Page 49 of More Than an Ex-Girlfriend

“Layla.”

“Yes. That’s her name. She asked me to go to the wedding with Lettie, and Lettie said she’d like that, so I’m accompanying her. As afriend. It’s not like a date or anything. But since you are sobusyon the ranch and can’t make it, she was trying to find someone else.” He shifts his stance. “I’ll be a perfect gentleman. And when we dance, I’ll keep my hands in friendly places. Obviously. I’d do that anyway, but I’m just making that clear because of the situation.”

Friendly places? I hate the idea of Lettie and Anderson going together, but it’s not like I have a say. I’m the one who turned down her invitation. “Thingsarebusy.”

“Phooey. They aren’t any busier than normal. Why don’t you want to go with her?” His gaze falls to the tool in my hand as he steps closer. “What happened?”

“The scare with that guy rattled me, but I can’t rekindle anything without knowing what went wrong. And she won’t tell me.”

“Does it really matter?”

“To me it does. Imagine you have a puzzle and one piece is missing. That’s the way I feel. I want to trust her. But there is one piece missing, and it messes up everything. So I’m pulling back. I’m still friendly with her, but a whole night of dancing? I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I can’t resist giving Anderson a bit of a hard time even though I don’t blame him for saying yes. “And I still know where you live.”

“I could move.” He flashes a grin. “But it’s no fun going solo to a wedding. You want her to have fun, right?”

Nodding, I resume work on the fence. “Yeah. But it bothers me that she’ll be having fun with someone else. And that’s dumb because I’m the one who said no.”

“I’m glad you aren’t mad at me. Also, I need her number.”

I slide my phone out of my pocket and toss it over. “It’s in my contacts.”

“There’s a popup saying that you have a message from Regretful-Raccoon. Are you chatting about wildlife or is this someone special?” He laughs.

“It’s nothing.” That is a complete lie.

Why is she messaging me?

He cocks his head. “The tone in your voice tells me it’s the opposite of nothing. But if you’re serious about finding someone new, I hope it works out.”

Choosing to ignore that last part, I wipe the beads of sweat off my neck. “When you were at the donut shop, did Lettie say anything about me?”

“Yep.” He scrunches up his face. “She made a comment about things being busy at the ranch, and I said that they were no busier than normal. Then when I asked why you weren’t going with her to the wedding thing, she said because you had too much to do on the ranch. That’s all she said about you.”

“Dang it. She knows I’m making up excuses.”

And that’s why she’s messaging Crocheting-Cowboy. She’s reaching out because I hurt her. What the heck am I supposed to do now? I need to come clean about the messages, but I’m not even sure how to bring it up. And maybe Crocheting-Cowboy can put a smile on her face. Is that so wrong?

“Pretty sure she put that together. I guess this means that things are complicated again.”

“For sure.” I trim off the end of a wire. “If I could make myself not care about why we broke up, that would solve everything.”

“It makes sense why you can’t let that go. A puzzle with one piece missing would bug me too. But she may have a good reason for not telling you.”

“Maybe. But it’s the only thing keeping us apart at this point. If I make a big deal out of that, then she’ll feel pressured to tell me. And I’d feel like a jerk for doing that.”

He hands back my phone. “If you change your mind, just say the word, and you can go as her date.”

“Thanks, Anderson.”

He swings up onto his horse, then taps away on his phone. Does it bother me that he’s texting Lettie? Absolutely.

When I get home that evening, the adjoining door is closed. I trudge back to take a shower, glad I ate at the mess hall before coming back here. As I undress, I find myself listening for any signs of life on the other side of the wall.

But Lettie is quiet.

After my shower, I flop onto the bed and stare at the message on Reddit. She finished with a question. Ignoring it would be rude, but I’m not ready to admit that we’ve been chatting for months.

I tap out a quick answer and hit send before I can question it too much.

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