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I shifted slightly, rubbing my leg experimentally against his. He looked down and gave me a smile that sent shivers down my spine—a smile and a look that told me he was exactly as aware of our contact as I was, and he liked it too.
Holy Jesus. I took another long swig of the cold water. And smiled back at him.
We stayed for another hour and then Ruth wasn’t looking so steady on her feet. I said I was tired and we called it a night.
Ruth frowned but Olivia and I helped her out to the car.
“I don’t feel so good,” Ruth said, her facial features souring almost as soon as we hit the parking lot.
“Oh shit, she’s gonna blow,” Olivia said. “I told you you should’ve had tequila instead of whisky! We had margaritas at home and you don’t mix liquors!”
“Don’t argue with a dying woman,” Ruth wailed as she stumbled to the grass at the edge of the parking lot, dropped to her knees, and vomited in the ditch.
“Oh, honey!” Olivia crooned.
Both she and I leaned over, helping to hold Ruth’s hair back and rubbing her back.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Ruth said, sitting back on her haunches and taking the tissue Olivia produced from her purse to wipe her mouth.
Then she looked over at Olivia, her mascara smeared but smiling weakly in the lights from the bar and parking lot anyway. “Hey look, we got to relive the glory days after all.”
Olivia rolled her eyes, then looked at me. “Help me get her up.”
We both took a hand and helped Ruth back to her feet.
“The difference is that now I can hold my liquor. And you never could, not then or now.”
Ruth collapsed against Olivia with an arm thrown around her. “I’m a lightweight, but you still love me.”
Olivia planted a kiss on the top of Ruth’s now frizzy-haired head. “Always, boo.”
“Keys.” I held out my hands.
Ruth fumbled in her jeans and then handed them over.
When we got back to the Jeep, Olivia and Reece helped Ruth climb up and into the back, then Olivia climbed in after her.
Thankfully, the GPS on Reece’s phone worked to get us first to Olivia’s house to drop her off after much giggling and off-key singing from the backseat, and then I started back home to the ranch.
Ruth fell asleep in the back and then it was just me and Reece up front in the quiet of the back roads at night.
“I really had a good time tonight,” he said.
“Me too.”
I was glad I was driving and had an excuse not to take my eyes off the road to look at his face.
After dancing so closely all night, it was silly for there to be awkwardness between us now. But I couldn’t deny it. And I hated it. I’d hated how awkward it was between us at the ranch lately, too.
So before I could think better of it, I blurted, “Why’d you come tonight? I thought you weren’t gonna.”
He shrugged. “I—” Then he sighed, eyes still ahead on the road when I took a quick glance his way. “I don’t like how it’s been lately.” His eyes came briefly to look at me. I jerked mine back to the road as he clarified, “Between us.”
“Oh.” What did that mean? Did…did tonight mean we were going to start up our clandestine night meetings again? Did I want it to mean that? Even when every time we were together, it seemed to be pushing towards something more? I swallowed, not sure if I knew the answer to that question. Everything in my head was such a mess still.
I knew I’d liked being in his arms. I didn’t like it when he avoided me around the ranch. That much I knew, but I wasn’t sure it clarified anything.
“I know my brother’s been an ass. I’ll talk to him. Because I really like you, Charlie. Regardless of what’s happened in the past, I really want us to be able to be… friends.”
