Page 58 of Bad Cowboy, Tennessee

I expected Draven to hang around my tent, hovering over me like he had been since the moment he got to town. But I was surprised as he nodded, taking a few steps away.

“You have a good night, Baby Blue.”

He was gone a moment later, disappearing into the crowd. But I kept seeing his black hat around the beer fest.

He stopped on a bench for a while, still in sight of me.

Then he moved under a tree across the way—still able to keep watch on my tent.

Was he really that fucking worried about whatever dumbass online stalkers I had?

A group of guys came over soon after, sampling all of the different beers, but my mind still circled around Draven. I didn’t want him here, but his absence stoked a craving in me, like an addiction I didn’t ask for.

The feeling of his hand on my back. That look in his eyes.

What the fuck was I going to do about him?

My mom had told me since I was a kid that it’s always better to “kill ‘em with kindness”rather than fight. I’d never really had to do it, because most people in Bestens actuallywerenice, and I’d never been much of a fighter.

But I couldn’t keep trying to meet Draven anywherenearhis level.

But kindness? I was good at that.

The only thing that seemed to shock him was when I called him a good person.

Chapter 10

Draven

When I heard a knock at my front door I was at least 50% certain it was going to be Mr. Marsden coming over to tell me he wanted his house back.

Because nothing was going right tonight.

I never should have told Max I’d tell him my secrets, firstly. But I was a sucker for a sweet face, apparently, and now I’d promised too much, even though I hadn’t told him anything yet.

And the moment I’d started to feel true affection for him, something flickered inside me like a faulty light.

Becauseaffectionwas off limits.

I wanted to fuck him. Wanted to be inside him.

But I wasn’t going to get attached.

It had been an hour since I left the beer fest, and I’d opened another, stronger beer after I got home. Dominic had texted me twenty minutes ago, and I didn’t like what I saw.

Dominic

Your dad’s still pissed. Tried to put in a good word for you at our meeting tonight, but he told me, in exact terms: ‘He’s not strong-arming me out of this one.’

Draven

Fuck him.

You’re not going to like this, either.

Goddamnit. What else?

He has a meeting with Bill Franklin tomorrow, with Franklin’s financial advisor.

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