Page 35 of Untamed

“Okay, Evie. I’ll let you know if Hayes loses his goddamn mind.”

I’ve been avoiding River all week. I can’t face her. I don’t know when I became this person, but I don’t like it. It’s not like I have any type of claim on her. We are friends. She’s made it clear she doesn’t want more than that.

“I feel like I’ve blown it.” I’m lying on Rhett’s couch, talking to him, Poppy, and Wells while the kids are asleep upstairs. It’s late, and we all had dinner together earlier, followed by one too many drinks on my part. “I know I’ve blown it.”

“Blown who, exactly?” Wells snickers.

“Your humor is not appreciated at this time,” I tell him.

“I think you should probably communicate a little better,” Poppy advises. “Not to be a go-between, but from what I’ve heard, you haven’t even hinted at the fact that you might be interested in more than friendship.”

“I kissed her!”

“Keep it down.” Rhett throws a pillow at my face.

“Did you discuss the kiss?” Poppy asks.

“It’s a kiss. What’s there to discuss?” I sink deeper into the couch. “This woman has me losing my goddamn mind.”

“And as a result, so are we.” Rhett gets up to go to the kitchen, presumably to get another beer. Poppy smiles up at him as he walks past, running her hand over his arm in a small gesture of love.

“That!” I point across the room at them. “See that! I want that.”

“Arm touches?” Poppy asks.

“Arm touches. Little looks.”

“Aww,” Wells coos. “He wants love.”

“You shut your face.” I point at him.

“You’d have to stop sleeping around,” Rhett quips from the kitchen.

“I have.” Kind of annoying that they haven’t noticed. “I haven’t been with someone in like two years.”

I turned twenty-eight, Dean started getting really bad, and Rhett started worrying about the ranch, and everything just kind of hit me. The city life hadn’t been for me, and I started to realize that maybe the lifestyle I had been living wasn’t either. So I stopped dipping my wick every chance I got and started focusing on other things. More important things.

Like building my house and starting a savings account. It started to feel like I was getting too old for living the same way I did when I was nineteen and twenty. If I wanted to have a nice house, a wife, and some kids, I needed to get my shit together.

“I guess I haven’t been paying attention,” Wells admits. “But now that you mention it, I haven’t seen you turning into the driveway on two wheels, late as shit because you were out all night in a long time.”

“No women hailing calling cabs from the main house either,” Rhett jokes as he sits down and tugs Poppy into his lap.

“I want all the good stuff. Wife, kids, noisy house. Started to realize I wasn’t going to get that if I didn’t settle my shit down.”

“So tell her that.” Poppy shrugs like it’s the easiest thing in the world.

“I can’t just walk up to her and tell her that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I would look like a crazy person. And we have history. Not so good history, I might add. She’d think I was insane, or she’d slam the metaphorical door in my face.”

“So.” She leans forward. “You kissed her but won’t talk about it. You want to date her but won’t talk about it. You don’t want her going on that date with Sawyer, but you won’t talk about it. What do you guys talk about?”

“Any of y’all know where he’s taking her, by the way?” I ask, ignoring her question.

“Why would we tell you?” Rhett asks.

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