Page 31 of Bad For Me (Rock Canyon, Idaho 5)

Valerie came stomping into the barn seconds later, her simple black maternity dress covering up her small, rounded tummy. Everett thought his soon-to-be sister-in-law looked like a disgruntled kitten, what with her dark hair pulled back from her face in a ponytail, showing off bared teeth and slitted eyes.

She was holding something in her hand that looked a little tie-dyed. “You are never allowed to do laundry again! Look at what you did to my new top!”

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I was just trying to help. I could hear you throwing up, and I know how that wipes you out, so—”

Valerie burst into tears and sank onto a hay bale, burying her face in the ruined shirt. Justin looked up at Everett helplessly.

Everett shrugged. “Don’t look at me. Women confuse me, even when they aren’t hormonal.”

“Shut up, Everett!” Val wailed.

Everett covered up a laugh with a cough as Justin went to sit next to his distraught fiancée, putting his arms around her. “I’m sorry, honey. He’s a jackass. We’ll get you a new top, okay?”

“I’m so sorry I yelled at you,” Val said and wrapped her arms around Justin. She began kissing him everywhere she could reach, and before Everett could blink, they were caught up in a passionate embrace that made him both uncomfortable and envious.

“Why don’t you two take that elsewhere? Some of us are trying to work.”

Justin flipped him off, and Val pulled back, glaring as she stood up.

“Come on.” Val tugged Justin to his feet and after whispering something in his ear, he was hauling her toward their house.

Everett hopped out of the truck and picked up the next hay bale, his mind drifting back to Callie. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he missed her. It had been hard not to search for her in town, and he couldn’t even count how many times he’d taken the long way home past the radio station, just hoping to catch a glimpse of her. For a man who was determined to forget her, he was doing a piss-poor job.

“Damn idjit!” his father yelled as he drove past on his quad.

Angrily, he tossed the bale into the back and vowed to ignore his father’s obnoxiousness. Everett was doing what he knew was best for him.

At least, he thought so.

Considering how badly you wanted her to understand your mistake, aren’t you being a little hypocritical? Don’t get too judgmental. You’re not exactly a saint.

Little niggles of doubt had been worming holes into his convictions for six days, and he’d been cursing fate for a week. Why would it have thrown her right in his path more than once and given them this magnetic connection if they weren’t supposed to be together?

“WANT SOME CARAMEL corn?” Caroline asked as they walked past a row of food tents set up on the Silverton farm. Callie had tried to get out of going to the festival, but Caroline had begged her.

Her reluctance didn’t have anything to do with the chance that she might bump into Everett. None at all.

“No, thanks. I’m not really in the mood for popcorn.”

“Since when?”

Since she’d gone through two huge boxes of the buttery microwavable kind. She’d never eaten as much popcorn as she had since knocking on Everett’s door.

When she’d gone to his front door, she’d been upset with him and had been ready to give him a piece of her mind, but then she’d seen the deep sorrow and disappointment beneath his anger, and she’d deflated.

He’d had a point. Standing in his shoes and remembering the twelve years her mom had spent in a wine-induced haze, she knew without a doubt that she didn’t want someone like that for herself. Someone unreliable, who was ready to go off the deep end at any time . . .

He’s got a bomb ticking inside him too.

It was better this way for both of them. She knew that deep down. But there was a part of her that wished things could be different. She had just started to come around to the idea of liking him, of wanting something more than a TV dinner and a slapstick comedy every night.

But that was over now.

“I’m just not in the mood,” Callie said. “Besides, I was promised elephant ea

rs.”

“And you shall have them, as soon as you tell me what is going on with you and Everett Silverton. Have you at least talked to him?”