“You are going to be there with us,” Olivia says. “We can’t be safer since you are going to be there. Come on, cowboy.”
“Fuck me,” he says and looks at me. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“I don’t think it can get worse than the diner,” I say. He starts to talk, and I hold up my hand. “I don’t think I have anymore tears to cry. I’m dehydrated. There is nothing I can do to change the past.”
“There is just something,” he says, and Olivia stops him this time by grabbing his face and kissing him. “Darlin’.”
“What time do I have to be ready?” Olivia asks, clapping her hands with excitement. “I don’t know if I have anything to wear.”
“You have seventy-five pounds of clothes all over my closet,” Casey says. “I’m sure there is something there.”
“I can move it to the other closet if you like.” She folds her arms over her chest, and he glares at her. “I can also sleep in the room also.” She turns and grabs her glass of wine, heading to the master bedroom.
“Where are you going?” he shouts.
She looks over her shoulder. “I’m going to finish my wine.” She smiles. “Then I’m going to nap because I’m going to get dressed up and dance my ass off tonight.” She laughs all the way to the bedroom.
“How much trouble can she possibly get into?” Casey looks at me, and I shut my laptop.
“You do see what she looks like, right?” I ask, and he doesn’t say anything. “You also see what she wears.” His jaw gets tight. “She is friendly with everyone. She did bring muffins to you and the boys in the barn.”
“I think I need backup,” he says and grabs his hat. “I don’t want you to encourage her.”
“If you think anything I say can encourage her”—I point at the bedroom—“then you are so oblivious.” I shake my head. “I’m going home.”
“You can work here,” he tells me, walking out with me and closing the door behind me.
“I need a nap,” I say. “Apparently, I’m going to have to dance my ass off tonight with her.”
“This is a bad idea,” he says, and I look at him.
“Then why did you agree to it?” I laugh and walk away from him.
“Because it made her smile,” he says, and I turn around, walking backward.
“Hope you know what you’re doing, big brother,” I say, and he shakes his head.
“It’s only temporary,” he says, turning to walk back to the barn. I walk back to the house, and the smell of banana bread fills the house. My mother looks up from the oven where she’s placing the muffins on the plate when I walk into the room.
“Mom, I swear by the time I go home, I’m going to have gained twenty pounds,” I say, putting down my laptop and walking over to the bowl that holds the muffins from this morning.
“You can use a little bit of meat,” she tells me and takes off the oven mitt. “Are you done for the day already?”
“No.” I take a piece of the muffin top and toss it into my mouth. “I am going to take a nap and then work after.”
“Did you not sleep well?” my mother asks with worry all over her face. “We should get another mattress for that bedroom.”
“I’m sleeping okay,” I say, “but Casey just agreed to take us out tonight.”
She smiles at me. “That sounds like fun. You guys going to go bowling?”
I shake my head and look down, then ask the question I’ve been dying to ask her for the past four days. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” She looks at me as I put the muffin down.
“That he didn’t marry her.” I wipe away a tear and look at her.
“Honey,” she says, coming over to me and hugging me, “you told me that you didn’t want to know. That what Jacob did with his life had nothing to do with you. Every single time I brought it up, even in passing, you changed the subject.”
“It just doesn’t make sense,” I say. “Why wouldn’t he marry her?”
“Maybe he didn’t love her,” my mother says, and I shake my head.
“So he just wanted to have sex with her?” I let out a breath. “I’m going to go lie down.” Turning, I walk toward the stairs.
“Kallie.” I stop on the second step. “One of these days, you’ll have to have a conversation with him.”
I swallow past the lump in my throat. “Maybe, someday.” Turning, I run up the stairs and away from the conversation she wants to have.
The nap lasts twenty minutes, and I eat almost nothing for dinner, wondering how tonight is going to play out. Maybe going out isn’t such a great idea, but here I am, getting ready for tonight.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror. I left my hair loose, just curling it and then running my hands through it so it looks like a soft wave. I don’t put on any eye shadow, opting for just a touch of mascara.
A soft knock sounds on the door, and I step out of my bathroom as the door opens. “Okay, this is the most country I have,” Olivia says, and I shake my head.
“There is nothing country about that outfit,” I say, pointing at her blue jeans and a black off-the-shoulder sweetheart shirt that shows just a touch of her toned midriff with matching platform wedges. Her blond hair is perfectly done, and her makeup is lighter than usual.
“Well, this is as country as I get,” she says, shrugging. “You, on the other hand. You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”
I laugh down at my own outfit. My blue jeans are low riding, and I’ve paired them with a tight flowery spaghetti strap crop top with a built-in bra, my big brown belt, and matching cowboy boots. I don’t want to think about the last time I wore these boots, which was when I was going to prom.
“Well, shall we?” I say, and she nods her head with a huge smile on her face. Casey groans when he sees us coming down.
He drags his feet to the truck, opening the back door for me and the front door for Olivia. “Thank you, cowboy,” she says, getting on her tippy toes and kissing his cheek.
“I don’t have a good feeling about tonight,” Casey says, getting into the truck and making his way over to the bar.
The parking lot is full, and I whistle when I hear the music coming from inside. “This definitely has changed from the last time I was here,” I say, seeing the flash of lights coming out of the window.
“New owner came in and changed things. Put in a pool table, a dartboard, and then brought in a DJ and a band on Friday and Saturday nights,” Casey says as we walk to the front door. “She also expanded, tripling the size.”
“Wow,” I say when he opens the door, and I step in. He was not kidding about the changes. About twenty people are already on the dance floor doing a line dance. Wooden tables are all around the dance floor, and looking past the dance floor, I see the back room is almost full of people playing pool and others watching. “This is so cool,” I say, looking at Casey right before I turn fully and see her behind the bar. Smiling, she tosses a bottle up in the air and then pours it into the shot glasses in front of her. “What the …?” I say softly, and she must sense that I’m looking at her because she looks right at me, and her smile fades. “Casey?”