him, buzzed with anticipation, and she took in a shaky breath. Okay, nothing to do now that she’d been busted but play it out. “Probably not but, if it did, we’d have a great view of the stars.”
“They really are something.” He rolled over—the move making the middle of the bed dip toward him—and propped his head up on his hand. “Don’t you miss seeing them in Harbor City?”
Even if she wasn’t doing everything she could at the moment to fight gravity and roll into him, she wouldn’t have been sure how to answer that. When it came to home and family, things were always mixed-up and messy.
“Looking up at all those stars used to make me so frustrated,” she said, turning to face him, mirroring his pose. “It was like I could see there was so much more than just this ranch, but it was so far away that I couldn’t ever be a part of it.”
That always-on-the-outside feeling lingered even all these years later, like a cold that she just couldn’t quit. That’s why she fought so hard to make her place in Harbor City, to prove she belonged there.
For the most part, it worked, but there were always exceptions, people who pointed out every single thing about her that still screamed country despite her attempts to hide them—one of whom was lying next to her in the dark.
“That’s why I was so determined to move to Harbor City, but even there I’m still someone who’s an outsider, different, other…and people aren’t afraid to let me know.”
Wow. She would not have put “confessing her biggest insecurities to her nemesis” on her bingo card for weird things that would happen during her sister’s wedding week.
“I’m guessing I’m on that list,” he said, giving her an apologetic smile that in this light looked genuine. “I admit it, I can be an asshole, but I have my reasons.”
“Because of Mia.” It wasn’t a question. He’d covered it up well enough at dinner the other night, but an ex-fiancée would sting even for someone like Will Holt. “What happened?” The question popped out before she realized it was bubbling up inside her. “Wait!” She reached out, her hand brushing his chest before she pulled it away, fingers tingling. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s not like we’re friends.”
“Just two people in the foxhole together,” he said with a wry chuckle.
“Yeah,” she said. “Something like that.”
Something like a whole lot of losing my mind.
She rolled onto her back, wondering if it was socially acceptable to pull the covers over her head and scream silently. Not only did she not need to be in his business, she didn’t want to be in his business. She wasn’t going to be fooled by fake cowboy Will, who she happened to have had sex with in PawPaw’s bathroom! Oh God, she was never going to be able to use that bathroom again. Good thing she only visited a few times a year.
You. Are. So. Naive.
She had no clue how to break the awkward, heavy silence that enveloped them, punctuated only by the creepy coyote calls that sounded like babies crying for help, so she opted for staring at the ceiling. Maybe she’d get lucky and a chunk of plaster would come crumbling down and put her out of her misery.
“She refused to sign the prenup after telling me she was pregnant—which I found out later she most definitely was not,” Will said, his voice an unexpected boom in the dark. “That wouldn’t have been a big deal, but she let it slip that this was basically going to be an arranged marriage anyway, so she should get one thing out of it. Turns out our engagement was a scheme cooked up by her family and my grandmother as some kind of melding of two old-money Harbor City families—only one of whom still had cash—and all the relevant parties knew it for what it was except, of course, me.” He grimaced and went quiet for a second, working his jaw back and forth as if he were chewing on the distasteful realization that he’d ever believed it. “I thought the whole thing was real.”
“I’m sorry.” Sliding her hand across the warm cotton sheet, she didn’t stop until her fingers were intertwined with his. “That’s awful.”
“I lived. I learned. I know better now.” The words came out cold and unyielding. “I should have known better then. Our grandmother has never been interested in anything but herself and her