Page 37 of What I Should Have Known

“Hold the fuck up. You’re aware…” I narrowed my gaze, suspiciously. “And you’re cool with Kit Kat and I?”

“Yes, I’m cool with it. Anyway—”

“Nah. We ain’t done. You know I’m in the military and that I don’t want anything serious,andyou’re still cool with it?”

“Yes, Bernie. Now, can we talk about what I actually came here to discuss with you?” she asked and crossed her arms over her chest.

I shook my head. “No, not just yet.”

She pursed her lips and sighed. “What else do you need to know?”

“Why?” I answered and smiled at her.

“Because, I have my reasons, and they’re none of your concern right now.”

“Except my mom seems really concerned about it.”

She flipped some hair over her shoulder and took a deep breath. “She’s concerned because of Kat’s dad’s piss-poor opinion about men in the military. But guess what? Kat is her own person, and if she wants to have sex with someone, then she deserves that. Especially considering that Wyatt has pretty much made it so every other possible suitor runs away.”

I grinned and bit down on my bottom lip. “Ah, so I’ve already impressed you because I haven’t let Wyatt win.”

“Or you’re a complete dumbass for not backing off.” She shook her head. “But either way, if Kat wants to, she should have the ability to choose for herself, and I will help and support my best friend.”

“That’s what I fucking said. Small towns are weird as fuck,” I grumbled.

Emma chuckled. “Anyway, back to what I was saying. Cattle drive. You in?”

“Emma, despite my impressive eight-second ride on a damn horse named Popsicle, I regret to inform you, I have no fucking clue how toactuallyride a horse,” I replied.

She rolled her eyes and threw an arm around my shoulders. “I’m aware, dummy. Which is why you’ll drive up with me and Kat’s mom and her younger brothers and help set up camp for when the real men ride up with the cattle.”

“Well, fuck you too,” I mocked with a grin. She bumped against me. “But that sounds like a plan. Where should I meet you and when?”

“I’ll text you the details. Bye, Bernie!” She waved a hand and jogged away.

I chuckled, watching her fading figure.

“Wait,” she called out, pausing, and spun back around.

“What now?” I asked.

She flipped me the bird. “Why ‘Bernie’? Kat said your legal name is Benjamin.”

I grinned, tucking my chin to my chest, and kicked at a rock on the ground.

“You’re not gonna tell me, are you?” she sneered.

Raising my gaze back to hers, I shook my head. “Not today, Emma.”

Not today, because the less she knew, the better. The less Kat knew, the better. No matter what my mom had said, Kat knowing about the life I really lived served no purpose but one of pain.

My stomach knotted at that thought.

I feared that the moment Kat learned more about me, more about why I was really in Arlington, I’d become the villain in her story.

But I was used to that, so what was different about this time?

Something was.

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