King's Country (Oil Kings #4) - Marie Johnston Page 0,66
a touch around the eyes. Her bright green eyes were softer, but vivid.
“Hell,” was all I said.
She stopped in the middle of the drive and looked down at herself. “Is it bad? I thought I could trust Emma, but—”
“You’re smokin’.” I closed the distance between us. “You were always hot, but this is a different look and it’s stunning. It doesn’t hide you.”
She wrinkled her nose and a blush graced her cheeks. “I have eye shadow on. And Emma’s friend Lizette showed me how to . . .” She waved a hand around her head. “The whole hair thing. With a round brush and a blow-dryer.”
She’d probably had to buy both.
I wore crisp blue jeans and a clean polo with the logo of a golf course in Billings. I’d blend in just fine, but it wasn’t like I’d put in the effort Bristol had. The only change in my routine was that I hadn’t put a hat on after I’d showered. My hair was combed and I’d shoved a hand through it so it lay to the side. Boom. Done.
“You didn’t have to do this,” I said.
“I wanted to. For me.” She went to hook her hand through her jeans, but her belt loops were covered by the shirt. “This is going to take some getting used to.”
She’d done herself up for herself. My ego wasn’t insulted at all. I couldn’t wait to walk into The Tap with her on my arm. I held my elbow out. “Ready?”
“Not really.”
“You look amazing. Really.”
“I know. But people are going to be all weird about it.”
“You wanna go change?” I’d undress her myself. The way those jeans caressed her long legs—I had plans for taking them off.
She lifted her chin. “No. Fuck them.”
That wasn’t just bravado. It was her motto, a mantra to survive on. “That’s my girl.”
I opened the pickup’s door for her and trotted around to the driver’s side. “You want to go to Hogan’s first for a bite? The Tap has pizza and . . . pizza.”
“Bar pizza sounds good.”
“I’d be jealous, but I like their pizza too.”
She propped her elbow by the window and watched the countryside roll by. Green pastures. Brown buttes dotting the hills. Glimpses of blue from the river valley. My AC blasted and the ends of her hair fluttered.
Times like these were addicting, quiet moments we enjoyed together. I didn’t have to ask her to know that she loved what she saw as much or more than I did. We’d grown up running these ditches, riding these pastures, working this land. Our lives were rooted in this area, intertwined for generations.
The buildings on the edge of town came into view. The box hardware store with the coffee shop on the other side of the parking lot. A tidy neighborhood on the opposite side of the country highway. I drove through them on the way to the bar downtown.
Bristol watched it all out the window. Tonight was supposed to be fun for her, not nerve-racking.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
She blinked at me. “Yeah. It’s fine.”
“It’ll be fun.” I didn’t pressure her. As much as I wanted to tell her to say the word and we’d leave, I kept my mouth shut. Bristol had been navigating this community and their attitude her entire life. I’d gone out with her for a few hours, once, and then given up on them.
The parking lot beside the bar was over half full already, but we didn’t run across anyone until we went inside. I held the door open for her, my hand on her back as I walked in behind her. She slowed, searching the place for a table.
“Dawson, hey,” Jamie, one of the guys I’d graduated high school with, greeted me at the door. “Been a while since I’ve seen you out—Bristol?” His gaze hung up on her, drifting over her hair, then traveling down her body. His expression grew more incredulous as it went.
“Jamie,” Bristol said, her voice neutral.
“How’s it going?” I asked, keeping my arm anchored around Bristol. She appeared relaxed, but her body was rigid. I sifted through memories. Had Jamie ever been a dick to her? “How’s Natalie?”
He lifted his gaze off my girlfriend, but the disbelief had disappeared. “Good. The guys and I are here for Samuel’s bachelor party.”
Dammit. Was that tonight? I would’ve avoided The Tap if I had remembered. “Right. I heard Samuel was tying the knot.” My wedding invitation was on the counter. I’d opened it, seen the RSVP,