by K. A. Linde
“No,” I said roughly. “Missy and I broke up.”
“Did you though?
“Yes?”
“It didn’t sound like a break up.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “The relationship was going nowhere. As it had been for the last six months. Even if this is about Missy, what the fuck does it matter? If I want to have some fun while I’m on my one vacation a year, then I’m going to have some fun.”
“Do you really need a Texas rebound though? Especially since you’re not even sure if you broke up?”
I ran a hand back through my hair. “I know that we broke up, okay? We both needed space. That’s a break up.”
“Fine,” Julian grumbled. “But there’s another option to the rebound, you know?”
“Here it comes,” I groaned.
“You could always move here with us,” he said, spreading his arms out. “Then you could just date someone here.”
“You know that I can’t move here.”
“No, I don’t know that,” Julian spat. He grabbed my shoulder and wrenched me around to look at him. “Mom has cancer.”
“I know.”
“She’s getting specialty treatment here. I’ll be around, but what if something happens? What if you’re in Vancouver when it does?”
“I don’t want to talk about this. My life is in Vancouver. That’s home. I can’t just pack up and move.”
I wanted to be here for my mom. I wanted to figure out a way to help her, but there was no way to help her. Not by me moving all the way across the world to do it and leaving everything I knew behind.
“Your life?” Julian laughed. “What life? You mean, work? Because Wright Construction is right here.”
“That’s different, and you know it.”
Julian shook his head. “I don’t think that I do.”
“Look, you and Mom made the choice to move here. You did it without even consulting me and then expect me to jump at the chance. I’ve always taken care of you, Julian. I’d still do it here if I could, but I can’t. I’m head of the company there. That position is filled here. I have friends there. I have a life. It’s not my fault that you’re abandoning yours to move here.”
“Your priorities are seriously fucked,” Julian said and then stomped away.
Our mom stuck her head out of the room and looked between me and Julian’s retreating back. “Hey, honey.”
“Hi, Mom.”
“Everything all right?”
I released the tension I’d been carrying from the same argument I’d been having with Julian for weeks. “He’s still mad that I’m not moving with you two.”
“Well, I’m not mad, but I am sad. I wish you would come. I feel like I just got you back from your father.”
“I know.”
Our father was a manipulative asshole, who had turned us against our mother for years. It had taken so much time to rebuild what he’d destroyed. Even though he had been the one lying to us all along.
She touched my shoulder. “You’ll do great, no matter what you decide. I don’t hold it against you, like your brother does, and he’ll settle down. I know he will.”
“I wish that I could be here for your treatment.”
She waved her hand at me, brushing the comment aside. “It’ll be fine. The hospital is well-equipped to take care of me. But just because moving back to Lubbock is the right choice for me doesn’t mean it is for you.” She patted my arm twice. “Now, have fun on your date.”
I laughed. “Did you hear our entire conversation?”
“More or less.” My mom winked. “Is it the cute redhead from the party?”
“Yeah. Annie.”
“She’s much too pretty for you.”
I snorted. “I’ll keep that in mind. You’re so uplifting.”
“Hey, have to keep your ego in check. If you always thought you were hot shit, then your head would be too big for your shoulders.”
“Appreciate it,” I said with an eye roll.
“Call if you need a ride home,” she said, wandering after Julian. “And remember to take condoms.”
I groaned. My mother. Dear God!
With one more glance in Julian’s direction, I called an Uber and headed to the address Annie had texted me. She’d said that the party had moved from Walkers to a vineyard with a stage for live music.
The Uber driver gave me a side-eye that I didn’t understand until we pulled up to West Texas Winery.
“Oh,” I muttered, leaning forward to catch a glimpse of the property.
Where the hell had Annie brought me?
“This is your stop,” the Uber driver said.
He pulled up in front of a ramshackle barn that looked like it might collapse at any second. The vineyard behind it at least looked sustainable, based on my experience of drinking my way through Napa. That was what I thought of when I heard the word winery and vineyard in the same sentence.
Not…this.
I stepped out of the Uber, making sure to give a generous tip for driving me out into the middle of nowhere, and then stared at the dilapidated exterior. Hopefully, this wasn’t the part where I got murdered.
“You here for Caprock Crew?” an unenthusiastic cowboy asked, tipping his hat at me.
“Uh…yes?”
“They just got onstage. Beers are two dollar Tuesdays.” The man looked me up and down. “You prepared to get those fancy shoes dirty?”
I looked down at my shoes. They weren’t even that fancy. I’d brought them with me in case I had to work…which I had. “Why am I getting them dirty?”
The man laughed, a full-belly thing, and then kicked the barn door open. “After you.”
I arched an eyebrow but entered regardless and immediately understood what he’d meant.
The floor was…dirt.
And mud from where drinks had already spilled.
Everyone inside was wearing cowboy boots and hats, pressed jeans, and large belt buckles. I could not have been more out of place.
Then I found Annie waving at me from the dance floor. Her smile split her face, and she was easily the most gorgeous person in the room. Her red hair was wild as she finished some intricate footwork in her cowboy boots. She had on high-waisted jean shorts that her ass hung out of and a crop top that showed an inch of her stomach.
And just like that, my apprehension about the location dissipated.
I was here for her.
This stunning, incomparable redhead.
6
Annie
With a final flourish, I finished off the dance and stepped off the dusty floor. My friends tried to call me back out for the next song, but I waved them off. Jordan had walked inside a minute ago and was still staring apprehensively around the barn.
I probably should have warned him.
Okay, I definitely should have warned him.
West Texas Winery was about the shittiest locale in Lubbock. Apparently, a decade ago, it had been the place to go, but the owners had fallen into financial trouble, and everything had gone downhill. It’d chased away the higher-end clientele they had been going for, but the college crowd didn’t seem to mind. We came here for cheap drinks and when they could get halfway decent bands to play. Tonight, they’d actually managed Caprock Crew. Albeit not the best band, they had a good beat, and the place was already packed.
A lot of the local line-dancing groups were out in force. I knew enough to get by, but they made it look like an art form.
I dashed across the barn and right up to Jordan with a smile. “You made it!”
“Yeah. The Uber driver gave me a funny look when I told him where I was going, but I made it.”
“That driver doesn’t know what he’s missing.”
Jordan’s gaze swept the barn one more time, taking it all in. He still looked apprehensive.
“I probably should have told you what to wear.”
“Honestly, I doubt I have anything that would make me fit in here,” he admitted with a shr
ug. His eyes glimmered as they trailed back to me. At least he was taking it in stride.
“Well, you look great,” I told him honestly.
Because he did look hot as fuck. Dress pants and a white button-up with those same fancy shoes. His hair was all gelled, and there was a soft hue of pink across his cheeks from the pool earlier.
He just didn’t look like he belonged in a barn in West Texas.
“I feel ridiculous,” he admitted with a laugh.
“Psh,” I said, taking his arm and pulling him away from the entrance. “It’s just a Texas dance party. You do know how to line dance, don’t you?”
“I’m from Vancouver.”
I snorted. “We can get you some boots,” I teased playfully. “That’ll help.”
He shook his head. “I think I’ll pass. Tell me this place has alcohol. I’m going to need to drink more for this.”
“Thank God, yes.”
I grinned and drew him toward the bar. I liked that he was a little out of his element here. We could have gone back to Walkers, like yesterday, but I’d wanted Jordan to try something new. He’d been here a week, and he’d hardly seen anything in Lubbock. Not that there was a ton to see, but there was more than Wright Construction. That was for sure.
“They used to only serve their wine, which is actually surprisingly good. But when they were having money problems, they got a full bar. It brings in more people.”
“Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a winery like this, and I’ve seen a lot of wineries.”
“We can go somewhere else,” I offered. I had known that this was going to be a culture shock for him, but I’d wanted to bring him anyway. Maybe it was a test. “I thought you’d want the whole experience.”
He leaned against the bar, taking my hand and pulling me closer to him. “You’re here. That’s all I need.”
I flushed all over. I wanted to reply with something flirtatious, but really, I had no words. I wasn’t used to guys who were as outgoing as I was or who knew how to charm a snake. Typically, I was more than most guys could handle, and they made that known rather quickly. There was only one other guy who had been able to deal with all of this. Jordan surprised me.
He ordered a drink and got me another beer. I was already a little tipsy, but a beer wouldn’t put me over the edge. I didn’t want to be as drunk as I had been last night. Cézanne had told me that she’d dropped me off at my place, but contrary to popular belief, I didn’t like not remembering how I’d gotten home. I was going to want to remember everything about tonight.
I took a sip of my beer, and then a hand clamped down on Jordan’s shoulder. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”
My eyes widened at the giant of a guy who had his hand on Jordan. Hollin Abbey was tall and broad with shoulders for days. He was older than me and had gone to a different high school. We hadn’t hung in the same circles, but I still knew who he was. He worked at the winery. It didn’t explain why he was touching Jordan.
But when Jordan turned around, cool as ever, his face lit up. He stuck his hand out. “Hollin!”
“Hey, Jordan! Didn’t expect to find you here.”
“Didn’t expect to be here myself.”
My eyes widened. “And how exactly do you know someone in Lubbock? You’ve only been here a week!”
Jordan laughed and gestured to Hollin. “This is my cousin.”
I looked back at him blankly. “But…you’re a Wright.”
“Cousin on the other side,” Hollin chimed in. He held his hand out to me now. “Hollin Abbey. It’s Annie, right?”
“Yeah. We’ve met. So how are you two related?”
“He’s my uncle’s kid,” Jordan told me. “We met earlier this week. I didn’t expect to see him out.”
Hollin shrugged and ran a hand back through his sandy-blond hair. “I’m actually the manager here.”
“Here?” Jordan asked in surprise.
“Yeah, I help run the winery. The college crowd isn’t always here, and you’d be shocked to learn it cleans up pretty nicely on the weekends for tours and the like. The wine is great. I’d recommend it.”
“Huh,” Jordan said. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
Hollin laughed. “Yeah, it’s not the best on two-dollar Tuesday, I admit.”
“It does clean up,” I confirmed.
But Hollin was looking elsewhere. A fight had broken out on the other end of the bar. He shot us a pained expression. “If you’ll excuse me, I should handle that. Tell the bartenders that Hollin sent you and get some drinks on the house.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Jordan insisted.
“Hey, it’s not every day that my cousin walks into my bar.”
Jordan shook his head, but Hollin was already disappearing into the crowd, ready to pull apart the catfight. When Jordan slid his gaze back to me, I couldn’t help but give him a sidelong look.
“Only here a week, huh?”
“Hollin is family. That’s what I’m here for. Plus, he’s giving us free drinks. So, hey, worth it.”
I leaned forward against his chest, looking up into those big brown eyes. “Definitely.”
Just then the band went from one song to the next, and I gasped.
“What?”
“I love this song,” I said, bouncing up and down. “And I know the dance.”
“The dance?”
I grinned devilishly. “You didn’t think we just came here to drink, did you?”
7
Jordan
That was exactly what I’d thought.
I had no intention of dancing. I could dance in the more generic terms of most dudes’ ability to dance. But I wasn’t from around here, and I had no idea what they were doing out on the dance floor. The most line dancing I’d ever seen done was the Electric Slide at a friend’s wedding. I’d been drunk, and I still hadn’t participated in that.
There was an entire troupe dipping and spinning and kicking out on the floor. I was a confident guy, but I knew my limits. Line dancing was definitely a limit.
But fuck, she looked so happy. Like she couldn’t wait to get me out on that dance floor and show off her moves. So, I followed her away from the bar and into a corner, where a group of her friends hooted and hollered at her to join them.
She waved at them but turned all of her considerable attention to me. When she looked at me like that, I wanted to crush her to me and capture those perfect lips. I’d heard other girls say that confidence was a turn-on when describing me. I wasn’t sure that I’d ever used it to describe a woman. Not until Annie.
No wonder I was in a dirty barn in the middle of nowhere.
“Stand here,” she said, moving me into position at her side.
“What exactly are we doing?” I asked.
“I’m going to show you how to do the dance.”
My brows rose. “This does not seem wise.”
She laughed. Her halo of red waves bounced as her body rocked to the music. “It’ll be fine. It’s really easy. Promise.”
“Uh…”
“This one is my favorite. You’re going to love it.”
I had some doubts about that. I didn’t just look out of place in this barn. I was out of place. Even the guys were jumping in to do the dance. I straightened my shoulders and listened to her as she spouted the directions, showing me the moves at what she must have thought was a slow enough speed for me to pick them up.
“You were a cheerleader, right?”
She glanced up at me. “Yeah?”
“So, you’re good at dancing.”
“Pom,” she said with a shrug.
“Pom?”
She giggled. “Pom is what we do in the South. Well, you probably have pom dance in Canada, but we have pom competition teams.” She did a few structured arm movements, and I realized she was trying to explain that cheerleading arms were a whole dance style now.
“I have no experience with this,” I said, gesturing around
us.
Her eyes glittered with mirth. “I didn’t think you’d have any experience. That’s why I brought you. I thought you’d have fun.”
And I was having fun. Completely out of my element, but I hadn’t smiled this much in…years. She brought it out of me. Even while I was simultaneously more uncomfortable than I’d been in years.
“Okay,” I said with a nod. “Let’s try this again.”
She went back to being the patient teacher. Kick right, left, right, left. Cross leg forward, hit your foot. Cross leg backward, hit your foot. Turn to face the other direction. We were going at half-speed compared to everyone else in the place, but I was kind of getting the hang of it, and her million-watt smile kept me going.
“Now, speed it up!” Annie called and fell instantly in step with the troupe of dancers.
I chuckled and held my hands up. “I can’t keep up.”
“Come on!” she urged. “You were doing so well.”
But I took a step out of the group of dancers and gave in to defeat. I’d had it slower, but to tempo was beyond me, and that was fine. Shockingly, I was out of breath. I ran five miles a day and lifted weights, but five minutes of dancing could leave me winded. Guessed no one was in shape for all forms of exercise.
The music switched from her favorite song to the next, and she continued dancing. Her breathing was even, and she didn’t seem at all out of breath. Her boots were dirty, hair flying, smile wide.
Oh fuck.
What had I gotten myself into?
I’d told Julian that I was here to have fun. That Annie had no reason to worry. I was the king of heartbreak, but I’d never thought there was any chance of that happening here. Annie wasn’t interested in anything more. Plus, I was leaving tomorrow.
Still, I hadn’t anticipated this…her.
She saw me gawking at her from the side of the barn. Her eyes heated. I wondered what she saw on my face. Because I wasn’t hiding what I was thinking—at all. I wanted her. Not just because I’d come out to this barn for her or line-danced for her. I wanted someone that vibrant in my life. Someone who set the room on fire.