Page 97 of If It's You

“Ahh!” Emi screamed and dropped the bottle, running back to her mom.

Oops. Maizie should have started her on a chill calf.

“Did you see it’s tongue?” Emi asked her mom. “It washuge!”

Maizie smiled and picked up the bottle to finish the job.

But now she was stuck in place and couldn’t run away when Christian approached.

“Could we maybe talk?” Christian asked.

“Sorry. Rob’s taking me out tonight,” she said. A new emotion crossed his features. Was it anger? Jealousy?

“Rob?” He ground out the word.

“Yep. He doesn’t think of me as a problem,” she added with a glare.

“That’s not fair, you never let me explain.” Christian tried but she turned away. She couldn’t do this right now.

It was true, Rob had asked her out for tonight, but Maizie had never responded. She wasn’t the kind of person to kiss one guy but date another. But she hadn’t been thinking clearly when Christian had been looking at her. All she’d felt was the need for revenge. But the second it had left her mouth she regretted it. She didn’t want to go out with Rob. She didn’t know what she wanted. But it probably looked a lot like the city boy in front of her.

“Christian, I’m ready for that four-wheeler ride you promised me,” Caroline said, dropping a half-full bottle into the back of the truck.

“You have to feed it the whole thing,” Maizie said under her breath.

Caroline latched onto Christian’s arm then gave her an innocent shrug. “Oh, sorry.”

Sure she was sorry. She was going to be really sorry when the milk landed on her head.

“I’ll finish.” Jayce grabbed the bottle before Maizie had a chance to show Christian’s ex how dirty the farm could get.

Twenty-Four

“Do you want dessert?” Rob asked.

Maizie blinked and stared down at her half-eaten steak. She must have zoned out for a minute. She was usually comfortable hanging out with Rob. But then he’d shown up to her house in a fancy button-down, given her a flower, and taken her to the fanciest restaurant in town.

She’d told Christian it was a date to make him jealous, but she hadn’t believed it was true until now.

“No, thank you.”

Rob grabbed her a box and the check, and she stood from the table, eager to end whatever this was.

“Is everything okay?” Rob asked, trailing out of the restaurant behind her.

“Yeah,” she lied, slowing down so he could catch up. “Christian just said something yesterday that annoyed me.”

His hand clenched around the take-out boxes. “What did he say?”

“Oh, nothing really.” Her face flamed at the memory.

He was quiet for a moment as if mulling something over. “Why don’t we go back to the farm and play basketball or ride four-wheelers.”

Maizie looked at him. Why would she want to go back where Christian was?

“Sorry, I’m just kind of in a bad mood tonight.” She kicked at a stray rock on the curb.

“Come on, this will be fun. Just like we used to do with Mack.” Rob smiled at her.