Page 75 of Wildflowers & Whiskey

Maeve stumbles into the room, struggling to balance the over-stacked tray in her barely-successful attempt to open the door with her elbow. Both Wade and I jump up to help her, Wade a little bit faster than me as he grabs the tray from her.

“I got it,” he looks down at her, and I return to my seat, eyes locked on their interaction. She just nods, her bright eyes gleaming from the light that is shining through the window.

“Batman saves the day,” she laughs, and hearing it instantly makes me shuffle in my seat with excitement. Wade places the tray of food on the end of the desk, pushing papers out of the way to make room.

“Well, Mrs. Mae figured you’d both forgotten that it was lunchtime, so I grabbed some bits for you both,” I must be smiling at her, because she smiles back at me. “Lucky for you, there was just enough; the boys almost cleared us out.”

“What's this?” Wade's hand hovers over five tickets fanned out on the corner of the tray.

Maeve sets down her coffee cup with a little too much innocence. “Erm, well…” There’s a slight hesitation in her voice. “So, there’s a rodeo show in two weeks. And I thought I'd treat us all to tickets to it.” She shrugs like it's nothing. “You, Colt, Bryan. And I invited Naomi.”

I reach over and pick one up, turning it over in my hand.

Great. A wholesome family outing with my ex.

“Figured it'd be fun,” Maeve adds, already moving on like she hasn't just casually detonated something. “Consider it one of the last things on my country bucket list before I go back to London.”

The reminder kicks me in the gut.

Wade picks up one of the tickets, turns it over once, and sets it back down. “Sure.”

Just like that.

I look at him, but he's already reaching for his plate like he didn't just agree to set foot inside a rodeo arena for the first time in God knows how long. Wade Carter, who hung up his rope and never looked back. Who hadn't been within spitting distance of a bull riding event since the day he quit. And he'd just agreed like Maeve had asked him to pass the salt.

I set my ticket back down next to his and say nothing.

“Well, you boys gotta eat; after all, it must take a lot of energy to work hard together and not kill each other. I merely came up to check that I didn’t need to be a mediator.”

I go to reassure her that everything is fine, but Wade’s voice drowns mine again.

“We are fine here, Maeve, no need to worry about us.”

“Who said I was worried about you, Mr. Carter?” An eyebrow raised and a hip popped to the right gives it that extra sassy flavour I love about Maeve.

Wade doesn’t bite back, just gives a grimace, taking the plate of chilli and sitting on the small sofa away from the desk. Clearly bored of the interaction going on.

Maeve comes around to my side of the desk, leaning over my shoulder, eyes on the screen, her hand settling on my shoulder blade as she reads. “What am I looking at?”

“Riding school,” Wade calls from the sofa, a mouthful of food. Classy man.

“Hm.” She scans it for a second. “Competition? As in horse racing? You know I could be your first student. Get the whole thing started.”

I lean back in my chair and look up at her. “You have gotten better; I'll give you that. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Hey, did you not see me the other day? I am basically a pro now.”

“The horse was barely moving.”

“She was trotting.”

“She was thinking about trotting.”

Maeve laughs and straightens up, grabbing a cup of coffee off the tray that she clearly bought up for herself. Caffeine fiend.

Wade's eyes haven’t left her since she walked in. It’s not the usual intense glare, he is just watching with soft eyes as he spoons his lunch quickly. I have no idea if she notices, but I do.

She heads for the door. “I want a discount when it opens.”