Page 31 of Lost and Lassoed

Now I felt bad for bringing Cam up, but he kept talking before I could say anything. “You’re going to be okay, Teddy. You won’t need me to marry you when you’re forty. Plus, forty is not old. I’ve heard it’s the new thirty.”

“Well,” I said as I brought my hand up to touch the right side of his neck. There was a tattoo there—an Old EnglishA.He’d never actually confirmed to me that it was for Cam’s last name, but I knew. “My offer still stands. We can tell everyone that thatAon your neck is for Andersen.”

Chapter 15

Gus

Before today, I could’ve confidently said that seeing Teddy Andersen in her stupid fucking running outfit was the worst thing to happen to me since that night years ago.

Not anymore.

Because at that moment, Teddy was sitting in a booth in the Meadowlark Diner and flashing a smile that she’s never given me at another man. I watched them walk in with Dusty’s arm draped over her shoulder. I don’t know why it bothered me—I’d watched men fight for Teddy’s attention for years.

Teddy is a flirt, and for once, I don’t mean that as an insult. It’s just how she is. She has a flirty personality. She likes attention. She basks in it.

So I don’t know why seeing her touch Dusty’s neck made me feel like I could breathe fire. Maybe because when she touched his neck, in that moment, I wished it was mine.

I’d always kept Teddy at arm’s length—exactly where she should be. But now she was living in my house, eating my food, and prancing around in her stupid outfits that felt like they were designed to drive me crazy.

And to top it all off, my kid fucking loves her.

It was officially doing things to my head.

Teddy laid her head on Dusty’s shoulder as she popped a fry into her mouth. The movement made a white strap peek out from the tank top she was wearing.

I hated how comfortable those two seemed to be with each other, and I hated that I hated it. I had no reason to. Dusty was my friend, and Teddy was my part-time babysitter. If they wanted tocanoodle,or whatever, while they got dinner, they had every right to do that.

But that white strap was like a light in the dark—just like it was a few years ago.

I felt my breath quicken. I should’ve looked away before Teddy could catch me staring, but I didn’t.

When she lifted her head from Dusty’s shoulder, her blue eyes locked on mine. For a moment, she looked confused, probably wondering why I was still looking at her.

Believe me, Theodora, I’m wondering the same thing.

She held my gaze and absentmindedly went to move the white strap back up her shoulder.

“Gus?”

I’d forgotten Nicole was talking. She talked a lot, but not in a way that made me want to listen. I always listened to Teddy—mostly so I could think of a comeback for whatever bullshit she was spewing.

“Sorry,” I said. “What were you saying?”

Nicole looked where I’d been staring. Teddy wasn’t looking at me anymore; she was dipping her fries in her ice cream and laughing at something.

I wondered what she was laughing at.

“Are Dusty and Teddy dating?” Nicole asked when she turned back to me. “Wouldn’t that be something!”

“What do you mean?” I asked. My tone was harsher than intended.

Nicole shrugged. “I mean, both of them are kind of hard to pin down, wouldn’t you say? Kind of irresponsible?”

“Teddy isn’t irresponsible,” I responded. Fuck, someone better write this day down in the Meadowlark history books, because I’d never said that before. I’d never believed it before. But then Teddy started being Riley’s nanny or whatever, and I believed it now.

As much as I was loath to admit it, Teddy Andersen was good shit—just not to me.

The look Nicole was giving me was full of confusion.Same,I thought. Why was she even at this table with me? When I’d picked Riley up, she asked what Riley and I were going to get up to, so I told her we were heading to the diner. Next thing I know, her car pulls up behind my truck when I park on the street and she and her daughter walk in with me and Riley, and Nicole asks for us all to be seated together.

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