I thought that was fascinating.

“Have you captured any?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he answered.

That was even more fascinating.

So much, I smiled.

Gray smiled back.

Then he offered, “Hang around another day, dollface, take you to my barn, show you my beauties.”

I was going to hang around another day. Definitely. Absolutely. I didn’t care if Casey’s blooming love went up in a fiery ball of flame and he was desperate to beam out of Mustang to another galaxy. I was sticking around because I was going to see Gray’s “beauties”.

“I’d like that.”

He smiled again.

“I’ve never ridden a horse,” I shared and his brows went up.

“Seriously?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“Then we’ll get you up on one.”

Oh no.

That was when I shook my head. “That’s okay. Just seeing them would be nice.”

“No way, Ivey. You haven’t lived unless you’ve been on the back of a horse.”

“I –” I started but he leaned further in.

“You ride with me. You don’t like the feel of it, you’re safe, you don’t have to control anything. I got it. You like it and want to give it a shot; we’ll get you up on one alone. Your call, honey, but you gotta let me give this to you and you gotta let yourself have it. You do, swear to Christ, you’ll never regret it.”

I ride with him.

I was stuck there. Riding on the back of a horse with Gray.

“Okay,” I agreed and earned another smile.

I smiled back.

Then suddenly I felt the mood at our table change. It was swift, palpable and I would know why when a presence hit the end of the table and a woman’s catty voice sounded.

“Same Gray, big spender. VFW on a first date.”

My eyes were on Gray and I saw his eyes turn stone-cold as his jaw went rock hard and he turned his head and looked up.

I did too.

She was pretty, not beautiful, pretty. Very pretty.

But she thought she was God’s gift. It was clear as day.

“Cecily,” Gray muttered not in a welcoming way and I got the feeling he intended to say more but she beat him to it.

Her eyes came to me. “Know you’re new in town and every girl in town knows so, fair’s fair, you should too, this is where he takes all of us.”

“Goodness me,” a woman down the table muttered.

I stared.

“I should believe this, it’s you, but I still don’t believe this,” Gray ground out but I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t tear my eyes off her as her venomous gaze swung to Gray.

“We’re girls. We don’t play games like you boys do.” She looked back at me. “Do we, sweetie?”

I knew. That venomous look, I knew.

She had him. She lost him. She wanted him back. She knew that wasn’t going to happen, mainly because she was a screaming bitch. If she could do this and convince herself it was okay, she could do a lot of things and think she could convince who she was doing them to, namely, at some point in the probably not-so-distant past, Gray, then she’d lose the person she was doing them to.

Namely… Gray.

Her dark, arched eyebrows shot up and she asked, “Do you speak?” She looked to Gray. “Is she mute?”

I didn’t know if Gray intended to answer and this was because I was still looking at her when I did.

“I speak though I try not to when I don’t have anything nice to say and I’m afraid I’ve been struggling the last few seconds trying to find something nice to say.”

Her eyes shot back to me and narrowed.

For some reason beyond me, I didn’t shut up.

“I don’t know, I mean, I do, since you’ve made it clear you don’t but there are some of us girls who think a steak dinner in a family place where the money goes to charity and the waiter went to school with your Dad who’s passed away is a pretty darned nice first date. It’s too bad you don’t.” My head tilted ever so slightly toward Gray and I finished, my point very thinly veiled, “Really too bad.”

“Charming,” she hissed, not smart enough to keep Gray, not dumb enough to miss my point.

“Funny, that’s what I was thinking,” I said softly.

She clamped her teeth shut.

“Have you eaten?” I asked when she didn’t mosey on her way then didn’t wait for her answer when I went on, “If you haven’t, though you’ve been here, just FYI, the strip comes highly recommended.”

“I’ve had the strip,” she retorted.

I didn’t miss a beat. “Was it good?”

Her nose went up in the air half an inch. “I prefer the fillet.”

Her meaning was clear.

Total bitch.

“Sonny said, and it’s also my experience, there’s not much to a fillet.”

She leaned toward me slightly and said softly, “It melts in your mouth.”

I shrugged. “May be just me but I prefer to sink my teeth into something.”

At that, Gray burst out laughing, my eyes moved directly to him but not before I noted Cecily’s doing the same.

Still laughing, his dancing eyes on me, Gray forced out, “Don’t stop, darlin’, me and the rest of the VFW are enjoying the show.”

Hells bells.

I pressed my lips together.

Gray’s eyes dropped to my mouth, his waning laughter waxed and it was then I heard a number of chuckles all around.

My eyes slid to Cecily to see her face had gone red.

“Are you done welcoming me to Mustang?” I prompted and she shot daggers at me with her eyes.

“Enjoy your strip,” she replied snottily.

“I intend to,” I muttered, Gray’s laughter kept sounding as did the many chuckles.

God. Embarrassing.

Cecily, definitely shoving her nose in the air, flounced away.

I sighed deeply.

“That… was… brilliant,” the woman who had tried to tell off Sonny whispered down the table at me.

I smiled even as I bit my lip.

“Dollface, give me your hand.”

That was Gray and I looked to him to see his arm stretched across the table toward me, his big hand turned up. I took mine out of my lap, rested it in his and his fingers curled warm and tight around mine.

“Last night, I bled for you. Cecily is the female version of taking on a battalion of pissed off assholes. Now I owe you,” he said, smiling at me.

“He’s not wrong,” the man beside me leaned in to mutter then his mutter dropped to a whisper, probably because there were kids at the table. “Thinks her shit don’t stink. Probably not a surprise but you aren’t special. She spreads that cheer all around. Gets on everyone’s nerves.”

I nodded to him.

Gray’s hand squeezed mine and I looked back at him.

“Thanks for havin’ my back.”

“You’re welcome.”

His fingers gave mine another squeeze.

It felt nice.

Sonny arrived and Gray’s hand quickly let mine go so both of our arms could vacate the table’s surface seeing as, if they did or didn’t, either way, Sonny was dumping two plates on the table.

Once this was achieved, his eyes locked on mine.

“Next time you have a verbal catfight, you call me before you engage hostilities. Yeah?” he demanded.

Well, that didn’t take long to make the rounds.

“Uh… all right,” I whispered.

“Clear your plate or you’ll break my heart,” he ordered.

“I wouldn’t wanna do that,” I muttered, looking down at my plate.

It looked sensational.

“I hope not,” Sonny whispered and his whisper was chock full of something, so much of it, even though him whispering at all would make my eyes shoot to his face, it was the emotion that made them make the journey in record time.

When he caught my gaze, his, which was burning with the emotion in his voice, didn’t let mine go.

Then he nodded his head and stomped off.

I watched him go.

I was still doing it when Gray prompted quietly, “Tuck in while it’s hot, dollface.”

I looked to him.

Then it was me who nodded.

Then I tucked in.

VFW charity dinner or not, Gray wasn’t wrong.

It wasn’t only the best steak I’d ever had, it was the best meal.

I loved every bite.

* * *

“’Night, Janie,” Gray called.

I waved.

“’Night you two,” Janie called back also adding a wave and a big old smile.

Gray had his arm around my shoulders and was leading me out the door of The Rambler where, after a delicious steak dinner and conversation that, following Cecily’s warm welcome, included the whole table and that would be the rotating people who sat at it after folks finished and new folks arrived, we had a few beers and a half a dozen games of pool.

During which I wiped the floor with a Gray who didn’t mind even a little bit.

I figured this had to do partly with him watching me play pool not only with his eyes on my behind (which I caught more than once and it made me feel warm in a way I’d never felt before) but also just watching me shoot pool.

He was impressed and didn’t hide it.

It had always been a job, the hustle, second nature.

That night, playing pool and essentially entertaining a handsome, easygoing, often smiling man I liked a great deal and with every passing second liked even more, it became a whole lot more.

“Honest to God, you just picked up a cue and could shoot pool?” Gray asked.

Obviously, we’d chatted. After the first evasive maneuver I had to make to deflect his question about my Dad, Gray made an effort to keep it light, for me.

Not for him.

I learned when Gray was twenty, his Dad died in the car wreck that took away his Grandma’s legs. Tragic without additional tragic circumstances like joyriding kids or drunk drivers. It was a snowy night and they went head-to-head with another pickup, both caught ice and the results weren’t pretty. His Dad died, his Gran lost her legs, the other driver lost his arm.