Page 34

Ava

S taring at myself in the mirror, I swipe some mascara over my lashes because I’m finally getting some girl time that isn’t on the clock. “Alright, Aspen will be picking me up in a couple of minutes.” She has a full girls’ day planned.

Maverick steps into the bathroom door frame, leaning against it with his arms crossed. “What are you two going to be doing?”

Looking at him through the mirror, I say, “Well, since someone hasn’t taken the time to show me around his hometown, Aspen volunteered to do it for him.” I do my best to make my tone sound serious, but I know that every second he’s been home, he’s either working the farm or here with me.

“Hey, if you were looking for a tour guide, you should have said so.” He shrugs his shoulders and sends me a toothy grin.

Faking a sigh, I dramatically say, “Too late. You’ll have to go hang out with Weston and Rhett. Maybe then they’ll cool their jets about how I’ve stolen you.”

“Well, maybe if they stopped being thirty-year-olds who act like teenage boys, they could find themselves their own women.” He steps into the bathroom and wraps his arms around my waist.

Turning around, I wrap my arms around his neck. “You’re aware you only found your own woman by getting blacked out drunk in Vegas? Maybe you shouldn’t be offering up that type of advice. ”

“You know what? I’ve decided I have zero regrets about that.

There’s no way my country ass would have been able to convince you to take a chance on me without extraordinary measures.

” My heart takes flight at his words, leaving me with a soaring feeling.

He does that a lot. Makes me feel lighter than I ever have.

“Yeah, well, I also decided I don’t regret it. So how about that?”

“Glad to hear it, sweetheart. If you decide you need to be rescued today, call me.” He leans down and pecks me on the cheek before taking a step back.

“Please do not rescue me from the only girl time I’ve had since I moved here.”

“You work with her every day.”

That is a bit dramatic. I work with her three days a week now that I’m out of orientation. I’m still not trusted to do a lot by myself, which is fine because I’m terrified nearly every moment of my shift.

“There’s no part of our job that allows for quality girl time. Especially in the ER. We’re either flushing out snotty noses or going toe-to-toe with the grim reaper.”

“He’s tried to visit me a few times. Can’t say I’m a fan,” Mav jokes. His words hit a little too close to home, stirring up the anxiety I’ve been trying to shove down since his ride last week.

“That makes two of us, anyway. I’ll be out all day. And lord knows how late. But I’ll text you if I think it will be too late, so you don’t have to wait up.” I step out into the living room.

“You know I’d wait up for you anyway,” Mav reassures me. There goes that soaring feeling again.

The knock at the door interrupts our conversation, and Aspen, being Aspen, doesn’t wait to be let in.

She throws open the front door and flops onto the futon.

Her long brown hair cascades down her middle back, loose waves as wild as she is.

Her bootcut jeans hug her long legs in a way that makes me envious.

“Sure, come in, Aspen,” Mav says, shaking his head as he walks to the kitchen.

“You ready for a day of fun in Windy Peaks?” she asks as she crosses her legs.

“Yes, let’s go!” I’m excited to see what else this town has to offer. Not that the ranch and all the land around it isn’t enough, but it would be nice to see more than our eight-person friend group.

“See you later, loser!” Aspen hollers to Mav.

I turn around to see him flipping her the finger.

Shaking my head, I head out to Aspen’s truck.

Apparently, I’m the only one on the ranch who doesn’t drive a 4x4 vehicle, and after getting a little taste of winter here, I can see why it would be beneficial.

“Alright, so I have a little lunch date for us planned. And then there’s a cute boutique we can do some shopping. No offense, but your wardrobe could use some updating. Oh! And obviously, coffee.”

“Obviously,” I reply. I need a steady three cups a day just to function.

“And then we can see what else we have time for.” She shrugs her shoulders as she rolls down the window, the summer air blowing in.

I can already tell that I’m going to need a nap when I get home, or at least another coffee, but getting out of the house is something I could stand to do a little more.

My eyes stay glued to my surroundings as we drive down the dirt road into town.

Soon enough, it turns to pavement, and downtown Windy Peaks comes into view.

We stay on the main road and start passing a few little stores.

It almost looks like we’ve gone back in time.

The buildings are all brick with hand-painted signs hanging over them.

Our first stop at Ruby’s Cafe was a success. The place looked like a house but had the best chicken club I’ve ever tasted. When I get back home, I’m going to have some words with Mav for holding out on me because he was right. Windy Peaks is amazing.

“Okay, I skipped coffee, so we are going to head over to the coffee shop before we go shopping. Is that okay with you?”

“Sounds great! If it’s as good as Ruby’s, I think I’ll be making my way into town more often.”

“You’re going to be putting some miles on that Toyota then because that coffee keeps me alive.”

The little shop has a brick exterior, but the inside looks like a saloon and coffee shop had a baby. Wooden siding lines the walls and there’s only two tables, and both of them are free, meaning we have the whole place for ourselves.

We sit down at one of the empty tables and start drinking.

The pistachio flavor explodes across my tongue.

Sweet Jesus, now I really am going to fight Mav when I get home.

I’ve been drinking burned bitter bean juice from a one-hundred-year-old coffee pot when I could have been driving to town and getting this?

Taking another sip, I let out a little moan.

“So, speaking of moaning, how are things with Mav?”

My hand covers my mouth as coffee flies out of my mouth. “Good lord, Aspen.”

“What?” She looks at me like my reaction is crazy, not her mouth.

Shaking my head, I let a little laugh escape before replying, “They’re really good. You were right. ”

“You’re good for him. He works harder than anyone I know, right next to you. You two could outwork a horse, I swear.”

“He does work hard, too hard. Do you think he will be done with bull riding soon?” I’m hoping she’ll say yes, so I won’t have to worry about him getting crushed to death all the time.

“Who the hell knows with him? He’ll probably ride until he croaks.

” Her words send a new wave of anxiety through me because the chance of him living old while he constantly tempts danger aren’t high.

And if it doesn’t kill him, it might leave him with a traumatic brain injury, which wouldn’t be much better.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask Aspen what she thinks, but I don’t want them to think I don’t support him. So I just shove the worry down deep until I feel like I can take a full breath again. Squeezing my eyes shut, I realize I need to change the subject before I have a full-on panic attack.

Clearing my throat, I ask, “What about you? Anyone special?” Testing the waters to see if she will spill about Rhett. That will for sure get my mind off this.

“Nope.” She immediately brings her coffee to her lips. What a little liar.

“And here I thought we were friends.”

“What do you mean?” she says with furrowed brows. At least I can say she does a decent acting job. If nursing doesn’t work out, she can try out theatre.

“So there isn’t a certain boy in the friend group that you can’t keep your eyes off?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” She shakes her head.

“Being that I have two functioning eyeballs, I can see there’s something going on with you and Rhett. ”

Pure, unfiltered panic fills her face. Well, so much for the acting fallback. I point at her with a smug smile on my face. Finally, a crack. “And your face just confirmed it.”

Her palms slam against the table. “Oh my God. How did you find out? Did you see us?”

My head whips back. “What? No. I had a feeling that night we were all out at the bar. It’s the way you two move together. You’re too familiar to be just friends. And you always leave dinner at the same time. You guys might want to stagger your departures if you really want to keep it a secret.”

Aspen shakes her head. “It’s nothing serious. We’ve only been messing around for a while.”

My eyes narrow on her because something is off. “Define, ‘a while’?” I add air quotes for emphasis.

“I don’t think I want to.” She once again reaches for an emotional support cup to fill the silence, but I put my hand over hers, stopping the motion.

“Hey, I spilled my guts out to you with Mav.” I raise my eyebrows at her expectantly.

She lets out a deep sigh that is far too dramatic. “Okay, fine.” She fidgets with her sleeve, heavily avoiding eye contact. “We’ve been messing around for…” she worries her lips and turns her face away before answering, “a year. Or so.”

My mouth falls so far, I worry it’s going to hit the table. Not serious, my ass. “That’s longer than most relationships last. You know that, right?”

“He’s great, and he’s so good to me. But it can never happen. Weston would literally blow a gasket. They’ve been friends forever.” She nervously flails her hands through the air, and my heart breaks a little for her. It must be painful to have someone but not actually have them.

My voice softens a little. “What does Rhett say?”

“Rhett just goes along with whatever I want.” That answer gives it all away. “Seriously, Weston can’t know. I’m sure Rhett will meet someone, and it will be in the past anyway.”

Not wanting to push her anymore, I settle for, “Well, if you ever decide to make the jump, I’ve got your back. And so does Mav.”

She drags her hands across her face before throwing her head back. “Oh my god, Mav knows?”

“I’m going to be honest with you, anyone who has eyes can tell something is going on. The fact that Weston doesn’t know is a miracle. But you don’t need to worry about Mav. He is good at minding his own business.”

“Maybe I need to work on my stealth.” I don’t know how to tell her you can’t hide chemistry like that. But I’ll let her live in her little land of delusion. “What other juicy gossip does Mav know about?”

We continue sipping coffee while spilling the tea.

My heart feels so full. I’ve missed having girl time.

Not to mention, making friends at this phase of life is plain hard.

But with Aspen, it’s easy. It feels like I’ve known her forever, and there’s something about her that feels genuine.

Having a friend like her is just what I needed.