Page 9 of Say Yes To The Fake Date

My brother Gabe sounds pissed, but he’s the type that never stays mad long. I debate telling him, but in the end I know I just need to say it because it will explain why I’ve been staring across the bar since we got here. I nod my head toward Lucy. “Look.”

He turns in his seat and looks around the room. When he doesn’t immediately spot her, I give him a clue. “She’s with Violet.”

He zeroes in on Violet and Lucy and then flips his head back to me. “Is that Luciana?”

I nod slowly. Even I have trouble believing she’s here. “Yep, Luciana Raven, in the flesh.”

Gabe whistles softly. “What’s she doing in town?”

“I’m not sure.”

Gabe is looking at me, waiting for me to continue, and when I don’t, I can hear the frustration in his voice. “Have you talked to her?”

I take a sip of my beer. “Yeah, her car broke down when she was driving into town. I stopped and gave her a ride. Her car is at my shop.”

Gabe scoots to the edge of his seat. “Is she in town visiting her mom? She moving back? Did you get the scoop?”

I put my hands up in front of me. “Whoa, slow down. She’s staying at her mom’s, but I don’t think she’s moving back. She’s engaged… well, she was. I’m not sure if she still is.”

I grimace thinking about the bruise on her face.

Gabe’s forehead creases, letting me know he’s deep in thought. His hair is loose today and wild around his face. He looks more like a lumberjack than a firefighter right now. He’s quiet for so long I know he’s got something on his mind. “What is it? What are you thinking?”

He slams his hand on the table between us. It’s so loud and hard that the people around us all stop and stare. Sometimes Gabe doesn’t know his ownstrength. He’s looking at me proudly, like he’s just solved one of life’s big mysteries. “Now’s your chance to win her back.”

"Stop," I say, even though my hope is already starting to rise.

He smiles excitedly. “No, listen. This is perfect. Come on, it’s fate, man. She breaks down, and of all the people in Whiskey Run, you’re the one that stops and helps her. What are the chances of that? This is meant to be, I’m telling you.”

“Did you miss the part where I said she’s engaged?”

He’s not giving in, though. He shakes his head, determined. “Nope. Listen, normally, I’d say she’s off limits, but this is different. I saw you two together. You were in love, and you wanted to be some kind of martyr. Now’s your chance to fix it.”

I wish it was that simple. I get a pit in my stomach when I think back to that day. I tried to break it off easily, but she wasn’t having it. She loved me, and I loved her. That’s why I did what I did. But no matter how much I knew that was true, it still guts me to think about how I treated her. “I told her that I didn’t want to be with her. I told her I was tired of being her bad boy just so she could rebel against her daddy. I told her that pussy likehers was a dime a dozen. I told her that I had fucked Rita Hayes the night before…” I huff out a breath, remembering the look on her face. I decimated her. “I don’t think there’s a way to come back from that.”

The more I say, the bigger Gabe’s eyes get. Yeah, he knew I broke it off with her, but I never told him how. Hell, I was so ashamed of myself I never wanted to think about what I said to her. I have lived with the pain and guilt from it ever since. “There’s no way you slept with Rita Hayes.”

I jut my chin at him. “How do you know?”

Again, he slams his fist on the table. “Because you were in love with Luciana, for fuck’s sake. There’s no way you’d go out on her. You would never have done anything to fuck that up, that’s how I knew you didn’t have a clue what Jamie was up to. You never would have—”

I hold my hand up to stop him. “This is all old news, and there’s no changing it. It is what it is, and now I have to deal with the aftermath.”

“But you can fix it. Now’s your chance.”

I shake my head, looking over at Lucy again. “There’s no fixing this. She hates me.”

As soon as I lay eyes on Lucy, I tense, causing Gabe to look too. All I can do is stare as I see Lucysmiling as she stands up and hugs Malcolm Bridges. He’s the owner and manager of the Whiskey Whistler. He’s a good guy, but right now, I want to rip his arms off.

They’re laughing and talking, and it takes everything I have to stay in my seat. I have no claims over Luciana, but I wish I did. I want to walk across the room, pull her into my arms, and kiss her so thoroughly that she forgets every man but me. But hell, I know if I tried it, she would probably slap the shit out of me.

All I can do is stare.

Gabe leans toward me. “Well, brother, I’m thinking you may want to figure your shit out real quick because it looks like Malcolm has no qualms about staking claims on her.”

I stand up. “Come on. Let’s go say hi.”

I’m across the bar in an instant, and I can see the exact moment that Lucy spots me coming toward her. Her eyebrows raise, and her body tenses. Hell, I hate getting that reaction from her. I approach the table with Gabe following behind, muttering something like “This oughta be good.”

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