Page 61 of Swift and Saddled

You know, just in case.

This time I looked in the mirror before I went back out to Emmy and Teddy. The shirt Teddy had chosen was a tight black short-sleeved shirt. There was a seam down the middle of the front that cinched the top, making the neckline lower than it looked when it was hanging up. It was simple—the skirt remained the statement piece.

I opened the bathroom door and was met with applause. I couldn’t help but smile. I didn’t know if Emmy and Teddy treated everyone this way, but that didn’t matter, it made me feel special anyway.

“I wore these here, and I’m taking this as a sign,” Emmy said, holding out a pair of black cowboy boots. “Try them on.”

I grabbed a pair of socks from the top drawer of the dresser and slid them on, and the boots right after.

I’d never worn cowboy boots before, not even the ones made for fashion over function like these, but I loved them.

“This is our best work,” Teddy said to Emmy before looking at me. “You look amazing. Seriously, Wes better keep you close tonight because you’re going to attract every cowboy within a thirty-mile radius.”

I took in the entire outfit in the full-length mirror. The last time I’d really looked at myself in a mirror was in that motel on my first full day in Meadowlark. I didn’t look very different than I did then—a few freckles had appeared because I was spending more time in the sun, my bangs had grown out more, my cheeks looked fuller—a sign of life—but I felt like an entirely different woman.

The woman I saw in the mirror was comfortable. She still enjoyed solitude, but she didn’t feel lonely anymore, and for someone who’d felt lonely her entire life, that was worth everything. It wasn’t that I grew up feeling like I didn’t belong, but like I didn’t belong where I was but might belong elsewhere.

Maybe I could belong here.

With Wes.

And Emmy, and Teddy, and Cam. With Amos too.

There was a knock at my door. “Ada,” Wes’s voice filtered through. “Are you almost ready?”

Before I could answer, Teddy and Emmy shouted “Go away!” in unison, which Emmy followed up with “She’ll meet you in the entryway.”

“And she looks fucking hot, so prepare yourself!” Teddy called.

I could hear the smile in Wes’s voice when he said, “Can’t wait.” Then I heard his steps depart from the door.

“Jacket. Bag.” Teddy handed me my worn leather jacket and my purse. I took both. Suddenly I felt nervous. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone on an actual date.

“Deep breath,” Emmy said, sensing my nervousness. She made a show of breathing in loudly, and I followed her lead, exhaling at the same time too. “Tonight is going to be great.”

With that, I walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. Wes was waiting for me in the entry. He didn’t hear me approach at first. I saw him run his hands through his hair and adjust the flannel shirt he was wearing over his T-shirt. His jeans looked new, and he was wearing a pair of boots I hadn’t seen before.

Weston Ryder was the most beautiful man I’d ever known—inside and out.

When he saw me, his dimples appeared with a big smile, and he made a show of bringing his fist up to his mouth and biting his index finger, as if looking at me frustrated him—not in a bad way, but in a way that showed me how much he wanted me. “God, you’re pretty,” he said. He leaned in and kissed my neck. “How am I supposed to keep my hands off of you?” he growled, and it sent heat through me.

“Who said you had to keep your hands off me?” I said.

“Good point,” he said with a kiss at my jaw. Then he tilted my chin up and kissed me hard and hot until we heard an “Ahem” from the hallway.

It was Emmy. She was beaming. Teddy gave us a wave and said, “Have fun, kids. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Good thing for Wes and me, that left things pretty open.

—

“What are we supposed to do with twenty pieces of pie?” I asked as Wes and I walked back to his truck. He was carrying a bag full of to-go boxes that literally had twenty pieces of pie in them. Wes had ordered a slice of all twenty flavors of pie from the Meadowlark Diner.

“Eat them, obviously.”

“That’s a lot of pie, Wes,” I countered.

“I have faith in us,” he said simply. “Are you okay to hold them while I drive? If that coconut cream pie touches the cherry, I can’t lie to you, I might cry.”

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