running out to the bunkhouse to take a shit.”
Charlie busted out laughing and then clapped a hand over her mouth. “Jesus, it’s not funny. But the thought of my mom running into Buck in the middle of the night—” She started laughing again. “Reece said he lives up to his name and the dude sleeps buck naked.”
We both cringed in unison. Then I looked over at her and grinned. “Well, it would definitely make her appreciate that Reece was the cowboy you chose to fall in love with. At least he’s cute.”
But that only had her eyebrow lifting. “Oh yeah? So that means you still think Jeremiah’s cute too?”
I made a gagging noise. “Ugh, no, God. I regret ever telling you that I ever—” I shook my head, then shook my whole body. “No. Absolutely not. Never.”
When Charlie was silent, I looked over at her again. She just had one eyebrow lifted.
“Don’t look at me like that. Yes, when we all lived together, I might have briefly had a proximity-to-male-hormone-induced madness that made me briefly consider—and I do mean only briefly consider—taking him as a lover. But it was only ever to get the itch out of my system. And I assure you, continued exposure to him has cured me of it.”
She was still quiet until I glared at her and she lifted her hands. “Okay, okay. If you say so.”
“Good. Because I do.”
“Hey, that’s my line.”
“Ha ha.” I rolled my eyes at her. “You are so cheesy. Reece is rubbing off on you.”
“I know,” she said, sighing happily. If she didn’t sound so genuinely damn happy, I would’ve gagged. She’d dealt with her load of terrible, so I wouldn’t begrudge her finding herself an actual good guy.
Even if he did happen to have an evil twin.
“I don’t have time for a man right now, anyway,” I said. “I’ve got this wedding to pull off and…” I trailed off momentarily before finishing strong, “a house that’s just my own to find.”
“That’s right, cause my girl’s gonna take over the world!”
“Hell yeah, I am. We both are!”
And then I turned on the radio and cranked it up as we sang along at the top of our lungs.
3
Ruth
I was feeling less enthusiastic and optimistic the next day as I stood on the side of the road glaring down at my phone and sweating out every single particle of water in my body under the scorching Texas sun.
It was just my luck that I ran out of gas on today of all days. And that lever on the gas indicator had just bottomed out outta freaking nowhere. I’d swear I just glanced at it and it had been at a fourth of a tank!
Granted, that glance might have been yesterday… before I’d driven Charlie and me over to the ranch and back, but still. Back in the day Betty woulda been able to get me twice that distance on a fourth of a tank.
I held a hand over my eyes and glared down the road, then grabbed the door to the truck and climbed back inside if only to get out of the sun. It was hotter than an oven in the fires of hell inside, though, even with all the windows down. It was supposed to rain later today—a big storm, but it hadn’t swept in yet.
Why the hell hadn’t I gotten on a bus and ridden out of this town the moment that tornado swept my family’s house away, I’d never know.
