Page 30 of Hung Up
“The day your focus was no longer on that buckle.”
“It’s still on the buckle,” I reply a little too quickly to be convincing. I clear my throat. “I still am competing and still want that golden buckle.”
Kai laughs. “Is that a code name for?—”
“What are you girls gossiping about over here?” We both turn at the sound of Rylie’s voice. She’s sporting a giant grin as shestrides toward us, dressed as casually as I’ve ever seen her in leggings and a blue crew neck. “Don’t leave me hanging. I love getting the hot goss.”
“Oh, nothing much,” Kai drawls, his gaze turning to me with a wicked smile. “Just how I’m pretty sure that Jesse here has the hots for?—”
I slap my hand over his mouth, narrowing my eyes at him. Dropping my hand, I turn to Rylie and give her a gentle, albeit forced, smile as I straighten my shoulders. Glancing at the growing crowd around us, my eyes instantly snag on a head of blonde, curly hair. Faith is stalking toward us, looking hotter than sin. She’s got her curls tied up in a gorgeous messy bun atop her head, black leather pants so tight they’re making my mouth water, and a low-cut silk white tank top showcasing a lace bra underneath.
She’s trying to kill me. She’s really, really trying to kill me.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” She winks at me as she walks up next to Rylie, linking their arms together. “I hear there’s a vendor fair. Want to go?”
“I can’t,” Rylie tells her, and Faith’s face falls slightly. “I have to hop on a call for a meeting with my team. Sorry, honey.”
Before I can think better of it, I blurt out, “I can go with you.”
Kai barks out a laugh that he quickly tries to cover up with a cough as he slaps my shoulders and says between said coughs so only I can hear, “You’re full of shit.”
“Shut up,” I mumble back before turning my attention back to the girls. “What do you say, Sweetheart?”
She stares at me, those eyes kicking my heart into overdrive as I remember them staring up at me while she was on her knees before me. It seems she’s remembering the same thing because her cheeks are slowly turning a light shade of red. She glances at Rylie, who simply shrugs, before Faith rolls her eyes, turning her attention back to me.
“You really want to walk around a vendor fair with me while I go shopping?”
“I’d love nothing more.”
She lets go of Rylie’s arm and saunters over to me. “Try and remember that in an hour, Pretty Boy.”
Faith walks by me without a simple glance back, heading with the crowds toward the convention center where the vendor fair has been set up. I take off after her, ignoring the laughter from Kai like I’m a man on a mission. And, you know, I am. I need to figure out why she left without saying goodbye, and why she didn’t bother responding to any of my texts over the last few days.
I’ve been driving myself crazy with thoughts of her, what we did, and what could be. I haven’t been able to focus on any of my clips so I could prepare for this weekend. I wasn’t able to hop on a call with my sister or even talk to my cousin when we met up for lunch since he was in town on business. All that keeps running through my head like some annoying mantra is:Faith. Faith. Faith.How the hell did that happen? When did this come to be?
I used to be a man who slept around, never thinking of a woman once she left my bed. Hell, more often than not, I was trying to get them out of my life. I hated small talk, never wanted anyone to know about me and never gave two shits about learning about them. It was purely transactional. Mutually beneficial.
And then all that changed when Faith walked out of that media room in Sacramento.
Can someone please explain that to me? Because it doesn’t make any sense. How can the sight of one woman stop me in my tracks, and suddenly nothing else makes sense? Nothing else seems to matter? That’s crazy. I must be losing my mind. Maybe I’m ill? I don’t know.
What I do know is that if she tells me it was a one-time thing, I really will lose my mind.
I’ve had a taste, and now I can’t help but want more.
“So, what are we looking for?” I ask once I catch up to her and enter the space where all the booths have been set up.
There’s countless clothing booths, ones only sporting hats, some with lots of boots, and the rest with a random assortment of all that and then some. It was at one of these vendor fairs that I bought Stevie the bandana she wears for competitions, and where I got Kolbi his first cowboy hat. Looking at Faith now, I’m practically drooling at the idea of getting her into some denim, a hat, and a pair of boots.
Does the hat rule go the same for women? ‘Cause I’d force my big head into her hat if it does.
“I’m not sure,” she tells me, slowing her pace to take in everything at every booth she walks past. “I’ll know it when I see it.”
“If you’re anything like my sister, you’ll be walking out of here with your arms covered in shopping bags.”
She chuckles, her eyes soaking up a jewelry stand. “Sounds to me like she and I would get along great.”
“Oh, without a doubt,” I say, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “For starters, you both like to bust my balls. Giving me a hard time and making fun of me seems to be your part-time job.”
