“So, your mom is doing good?” she asked. “I didn’t see her out there.”
I grinned. “Oh, she’s doing better than fine. As a matter of fact, you wouldn’t know how sick she is by looking at her. Somehow, she managed to talk Jackson into letting her go on a cruise for singles. The aides went with her, of course.”
“Oh Lord, I bet she is having the time of her life!”
“She is, but it gets lonely here without her. Jackson always stops in a few times a day, but there isn’t much for me to do with school breaking for the holidays.”
“That is pretty awesome that he seems to take such good care of you.” She grinned.
Fighting the urge to groan, I settled on the other side of the island. I knew that my dear friend had an opinion about mine and Jackson’s living situation. She’d known that we were sleeping together almost as soon as it happened. Natalee had an odd sixth sense for knowing when a man was off the market. However, it wasn’t a skill that she often used, considering she still ended up with her fair share of married or taken men.
“Well, it was part of the agreement, so I’d hope that he takes good care of me,” I muttered. “What about you? How is The Pig? And my apartment, I haven’t been back there in weeks, but nothing looked different then.”
“Really, nothing has changed. The world keeps going round, and you are still a legend among bartenders. Every new woman we hire now sets her site on one of the Wheeler brothers.”
I laughed. “Poor Walker, he probably doesn’t know what to do with all the attention.”
“Is that the one who lives by the bar?” She asked.
“Yep, he’s the second oldest next to Jackson and a really sweet man. Maybe I should set you up with him,” I played.
Her eyes grew wide. “No, thank you! You are more than welcome to set me up with anyone but a rancher.”
“I thought you loved the country boys!”
She shook her head. “I’ve seen how they are. It’s not that I would turn one down for a good time, but this is definitely not the life for me.”
“Hey!” I muttered. “What’s wrong with this life?”
“Are you really happy here? Like with everything going on between you and Jackson, do you honestly feel like this is where you belong?”
The blush on my cheeks gave me away. I hadn’t given it much thought if I were honest. We’d slipped into a wonderfully copacetic life together, and I wasn’t sure I wanted it to end, ever. Natalee saw the look on my face, her mouth dropping open as it curved into a smile. I had to turn away from her just to keep my smile to myself, but it was already too late.
“Oh my God! You love him!” she screamed. “I can’t believe it! All of that big talk, and you have fallen in love with Jackson Wheeler! Does he know?”
“Of course, he doesn’t know! This is a business arrangement. He’s made his feelings very clear. I am only here so that he can get his property, nothing else.”
“How do you know?” Natalee asked. “Like, how do you know that he doesn’t feel the same way about you? Have you asked him or talked to him about you feel?”
“I just said no,” I muttered.
“Then don’t feed me that bullshit line that he doesn’t love you. Until you’ve actually talked to him, you don’t know anything.”
“I know that it’s a bad idea to tell him how I feel.”
She shook her head, vigorously. “I think you are just being a chicken. I’ve seen how happy you are when you come back to visit. You can’t tell me that there isn’t anything there.”
“Of course, there is, we’ve been living together for six months now. How could feelings not develop a little bit? I don’t know if I love him, okay? I just know that I feel something.”
“You need to talk to him.”
“No, I need to get through the next six months and give him some space. If his feelings for me have changed since we first started this song and dance, then he can tell me.”
“Right,” she scoffed, “because men are just so good about talking about their feelings. Have you lost your damn mind? If you don’t bring it up, neither of you will. Is that what you want? To walk away from this without ever knowing if the