“No shit? Can I come?”
“I don’t see why not? You can sit up front.” I turn to Amber. “Is that okay with you?”
She rolls her eyes dramatically. “Yeah, sure. My two favorite guys going up together in a death trap. What could be better?”
“You still haven’t gotten back up there?” Tag asks.
“I got her as far as the cockpit last week,” I say. I wink at Amber, having fond memories of what we did in the front seat of the chopper that day.
Tag slaps me on the shoulder. He must have caught the wink. “You dog. Nice.”
Amber turns a shade of pink. “Will you just go? And make sure your life insurance policies are paid up.” We go for the door. “And that I’m the beneficiary!”
We laugh and walk out. We take my truck over to the helipad on the airstrip, where Luca has corralled the guests. I give everyone a safety briefing and show them how to use the headphones. In the cockpit, I hand Tag his headset. “These are for the pilots. We can talk between ourselves, and they won’t hear us unless you push this button.”
“Got it.”
We take off and I run through the usual spiel, taking them over the pastures, the ridges, the stables, the windmill farm, and the undeveloped land. I fly over some neighboring ranches and along the river.
“What’s going on down there?” Tag asks.
There are hundreds of trucks and horse trailers out at the county livestock and rodeo. “There’s a rodeo there tonight. Horse auction going on now.”
“Amber tells me you ride broncos.”
“Broncs,” I say, touching my sore ribs. “Not this week, though.” I laugh. “Amber used to love it, but for some reason, she doesn’t want me to ride anymore.”
“I can probably guess the reason. Or more accurately, the two reasons.”
One of the guests asks a question, and I spend the next few minutes explaining what they’re seeing down below.
“What are you gonna do, man?” Tag asks.
“Well, I’m about to head back. We’ve seen all there is to see.”
“That’s not what I mean. What are you going to do about her? Them?”
“There is no them. We’ll get the results any day now. They’ll prove what I already know, and everything will go back to the way it was.”
“Then why go through this whole dog and pony show? No bullshit, Quinn. Tell me.”
“Amber thinks Josie is some kind of representation of her life. Both were abandoned by their mothers. I guess I felt like if I didn’t do anything, I’d be the dick who didn’t care.”
“You’re doing all this to score points with your girlfriend?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“You really don’t think the kid is yours?”
I shake my head. “I don’t. And it’s more than just wishful thinking. I just have this feeling, deep in my gut, that she’s not.”
“So the kid goes back to her mom, or some relative, or social services, or whatever. What then?”
“Like I said, everything will go back to the way it was.”
“With one exception.”
“What’s that?”
He huffs into the microphone. “Exactly when are you planning on telling her you’re in love with her?”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Amber
“Your friend didn’t want to join us?” Andie asks.
“Tag was only here for the day. He left for Dallas already.”
“I’ll bet it was nice to see someone from back home,” Devyn says. “Do you miss it?”
“Yes.” I glance at Quinn. “And no.”
Quinn, Aaron, and Maddox pay our way into the rodeo. Maddox thumbs right. “I know where Andie wants to go. Barrel racing is this way.”
We stop for drinks and make our way into the stands. Devyn checks her phone. “Do you think the kids are okay?”
“Sophie and Tara are both old pros,” Andie says. “They’ll be fine.”
“You hear anything yet?” Aaron asks Quinn.
Quinn shakes his head.
“You’re a saint—taking on a kid who might not even be yours.”
“She’s not mine.”
When he says it, my heart hurts. It’s not even what he said as much as how he said it. Like he knows for sure. Maybe even like he knows for sure and is sad about it. Over the past week, I’ve felt Josie and Quinn have made a connection. He would never admit it, but he loves playing the peek-a-boo game with her. He loves it when she smiles at him. He loves knowing he’s the only person she smiles for. I turn and study him as he talks with the guys. Does he love her?
“Amber?”
I realize Devyn has been trying to get my attention. “Uh, sorry.”
She nods to the arena floor. “Can you believe Andie used to do this?”
Andie leans over. “What do you mean used to?” She rubs her growing tummy. “If I weren’t pregnant, I’d still be doing it. Not competitively, but I’ll never stop loving the sport.”
After the barrel racing, we watch calf roping. Then something called cutting, where a rider and their horse have to separate a cow from a herd.
“This shit is boring,” Quinn says. “Can we please go where the action is?”
Aaron laughs. “It’s like a drug to you, isn’t it? How long before you can get back on a bronc?”
Quinn twists his torso and shrugs. “Few more weeks.”
“A few weeks?” I say, my tone an octave higher than normal. “It’s been less than three weeks since you got injured. I read broken ribs can take months to heal.”
He arches a brow. “Are you my doctor now?”
I lean close and whisper, “If I was, I’d order strict bed rest. Only, you wouldn’t be resting.”
His arm comes around my waist, and he tugs me close.
“I’m with Quinn,” Maddox says. “Let’s go see some poor chaps get their asses whipped.”
Quinn scoffs. “Is that why you like watching it? Dude, when you come see me, are you hoping I’ll fall on my ass?”
“You? No. Some poor bastard I don’t know? Hell, yeah. It’s good entertainment.”
We leave the current arena and go next door to where the bucking broncs are. As I watch, I realize it’s not as exciting as I once thought it was. It’s dangerous. And somehow, over the past few months, danger has become less of a turn-on. What if Quinn got hurt? Like badly hurt. Where would that leave me and Josie?
I close my eyes. I can’t think of us like that. There is no me, Quinn, and Josie. Not really. We’re playing house. Like Sophie, we’re babysitting. We’re not a family, and we shouldn’t be. Families don’t last. Someone always leaves. And someone else always gets hurt.
“You okay?” Quinn asks.
“I’m fine. Just daydreaming about later.”
He smiles. “Will we be stopping for supplies?”
I swipe my tongue across my upper lip. “Suddenly, I have a craving for chocolate and strawberries.”
“You better put that tongue back in your mouth, sweetheart. My pants are getting tight.”