Page 2 of Buck This
“Why the fuck did your friend bail on you?” he demanded, rounding on her again.
She felt like she was in trouble, and she didn’t like it. She was a grown woman, and she’d been through a lot, and she hadn’t signed up for any of this! She’d been bullied into coming here tonight. Torey pulled the sides of her dress up to let it fall around her hips again. “Because I don’t fit in with her world. Obviously.”
“You’re friend’s lame. So is her stupid boyfriend.”
“Husband now,” she muttered.
“Ha!” The cowboy removed his hat and then replaced it and laughed again. “Your friend married Cobalt Blue?” He gritted out the name like a curse word. He huffed a breath and shook his head. “That tells me all I need to know about you.”
“About me?” she demanded, her cheeks burning with anger. “I didn’t marry him. I barely know him. Hell, Reece barely knows him. Three months ago, our lives made sense, and then all of a sudden I was maid of honor at some big ranch wedding in Denver and now I’m at a rodeo, where my friend, who has never worn a pair of boots in her life, told me this was the look for me tonight. And then I almost died,” she pointed out, rubbing the back of her neck. It was still tingling from where he’d gripped her.
The tall cowboy narrowed his eyes at her and sighed. He was atrociously behaved, but she couldn’t deny the man was sexy as hell. Cowboys weren’t her type, but he had this short beard that was just a shade darker than his hair that curled out from under his cowboy hat. He had a chiseled jaw, and broad shoulders that probably got him into a lot of panties. And those eyes…oh, those glowing green eyes.
She bet she knew what he was.
“You a shifter?”
He looked grossed out by the question and gestured around them. “This is a shifter event. Being a shifter isn’t special here. You want autographs?” He pointed toward a wide hall. “Go in there. It’s safer for a city-slicker like you.”
City-slicker?
He strode away with long, powerful strides.
“I’m Torrey,” she called.
“Don’t care,” he called back without turning around.
She stared after him until he climbed a gate like he’d done it a million times. He hopped off the other side and disappeared into a crowd.
Reece was sitting on top of a nearby panel with Cobalt, staring at her with a strange frown on her pretty face.
What?Torrey mouthed.
Reece’s frown deepened before she returned her attention to Cobalt.
Sweet. Torrey couldn’t feel much lower than she did now and was beginning to realize just how bad a decision coming here had been.
She’d thought tonight would be about hanging out with her best friend and cheering on her new husband. Truth be told, she had missed Reece very much lately. Torrey was going through something big, and she’d needed to lean on Reece, but she couldn’t take away from Reece’s happy time. It didn’t sit right with her, so she did this—she waited for Reece to invite her out and she tried to enjoy the time they had together, hoping that someday when the newness of the marriage settled, Reece would go back to being her normal, caring self again.
She stayed plastered against the railing and aimed for the wide-mouth hallway that Grumpy Cowboy had pointed at. She wasn’t interested in autographs, but she was interested in survival, and that opening felt like the direct path to that.
“’Scuse me,” she murmured, edging around people who were standing against the railing talking in pairs and trios.
“Nice shoes,” someone called sarcastically.
“Ha, thank you,” she muttered, pretty certain her cheeks would hold this blush for the rest of her life.
The hallway opened immediately to an enormous open arena crowded with people. There were several lines, and as she stood on her tiptoes to see around the masses, she noted several guys at the tables signing pictures for fans.
Who were they?
Torrey scratched an itch on her neck and looked up at the open night sky, dotted with stars. She hadn’t realized how enormous this venue was. Against the railing, there was a bar with several bartenders working. She kind of wished she could buy Grumpy Cowboy a beer for saving her, but he would probably throw it at her or something.
Maybe they sold soft drinks.
Her phone dinged in her purse, and about four people around her tossed her dirty looks. Right, shifters were everywhere here. That sound was probably annoying to their oversensitive ears. She scrambled to retrieve her phone from her purse before another text came through.
It was probably Reece wanting to meet up.
