Page 22

Eve

Cowgirls Welcome

Twenty minutes later, I pulled off the highway just shy of Haven’s Bluff—and parked in front of the Boot + Saddle.

We’d crawled our way through a deluge of rain, going about ten miles an hour, no sound in the car except the incessant whir of the wipers. It was a tense silence, but instead of worrying about where Jensen was or how the hell we were gonna find anything in this storm, I was worried about Harper.

I’d never seen her this quiet. She’d stared stoically out the window, braiding and unbraiding her hair, giving monosyllabic answers to everything that I asked.

Something had happened in the space between her towel-drying my curls and the two of us floating our way down a flooded highway.

Maybe I’d gotten too comfortable, letting her tend to me like that—her fingers gentle, soothing, the real concern etched into her face. So at odds with the way she’d held me down and explored my neck, though the intensity was the same.

Harper’s specific intensity was the same, like a hunger finally freed.

She’d hardly touched me, yet I was still devoured. It was stupid, really. Caring about a person like this when they were only going to leave.

More than that, Harper was flying back to a life that looked an awful lot like the life I’d escaped from: controlled and career-obsessed. An exhausted life, constructed solely of promotions and deadlines.

And it didn’t really matter that I was starting to see the way the landscape of this wild and untamed place was changing her.

Recognized it because the same thing had happened to me the first weekend after I’d moved out here with Monty.

She’d taken me on a road trip to Moab, where we woke early to watch the sunrise.

The red canyons had turned a peachy-gold, the sky like a dark plum as the first rays stretched across the horizon.

At the sight of it, a knife-sharp pressure shifted and released from my chest.

It was a type of freedom I’d never experienced before. A freedom I wanted desperately for everyone to feel, including the woman sitting across from me.

Still—I knew Harper’s type, had been that type of person years ago. One week back home and she’d get swept up again in the whirlwind. Whatever happened out here would become nothing but a distant memory to her.

Including however she felt about me.

Harper gazed out through the window at the blue neon sign in the shape of a cowboy boot. It blinked weakly in the rain, casting a dull glow onto the smaller sign below that said Cowgirls Welcome .

“Don’t tell me this is Diablo’s Canyon?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Close,” I said, one hand on the door. “ This is Monty and Ruby’s favorite bar in all of New Mexico.

A little queer paradise tucked between canyons for rural and city folks alike.

We need some place to ride out this storm for a few minutes anyway, and they happen to make the best veggie burgers around. ”

Her lips quirked into a tentative smile. It shouldn’t have affected me so deeply, except it did.

And that was gonna be a problem.

We dashed inside, and I watched Harper’s reaction as she took in the Boot + Saddle’s most famous attraction: the shimmering, saddle-shaped disco ball that hung over the dance floor.

People crowded the small space, moving as one in a line dance.

The silvery lights were reflected in her glasses, bouncing off the twirling bodies.

Her shoulders loosened immediately, lips curving into a full, toothy smile. “I like it here.”

“Hoped you would,” I replied, trying not to feel so pleased about it. “Let’s head to the bar and grab some food to go. And keep your eyes peeled for Jensen. A lot of local treasure hunters love this spot, queer or not, him included. I don’t want him to know we’re on his tail.”

“Yes, sir,” Harper said, giving a flirty little salute in response. She looked adorably disheveled and was smiling at me again, and I needed to get it the fuck together before I let messy feelings prevent Monty and me from finding Priscilla’s diamonds for a second time.

At the bar, I caught Marla’s eye and waved her over. She tossed a bar towel over one shoulder and scooped me in for a giant hug. “Now what in the world are you doing here tonight? I haven’t seen you in ages .”

I pulled back with a grin, cocking my head at Harper. “This is Harper. It’s her first time here. We’re, uh…doin’ a bit of digging outside of Haven’s Bluff tonight.”

Marla’s eyebrows shot up. “Interesting. Very interesting. Well, if anyone comes through asking, I didn’t see either of you.”

I pressed a finger to my lips and gave her a wink. “You’re the best.”

Marla was a tall woman with salt-and-pepper curls and a charming smile. She and her husband were both members of the Navajo Nation. They’d always wanted to open a bar together, but after their daughter came out as trans, they were even more dedicated to making the Boot + Saddle welcoming to all.

She shook Harper’s hand and said, “And how long have you two been dating?”

Harper turned bright red while I coughed into my hand.

“We’re not, absolutely not,” I said quickly. “Harper and I are just…work partners.” I hesitated. “Reluctantly.”

“Wore her down, huh?” Marla laughed.

Harper caught my eye, but her expression was unreadable. “Something like that.”

Marla flagged down a server, who took our takeout orders, then she turned back to me with a line between her brows. “You haven’t seen Monty recently, have you?”

“I was gonna ask you the same thing,” I admitted. “She did finally call, but she’s, you know…hiding out somewhere. Haven’t heard anything from Ruby, either.”

Marla nodded. “Same here.” Another bartender called Marla’s name, dragging her attention away. “Listen, I gotta get back for the rush, but keep me in the loop, okay? I’m worried about your aunt. I’m sure you are, too.”

“I am, and I will,” I promised.

She pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Happy hunting, you two.”

As soon as she left, the opening chords to “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” came on, causing the dance-floor crowd to let out a hearty cheer. Harper angled her body toward the lively sounds, and her eyes widened with a burst of happiness.

She was already tapping her fingers against the bar and wiggling her hips just slightly. I knew enough about Harper thus far to understand she probably didn’t get to do things just for fun these days.

We didn’t have time for this—for any of it, really. But then Harper looked at me with the most delighted smile, and it felt like being gifted an entire field of sunflowers.

“Everyone out there looks so beautiful,” she said dreamily. “What’s this song they’re dancing to?”

I was taking her by the hand before whatever common sense I had left in my body could kick in. “Come on, Hendrix. Let me show ya how to line dance.”

She burst out laughing. “Eve, I’ll make a fool of myself.”

“I beg to differ, cowgirl. It’s a watch-and-learn kinda thing. If you can ace journalism school, you can learn the Boot Scootin’ Boogie. Trust me.”

She flushed prettily. “Fairly presumptuous of you to assume I aced it.”

I pulled her to the very edge of the dance floor, reluctant to let her go. “Am I wrong?”

She hesitated. “Okay, I aced it.”

“I know brilliance when I see it,” I said with a wink. “Just watch me, okay?”

An extremely cute woman with bright-blue hair slid right next to Harper, giving her a flirtatious smile. A second later, she dropped her cowboy hat onto Harper’s head, who laughed in surprise.

“The hat looks good on you,” the woman called out as she twirled.

“Thank you so much,” Harper called back. She spun to face me, eyes big behind her glasses. “Guess I’m a real cowgirl, now. Jealous?”

I nudged my knuckle beneath her chin. “She’s right. It does look good on you.”

We shared a charged look beneath the spinning disco saddle. Then the line dancers moved into place next to us, and I started to move. I walked forward four steps, kicked up my thigh, then did the same thing going backward.

Harper yelped and grabbed my arm. “Wait, wait, wait…is this a heel-toe step?”

“It’s a lot of things all at once,” I said over my shoulder, giving a clap. “Don’t think too hard about it.”

The crowd moved, as one, four steps to the left. Four steps to the right. Spun to the side, then started all over again. I turned on my heel and slammed right into Harper.

“Oh my god, sorry, sorry ,” she squealed.

With a laugh, I gently turned her until she was facing the right direction. “You’re doing great.”

She executed a complicated-looking heel-toe step into a quasi-jumping jack. “I believe that description of me is”—she twirled, kicked her thigh up—“highly inaccurate.”

Then she crashed into me again.

This time we both laughed. I took her hand again and didn’t let go. “Watch this part,” I said, shaking my hips. “One-two. One-two. Spin.” We spun as one. “And then back-back-back and turn again.”

I watched Harper watching me —her brow creased in concentration, cheeks pink, teeth sunk into her lower lip. With every correct step, she’d beam at me like she’d won some sort of prize.

“You know, I think”—she shimmied, stepped to the right—“I might be getting this, after all.”

But when I went to agree, the pretty blue-haired woman had swept in, making Harper laugh again with a joke I couldn’t hear. I released her hand and let myself melt back into the crowd, watching as Harper and the other woman moved off the dance floor, where they were now talking.

I spun. Clapped. Spun again. Definitely didn’t care if Harper was talking to someone else. It wasn’t like I had a monopoly on her time and attention.

I twirled, again, and briefly lost sight of them in the crowd.

When I found them, the other woman was gazing at Harper with an expression that directly mirrored the one I’d worn the first time I’d seen her.

She seemed downright fucking enchanted , same as I’d been, and Harper looked both shy and pleased, touching the top of her cowboy hat with a quick grin.

Every muscle in my body tensed.

The crowd shifted, and then I was near them. Near enough to hear Harper admire the other woman’s outfit.

Which did not matter to me in the slightest .

I didn’t do jealousy. Ever. And even if I did, it wouldn’t factor in here.

Not with a woman I still spent the majority of my time arguing with.

Who would be gone soon anyway, off to flirt with and date whoever she wanted to on the other side of the country.

Harper tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and gave the blue-haired woman what seemed to be a look of brazen romantic interest. My stomach clenched painfully, and I stopped mid-spin, knocking into two other people.

I apologized quickly and caught Marla flagging me down by the bar. Raking a shaking hand through my curls, I strode back through the crowd and only cared a little bit that the blue-haired woman was now teaching Harper how to dance.

And that Harper looked like she was having the time of her life.

“Your food’s ready,” Marla said, dragging my eyes from the crowd to her knowing smirk.

“Huh?”

She chuckled. “Thought so… You’re cool with Heather dancing with your girl like that?”

I took the bag of food from her hand. “She’s not my girl, not even close. And even if she was, I’m not the jealous type.”

Marla eyed me with compassion. “Before I met Jim, it was hard for me to trust that kind of love, too. I’d been left a lot before, and it just got easier to keep my heart locked down and locked away.

It all made me want to run in the opposite direction, anything to get away from feelings I couldn’t control. ”

I turned at that, gripping the back of my neck. “But that makes it sound like I’m afraid.”

“Aren’t you?” she said with a shrug. “I mean…aren’t we all?”

I shook my head. “I fought tooth and nail to get away from my family, from their harmful messages, to make it out here, with Monty, with my friends. I feel so free now. I feel the opposite of afraid.”

Marla wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. “I don’t believe the fear ever really goes away. But over time, we can change how we respond to it.”

She got called away then, leaving me to watch Harper chatting excitedly with Heather. Leaving me to wonder about this pain in my chest, a yearning I didn’t have a name for.

A fear I wasn’t ready to name, either. Not just yet.

The back door opened, revealing a flash of sky that looked decidedly less rainy than it had before.

And Jensen, striding in with his crew, all of them wearing the biggest shit-eating grins.