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A smile tipped my lips, and I got out of the truck. Then I looked across the hood at my friend straightening his cowboy hat. “Hopefully after tonight, she’ll give me a chance.”

We looked both ways, then crossed Main Street to the building with people going in. “Speaking of tonight...” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Can I borrow your place?”

I stopped on the curb. “What the hell?”

“I wanna bring Camryn home, and my place is a mess.”

“Never seemed to stop you before,” I said, pinning him with a falsely curious stare. We both knew he liked her, but I kinda liked watching him squirm.

He shoved my arm. “She’s different and you know it.”

“You’ve known her for two seconds. How do you know she’s special?”

He glanced down and then back toward me. “It’s a feeling, okay? I just looked in her eyes and...” The tips of his ears were growing redder by the second. “Don’t make me say it.”

“Okay.” I chuckled. “And you think my place is clean?”

“You’re weird about shit like that,” he muttered, adjusting his hat again.

“Only because my mom could pop by at any moment, and I don’t want to catch any grief,” I replied. “But yeah, you can take my place. As long as you agree to do early feed duty for the next month.”

“Fuck,” he said, looking over his shoulder like he really had to consider it. And I didn’t blame him. The cows were not the kind of ladies you wanted to see when you woke up at four a.m. “Fine.” He stuck his hand out for me to shake. “I’ll do it.”

I shook his hand, grinning. “Let’s get in there and seal the deal.”

We walked up the stairs, saying hi to a fourth of the county on the way in and half the guys we knew from rodeos in the surrounding area. When we finally got into the big area set up like a dance floor surrounded by folding tables, Cooper said, “Do you see them?”

I scanned the room, seeing a lot of girls but none of them like Maggie and Cam. “Not yet.”

“Let’s get a drink,” he said, nodding toward the cash bar.

We made our way over to the set up in the corner of the room, standing in line to wait, when a gal named Mindy came up to me, giving me a tight hug that had her tits pressing against my middle. “Rhett, you did so great out there tonight!”

I smiled at her, stepping back to put some space between us. No way in hell would Mags see another girl on me tonight. “How ya doing, Min?”

“I’ll be better after a drink and a spin around the dance floor?” She batted her wide green eyes at me, and it struck me how different life already was.

A month ago, hell a week ago, I would have spun her around to whatever country song blared through the speakers, taken her home, and showed us both a good time. But now the idea of going home with anyone but Mags...

My dick didn’t like it. It would feel like fucking my hand—I’d get off, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near satisfying.

My heart didn’t like the idea either. Not that it usually had a lot of say in what I did.

“I think I’ll take a rain check,” I finally told her. “Have fun tonight for me, yeah?”

She pouted her full lips. “I’d rather have funwithyou.”

I chuckled. “Give a guy a chance, Min.”

She shook her head, waving her hand at me, and sauntered off.

Cooper watched with me as she went. “Shit, you have it bad.”

“Yep.”