Page 140 of Boots, Bucket Lists & Bad Ideas
The door rattles behind him.
“Asshole.” Josie locks the door and looks at our cousins. “How are you two even friends with him? He’s a complete jackass.”
“He’s like a brother,” Celi says.
“A pain in the ass, brother.” Daisy snorts. “But he’s protective and loyal. Once you’re in his books, he’ll fight your battles without needing a reason.”
They’re not wrong. I’ve seen this side of him.
“He’s one of the giant, gruff, misunderstood creatures who are secretly tender-hearted, and the stuff of fantasy bookdreams.” Natalie barely gets all her words out before she bursts into laughter.
“No. Enough out of you. You’re putting weird thoughts in my head.” Josie’s finger points at me. “Now, back to you.”
“Nope.”
“Let me do your hair and makeup.” Josie drags me to a leather bar stool beside Daisy. “Here’s to no roadside trauma tonight.” She hands me a glass, but she doesn’t let go when my fingers slip around it. “And no unwanted dick proximity.”
Hannah groans.
“You practically performed a medical procedure picking those ants off him.” Josie lets go of the glass. “Unless you want the dick proximity.”
“Make her stop,” I beg.
“It doesn’t have to be his since you two are being so weird.” She drags the brush through my hair, yanking my head back. “I do think you two boned, and this is the awkward aftermath.”
“We didn’t bone.” I sigh, pulling my head straight. “I’ve just decided I’m done fighting with him.”
“So you can bone him?” The rasp of the bristles stings my scalp.
“So I can live my life instead of living in the past.”
“Told you there was a past. Knew it.” Josie’s fingers dive into my scalp, spreading through the damp curls, creating a middle part.
“Enough about Hart. Tonight, I ride something mechanical and mark that off my bucket list.”
Not that a mechanical bull is on my bucket list. How did Hart remember exactly what the page meant? Why would he remember? If all I’d been was another fuck for him, why remember the pages? Why care about the book?
I stop myself. This is the road I’m finished traveling.
Josie clutches a fistful of hair. “You’re not ruling out all men. We’re at the rodeo. There are single wannabe cowboys everywhere who want to snag a cowgirl. You’re single. I’m single. Daisy’s single. Hannah’s single—”
“Don’t mash me into the mix.” Hannah slides the window curtain to peek outside.
“Wyatt’s coming. Get over it. Or get under him.” Josie plugs in a blow dryer. “I bet he won’t say no to grinding against you on the dance floor.”
“The only grinding any of us is doing is to the mechanical bull.” Daisy palms smack the counter, rattling out a drumroll.
Josie turns on the blow dryer, her fingers ruffling through my hair as she dries my roots.
Celi slides her sister a drink. “Just for you,” she shouts over the hum. “It’s called Heartbreaker Highball.”
Daisy scoffs. “I don’t break hearts.”
“No. You break their balls after you dance, drink, and hustle them at pool, but you never take one home.”
Daisy laughs hard. “You don’t stir up dust in your own corral. Besides, this weekend is about Jade’s bucket list.” Daisy lifts the glass to me. “To mechanical bulls.”
I lift the drink Celi gives me. “Grinding mechanical bulls.”
