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“Dumping you? Oh hell no. Don’t stand for that shit. Go up to him and tell him you’re done with his ass first.” Hollie crossed her arms over tonight’s T-shirt.
Who needs a vibrator when you have library books?
Good lord. She could take that a few different ways—and really didn’t want to.
But maybe Hollie had a point. Paige should go up to him and break up with him first. Take the situation by the horns. She could cry into her Rocky Road later.
She rose and plastered a smile on her face. And turned right into Drake.
“Hey, babe, mind coming with me on an errand?”
There was no missing the worry crinkling around his eyes. “Sure. What’s wrong?”
“We won’t be able to come back to the party. We have to head down halfway to San Antonio.” Drake walked across the barn and she hurried to keep up. “We bought a horse from a guy down there and he was bringing it up tonight. Miss Emmy was going to meet him first thing in the morning, but the guy is stuck in Taylorsville with his sick wife and the full horse trailer. He can’t leave his wife alone and the horse is in the hospital parking lot. I told him I’d get there when I could, but the guy’s a bit…unhinged.”
“Oh no. Is his wife going to be okay? What about the horse?”
“They think his wife has gallstones. Maybe. They’re still doing tests.” Drake pulled out his keys and aimed at his truck. “The horse is fine. She’s a little skittish but we think with some work, she’ll be perfect for our riders. It’s just someone needs to get there to collect her before she starts creating too much of a ruckus.”
“Okay, sure. I’m happy to come along.” Even happier he’d thought to ask her. That he’d turned to her in his time of need. But there was one sticking point. “Drake, what about Colt?”
“Good question.” Colt jogged up the gravel drive after them. “Were you just going to light out without saying a word to me? Nice, Mondell, real fucking nice.”
“I didn’t realize there was anything left to say.” Drake tossed his key fob from hand to hand. “Not tonight, anyway.”
Paige glanced between them, suddenly feeling as if she were watching a foreign language channel with no subtitles. “What is going on here?”
Drake jerked a thumb at Colt. “Ask him.” He lifted a brow in Colt’s direction. “Go ahead, tell her what you last said to me.”
Paige frowned and stepped closer to Drake’s brawny truck. “Maybe we should just go.”
“Cat got your tongue?” Drake asked.
Colt compressed his lips into a line and gripped his Solo cup until the plastic crunched. He’d been knocking them back all night. “What happened with Daisy’s sister?”
“She’s stranded at a hospital in Taylorsville. Dunston’s wife got sick on the trip so he needs to stay with her, so we’re going to go get Dandelion. Us. Not you, because you need to go somewhere and sober up.”
“I’m fucking s-sober.”
“Judging from that stutter, not so much.” Drake opened his truck door. “And you know what? Since you won’t tell her what you said, let me take care of this for you. Until you get your head out of your ass, you don’t need to end anything with either of us. Because we’ve officially ended this with you.” He glanced at Paige. “You ready to go?”
The tug in her heart wasn’t a surprise. She’d already grown too used to being with them both—to loving it—to easily just turn her back on Colt. But Drake was making a stand for her. He’d been attentive all night where Colt had been clipped and self-absorbed.
She really didn?
??t want to be hit. Or quit.
“Yeah.” She cleared her throat and gripped her door handle. “Don’t drive yourself home, okay? Promise me you’ll be safe.”
Once Colt gave a reluctant nod, she climbed into the truck and shut the door.
13
He was so drunk. So very fucking wasted.
“Last call, buddy. C’mon, let’s go.” The arm that slid around his waist made Colt narrow his eyes. Wade. Dragging him through the barn as if he couldn’t walk.
“I’m fine. What’s gotten into you?” Colt shook him off and pushed a shaky hand through his hair. It was shaky mainly because his head seemed farther away than it usually was. “I was having a good time.”
