Page 20 of Trigger Happy

Surely I misheard him.

Surely he wouldn’t blurt that out without making a pro/con list.

Surely he didn’t say we’re married?

My thoughts glitch, my brain malfunctions. I think my entire body shuts down. I hope he enjoys arsenic, because that’s what my so-called husband will be eating for dinner.

10Lawton

Husband.

What the actual hell was I thinking? The plan made sense in my head. Married couples hang out with other married couples, so it’s a simple way to get close to them, right?

Wrong, based on Sabrina’s death glare.

“Would you take my bags up to our room, darling?” she seethes as we pull up to the Little Red Barn, which is a renovated barn with a million pumpkins on the front steps.

What’s with the pumpkin infestation? Halloween’s more than a month away.

She throws open the truck door before I stop, but I slam it in park just in time. The woman would rather jump out of a moving vehicle just to get away from me.

I climb out of my Denali rental. Out in the fields, horses graze as they lazily flick their tails at flies. This property stretches out for miles, nothing but pasture and clear blue sky until it meets the giant mountains. They might be what we call fancy cowboys, but their ranch still smells like home. Hay, dirt, and sunshine. There’s only one cloud in the sky, hanging low like it’s trying to cover something up.

Personally, I hope it’s a body.

“I’d be happy to take your bags, darlin’,” I say, loud enough for Bobbi and Arch to hear as they wave from the porch, grinning from ear to ear.

Yeah.

They’re definitely hiding something.

“Thanks, sweetie,” Sabrina sneers. “You’re just the best.” She leans in, so only I can hear. “Are you going to open a high-yield savings account for us next?”

“Like you’d let me manage the finances,” I whisper, scraping a palm down her back. “Just play along. I know my leather jacket secretly does it for you, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Her neck turns all red, and I can’t help but grin.

“You’re right. I fantasize about suffocating you with it.” She stays in my face for a moment, breathing hard. The tip of her nose brushes mine, and she’s so close I can make out the ring of navy around her eyes.

I rip myself away and haul Sabrina’s duffel out of the trunk. Living with her is going to be brutal, but at least I don’t have to pretend to be okay with her, not when her parents are the reason I’m in this hellhole.

“What’d you pack in here?” I say, lifting her bag with a grunt. “A weight set?”

“Be careful!” she whisper-yells. “That’s my—” sledgehammer, she mouths. “So be gentle with it.”

“How’d you get that through security?”

“I checked a bag.”

I carry Sabrina’s heavy-ass bag up toward the small red barn nestled in the pines a few paces off the main house. This place really is something else, with its wide-open doors and manicured flower beds out front. Kicking my boots up on that porch swing sounds pretty good.

“Here, let me show you around the barn,” Bobbi says, walking through the wide-open doors. “You’re going to love it. Arch, come too! And seriously, stop me if this is too much. Arch says I come on strong—”

“Strong?” Arch says, following behind. “You come off like a triple shot of moonshine.”

She sticks her tongue out at him. “I just really love hosting. And new people. And dinner parties. We can do Friday if you’re free? And we offer experiences like horseback riding, which is so pretty this time of year because of all the aspens turning the Tetons yellow. There’s this beautiful little stream out by the mountains that we follow. I really want you to get the most out of your stay.”

This woman’s got to be making skin suits out of people.