“My purse!”
Cam held up the cross-body bag I’d paired with her outfit. “This is a purse. That’s an envelope.”
Cooper and Rhett tossed their heads back laughing, and I held back a smile. I’d had the same question not long ago.
Cam folded her arms over her chest. “What on earth is so damn funny?”
Cooper wiped at his eyes. “Sorry, babe.” He put his arm around Cam’s shoulders. “A purse is what you make when you win.”
“You won, Rhett?” I asked. “First place?”
He had a bashful grin. “A thousand bucks should pay for gas and food with a little extra to spare, right?”
“Hell yeah.” Cam held her arm up to high-five him, and then I hugged him, saying, “Congratulations, babe.”
He looked down at me, holding me close. His hat cut off the glow of the parking lot lights, and he looked like a haloed cowboy with eyes for only me. “I like the sound of that.”
“Congratulations?” I teased.
He put his arms around my shoulders, bending me over and tickling my sides until I hit him, yelling to stop. He let me up, both of us laughing. The tension from those girls’ comments earlier lessened off my shoulders.
“Let’s go to Bandwagon,” Rhett suggested.
Cooper whooped while Cam and I exchanged a shrug.
I said, “Sometimes, I swear Rhett and Cooper are the ones in a relationship.”
“A true bromance,” Cam added. “But can we stop at the store on the way? I forgot to pack something.”
All of us stared at her, but Cooper was the one to talk. “In all those bags, you forgot something? What was it? The kitchen sink?”
She narrowed her gaze at him.
He held up his hands. “To the store, right, Rhett?”
Rhett smiled as he walked beside me, his arm around my shoulders. “To the store.”
We got in the truck and drove to a supermarket. I asked Cam if she wanted me to go in with her, but she said she’d go on her own. So the two guys and I sat in the truck, talking about the rodeo while she walked through the parking lot.
About twenty minutes later, she came back out, looking pale.
“Are you okay?” Cooper asked her as she slid in next to him.
She nodded. “I think the nachos didn’t sit right. I got some antacids.”
After she buckled in, Rhett got back on the road, weaving through traffic toward Bandwagon, a dance hall on the outskirts of Fort Worth. When we reached the parking lot, I saw it was full of trucks, probably most of the people who’d been at the rodeo earlier.
When we got inside, Rhett offered to get us drinks while Cam and I used the bathroom.
“Just a soda water for me,” she said. “I don’t think my stomach can take any alcohol or sugar.”
He nodded, and Cam and I made our way to the bathrooms. They were crowded, but she pulled me into an open stall, barely enough room for the two of us.
“What’s going on?” I asked her, worried. “Do you need me to hold your hair or something?”
She locked the stall door, the bolt clicking loudly against the metal. “Mags, I’m pregnant.”
My brain short-circuited. “What?” I couldn’t have heard her right.