Page 39 of When It Reins
“The eye-candy isn’t bad,” she says, following seamlessly with me around the floor. She is good for someone I never saw dancing, but then again, neither did I.
“Nice to know I’m good for something.”
She twists her lips, looking at me for a moment before she sighs. “The friendship is my favorite part, though.”
My heart twists in my chest at the comment, and I nearly get emotional at the feeling of it. The truth is Juniper is one of my greatest friends. I haven’t felt this close to someone since I was a teenager, and feeling it with her feels like something more.
It is probably why I am so terrified of being around her.
“Mine too,” I admit, pulling her just slightly closer, enough for her to notice but not to scare her off.
Though I was realizing, Juniper isn’t one that is so easily scared. As a matter of fact, she is someone who likes to look down the barrel of any challenge.
“How come you’re dancing with me?”
See, not someone who is going to back down from anything. I bite the inside of my lip, slowing down when the tempo changes, and I don’t have to focus as hard as before.
“I wanted to.”
It is such a copout, bullshit answer, but it isn’t a lie. I do want to. I have wanted to for a long time.
“Okay, why now? Because I invited you to that show?” Her question is purposefully kept light. I can tell by the way she looks away after she asks it, but the slight sweat to her palm has me well attuned to how she is truly feeling.
“Yes and no,” I admit, not wanting to go too far too fast but needing her to understand my feelings. I just wish she could read my mind, so I don’t have to say the words aloud.
Maybe I’m not ready for that, anyway.
There are plenty of reasons why we shouldn’t be together, why I should walk away right now. She is too young for me, she is my boss, she just got out of a relationship, she is my brother’s sister-in-law. The reasons go on and on.
And yet, I can’t find it in myself to walk away. Not again.
I’ve done it so many times. I’ve put everyone else’s needs ahead of my own more times than I can count, and I am feeling selfish now. Feeling like I am maybe deserving of a shot of something great.
“Why yes?”
“Because I’m happy for you.”
“Why no?”
I look back down at her, at the intensity of her gaze, and I know for a fact she isn’t going to let it go. There is no way she would.
I take a breath and shrug my shoulders, keeping my eyes trained on hers as I do, and admit, “Because I wanted to.”
18
mitch
Leavingtown was something I was highly accustomed to. Between my work with the club and the work I used to do, traveling from rodeo to rodeo, it wasn’t unusual for me to pick up and go.
But traveling on a private plane to play a concert with the woman who ran through my mind nonstop was not something I was accustomed to.
“Okay, so Ezra will be in the attached room to you guys, so if you run into any trouble, he’s on the other side of your door,” Jax explains, handing me a key card after checking us all in. Felicity is hanging out with Juniper, Luella, Ezra and their one-year-old son, Lawson, by the private elevators. “City and I will be in the connecting room with Luella.”
“Part of Logan’s stipulations?” I ask, referring to our niece’s rooming assignment.
“Nah. She watches Law, so it’s easier. Plus, I prefer she be where I can hear her myself.”
I stare at my younger brother, wondering when I missed the part where he became more responsible than any of us.
