Page 28 of Caught Up In You

“Why not? Owen’s a good guy,” she says.

“Exactly,” I reply. “Owen’s a good guy, and I’mnota good girl.”

“That’s bullshit,” she says.

“Okay, fine. I’m a fuckinggreatgirl. But he wants a girlfriend, and I don’t want tobea girlfriend. I just want to fuck around, and I’m not about to fuck around with yourbrother. So there’s no sense in getting everything tangled and confused when we obviously want different things.”

“Nobody knows what they want until they get it,” Grace says. “I mean, look at me. I was sure Decker was the absolute lastman on the planet I wanted to be with, and now we’re moving in together. I can’t imagine my life without that hot hockey disaster. Give things a try with Owen. See what happens.”

“There’s no zealot like a convert,” I mutter. I glance at Carson for support, but she nods at Grace.

“I’m with her on this one. Owen is hot and sweet and he wants you,” Carson says matter-of-factly. “It’s really nice to be wanted. I don’t know why you’d run away from that. Figure out the label stuff later.”

“Yes, we’ll just wait until I grind his heart into the dust and leave a trail of misery through my best friend’s entire family,” I say.

“Or maybe you’re afraid he’ll breakyourheart,” Carson says, raising her eyebrows at me.

“Please. Owen McBride? Heartbreaker? Bullshit,” I say. I look over at Grace. “Right?”

She shrugs. “Don’t ask me. Everyone thinks Dan is the mysterious one, but Owen hides his shit behind all his good deeds. I have no idea what his deal is. I know he dated Francie during residency, and that was pretty serious, but one day he called and said it was over. I don’t think there’s been anyone since.”

“None of that says perfect hookup for Wyatt,” I say. “I mean, maybe the mysterious part, but the good deeds? The long-term girlfriend? No. No way.”

Grace shrugs. “It’s your life. I’m just saying, don’t letyourmysterious shit get in the way of something good.”

My cheeks heat at that, because as close as I’ve grown with Carson and Grace over these last couple of years, I haven’t shared very much with them about my past. They know my mom went to prison and that I came to Cardinal Springs to care for Hazel. They know I stuck around so Hazel had a home to come back to during college. But they don’t know about my time inNashville or that it ended in disaster even before I got the call that my mother had been arrested. That despite my best efforts, I once let a shitty man take advantage of me.

The bell on the door tinkles again, and in walks Dan McBride. His brow is furrowed, his blue eyes dark, and he strides into the brightly colored, sunshiny space in a dangerously well-fitting black suit, a black leather carry-on slung over his shoulder. Standing on the rainbow rug in the middle of the store, he looks like the squarest peg in the roundest hole. Like a certified Suit Daddy, which is wildly at odds with the corn-fed smiles you usually find in Cardinal Springs.

“Keys?” he asks, his voice low and rumbly from disuse.

“Lemme grab them. They’re in my office,” Grace says, not bothering with the usual pleasantries. She knows how to easily communicate with her brother.

But I’ve never liked easy.

“So, are you fresh off a flight?” I ask, nodding at his bag.

“Yeah,” he says. His jaw flexes, his eyes dropping down to my niece, bouncing and squealing in my lap, then rising back to my face. He’s got the kind of intimidating gaze that I’m guessing usually shuts people up. Not me, though.

“From New York?”

“Yup.”

“Why were you in New York?”

The muscle in his jaw jumps. “Work.”

Okay, this is fun. I can barely suppress a grin. “What do you do?”

“Finance.” It’s the first multisyllabic response I’ve pulled from him.

I pause, cocking an eyebrow at him. “Are you in the CIA? Or a spy of some kind? A hit man or a hired gun?”

“No,” he replies, his gaze steely, his vocabulary back to one-syllable words deployed like gunshots.

Grace returns from her office jangling the keys.

“Here ya go. All Decker’s stuff is still in there, but he said feel free to donate whatever you don’t want to Habitat and move your own stuff in,” Grace says. Then her eyes light up. “Oh, or you could give it to Carson! She’s looking to get her own apartment, so she’ll need furniture.”

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