Page 25 of Lead Me A Stray

“Because Rory—in this case, best friend—trumps brother, and Rory thinks I’m going to hurt Piper because I can’t settle down.”

“But you’ve loved that girl since she moved here,” she says in disbelief, one hand falling to her hip as she stares between me and my father. “Did you know about this?”

“Learnin’ right along with you this mornin’.”

I can tell she doesn’t believe him as he keeps his eyes trained on the newspaper in front of him, but she also doesn’t call him out.Maybe he won’t be banished to the couch after all.

“Mama, just give me some time, all right? Piper isn’t just learning to trust me, she’s tryin’ to trust herself too. It’s a lot of pressure already, and I just want her to feel safe with me as we work through it.”

Mama sniffs and dabs at the corner of her eye. “You’re such a good boy.”

“Promise you won’t tell Rory.”

“I swear on this morning’s sausage breakfast.”

“Thank you.”

“But I was thinking maybe…”

Because nothing is ever that easy…

14

PIPER

“I’m so glad you’re feeling better,” I tell Rory as she hustles around the lobby, sorting and organizing all the freebies for the bags to hand out at the event. Pens, brochures, coupons, stickers, lanyards, and other donations litter the floor as she places the filled bags into a box and lines up new ones.

“Me too. I swear I slept for like a whole week.”

Has it really been a week?

Has itonlybeen a week?

Not that I wanted my best friend to be sick, but it made it significantly easier to sneak around with Mack.

“What’s with the face? Did something happen?”

“No, I’m just counting down till this event,” I respond, trying to keep my voice even and the guilt from my face.

I’m not ashamed of being with Mack. He’s incredible and he’s passionate and out of this world in bed.

But that’s the problem.

We’ve had this whirlwind romance with zero interference from the outside world, so of course it’s been blissful.

“You know what you need?” Rory asks, spinning around and shaking her hips. “A night out. We both do.”

“No, I have?—”

“Nope, it’s settled. I was on death’s doorstep and I need to make up for lost time. Dancing. Tonight. And who knows, maybe we’ll meet a couple of guys in town for the rodeo.” She waggles her eyebrows. “I heard a rumor that Stetson Hayes is coming back to town.”

“He’s too young for you.” I laugh, knowing that Mack is only a year or two older than the champion bull rider, but she just waves me off.

“I don’t want tomarryhim, Piper. I just want a few consensual orgasms between friends.”

“Are you friends?”

“We could be.” She winks and I shake my head, my stomach dipping at what I’m going to tell Mack. Will he care?