“CAN’T WE CHANGE THE SONG?” Pippa begs from the passenger seat of my truck. “This music isn’t getting me in the mood. Right, Mare?”
She turns in her seat to look at Mare in the backseat. Mare looks out the window, clearly lost in her thoughts and not as worried about getting in the mood to party like my sister. “I like the song,” she answers, shrugging.
Of course she does. It’s a song we used to listen to all the time. I still use the same CDs she burnt for me when we were teenagers.
Pippa frowns in disappointment. “Traitor,” she tells Mare. “We need party music, Cade. It’s our first night out in forever. We need to get in the mood.”
I switch the setting over in the truck so she can connect her phone to the speakers. I’m not sure she’ll deem any of the CDs I have in the glove box worthy to pregame for a night out.
Truthfully, I didn’t want to go out tonight to begin with. It’s almost been a month since Mom passed. I don’t know how much time needs to pass before I’ll feel like hanging out at Slopes and drinking with the guys again. The only reason I’m here is because Pippa begged me to and I couldn’t say no. If she needs a night out after the month we’ve had, then that’s what I’ll give her.
It doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. I’m going to try my best to just forget the hell the last few weeks have been. I’ve buried myself in work, barely coming up for air unless I had to eat or sleep. Even though sleep doesn’t come as well as it should.
I slept great the night of Mom’s funeral because I spent it with Mare. Since then, not so much. If she had showed up at my door, I would’ve let her in. I can’t say no when it comes to Mare. But she never showed up.
Last week, I moved back to the cabin and out of the main house. Dad was doing better, and he was insistent that he spent enough time with me during the day, he was done with me hovering over him at night. I couldn’t help it. I needed to know he was okay.
Maybe part of me wanted to be in Mare’s presence, even if I didn’t want to admit it. I’ve been a dick to her because if I don’t put up some kind of wall between us, I’m going to end up the same way I was when she left this town, and I can’t do that again. Not without Mom here to pull me out of it.
Even though I’m not sleeping in the main house anymore, most nights I still opened the cabin door to check and see if she was on the other side. If we did have the sixth sense to feel each other, it seemed to be broken. She couldn’t feel how broken I was. She didn’t know how much I begged her to be on the other side of my door when I pulled it open in the middle of each night, how much I needed her and how much I hated it.
Pippa sings along to a Nash Pierce song that’s been severely overplayed. I don’t know how she likes anything he releases, but she and Mare have been obsessed with him since they were teenagers, and he was still part of some silly boy band.
“You’re about to go to a country bar and this is what you listen to?” I sneak a glance over at Pip, giving her a look of disapproval.
Pippa belts out the lyrics even louder, having no shame. “We’ll get all the country in the world when we show up to Slopes.”
I laugh. Slopes is the tourist bar in town, but it’s Saturday and dance nights are something Pippa can’t resist. I’m more of a Bucky’s guy. It’s so dingy that tourists barely show up there. It’s perfect. Luckily, we’re in the off-season. Slopes will no doubt be busy with people who visit for the summer, but it’ll be nothing compared to what it’s like during ski season.
“If only people knew you were jamming to this shit before going line dancing. You’d be kicked out of the place.”
This elicits a small giggle from Mare in the backseat. I fight the urge to find her eyes through the rearview mirror.
Pippa is completely unbothered by my comment. If anything, it only further fuels her to sing louder. She turns up the song and uses her phone as a pretend microphone as she screams the lyrics from the passenger seat.
For the rest of the car ride, we don’t say anything. Pippa sings, Mare looks out the window, and I stay lost in my thoughts, wondering if maybe I shouldn’t have volunteered myself as a DD. Mare’s thighs are hanging out of a pair of cutoff jeans in a way that’s driving me wild. She looks more like the Mare I used to know, looking more country than city girl.
Men will fall at her feet tonight. Something I don’t think I’m capable of witnessing—especially sober.
As soon as I put the truck in park, Pippa is swinging her door open and squealing in delight. It’s clear she needs this night out, and she’s actually excited about something. I’ll find a way to deal just to see her not crying over Mom or burying herself in work and pretending like nothing happened.
Pippa pretty much pulls Mare out of the backseat, immediately looping her arm through hers as she pulls her body toward the entrance. Music pours out of the open garage doors as we make our way toward it. Mare and Pippa walk ahead of me as I follow a few steps behind. We had to get a spot toward the back of the parking lot, the party already in full-swing at Slopes.
I follow the two of them as Pippa hunts down the rest of the group she’d invited. She finds them, all of our friends piled into a circular booth close to the dancefloor.
Everyone greets us. I hate that there’s pity in all of their eyes as they look at the three of us. It’s hard to get over the death of someone when everyone around you reminds you of the pain you’re feeling with the pity in their eyes.
Brendan slides out of the booth, pulling me into a half hug. “It’s good to see you, Jennings.” At least he doesn’t look at me with as much pity as some of the other’s do. Brendan’s eyes light up slightly as he looks to my right, his focus solely on Mare.
Jealousy jolts through me when she smiles at him.
What the fuck. She hasn’t even smiled at me like that since she’s been back. Not that I’ve done much to get one from her since I’ve been such a dick.
“Evans,” Brendan says right before letting out a whistle. “Miss bestselling author in the flesh. It’s been too damn long.”
She shakes her head at him, anxiously tucking her hands in the back pockets of her shorts that are too fucking short. “Stop,” she pleads, embarrassed. “You make me sound cooler than I am.”
He wraps her in a tight embrace, and her cowboy boots come off the floor as he lifts her in the air.
I have to tear my eyes away from them for a moment before I act like a jealous, raging, asshole and rip her right from his arms.
“Are you kidding me? You’re the coolest fucking person this town has known, Evans. Your book sat proudly in every store when it was released. All the women in town had a book club for it.” His voice gets a little lower when he risks a glance at me. “Linda hosted it,” he finishes sadly.
“All the paperback sales make sense now,” Mare teases, finally stepping out of Brendan’s grasp.
Thank fuck.
I stare at the spot where Brendan and Mare still touch at the arms. “It’s good to have you back in Sutten.” He isn’t bashful when he looks her up and down. “Country looks good on you, girl.”
Pippa wraps up whatever conversation she was having with our friends. She stops next to Mare. “We need to go get a drink. I might need one or two before I feel loose enough to go out to the floor.”
Brendan smiles. He finally breaks contact with Mare and walks up to the table. He pulls out three opened bottles of beers. He hands one to Pippa, then me, before he focuses back on Mare.
I’m certain he still wants her by the look in his eyes, even all these years later. He lays it on thick when he hands the beer over to Mare. “Will you still drink cheap beer or are you more of a martini girl now?”
Mare rolls her eyes, pressing the tip of the bottle to her lips and taking a long gulp. Pippa’s eyebrows raise, impressed. Mare gulps down more than half of the bottle before she pulls it from her lips and wipes some drops away with the back of her hand.
She looks at me for a split second before looking back at Brendan. “Please,” she begins. “I’m more of a white wine woman than a martini woman.” She lifts the beer in the air, knocking it against the one in Pippa’s hand in a cheers. “But there’s nothing that goes better with Slopes than some ice-cold, cheap beer.”
Brendan beams as he pulls her arm downward, nudging her to sit next to him in the booth. “That’s my girl,” he states proudly.
Like fuck she’s your girl. I bite my tongue, knowing I have no right to say that even though it’s exactly how I feel.
If Mare is going to be anyone’s in Sutten, she’d be mine. The problem was, Mare didn’t want anyone in Sutten. She wanted the big city dream. Brendan and I don’t stand a chance against the trust-fund city boys.
If I thought she’d end up with someone in this small town, I’d make damn sure it was me.
Before Pippa can beat me to it, I slide into the booth after Mare. If she’s going to be pushed against Brendan, then I’m going to make my presence known on the other side.
Her knee brushes against mine as Pippa slides into the booth, making everyone scoot a little bit closer to one another.
“Sorry,” Mare mumbles under her breath, totally ignoring whatever Brendan is saying to her.
I should do the whole gentleman thing and scoot into the empty space on my other side. At least that’d make it so we weren’t pressed up against one another. But if she’s going to be that close to Brendan, she’s going to be stuck with being that close to me.
So I keep my jean-clad thigh against her bare one.
The entire time our friends talk, everyone catches up and the night gets more normal the more it carries on. After two beers, I ask the server for water and stick with that for a bit.
Pippa sets her bottle on the table loudly. She looks across the table at Mare, shimmying dramatically in place with a wide smile. “Let’s get on that dance floor, Mare!”
My sister looks over at Chase. She steals the cowboy hat off his head with a proud smirk. “I’m ready to shake my ass.”
“I’m not sure line dancing counts as shaking your ass, Pip,” Mare comments. Her body has become more relaxed with the three beers she’s sipped on while we’ve all been sitting around the table. “You might have picked the wrong bar.”
Pippa swats the air, scooting out of the booth. She bounces on the balls of her feet as she looks past me at Mare. “I’ll do whatever I want. And so will you.” She hits me in the stomach. “Now move, brother. Mare and I are going to shake our asses however we damn well please.”
“Now that I’d love to see,” Brendan quips next to me. I’m unable to resist the death glare I aim his way at the remark.
He puts his hands up defensively as I slide from the booth. I don’t move that far away from the exit, making Mare press her body against mine to get out.
I’ve never claimed to be a good man.
“Didn’t mean to talk about your sister that way,” Brendan teases.
I grunt. It wasn’t because he talked about Pippa like that. Pippa can hold her own. If she didn’t love the attention, she’d say so.
It’s because he made that comment about my Goldie.
Mare looks at me over her shoulder, her blonde hair billowing down her back as Pippa pulls her to the dance floor.
The moment Goldie’s little hips start moving to the beat, I know coming tonight was a horrible fucking idea.
There’s no way I can sit here and watch her move like that and not do something about it.
