Page 73 of Every Time My Heart Breaks

I sucked in a startled breath and pulled back, bumping into Luke. He gripped my elbow tighter, and Riley lifted her hand, laughing apologetically. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to surprise you. I just wanted to… Well…”

She leaped forward and threw her arms around me, which caused me to lock up, and go frozen for a moment. But then I caught Luke watching my face over her shoulder, and I released a breath, forcing myself to relax and pat Riley’s back in rigid gratitude.

“I’m just so sorry about what happened,” she gushed, squeezing hard enough that I flinched and gnashed my teeth.

By the time she pulled away, however, I was able to offer her a gracious smile. “Thanks.”

Except she kept hold of my hands, which made me feel vaguely trapped and gave me memories of my wrists being handcuffed.

“So how’ve you been doing?”

I started nodding that I was fine before I could even summon the words since it took me a moment to find my voice and actually speak again. “Good. Lots better,” I assured her.

Over her shoulder, Luke lifted a single eyebrow, silently calling bullshit on my answer.

“Recovering more every day,” I ignored him and added so he’d stop looking at me like that.

Riley burst into a wide grin. “Great. I’m so relieved. You really scared the shit out of us, you know.”

I forced a vague smile. “It scared the shit out of me too.”

Laughing, Riley leaned in, making me tighten in panic. “I’ll bet. You know…” She shook my hands that she was still holding. “We just need to get you back out there again, doing your thing. Hey…” Her brows lifted as an idea hit her. “Tucker’s doing a show in town next weekend.”

Vibrating with energy, she literally bounced as she mentioned her sister Rory’s husband, Tucker Holt, who was an up-and-coming country singer.

“I could score us some backstage passes and we could hang out with Rory, sipping cocktails and gossiping all evening. What do you say? Want to pull out your fancy cowboy boots and join me?”

I’d already been opening my mouth to come up with a polite rejection when she mentioned the boots. But from that point on, everything just kind of went blank in my head.

I no longer saw anything. No longer felt anything. No longer breathed. All the heat drained from my face and my hands went ice cold.

But my boots…

I’d made such a big deal about buying those boots so I could show some support to my cousin’s country-singing husband. They’d been ridiculously extravagant with all kinds of western designs stitched into them. And I had made sure to point them out to Tucker every time I saw him.

And now…

Now…

“I… We’ll see,” I think I answered Riley. At least I hope I did. It’s possible I didn’t even speak because the next thing I knew I was tugging my hands free from hers, making her pull back in surprise, and then I brushed past her and just walked out of the kitchen.

In the back of my mind, I think I wanted to stay and finish our conversation. Or at the very least tell her goodbye. But my body just seemed to take over, and I wandered away instead. Like I was in some kind of freaking trance.

I knew I was acting strange too when I heard Riley ask, “D-did I say something wrong?”

“She was wearing her boots that night,” Luke’s answer followed me down the hall, haunting me even more. “The boots are fucking gone.”

18LUKE

So Pick’s suggestion to woo Chloe with flattery and kindness had worked like utter shit.

She didn’t seem to be impressed by mynicenessat all.

After hugging Riley, who looked as if she was going to burst into tears all over the kitchen, I hurriedly reassured her that she’d done nothing wrong—it was just going to take Chloe more time to recover—I booked it out of there to track down the woman I was supposed to be falling in love with but could only seem to piss off instead.

Except when I reached the front room where a majority of the others were, she wasn’t there.

My jaw hardened with irritation. Where the hell was she?

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