Page 63 of Edge of Unbroken

“But you’ve kissed a girl, right?” Miranda asks.

“Duh.” He huffs with an eye roll. “But living in the middle of nowhere doesn’t really lend itself to hooking up,” Elias says, and Miranda glances at me with a sly smirk. “And I don’t really get away enough,” he says, then looks at Miranda again. “I’d like to kiss you, though.”

Devin claps Elias hard on the shoulder. “Dude, help me get another round of drinks,” Devin says, his speech equally garbled, and Elias obliges.

“I should take his virginity,” Miranda says to me, a naughty grin on her face as she watches Elias stumble toward the bar with Devin. “He’s kinda cute now.”

I chuckle. “What are you, a trophy hunter?”

She shrugs with a giggle.

I watch Elias lean against the bar counter to steady himself. “Honestly, I think the only thing you might be able to take from him tonight is his wallet.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. He probably wouldn’t even be able to get it up,” she says with a quick laugh, extending her index finger then immediately letting it go limp again.

“Probably not,” I say with a sympathetic shake of my head. “At least not long enough to make it worth your while.”

“Might make it worth his while though,” she laughs. “Poor guy hasn’t ever felt a girl like that.”

“Sweet how concerned you are for his sex life… or lack thereof,” I say with a grin.

“Well, you know me, always concerned for people’s well-being. I’m a regular Mother Theresa,” Miranda says with a shrug.

I laugh out loud. “Oh yeah, no better comparison.”

“You disagree?”

“Never,” I say, still laughing.

“So, your feline called me back,” Miranda says suddenly, giving my heart a jolt.

“What?”

“Yeah, she called me back Thursday morning,” Miranda says with a gleam in her blue eyes.

I groan. “Please tell me you were nice to her.”

Miranda clutches her hand to her chest, pretending to be offended. “Good god, Rony, who do you think I am? Of course, I was nice to her. She was so sweet. A little confused when I answered the phone, but really sweet. I think I like her.”

“What did she say?” I ask, missing Cat so fucking badly. Man am I glad I get to talk to her tomorrow.

“Not much. At first, she thought she had the wrong number, but then I told her we had hung out and that I had made you call her when you told me how much you missed her. She has a really sweet voice.”

“Yeah, she does,” I agree wholeheartedly, unable to stop myself from smiling.

Miranda studies me. “You love her a lot, huh?”

“Yeah,” I say again, sighing deeply.

“Must be hard to be so far away from her.” I nod again as my heart aches in my chest. “I’d make you call her again, but my phone’s dead,” she says with a shrug.

Elias and Devin come stumbling toward us, and I swear they’ve spilled half of their drinks on their short way back to the table. Elias almost falls over and into me.

“Are you alright, man?” I ask, though one look at his face—his eyes droopy and blood-red—tells me he’s absolutely trashed. We should probably get back to the ranch.

“Totally fine,” he slurs, nearly missing the seat of his chair. I raise my eyebrows while Miranda giggles next to me. “But Sherling, Curling… Sterling cut us off,” Elias grunts with an exaggerated nod in Sterling’s direction.

“That was probably the right call,” I say. Miranda nods in agreement. “How about we make our way back home?” I ask with a look at my watch. It’s just past midnight and it’ll take me about an hour to get us back to the ranch.

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