Good Enough (Meet Me in Montana #3) - Kelly Elliott Page 0,44
I saw that she had caught my quick glance. She frowned, her brows pulling slightly, but then quickly wiped the expression from her face. When our eyes met, she smiled widely.
“Fancy meeting you here, cowboy. Wasn’t thinking you would be back into town for another few days.”
I took a step back from her, crossing my arms over my chest. The last thing I wanted was to give her any wrong impressions. “Well, I’m back. Chance and I decided to take a longer holiday break this year.”
“That’s great. I haven’t seen either of you in town, though…been hiding?”
“Something like that,” I replied. Even I heard how clipped my voice was.
She forced a smile. “There’s a party tonight at the Blue Moose.”
“What for?”
“Jeremy and Kimmy are engaged and celebrating. I know Jeremy would love to see you. If he knew you were in town, he’d have invited you for sure.”
I nodded. “I guess it’s no surprise they’re finally getting married.”
Lindsey laughed, a little too loudly. It was obvious she wanted Timberlynn to see us talking. “Dating since freshman year of high school. It’s about time he popped the question. So, what do you say? You want to go?”
That was Lindsey’s way of asking me if I wanted to go with her, meaning we would probably end the night back at her place for a quick fuck. At least that was her plan, not mine.
“Maybe I’ll show up. I’m not sure if my folks have anything planned.” I purposely looked over to Timberlynn, then back to Lindsey. Her eyes followed mine. Timberlynn stood there, a beautiful smile on her face as she spoke with a sales associate. It felt like my heart may have jumped slightly when she laughed at something that the associate said.
Lindsey frowned. “Is there something going on there, Tanner? You seemed to be into her at Ty’s wedding, and now she’s back in town for what?”
“Christmas with her cousin Kaylee. Plus, she’s thinking of moving here.”
“Moving here!” Lindsey nearly shouted. I glanced at Timberlynn to see her still talking to the sales associate, so she hadn’t heard Lindsey…hopefully. Or maybe she was pretending not to hear.
“Yes. It’s a free country, and people are allowed to move to Montana.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t like it. There’s something off about her.”
I looked once more at the only stunningly beautiful woman in the whole damn store. She turned her head and caught me staring at her. I watched as she recognized Lindsey, a slight frown forming between her brows. When she looked back at me, she smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. I returned it, adding a wink that made her cheeks go slightly pink as she shook her head and turned to look at something on a shelf.
“Holy shit. You can’t be serious,” Lindsey hissed.
I kept my gaze on Timberlynn a moment longer before I focused back on Lindsey and sighed.
She let out a forced, uninterested laugh. “You like her, Tanner? Tell me this is just a fling.”
I glared at Lindsey, though she was too busy giving Timberlynn the evil eye to notice. “We’re friends, Lindsey, so I would appreciate it if you kept your thoughts to yourself.”
“Friends? What kind of friends? The same kind of friends that we are?”
“There is no longer a ‘we’, and there never will be.” I tipped my head to her. “It was good seeing you, but I’ve got to get back over to Timberlynn. We’re shopping for my mama.”
That made Lindsey’s nose flare. “She’s helping you shop for your mama?”
I decided to ignore her question and cut the conversation off. “Good seeing you, Lindsey.”
When I turned and walked away, I swore the heat from Lindsey’s angry gaze pierced right through me, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was the smile on Timberlynn’s face as I walked up to her.
Four hours and one-and-a-half bottles of wine later, Timberlynn and I were sitting in the middle of her bedroom laughing and attempting to wrap the many presents we had bought. I honestly couldn’t remember when I had enjoyed myself so much. I glanced around the room and saw wrapped presents scattered across the floor around us in a rainbow of green, red, gold, and silver. We could have used the living room, but my folks had some friends over, and they were all watching a documentary on TV. It gave me the perfect excuse to spend more alone time with Timberlynn.
“Oh, man,” I said, popping a French fry into my mouth,