Page 34 of The Pieces We've Lost

How do you know something happened?

Isa

i’m your best friend. i know you. come on, at least come with me to dinner tomorrow. no bars

Alright fine. No bars though

At least I had Isa. As much as I tried to hide things from her and downplay my emotions, she always knewwhat was going on and she always knew what to do or say. I was lucky to have her.

isa.bennett

okay, cowboy. i’ve done my part. don’t mess this up

I read the message she sent with all of the details. I owed Isabelle Bennett big time. I hadn’t even met her, yet she still thought I was good enough that she wanted to help me win over Ellison. Even if she simply wanted to look out for her best friend, she still deemed me worthy of Ellison’s attention when she could have turned me away and told me to get lost.

You have no idea how much this means to me.

Isa.bennett

yeah yeah. just don’t make me regret it later

You have my word.

This was the best news I had gotten since I found out Reid and I had made it to the NFR last year. There was almost as much pressure riding on this too, if not even more. The NFR would come and go; there was an opportunity to make it every year. A girl like Ellison Wilson? Now, that was rare.

CHAPTER TWENTY

ellison

Isa had promised me we wouldn’t be going out to the bar after dinner, but we ended up there anyway. We were at the same bar we had been at the night I had bumped into Colter, and I was nervously looking around, making sure no one I had seen before was there, especially not the drugstore cowboy who tried to get me to wear his hat. I didn’t see anyone I immediately recognized, so I relaxed a little. Tonight was going to go smoothly. It would be fine.

We were sitting at a table, watching people struggle with the line dances we weren’t even going to attempt to try. We hadn’t talked about Colter at all—at least not yet. I knew she would eventually ask, though.

“Hey, so when are you going to tell me what happened between you and Colter?” Isa asked, almost like she knew exactly what I was thinking.

“What do you mean?” I frowned.

“You haven’t talked about him and you haven’t been texting him. Come on, I’m your best friend, Ellie.”

“I’m just embarrassed I guess. After the diner, we wentfor a drive and we talked. Everything was fine, but then he was about to kiss me and we got interrupted by his roping partner.”

“And then?” She was practically on the edge of her seat, waiting to hear about my drama.

“I told him it was probably for the best that we didn’t.” A twinge of shame came over me as I thought about the way I had handled it. I wasn’t ready for Isabelle to give me a talk about romance and how I should have gone about it. I loved her, but our minds operated differently. “I need to go to the restroom. I’ll be right back.”

I got up from the table and walked toward the hallway where the restrooms were. Right as I was about to open the door, a hand blocked the way.What the?—

I turned, looking straight in the face of the owner of the hand.

“Well, hello again, darlin’,” the cowboy from a week ago drawled. He was still wearing his god-awful misshapen cowboy hat, but he had a hard look in his eyes, one I’d seen too many times. “I saw you from the other end of the bar and I wasn’t going to let you get away from me again.”

“Uh-uh. No. That’s not happening.” I tried to turn around, screw the bathrooms, but he grabbed my wrist, pulling me back to him, his body flush against mine.

“I’m not taking no for an answer this time.” His breath was hot on my face and reeked of alcohol. I tried to throw a punch at him, but he grabbed my other wrist, pinning me to the wall, moving so I couldn’t even knee him in the groin. He was stronger than he looked, I had to give him that.

The hallway was far enough out of the way that no one would see us back here. No one would hear a struggle either with how loud it was and how many people werehere. He was going to get exactly what he had wanted the first night, and I had no defense this time. I had offended him, and he was getting back at me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to disappear through the wall, not wanting to know what was about to happen. But before he could carry out his plan, a low, familiar voice came out of nowhere.

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