Page 39 of Say the Words
“What? They shelled out thousands for that cruise, easy. I’m just saying, I can watch the sun set over my pastures any night I want.”
“All you’re missing is a woman to share it with.”
His jaw pulsed. “Right.”
The moment between us shifted. I’d hit a sore spot, but I wasn’t sure exactly how. My thoughts drifted to the blond woman, the Amazonian goddess of my imagination who could rope and ride, and give him all the hot rancher-loving he could wish for. For the first time, I wondered how that relationship had ended, and what had gone wrong. Who she’d even been to begin with.
Blondie had probably fallen for him with everything she had, but couldn’t get past his stony outer shell. His heart was buried so deep, she had never been able to reach it, and she’d finally had to leave, heartbroken by his rigid stoicism. He’d been too proud to beg her to stay.
Ty narrowed his eyes on me like he knew I was sifting through imaginary versions of his past. Or maybe I’d just been staring too long again. That seemed to be a real problem tonight. Still couldn’t draw my eyes away, though. The moment dragged on, moving from awkwardness, to something almost tangible. My gaze fell to his lips again, and the kiln in my chest I kept trying to turn down cranked up to high again.
Eden and Booker returned to the table, shattering the moment. The rest of the bridal party joined them—the games had apparently ended in a draw, leaving both sides disappointed. I shifted slightly away from Ty, who gave away nothing of whatever he’d been thinking before the interruption.
“We’re calling it a night.” Eden spoke too loudly, in trademark drunk woman style. “Booker’s going to come home with me, Ty.”
“None of you are fit to drive,” he said as we stood from the table.
Huh. So he bossed around people who weren’t me, too. Good to know.
“I haven’t been drinking.” Harper’s petulance said she hadn’t been a totally willing designated driver.
“She lost at rock paper scissors.” Eliza threw an arm around her sister. “You’re so responsible. I love that about you.”
Harper crinkled her nose. “Okay, you’re not going to throw up in my car, right?”
Eliza rolled her eyes. “That was one time.”
“It’s going to be a tight squeeze. You’ll have to sit in the back between Eden and June until we drop off the lovebirds.”
“I could drop June somewhere.”
Isaiah’s heated glance would have flattered me any other time, but tonight, I just wasn’t feeling it. Not with my body still on fire from a little sustained eye contact with Ty.
“Oh, that’s okay—” I started to say, when Ty cut in.
“I’ll take June. I’m going that way.”
My popdidlive close by him on the other side of town. Ty was just being practical. The curl of fire crackling through me? Completely unrelated.
Outside The Broken Hammer, Eden called out to everyone not to forget about the rehearsal dinner the next weekend, as though anyone in the bridal party would forget our duties. I said my goodbyes and followed Ty to his old red truck. He unlocked the passenger door with his key and gestured toward it but didn’t open the door. Even through my lingering sangria-haze, I could still put two and two together.
“It hurts to open it?”
His jaw ticked again, and I imagined his molars being ground into dust.
“You can stop asking me that, June. It hurts to do everything.”
“Here, then.” I darted to the driver’s side.
“I’m not going to let you drive.” He walked around the front of the truck to me. “That sangria’s still doing a number on you.”
I rounded on him. “In what way?”
“You keep drifting away in your thoughts. I can see you checking out, spinning your secret yarns. You get on the road, it won’t end well.”
All true. I’d been staring at him lost in thought all night, but I didn’t like that he had noticed. “I never offered to drive. I’m just going to open the door for you.”
He stared at me until I had a feeling he was rethinking his offer to take me home. I snatched the keys out of his hand, anyway. Unlocking the driver’s side door, I understood why he’d been reluctant to open mine. Old-school heavy on its creaky hinge, it took a good yank to get it open wide. Without another word, I gave him back his keys and walked around to climb in the passenger side.
