Page 103 of Pretend To Be My Cowboy
She left, moron. Of course she doesn’t want to see you.
Cody didn’t have a chance to reply. Kit came over and clapped a hand on his brother’s shoulder as he looked Nash over. “What did I miss? Why does the brother of the bride look like he’s gonna start a fight with one of the guests?”
Nash turned his glare to Kit. He was definitely not in the mood for his best friend’s jokes right now.
Kit held his hands up in mock surrender. “Hey Cody, can you go help Mom and Dad with the kids for a minute? Looks like they could use a break from the sugar-high twins.”
“Sure thing.” Cody slumped with relief as he walked away and Nash felt a pang of guilt.
“I wasn’t mad at your brother,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, we all know what’s really bothering you,” Kit said. “What I want to know is, what are you going to do about it?”
Nash didn’t reply. He turned and stared at the dancing and laughter before him. Emma should be here. Even the twins had come up to him asking where she’d gone.
She belonged here. With him.
But did she want to stay?
Kit exhaled loudly. “You know you could just tell her the truth, right?”
Nash stiffened. “Which is?”
“You’re falling in love with her.”
The words hit him hard. He’d admitted the depths of his feelings to himself, but hearing his best friend say it aloud made it feel even more real. It made it impossible to deny and even harder to avoid.
He could feel Kit’s eyes on him, waiting for some sort of reaction. No, he couldn’t deny it. But that didn’t change anything right now. It wasn’t about what he wanted. It was about Emma, and what she deserved.
“Well?” Kit prompted. “Don’t you think you owe her the truth?”
Nash flinched. He was no longer seeing the dancing family and friends before him because his mind’s eye was filled with the image of Emma’s wounded expression. She’d said she believed him, but wariness still lingered in her gaze. She didn’t completely trust him anymore, and he wasn’t sure how he’d ever fix that.
He crossed his arms over his chest, as if that might alleviate this pain. “I broke her trust. I’m not sure she’d believe me now.”
Kit scoffed. “Nash,Ibelieve you’re in love with her, and I’m a skeptic when it comes to romance. You saw what happened to me.”
Nash frowned over at his friend. He hated the bitterness that tinged Kit’s voice whenever he talked about his ex. It was so at odds with his naturally laidback, easy going demeanor. “None of us saw that one coming. Natalie fooled us all.”
“She did.” Kit nodded, his brows coming down in a surprisingly serious expression. “Thing is, I don’t think Emma’s faking it. You two at the festival. The way you were laughing together, looking at each other, that kiss…” He met Nash’s stare head on. “There was nothing fake about that.”
Nash shook his head in frustration. “I know. I mean, for me, there wasn’t.”
Kit arched a brow. “Then what’s holding you back?”
Nash huffed. Where to begin?
He settled for, “Relationships are complicated.”
And that was putting it mildly. He’d never even been in a real relationship, because they always seemed like too much work. He didn’t know how to talk to women, he couldn’t read their minds and figure out what they wanted.
Add to all that the fact that Emma had a family and a career in Chicago, the fact that she didn’t trust him any longer thanks to his father’s agenda and his own actions, and things went from complicated to doomed.
Maybe if he had more time, but she was supposed to be on a flight back home early Tuesday morning. Two days wasn’t nearly enough time to prove to her that his interest had nothing to do with the land or his father.
“Complicated, huh?” Kit’s voice was filled with disbelief. “I’ve heard the right ones are easy. Look at my parents. Look at your parents, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles. Happy marriages are everywhere, man.”
Nash swallowed hard. He knew Kit was right. Happy marriages did exist. And when it came to Emma, he’d found talking far easier than he ever thought it could be. Until he’d gone and blown it.
