Page 20 of Undone

I felt a ripple of pride. “You’re just making me look good.”

“We’re making each other look good,” he said close to my ear. “Check out the crowd, everyone is watching.”

My eyes went wide as I glanced around and noticed that not only were Shannon and her friends watching, quite a few other people were focused on us as well. I realized that more than a few were women with sour expressions.

I turned my attention back to Josh.

Gliding across the floor with him went from feeling embarrassing and awkward to natural. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t seem to dance with Shannon. Josh and Ifittogether, like we were a gear and a chain. Andbeing in Josh’s arms made me feel confident, like I deserved to be there.

Josh shifted his grip, bringing me a little closer and smiling down at me. Damn it, it was happening again. The woozy, drunken feeling that I could get lost in his eyes. I wanted to lean in and rest my head on his chest, to feel his solidness pressed up against me. It had been years since we’d beentogethertogether, yet being in his arms on the dance floor brought all of the sensual memories flooding back. He used to caress my naked body like he was addicted to the feel of my skin. Josh had always worshipped my entire body, and no one since him had made me feel as sexy, desired, and alive as he had.

I straightened up and leaned away from Josh with a start.No, enough of the fantasizing. Josh no longer felt that way for me and if I wanted to make it through the project and my time at the ranch, I needed to keep my distance. Wall off my heart, and all points south, too. I’d be leaving soon enough for a place where I’d never feel awkward and weird. A place where they accepted me as I was.

I looked up at Josh again as the song came to an end and tried not to think about how being in his arms was one of the few places where I’d always felt at home, and I refused to think about how much it was going to hurt when it was time to leave.

FOURTEEN

ZOE

“Okay, the drone is at full charge. It’s ready to go,” Amy said as she handed me her phone so I could use the virtual controller. “Easy peasy.”

When I’d told Shannon about my idea of using a drone to take some aerial photos of the ranch, she’d immediately called Amy, who’d agreed to come over. Evidently, she worked in the mayor’s office, and they had a drone that they used to take photos during town celebrations. She was more than happy to allow me to borrow it, with her supervision.

“Like this?” I tapped to turn on the drone and then gasped when I was able to get it to lift off and fly. “Whoa, this is amazing.”

“Right? I’ve got it set to take video, but if you want some stills, you can change the setting here.” She pointed to the small orange button.

“Got it. Do you happen to know the range?” I didn’t want to risk losing the mayor’s drone if I accidentally let it fly out of range.

“Easily two miles. Probably more,” she assured me. I grinned as thedrone circled around shooting video that I wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.

“This is amazing.” I flew the drone toward the entrance to the property and then made a wide arc. The virtual control was similar to my video game controller, making it easy for me to use.

The size of the video feed window was small but from what I could see, I’d be able to pull some amazing stills off it and possibly snip some short vids to add to the website and use on Instagram and TikTok.

I took the drone up higher, adjusted the camera and gasped. Below were riders on horseback racing toward the ranch. I dipped the drone lower to made a wide sweep and was able to make out Josh on Indigo along with Dustin and Mitch riding what looked like Goliath and Gatsby. Josh must have heard the drone because he took off his hat and gave us a big wave. I followed them as they raced across the grassy knoll, my excitement building. Once they reached the barn, I flew the drone away and did another wide sweep, taking in the entire ranch and all the outbuildings, eventually catching some of the horses out in one of the pastures. I flew lower, hoping to get some photos of the horses up close without having to do it myself, but after a minute, it was clear that the drone was making them nervous, so I circled back up again.

I did one more sweep before a small flashing yellow light began to strobe. “Uh-oh, that’s the low battery warning. Time to bring her in,” Amy said.

I directed the drone back toward us and brought it in for a relatively smooth landing on the field in front of us. Amy ran over to retrieve it and brought it back to place back in its carrying case.

“That was amazing. Thank you so much for letting me use the towndrone,” I said, my excitement bubbling over as I laughed. “That’s going to give me some amazing footage for their website.”

“You’re welcome. As soon as I get back, I’ll download the video and get it up on our cloud and send you the link. I’m fairly sure the files will be too big to email to you directly,” she said.

“Sure, that sounds perfect. I appreciate all your assistance on this.”

“No problem, though I may ask you to pay me back in trade. I was never very good with the drone myself, so if you’re really happy with the footage, I might ask for your help with some aerial shots I’ve been meaning to get.”

“Happy to help, if I can.”

I walked Amy to her car and once she loaded the drone, she handed me a flash drive. “I downloaded a few that we had saved of the surrounding area. They’re old and a bit blurry, but maybe you can clean them up—if you do, though, please do send the corrected ones back to me so we can use them, too.”

I took the drive and stuffed it in my pocket. “That’s great. Thank you again. I can’t wait to see the videos.”

“Then I better get back.”

When I entered the house, I was surprised to see it empty. I’d figured that Josh would have made it back to his office by now. He probably got stuck in the barn working and Shannon wasn’t due back for hours. She’d headed to Broadville to look at a stallion she was interested in using in her breeding program. Shannon had been grumbling about the high stud fees and the owner wasn’t interested in selling, but she went anyway hoping to talk them down to a lower dollar amount. I knew that my BFF could be tenacious and convincing when she set her mind to something and I hoped it would turn out to be a successful trip.

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