Page 34 of Slow Burn
His brows shot up. “Sister? Well, I’ll be.”
“Damned?” Jocelyn offered.
Natasha’s surprised snicker had Brian shifting his weight.
He gave Jocelyn a tight once-over before turning his attention fully on Natasha. “I’m in town for tonight, Tash. Would love to catch up.”
Her cheeks flushed. “That’s not a good idea, Brian.”
“Aw, just old friends talkin’ and stuff.” He flashed her a solicitous smile, used to that working.
No doubt “and stuff” meant a hell of a lot more than just chitchat.
Natasha’s fingers fluttered on the table, her gaze fixed on the food before her. Jocelyn could practically feel her sister’s resolve wavering.
But she gave a firm shake of her head. “No, thanks.”
He opened his mouth to protest again, wearing the look of a man certain this was some kind of game.
“We already have plans,” Jocelyn cut in before he could get another word out. “And family trumps… whatever you are.” She waved her hand up and down his body like he was a weird and disgusting abstract sculpture.
A sneer threatened to mar his obnoxiously pretty face, but before he could say whatever he was gearing up for, Cole interrupted.
“How’s everything look, ladies?” His tone was pleasant, but his eyes were hard, his expression anything but friendly as he regarded the cowboy.
“Looks great, Cole, thank you,” Jocelyn replied when Natasha said nothing. The red that had bloomed on her sister’s face had only deepened.
“You gonna order somethin’?” Cole’s question sounded more like a threat than an invitation.
Brian looked at Natasha, who refused to meet his gaze. “Tash?”
Natasha looked at Jocelyn and lifted her chin a little higher. “As she said, we already have plans.”
Brian sputtered, then glared at Jocelyn before grunting in frustration and storming toward the door.
Cole gave the sisters a nod and moved on, though he tracked Brian’s progress until the man was out the door.
Jocelyn found herself a bit amped even after he was gone, and she looked at her half-sister, whose food sat untouched. She wanted to ask for the story but fear of breaking what little bridge they had built kept her mouth shut.
The seconds ticked, and Jocelyn was about ready to throw caution to the wind when the words burst from Natasha like a dam breaking.
“He was engaged.” Her blue eyes flashed up, full of regret, before dropping again. “I didn’t know. Not at first, anyway.”
Jocelyn worked hard to slow her intake of breath. This new connection felt too fragile for her to react, though every part of her wanted to.
“He’s with the rodeo circuit. Breezes into town, then is gone for months. So it was a fling. Supposed to be a fling. But by the time I figured it out, I was in too deep. Took me a long while to let go.” Natasha pulled a lock of ashy blonde hair forward, winding it around her finger. “Then he up and brought herthrough town, and I saw her. Saw himwithher. And that’s when it hit me—he was never gonna leave her for me.”
The parallels were cruel. Jocelyn’s mama, too, had once been trapped in the orbit of a man who would never choose her. Jocelyn had lived her whole life with the fallout of that truth, and now she saw it mirrored in Natasha’s regret.
“Problem is,” Natasha whispered, “my fool heart still wants him, even though my head knows better.”
Jocelyn swallowed hard. She understood, too well, the ache of wanting what you knew you could never truly have.
Then, on instinct, she reached across the table and closed her hand over Natasha’s. For once, she didn’t analyze it or pull back. She simply held on, silently wondering if maybe all the brokenness in their pasts had been leading to this—two half-sisters finding a sliver of connection.
Because if she had come back to Cedar Hollow a year or two earlier, Natasha might never have let her close at all.
Their decisions might have defined them, but the consequences had changed them, and now a door existed where it hadn’t been before.
