Page 54 of Spurred On

“And then we can see what else we have time for.” She shrugs her shoulders as she rolls down the window, the summer air blowing in.

I can already tell that I’m going to need a nap when I get home, or at least another coffee, but getting out of the house is something I could stand to do a little more.

My eyes stay glued to my surroundings as we drive down the dirt road into town. Soon enough, it turns to pavement, and downtown Windy Peaks comes into view. We stay on the main road and start passing a few little stores. It almost looks like we’ve gone back intime. The buildings are all brick with hand-painted signs hanging over them.

Our first stop at Ruby’s Cafe was a success. The place looked like a house but had the best chicken club I’ve ever tasted. When I get back home, I’m going to have some words with Mav for holding out on me because he was right. Windy Peaks is amazing.

“Okay, I skipped coffee, so we are going to head over to the coffee shop before we go shopping. Is that okay with you?”

“Sounds great! If it’s as good as Ruby’s, I think I’ll be making my way into town more often.”

“You’re going to be putting some miles on that Toyota then because that coffee keeps me alive.”

The little shop has a brick exterior, but the inside looks like a saloon and coffee shop had a baby. Wooden siding lines the walls and there’s only two tables, and both of them are free, meaning we have the whole place for ourselves.

We sit down at one of the empty tables and start drinking. The pistachio flavor explodes across my tongue. Sweet Jesus, now I really am going to fight Mav when I get home. I’ve been drinking burned bitter bean juice from a one-hundred-year-old coffee pot when I could have been driving to town and getting this? Taking another sip, I let out a little moan.

“So, speaking of moaning, how are things with Mav?”

My hand covers my mouth as coffee flies out of my mouth. “Good lord, Aspen.”

“What?” She looks at me like my reaction is crazy, not her mouth.

Shaking my head, I let a little laugh escape before replying, “They’re really good. You were right.”

“You’re good for him. He works harder than anyone I know, right next to you. You two could outwork a horse, I swear.”

“He does work hard, too hard. Do you think he will be done with bull riding soon?” I’m hoping she’ll say yes, so I won’t have to worry about him getting crushed to death all the time.

“Who the hell knows with him? He’ll probably ride until he croaks.” Her words send a new wave of anxiety through me because the chance of him living old while he constantly tempts danger aren’t high. And if it doesn’t kill him, it might leave him with a traumatic brain injury, which wouldn’t be much better.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask Aspen what she thinks, but I don’t want them to think I don’t support him. So I just shove the worry down deep until I feel like I can take a full breath again. Squeezing my eyes shut, I realize I need to change the subject before I have a full-on panic attack.

Clearing my throat, I ask, “What about you? Anyone special?” Testing the waters to see if she will spill about Rhett. That will for sure get my mind off this.

“Nope.” She immediately brings her coffee to her lips. What a little liar.

“And here I thought we were friends.”

“What do you mean?” she says with furrowed brows. At least I can say she does a decent acting job. If nursing doesn’t work out, she can try out theatre.

“So there isn’t a certain boy in the friend group that you can’t keep your eyes off?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” She shakes her head.

“Being that I have two functioning eyeballs, I can see there’s something going on with you and Rhett.”

Pure, unfiltered panic fills her face. Well, so much for the acting fallback. I point at her with a smug smile on my face. Finally, a crack. “And your face just confirmed it.”

Her palms slam against the table. “Oh my God. How did you find out? Did you see us?”

My head whips back. “What? No. I had a feeling that night we were all out at the bar. It’s the way you two move together. You’re too familiar to be just friends. And you always leave dinner at the same time. You guys might want to stagger your departures if you really want to keep it a secret.”

Aspen shakes her head. “It’s nothing serious. We’ve only been messing around for a while.”

My eyes narrow on her because something is off. “Define, ‘a while’?” I add air quotes for emphasis.

“I don’t think I want to.” She once again reaches for an emotional support cup to fill the silence, but I put my hand over hers, stopping the motion.

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