He was, however, her best friend, and she knew he’d do anything for her.
“I’ll plan everything,” she said. “I’ll pay for all of it. All you have to do is show up and look pretty on my arm.”
“I am not pretty,” he growled.
She laughed, because he sure was fun to tease. Cute when he was mad too, and Tam found herself crushing on him all over again. Her feelings seemed to resurface every five years or so, and that meant they were right on time.
When he didn’t relent with the glaring, she switched tactics. She issued a long sigh from her mouth and started back toward her truck. “All right,” she said. “You win. It was a bad idea.” She paused next to the quad. “I still have a few more weeks until Hayes comes into town. I’ll find someone else.”
She smiled and said, “See you in the morning,” before turning and walking away.
She’d just reached for the door handle on her nearly broken-down truck when he said, “Tam, wait.”
She turned her head toward him and waited.
“How are you going to find someone else?” he asked.
He might as well have played right into her hand. She shrugged and looked away. “Dating app. Or that hook-up website.”
“No,” he practically barked. His footsteps sounded loud as he marched toward her. “You can’t get on that website. I forbid it.”
“You forbid it?” She grinned up at him, noting that he’d moved in quite close to her. “You’re not my father, Blaine. I need someone for this, and those two places are the best ones to find men willing to go along with a little charade for like, a week.” She knew it would be more than a week; Blaine did too. If Hayes’s father was really ill, he could be back in town for a while.
He’d left to work with a specific horse and training crew in California. It had been a great opportunity for him. Tam was supposed to go with him; they were to be married. She could go anywhere with him.
He’d said right to her face he didn’t want her to come. He didn’t want her.
The same ice that had flushed through her system then threatened to do so now. Blaine didn’t want her either. Would anyone ever want her?
“Let me think about it,” Blaine said, and Tam felt the hook lodge in his throat. Now all she had to do was reel him in.
“How about this?” she asked. “You think about it. You make your list of rules like you like to do. We’ll go to dinner this weekend, and you can present them to me.” She grinned at him. “Okay?”
“You think you have everything figured out,” he said, his voice vicious but a smile touching his mouth too.
She laughed again, glad when he let the smile out and shook his head. “Blaine, baby, when it comes to you, I do have everything figured out.”
“I think you’ve forgotten that I know you as well as you know me.”
Tam sobered, because if that were true, he’d know how she felt about him. How she’d felt about him in the past.
“We’ll meet at Mindie’s,” he said. “Friday. Six-thirty. You’ll order the fried calamari, and I’ll get the appetizer medley with the cheesy garlic knots. I’ll lay out the rules, and you’ll tell me I owe you because of all the work you do around here for me.”
“See?” she asked, slipping back into a flirty and innocent space. It was far too hard to exist in the spot where she wanted him and he didn’t even see her. “You have everything figured out too.” She opened her truck door and climbed behind the wheel. “See you in the morning and on Friday night.”
Tam wanted to stay and talk more with Blaine. Or just stand next to him. She wanted to ask him what was really wrong and share an intimate moment with him where he told her things he’d never told anyone else. She couldn’t, though, because it was too dangerous.
She started the truck, which caused Blaine to jump backward like the vehicle might consume him if he stayed too close. She waved, her plastic smile plastered on her face, and she left Bluegrass Ranch.
“It’s better this way,” she said as the smile slipped from her face. I know who I am, and I’m happy.
Blaine’s words ran through her mind as she drove home, which was only a half a mile as the crow flies from the ranch. She wished she knew who she was, and she wished she were happy.
She parked in her driveway and went up the front steps, getting rushed by two overeager corgis the moment she went inside. “Hey, guys,” she said, laughing at them as they jumped up on her legs. “You’re happy to see me, right? Yes, you are. Yes, I’m happy to see you, too.”
She was happy to see her dogs. She loved her job. She had friends.
She straightened and looked around the semi-dark house. No matter how many things made her happy, she still had to come home to a husbandless house. A distinct thread of unhappiness moved through her, and she hated that she wanted to be married so badly.
Plenty of women didn’t need a man to be happy. Tam just wished she was one of them.