Page 6 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

“She’ll survive and so will you. Just be nice. C’mon.” He got out of the car, and Paige sighed, put her head in her hands.

“Be nice,” she said to the empty car. “Sure. Easy-peasy.” She looked up at Julia again, tried her brother’s fake smile and added a little wave for good measure. She got out of the car and braced against the heat. Turks had been consistently warm, with near one-hundred-percent humidity some days, but there weren’t the fluctuations that Montana had, especially in the mountain valleys like this one. This heat felt like a sauna.

Paige reluctantly walked up the three concrete steps to the front door, then opened the screen; the air-conditioning hit her face like a welcome island breeze. She shut her eyes briefly, imagining crystal-blue water in front of her, sand beneath her feet, and a coconut filled with local libations in her hand. She could almost hear the steel drums, feel their beat pulsing through her. God, it was nice to be back there, even just in her thoughts.

The daydream came to a violent end when a chorus of voices screamed, “Surprise!”

No, no, no, no. Not today.Unfortunately, she couldn’t blink away the crowd in front of her.

Her mom and dad stood at the center of the crowd, her brother and Julia beside them. People Paige hadn’t seen in years surrounded them. Her high school Spanish teacher with her husband. Three of her mom’s book club friends she’d known as babysitters growing up. Then, it seemed, anyone Paige had come in contact with during her eighteen short years in Banberry—hairdressers, dentists, teachers—on the periphery. They blurred into one organism, obnoxiously standing between her and sleep. The gaudy pink decorations exploding from every corner of the small room left her confused. Was someone pregnant?

Her mom came up to her all smiles and hugged Paige. She was glad for the small but welcome bit of familiarity and distraction.

“Welcome home, hun. We missed you.” Her mom swept her arm towards the throng of people waiting expectantly. For what, though?

Paige honestly couldn’t figure out why they were all there.

Her brother and Julia had better not be expecting…

“I missed you, too, Mom. Whatisall this?” She whispered the last part, hating that it came out sounding like a hiss.

“It was Julia’s idea. She wanted to throw a surprise party for you to welcome you back to the States. Isn’t that just the sweetest?” Her mom seemed to compensate for Paige’s lowered voice by raising hers in volume and pitch.

A surprise party?Was she four years old?

Paige bit her tongue so she didn’t comment on what it really was. A pink, unwanted nightmare.

“You should greet everyone. Tell them thank you for coming,” her mom whispered, nudging her forward.

“I didn’t ask for this, Mom,” Paige said through clenched teeth. “I just wanted to see you and Dad.”

“Don’t you dare be like that. Say hi to your guests, Paige. I didn’t raise you to be rude.” Another nudge pushed her in front of the crowd.

Paige rolled her eyes and looked for Brad. He was the more social of them both. He’d know what to say. There was no way he would have subjected her to this only to leave her alone, thrown to the wolves.

She finally spied him with Julia in the corner of the kitchen, Julia’s hand waving violently in his face as she whisper-yelled something to him that clearly pissed him off. His fake smile was long gone, replaced instead with balled fists and flushed cheeks.

Paige was on her own, not unlike her brother.

“Fine,” she told her mom. She cleared her throat, glancing at the guests sitting or standing awkwardly, waiting for her.

“Hi, guys. It’s great to be back,” she started, feeling the lie as she said it. At that moment, she’d have given anything to be back in Turks, with the carefree friendship of Aurelie, drinking Dirty Conchs instead of cheap beer, listening to local reggae and not the elevator music playing on Julia’s Bluetooth speaker.

But she’d been restless and left. She had no one to blame but herself.

“Um, it’s good to see you all again. Especially you, Mrs. Hamshire. I’m going to find you in a sec to book a much-needed hair appointment this week while I’m home.” Everyone laughed, giving Paige time to visually check in on Brad, who was no longer in the kitchen.

Julia stood there alone, her frown etched into lines on her forehead while she gathered a plate of deviled eggs, Paige’s least favorite party food.

“I’d like to thank you all for coming to welcome me back. It reminds me just how special this town is. I can’t wait to catch up with each of you.” Another lie that compounded her guilt. The crowd of people Paige barely remembered from her childhood cheered and took her words as their cue to go mingle, releasing Paige from being the center of attention. She exhaled a deep breath.

When she did, her eyes landed on a man in the back of the room. He was the only person there she didn’t recognize, a tall cowboy with a flannel shirt and muscles that seemed to press against the material as if struggling to break free. His hair was tucked into a backwards ball cap instead of the usual Stetson on every male over the age of five and she could see blond curls sneaking out of the sides. He looked to be her age, but she didn’t get anything more than that from his stoic gaze.

That was pinned on her. A stirring fluttered in her abdomen.

Who was he here with? She couldn’t take her eyes off him. He wasn’t her type for all the reasons Banberry itself wasn’t, but her body didn’t seem to register that. A heat pooled in her belly, a distantly familiar feeling that hadn’t occurred in months, if not longer. He had to be 6’5”, and as she took in his hands—his massive, tanned hands holding a bottle of Amstel—she wondered what else on him might be as large.

She blushed and turned away when she realized he was still watching her, a frown on his face.

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