Page 33 of Starry Skies, Stolen Kisses, and My Best Friend's Brother

Seth: It’s only a morning ride.I’ll see you in the afternoon, and you can admire the scenery then.

Mae: But won’t you go through Mae withdrawals?

Seth: It will be hard, but I’ll survive.Besides, maybe you can take Rick with you.How did your dinner go last night?

I frown at the phone.I don’t want to talk about it.The dinner was fine.Rick was his usual self, chatty and sweet.He complimented me and listened to me ramble on about my new job.We talked about what life in D.C.would be like, which made me nervous, but he was excited about it.He gave me a goodnight kiss afterward, and it felt nice.Nothing earth-shattering, but nice.

But do I really want justnicefor the rest of my life?

Mae: It was fine.Comfortable.

Seth: Good.You deserve to be happy.

I could be happy with Rick.Maybe.

My stomach clenches.

Or maybe I’ll always know he was my second choice and a life I didn’t really want.

Abi pops her head up again.“Come on, those horses aren’t going to saddle themselves.”

I slide out of bed.“Why does Isaac need us?He does these things all the time by himself.”

“It’s a bachelorette party weekend, and apparently, when they did the wild animal tour yesterday, three of them tried to get him to sleep with them.So he doesn’t want to take them.”

“I certainly hope one of them wasn’t the bride.”

Abi shrugs.“It wouldn’t be the first time a married woman has flirted with my brothers.I’m pretty sure Ethan got in a fight with a guy who thought he slept with his wife because she was fawning over him.”

It takes us about thirty minutes to prepare and get the six horses ready to go.We’ve done bigger groups before, so this shouldn’t be that bad.The weather today is fairly nice, but the ground is muddy from the rain yesterday.

“Let’s get this party started…The bride is in the house!”

I turn around and find four women about my age, maybe a little older.Three wear short shorts, and one is in a tight dress.All four have flip-flops on.

“This is going to be a disaster,” I mutter to Abi.

She takes a deep breath and nods, then faces the group.“I would highly recommend that you go change before we ride.Jeans and closed-toed shoes will be better.”

The women all look at each other.“We don’t have jeans with us, and these are the only shoes we brought.”

Abi lets out an exasperated sigh.She can be flighty and irresponsible, but where the horses are concerned, she’s very serious.

“Well, you’ll be sore when it’s over, and be careful around the horse hooves.They could take your toes off.”She gives them another glance.“You all haven’t been drinking already this morning, have you?We don’t allow our guests to ride drunk.It’s dangerous.”

The bride shakes her head, and another girl hands each of the others hydration backpacks.

“At least one of them is sensible,” I mutter to Abi.

“Where’s Isaac?”The bride narrows her eyes at Abi.

“Busy.We’re taking you today.”

The woman pouts for a second and then shrugs, sipping from her pack.The others seem to be going to town on them as well.I bet no one told them they’d have to pee in the woods.

It takes a good thirty minutes to get them all loaded onto the horses.Flip-flops were flying everywhere, but nobody fell off, which is a miracle in my opinion.These girls have obviously never been around horses before.

The ride starts off easy enough with the women all trying to get close to each other and take selfies.Just before we reach the path into the woods, they spot Levi chopping wood, and the bride flashes him.

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