Page 3 of Wild and Wrangled

Because, today, she was getting married.

She had invited me. Well, she invited my mom. “Aggie Tucker and family” is what the invitation said. The “and family” probably meant my little sister, Greer, even though she didn’t live around here anymore. It for damn sure didn’t mean me, which was probably a good thing.

I didn’t think I could do it—sit in the church and watch her walk toward her future with another man. Actually, I knew I couldn’t do it. So I was here, in the corner of the bar, drinking bourbon and drowning sorrows.

It was dark in the Devil’s Boot. There weren’t any big windows, and most of the light came from the neon signs throughout the bar. I’d talked Joe, the bartender, into giving me my own bottle and a glass, so I wouldn’t have to get up from myspot in the corner. It actually didn’t take that much convincing. He knew why I was here. Everyone knew Cam and I had history. There were no secrets in Meadowlark.

Pathetic. I was pathetic. With the way I was feeling, you’d think that Camille Ashwood had broken my heart this morning—not more than a decade ago. Well, for the first time. She broke my heart a million times after that, too, and time never did what it was supposed to do: heal or whatever.

Cam was an open wound, and time was salt.

I lifted my glass to my lips and took a sip of my drink. It was only my second or third sip. I was shit at drowning my sorrows, apparently.

I needed to get better at it, because my stupid head would not quiet down. It was shouting at me togo,todosomething—to run to the church or to run away. I didn’t know which, so I didn’t do either.

It could’ve been a minute or an hour when I heard the front door to the bar open. My eyes swung to it because it hadn’t opened once since I got here. Probably because it was three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon.

I saw a white dress and dark hair. It couldn’t be her. I blinked a few times—thinking this weird fucking apparition of her would go away. I shook my head—trying to shake her right out the door, but she didn’t go. She was still there, in her white dress.

What the hell was she doing here?

I looked down at my watch. She should be married by now—was she married by now? Were they coming here after the wedding? I couldn’t imagine Rutherford and Lillian Ashwood would be too pleased about that. And if they werecoming here, Teddy would’ve told me—she knew all about the drowning-sorrows plan and where those plans were taking place.

Cam looked…beautiful. Like she always did. But her curly hair was straightened and the dress looked like it was drowning her—there were a lot of layers. The look on her face made me want to track down Greg or Graham or whatever the fuck his name was and kick the shit out of him. What the hell happened?

I waited for her eyes to scan the bar and inevitably land on me, but they didn’t. She went straight to the bar and sat down. She dropped the long, white veil she was dragging behind her on the floor.

Joe looked at her with wide eyes as she sat down, but he knew better than to say anything. She spoke to him, and he filled a glass with ice and clear liquid. I couldn’t see what it was—vodka, probably—and slid it across the counter. Her fingers gripped the glass as she picked it up and drank nearly half of it in one go.

She didn’t even flinch.

It took effort to turn away from her, but I needed a second. Plus, I was probably the last person she wanted to see. Judging by the presence of the vodka and wedding dress and the absence of the groom, I was starting to think the wedding hadn’t happened.

Or maybe it happened, and it was shit?

But what if it hadn’t?

I looked down at my hands resting on the table. They started to shake, and I balled them into fists to make them stop.

My phone lit up on the table, and I quickly picked it up. Isaw a message from Teddy, and more were coming. She could never send just one text. I’d always seen Teddy as another sister; now that my mom and her dad were together, that was truer than ever.

Teddy: Dusty fuckin’ Tucker

Teddy:WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A LOT TO TALK ABOUT LATER

Teddy:SOMETHING DRAMATIC HAPPENED

Teddy:Are you at DB?

Teddy:Has a beautiful woman wearing a very expensive white dress showed up? We can’t find her.

Shit. Cam was a runaway bride. But why did she come here? I typed out a quick response to Teddy.

Dusty:She’s here.

Teddy:Gus is coming.

Teddy:DON’T INVADE HER SPACE.

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