Prologue - Cody
A week after the family BBQ…
Arcade - Duncan Laurence
The second I heard the words ‘Butch Cassidy’ being screeched across the ranch, I knew who was doing the shouting.
Except…
There’s no way that the T I’ve been writing to for years and the Tee who’s friends with Colt’s wife are one and the same.
That’s justimpossible.
Improbable.
Im-damn-plausible.
Like being killed by a shark in the middle of the Canadian tundra.
Or winning the lottery without a ticket.
Right?
But then I kept an eye on her. I listened. Okay, eavesdropped. And I watched her with Zee. Who has to be the friend ‘Z’ she always talks about.
“This isn’t happening,” I mumble to myself, watching Tee beat Callan in some sort of battle scene inThe Witcher.
Yet the impossible, improbable, and implausible is happening.
She’s here.
In my kid brother’s gaming room.
Eating popcorn.
Literallykeeping upwith Callan, the know-it-all.
In fact, she’s whupping his ass.
And God, is she pretty.
I cut ties with her because I thought she lived in New York and I was making my home in Saskatchewan.
Now, I find out she’s movinginto my house.
“Cody! You going to play with us? I have another controller,” Callan calls out.
I shoot him a tight smile that grows tighter when Tee flashes me a look.
Her gaze is piercing.
Direct.
Just like the woman I came to know.
Just like the woman who got me through that fucking mess in Vladivostok without even knowing it.
Just like the woman I didn’t want to say goodbye to but who I wanted to protect.