Page 12 of Unyielding (Poplar Springs #3)

TWELVE

SHANNON

I looked at the three outfits spread out on my bed and frowned.

I couldn’t remember the last time I went shopping, and my lack of options for a dressy night out made it painfully obvious.

Usually, I didn’t get any fancier than nice jeans, but for this, I needed something more.

Everyone I knew would be at Zoe and Josh’s engagement party, so for a change, I wanted to put some effort into the way I looked.

I tried to convince myself that it didn’t matter that Declan was also going to be there. It wasn’t like I was dressing up for him.

I had one good pair of jeans with no holes or stains, the ones I’d worn for my disastrous night out with Declan, and a pair of black pants that I’d worn to a friend’s bachelorette party that were too tight in the butt. The flowery skirt laid out next to them wasn’t even an option.

“Decision time, huh?”

Fiona was leaning against the doorframe, watching me.

“I have nothing to wear!” I whined. “And you look perfect, as usual.”

“This old thing?” Fiona laughed as she plucked at the dress I had never seen before.

Fiona might have left the city to settle back on the ranch, but it didn’t mean she’d lost her cosmopolitan sense of style.

The form-fitting gray silk slip dress looked incredible on her and perfectly complemented her auburn hair, which hung in beachy waves on her shoulders.

“You want to borrow something from me? My closet is yours if you need it.”

“Yeah, right.” I laughed. “It’s not like we’re the same size.”

“But we are !” Fiona countered. “We’re the same height, and I bet that we’re pretty close on bust, waist, and hips, which is what matters for most dresses.

You’re just a little more muscular in your arms and shoulders.

I have plenty of sleeveless options you could try.

” She spun on her heel. “Hold on, I’ll be right back. ”

Even though my sister had moved into the foreman’s quarters on the property with Eli and his son, Patrick, she kept most of her clothes in her old bedroom here at the house.

Eli had joked about building a separate room just to hold her wardrobe and when she hadn’t disagreed, he’d gotten a little worried.

I sighed, looking down at my options while I waited for Fiona to not find anything that would fit me. Why was I making a big deal out of what I was going to wear? It was so unlike me to care.

Declan .

The name whispered through my mind, and I shook my head.

No. The only thing going on between us was business. He’d made it abundantly clear the night at the Rooftop when he’d all but recoiled at the suggestion that we were on a date.

Fiona speed walked back into my bedroom. “I was going to bring you a few options, but I know this dress is perfect for you.”

She held it in the air in front of me, and I frowned.

“That looks way too small.”

“Girl, you are small! Maybe if you stopped wearing those baggy T-shirts, you’d realize it. Just put it on.”

The cut of the dress was simple, just a razorback sheath that looked to be about knee-length, but the electric blue was traffic stopping.

I stripped off my robe and slipped on the dress, expecting that I wouldn’t be able to get the zipper all the way up.

But when Fiona walked over to pull it up the last two inches and I finally turned to look at myself in the mirror, I gasped.

It looked like it had been sewed directly onto my body, perfectly accentuating the curve of my hips and the swell of my breasts. The color made my pale skin glow.

“We’re done here,” Fiona said, stating the obvious. “Decision made.”

I smiled shyly. “Okay, you were right. Thank you, Fi.”

“Now for that rat’s nest on your head,” she said, pushing me toward the bathroom. “Can I do a twist or something?”

“I’m in your hands. You clearly know more about this stuff than I do.”

“Clearly,” she said with a huff and then tapped me on the arm. “But that’s only because I worked corporate. If I spent all my time on the ranch, I’d only ever wear jeans too.”

I stared at my sister’s face in the mirror while Fiona got to work.

It hit me that I was the only sibling going to the party alone, and the realization stung.

I’d pushed the concern off when Fiona and Zoe brought it up in the bar, but I was feeling it now.

Josh and Zoe were so cute together that it was ridiculous, and Fiona and Eli had the kind of relationship that made me wish that I’d found my forever person too.

I hadn’t felt the inclination to date, and it wasn’t like Poplar Springs had a ton of options for me.

Declan .

I frowned. No. For all I knew, he would show up with Becca.

“Why do you look miserable all of a sudden?” Fiona asked as she sprayed something on my hair and then smoothed the brush over it. “Everything okay with you?”

“I’m fine,” I lied, avoiding my sister’s eyes in the mirror.

But I was far from fine.

“Liar.” My head snapped up and she gave me a surprisingly gentle smile. “You avoid eye contact when you’re lying or dealing with an emotional situation.”

“That’s not true.” Was it?

“At Mom and Dad’s funeral, you kept looking at people’s ears or chin when they were talking to you.”

“Well, that’s normal. I was grieving. We all were.”

“You did the same thing when someone spilled melted butter on your dress before the spring dance and it made the color run on your sash.”

“It was embarrassing. The red dye ran all over my dress making it look like I was bleeding.”

“Then there was the time Dad caught you out in the barn with one of the ranch hands and you lied and said he was helping you move the hay bales. Or the time you decided to see what it was like to vape and you ended up turning green and throwing up. You told the teacher that you thought you had food poisoning and she sent you to the nurse’s office. ”

“How did you know about those?”

Fiona chuckled. “The heater vent. Mom and Dad were laughing about your ‘tells’ in their bedroom and I could hear them in my room.”

“Oh. So how come I didn’t get in trouble?”

Fiona shrugged. “Dad was ready to ground you—at least for the vaping—but Mom said that you’d learned your lesson when you got so sick and she didn’t see the point in adding to it.”

“Wow. That’s just… How come I never knew any of this?” My sister shrugged again.

I had no idea what to think of that. The fact that my family seemed to know me better than I thought had me desperately missing our parents.

Then there was the fact that Fiona knew about all these incidents but never thought to share what she heard.

Or warn me that I had a damn tell when it came to lying.

“I’m lonely,” I blurted out and Fiona paused what she was doing with my hair. I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me, so I pushed through. “Normally, I can ignore the feelings or push them down. It’s not like it’s a big deal.”

“Oh, Shan. I didn’t know.”

I shook my head and felt the loneliness wash lightly over me as Fiona gently ran her hand over my hair. The calming sensation made me realize that it had been ages since I’d felt a nurturing touch.

“I’ll admit that I can talk a big game about being perfectly content alone, but the truth is, I wish I had someone in my life. Someone who would look out for me, care for me… woo me.”

“When was the last time you went out on a date?”

I snorted in amusement. “Two years ago? Aurora introduced me to someone at the community picnic and I agreed to meet him at the Squeaky Wheel for drinks.”

“This does not sound good. What happened?”

“I arrived ten minutes early and he was forty minutes late. He texted to warn me he was running behind schedule and said something about traffic.” I snorted again because Poplar Springs has a population around six thousand, including all the ranches.

It wasn’t like we struggled with rush hour.

“Once he got there, he proceeded to pound back drinks, complain about his job, and flirt with anything with a pulse. Then he stumbled to the bathroom and I never saw him again.”

“Oh my God. That’s horrible.”

“I ended up covering his tab and when I texted him to ask him to Venmo me to pay me back, he pretended that he had no idea who I was.”

Fiona started laughing and I joined her.

As awful as it was at the time, I could see the funny in it.

Sort of. It would be easier to laugh about it if it hadn’t happened to me .

Thankfully, Sofia Alvarez paid him a little visit wearing her deputy uniform and he handed over the money without any further tricks.

“So… if you could date anyone you wanted, who would it be?”

“Rami Malek? Sebastian Stan?”

“Ooof. Too old.”

“Matt Rife? He’s funny. He could make me laugh when I feel down.”

“Isn’t he dating a Kardashian? How about someone more local to look out for you and care about you?”

I hated to admit to myself that because of our business arrangement, Declan was doing exactly that.

Minus the wooing part, of course. The fact that he’d shown up to talk over the freezer incident instead of calling or texting about it felt…

personal. And he’d shown up unexpectedly to check on Belle too.

But Declan’s concern was just a part of the job, wasn’t it?

It didn’t mean that he cared personally about me… did it?

I shook my head. “Nope, can’t think of anyone.” Fortunately, she finished then, so I was saved from further discussions about me being lonely.

“Ta da,” Fiona said triumphantly, doing jazz hands behind my head.

“Wow, I love it,” I said, twisting my head back and forth to admire the elegant updo.

“You look gorgeous. But…”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “But what?”

“Can I put a tiny bit of makeup on you?” She held her fingers a few inches apart.

I let out a resigned sigh. “Why not? I’ve come this far; let’s get nuts.”

“Yay,” Fiona clapped her hands and ran out of the bathroom. “You are definitely gonna turn some heads tonight. And who knows, maybe you’ll find someone worth spending time with!”

I frowned when I finally admitted to myself that there was only one person who mattered.