Page 4 of The Rogue (Four Corners Ranch #11)

She didn’t know why she was so nervous. She really had every decision about the wedding made.

She’d made the decision to get married in February, on Valentine’s Day. It was a tightrope walk. Between touching a theme

but also trying to not look like a whole craft store.

She had taken that very seriously.

The problem was, she was a little bit cheesy. Her parents hadn’t liked the holidays, and she did. Every single one of them.

Christmas was an explosion of joy in her house. Halloween was haunted. Thanksgiving was turkey-ful and Valentine’s Day was

red lights, red flowers and hearts.

So this was going to be pushing the line on taste, but she felt like she had it. Like she was tightrope walking it like a

champ. But now she was worried she was going to see things together and think it looked like an event rental store had emptied

its contents into an elementary school classroom party.

So she had to be sure.

It was who she was as a person. But she was still nervous that Justice wasn’t going to get to her house on time, and consequently they would not be able to get to Mapleton on time.

Which was why she had told him that she needed to leave at nine, when she actually needed to leave at nine thirty.

He rolled in at 8:59 on the dot. She scrambled out of the house and climbed into his passenger seat. “You’re early,” she said.

“I wasn’t going to be late. You have to get to an appointment.”

“You were late yesterday,” she accused.

“I know. I’m sorry. This is your wedding. I need to be more on top of it.”

“Don’t be this nice. It freaks me out.”

“Am I not nice generally?”

He headed down the highway, and Rue pulled out her folder, leafing through some of her pictures. “You’re nice,” she said.

“Consistently. Fantastically. You are also a rake. A rogue. And I like that about you. I expect it about you. I actually told you to be there a whole half hour earlier than I needed you to be.”

“Treacherous,” he said, but he didn’t seem mad.

He was never mad at her.

She was never mad at him either, regardless of what a hard time she sometimes gave him.

The truth was, she admired Justice. Not in a way that made her want to emulate him. But the way he lived his life was just

strangely commendable to her.

Her parents had been chaotic, but they had hurt people with it.

They had hurt her with it. They had gone around using sex as a weapon, acting unhinged in their attraction for each other.

Justice didn’t do that. He was promiscuous, putting it mildly, but he always seemed to treat everybody that he encountered with respect.

Especially the women that he slept with.

He never played games with them. He never hurt them.

He was scrupulous in his misbehavior, and it was a revelation to her that such a thing could occur.

She had only ever seen this kind of behavior as a sort of walking DUI.

A potential hazard to all and everyone around them. Until him.

“I’m going to throw you a bachelorette party,” he said suddenly.

“Oh, I don’t need anything like that.”

“Don’t look scandalized, Rue. We’ll have a party at King’s Crest the night before the wedding. It’ll be great.”

“Asher will be back in town.”

“I know. But are you really going to spend the night before your wedding with the guy? You’re going to spend the rest of your

life with him.”

“A fair point,” she said. “But I don’t know. Doesn’t it seem...?”

“Doesn’t seem traditional to fuck your groom the night before your wedding night.”

“Justice,” she said, sounding scandalized. She could see that he loved it.

Rue felt a strange pang in her stomach. She didn’t care for it. She did not... They did not... It wasn’t like that.

And hearing Justice call it all wrong like that made her feel tetchy.

“I’m just saying. You have the rest of your life with the guy. You oughtta spend your last night of freedom getting silly

with your best friend.”

It warmed her, she decided, that Justice cared like that. Which had to be the pang. And he was right. It was traditional to spend the night away from the groom. There was definitely something about that which appealed to her.

“Okay,” she said. “I will submit to your bachelorette party. But no strippers.”

“Oh damn,” he said. “I was really looking forward to it.”

He looked both innocent and devilish at the same time. A Justice King special.

“I don’t even know what to make of that,” she said.

“I’m messing with you. You know I would never. It’s not you. Your wedding is about you. Not me.”

It did feel so extraordinarily lucky to have a friend like him. When they arrived at the florist, he looked vaguely overwhelmed

by the intensity of the blooms around them. But he sat quietly and attentively the entire meeting and it reminded her a whole

lot of watching him in school. Restless energy pouring through him while he tried to sit and listen. Absently, she touched

the top of his hand. He went still.

“It’s nice that you’re involving the groom,” the florist said.

They both jumped, and Rue put her hand back in her lap.

“Oh,” she said. “He’s not the groom. He’s my best man. My man of honor. He’s my... He’s my best friend.”

“Oh,” the woman said, looking surprised. “I’m sorry. I assumed.”

Well, Rue supposed she couldn’t blame her. It was probably weird for a bride to walk into the shop with a man she was not

related to—and who was absolutely gorgeous—and have him not be the groom.

She didn’t touch him again, though.

She had known him forever.

So she had a lot of intuition when it came to his feelings. Though, he would claim he didn’t have any. But it was a lie. When

Justice was unsettled, a little bit of physical touch always seemed to quiet him. It wasn’t like they were hugely touchy with each other. That would be weird. But this—her casually touching his hand—was a habit that went back to their

school days.

He wasn’t really that much help with the flowers, but he reinforced her decisions. All of her ribbon choices, all of her little

charm choices for the ends of the ribbon. And then the wrap for his boutonniere.

She didn’t have any bridesmaids. It was just Justice. He was the one constant in her life. She wouldn’t have any family at

her wedding. It would be Asher’s family, and the Four Corners crowd. She felt... sad about that. Maybe sadder than she

should.

“Do we have time to grab a bite before we head back for your fitting?”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s pretty early for lunch.”

“That’s what brunch is for, Ruby,” he said, grinning.

“You’re very practical.”

“Don’t say that, it will ruin my rep.”

The way he was with her would ruin his rep. If anyone know he was so damned sweet they would question everything they knew

about legendary seducer Justice King. She had to admit, she liked that.

She had this part of him.

Only she had it.

They went over to a small cafe and Justice ordered astronomically sweet-looking pancakes, and encouraged her to get even sweeter looking French toast, which she did.

She wondered if this would change when she got married. Or, rather, probably not so much when she got married but at the end

of Asher’s contract with the military.

Right now, part of why she and Justice spent so much time together was that Asher was usually out of state, or even out of

the country. They had definitely talked about her following him, but they had done their whole relationship like this. Spending

time together when he was on leave, her coming out to visit when he was stationed somewhere, it was difficult, but they had

managed. And there had always been an understanding that they would marry and he would take a job with his dad at his pipe-fitting

business. And during that time he would use his military benefits to go to school. He wanted to be an engineer. It was all

coming a little bit later, but that was because of how he had chosen to balance things.

They had a plan. A good one.

But yeah, she would be eating breakfast with him most mornings. Dinner at night. So it would change the amount of time she

and Justice spent together. But that was a good thing.

That was the point of getting married. You were making a new life.

Making a family. With the person that you loved, and she did love Asher.

Their relationship had always been so easy.

He made her feel good about herself. He was so much like her.

Organized and certain. Neat as a pin. They had fun planning their future together.

He was going to give her that continued stability.

And for a control freak like her it was literally the best-case scenario.

He was a man whose ideals matched up perfectly with her own. She really couldn’t have asked for anything better.

But there was definitely a small hint of sadness. For the thing she would be leaving behind. For the fact that she and Justice

wouldn’t be able to be just like they had always been. It was hard for her to let go of anything. Justice had always provided

a certain amount of stability, security and emotional support. Asher had always been totally comfortable with the relationship,

and she knew that was weird. She wasn’t just going to find that with any guy. In fact, a couple of guys she had made vague

attempts at dating prior to Asher had all stopped very quickly in part because they had been completely weirded out by Justice’s

continued presence.

And she hadn’t wanted anything remotely resembling jealousy in her vicinity.

That was too much like her parents. Accusations of cheating, and then real cheating, and she just couldn’t abide it.

Infidelity was an absolute no for her. But jealousy? That was even worse. Well. Not worse, maybe, but she just was never going to get herself tangled into

something like that. She wasn’t going to cheat. And she couldn’t handle being with a man who was going to be insecure about

that. It was just a hard no.