Page 62 of Cold Foot Cash

“Kind of.”

“Forty-eight dollars and fifty-two cents.”

“Did you like, use coupons or something? These look really nice.”

“Thank you,” she said earnestly. “That made me feel good.”

“Look, the point is, you look like a million bucks, you’re so damn pretty, and classy, and I’m not used to women like you.” Cash reached forward and pushed her hair out of her face and behind her ear. “You’re really okay?”

“You keep asking me that.”

“I was worried.”

“You’re making it very difficult to see you as a friend when you keep being so nice to me, Cash.”

“Did you really name my feather Gregory?”

“Yes.” She pulled Gregory from her purse. “I’ve taken him on adventures today. He’s my little friend.”

Cash had his hand over his mouth and he was chuckling.

She giggled in response. “What?”

“You’re just really fuckin’ cute. I had this plan to come in here and save you from whatever was happening, but you’re just in here being adorable. No notes. Keep coping however you need to cope. Do you want to drink some water?”

She inhaled sharply, and admitted in a whisper, “I’m really sad.”

Whatever he saw on her face drained the amusement from his eyes. Cash dropped his gaze and swallowed hard. “I know. It’s a bad day, huh?”

She nodded, her eyes prickling with tears. “I was doing good all night and I barely cried here at all,” she pushed out past her tightening vocal cords. “But you’re here and I have to tell you bad news, and I’m sorry.”

“Okay, that’s okay. Tell me the news.”

“We will have to be best friends forever.”

He nodded for a few moments. “Okay.”

“I mean forever, forever. Forever, and ever, and ever, and ever. I will never be allowed to have a crush on you.”

Cash glanced over at Tammy, and then pulled Harley’s chair closer to his. “It will end at some point. You can’t go hopeless on me, Harley, okay? I promise it’ll end at some point. I don’t know when, but I know it will. Okay? Do you trust me?”

She stared down at her hands as she wrung them in her lap.

“Hey,” he said, hooking a finger under her chin to lift her gaze back up to his. “Remember when I took you flying? And I never let you fall?”

She nodded. “I’m telling you, it’ll end. If you were a shifter right now, you would be able to hear that I’m telling you the truth. And until this is over, I’m here, best-friending the shit out of this. It’s me and you, Garden Ho.”

She sniffed. “You drove four hours to come see me.”

“Well, technically less that that.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I beat the GPS’s ETA by forty-five minutes—”

“Forty-five minutes! Cash! How are you still alive? Is your truck okay? How many tickets did you get? Did you ride here in a freakin’ time machine?”

His laugh sucked all the tears back up into her eyeballs. God, it felt good to have him here.

“Tuesday is not going to happen,” she told him, just wanting to get it over with.

“Okay, well we’ll figure it out. Tonight, let’s just enjoy these delicious ice waters.”

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