Page 29 of In Full Bloom

“Shut up, I’ve been busy,” Katie snaps, then drags Olivia down the hall where they disappear into the bedroom.

Twenty minutes later, they appear again.

Flynn groans. “No. I can’t take you out like that.”

Katie snorts and rolls her eyes. “Really not concerned about your opinion, Flynnigan.”

“I know, but you’re going to break half the population of Kauri Creek.”

He’s not wrong. This town has probably never seen anything like it.

Olivia, who’ve I’ve seen pretty much permanently in jeans and a worn out hoodie since the day I met her, is wearing a dress. A dress that shows off all of her legs. It’s navy, with little sparkles all over. Loose through the top, it dips low in the back and hugs around her hips, ending barely halfway down her thighs. She looks incredible.

But it’s hard to acknowledge when Katie is standing next to her.

She’s entirely in black. A leather jacket. A super short skirt too, this one not even reaching her mid-thigh, but it doesn’t show off her legs. Because she’s wearing thigh high black suede boots.

I suppress a groan. This girl iskillingme.

Then, she slips the jacket down her shoulders and twirls in front of Flynn. That’s when I catch sight of the bare strip of skin around her middle. Coupled with the thin straps of the tightblack tank top and a peek of her bra strap, it might make me explode.

“Damn girl,” Flynn says, then reaches for Olivia’s hand and twirls her too. She giggles, clearly more hesitant about her outfit than Katie. “You too,” Flynn says. He turns to me. “They look smokin’, right boss?”

“Yep, let’s get this over with,” I mutter, unable to control my voice and what was supposed to be a sort-of joke, just comes out with me sounding like an asshole. I mean, it’s an accurate representation. The thoughts going through my head are asshole level right now. I don’t want to go to the pub, I want to take Katie into her room and strip that fucking gorgeous outfit right off her body.

Thankfully no one seems to notice my snarky tone.

Olivia and Flynn tumble out into the rapidly cooling night and I do everything I can to avoid staring at Katie’s cleavage, or the stretch of her torso laid bare, or the glimpse of her thighs between the boots and skirt.

I’m not concerned about the population of Kauri Creek anymore. Only me, and it’s already too late for me.

“You alright there, cowboy?”

“Spectacular.” I refuse to look at her. I already know what I’m going to find. Smudgy dark eye makeup, vampy red lips, probably curled into a wicked grin at my obvious discomfort. Lips I’m going to want to kiss and probably never let go.

I thought I was screwed before, the first day I saw her standing in the arena at Wildflower Ridge, but this … this is so much worse than I first realised.

15

KATIE

Dallas can’t even lookat me.

I don’t know why that makes me so happy, but it does. I’m practically gleeful.

I’m still furious with him for everything that’s happened today. I’m also completely exhausted from it all. Seeing Max, arguing with Dallas and even letting the memories of Toby rise to the surface. My massive cry by the lake and talking things over with Olivia. The new horse, seeing Flynn, jousting matches in the kitchen with Sadie, and Dallas’s revelation that it doesn’t happen as regularly as the sun rising anymore.

The last thing I want to be doing right now is going into a bar full of people who probably hate me. Max has had years to poison their thinking about me. He’s always blamed me for taking his brother away and because he hated me before I even started dating Toby, I’ve never felt like I could explain to him what actually happened.

I don’t even understand why he hates me so much. I sort ofget this thing where he thinks I took his brother away from him, then got him killed—which is absolutely not what happened. But the vendetta against me frombeforeToby. That’s the part I don’t understand.

The first time I met Max he dismissed me. Olivia and he had been friends back then. I couldn’t understand it, until she told me he acted differently around me than he had anyone in his whole life. She would know. She’s known him almost that long. The only part of Max’s life that Olivia wasn’t there for was the time when she wasn’t born yet.

She didn’t have a choice but to be friends with him. Their parents were friends, they were neighbours. There weren’t a lot of options.

So it was Olivia and Max and Toby and Flynn. Until I arrived and somehow took Max’s place without even trying.

I’d feel worse about it, except he’s such a massive jerk that even Olivia and Flynn distanced themselves. Toby never said Max was a reason for leaving town, but he didn’t have any issues leaving his twin behind.

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