“That’s not what I mean, Elsie.”
Elsie knew it, and Alaina didn’t know Elsie did because Alaina thought Elsie was dense about men and Elsie could see that completely evident on her friend’s face.
“Right. Well. I mean, I don’t know. We went to a couple of restaurants, I bought some dresses. I’m going to wear one out to the bar this weekend.”
That was the plan. It had been the whole time.
She wouldn’t wear the black one, though.
Just looking at it made her think of dancing with Hunter and made her imagine being held by him. And so she just wouldn’t wear it.
“That’s great,” Alaina said.
He didn’t mention you.
And she hated herself for thinking that. It was so damned catty. What the hell? Elsie had never been catty a day in her life.
And it was about Hunter. Hunter.
Who had always gotten under her skin, sure, but mostly it was in an irritating familial kind of way. Which was why you stamped out of the bathroom with your bra on display 100 percent on purpose...
She fought hard against that memory.
And also against the image of him in that moment.
Shirtless. In nothing but a pair of low-slung sweats, and she had wanted to stop and take in every detail of him. Of his body, which she had seen before.
But it had felt different there. Different and dangerous.
“The thing is... I just... Hunter isn’t in the market for a relationship,” she said.
“He has sex,” Alaina pointed out.
The flayed, irritated wound that was Elsie throbbed in response to that.
“Sure,” Elsie said. “But you don’t want...”
“Why are you being a hypocrite, Elsie? You want to have sex with Travis.”
“Can you stop saying have sex like that? Someone could walk in and there’s just no pretending you aren’t talking about exactly what you’re talking about when you’re carrying on like that.”
“Fine. You want to play Scrabble with Travis.”
Elsie rolled her eyes. “That isn’t...”
“Why can’t I play Scrabble with Hunter?”
“Because he’s Hunter! He’s not some random ranch hand who’s going to leave before next summer. He is Hunter. He’s...”
And the words died on her lips when Hunter walked into the barn. Gus, Tag, his wife, Nelly, Brody and Lachlan were there too, but they seemed fuzzy around the edges. And then her brothers were there and they seemed just as fuzzy, but Hunter never did.
He stuck with his brothers and didn’t come and say anything to her, which irked her, irrationally. As much as Alaina, who sat next to Elsie as the meeting started and kept fiddling with her hair while making moon eyes over at Hunter.
When the floor opened up, Hunter took the opportunity to go up and talk about the trip to Vancouver, the horses, the cost of them and why he thought it was worth the investment.
Then it was Gus’s turn to speak about the progression of the equine facility. Gus was the kind of guy who commanded attention by virtue of his presence. Even Alaina was looking at him, but Elsie found her gaze wandering to Hunter.
It wasn’t until midway through the meeting that she reminded herself to look for Travis.
With a jolt.
She hadn’t thought about him once since Hunter had come in.
She examined his profile. His blond hair. His jaw wasn’t as square as Hunter’s. His shoulders sloped slightly, his whole build quite a lot narrower than Hunter’s. And he was several inches shorter, which had seemed completely fine less than a week ago. He was taller than her, so what did it matter if he wasn’t...a lot taller.
She remembered how small she felt when Hunter took her in his arms and...
Gus was sitting down now and Fia was talking about the advances they were making in the farm stand and Elsie had somehow missed the transition.
When the meeting finished, the bonfire outside was lit and food was put out on tables, meat put on the grill, and the makeshift band that was filled with an ever rotating group of ranch hands started playing rowdy country songs.
And somehow Elsie felt distant from it. Like she was hovering above it rather than being right down in it.
She sat down with her family to eat, and when Hunter came over with his plate something in her chest lifted.
But then he sat down next to Sawyer and didn’t even acknowledge her.
She felt...alight with fury.
Why was he doing this? Acting like they hadn’t had a weekend together? Acting like nothing had changed? Like he didn’t know her any better. Like they hadn’t talked and danced and he’d bought her a daiquiri because he’d known she’d like it even when she hadn’t and what the hell?
She stalked away from her family and went to the bonfire, where beer was being poured into red plastic cups. She took one gladly and knocked it back, glaring across the dancing flames at Hunter, who was sitting there, talking to her brothers like she was invisible.
So she went to the nearest group she could find—a combination of McClouds and Kings—and smiled. “Anything interesting happening?”
Landry King looked genuinely surprised that she was speaking to him, his dark brows rising slowly. He was a handsome man—the thing was, they all were—and Fia Sullivan always acted like she’d rather die than be in the same room as him. Or on the same side of a bonfire. As a result, the Sullivans tended to avoid him at all costs.
“Just a discussion about whether or not we should play beer pong,” Lachlan answered. “We’re split, for and against.”
“We’re not discussing beer pong,” Arizona said, her amber eyes flickering with disdain. But then, Arizona was always filled with disdain and no one really knew why. Well, maybe the Kings did, but they were sort of an insular breed, so who could even say?
Then suddenly, she had a horrible thought that Arizona’s feelings felt like a pickled version of the rage inside of Elsie right this moment.
But that was different. She wasn’t... Nothing had happened between her and Hunter. Well, something had. And him acting like everything was normal was weird, and it hurt. But she wasn’t... It wasn’t...
“Hey, Hunt,” Lachlan said. “You want in on a poker game?”
“See?” Arizona said. “He’s a liar. Beer pong was never on the table.”
“Well, I knew that,” she said. Mostly out of loyalty. Because Fia hated Landry, whatever the reason, and since Alaina was Elsie’s friend, she tended to keep to their opinions on the Kings.