Shelby was always slow to wake in the mornings. Before her eyes ever opened, she would let sounds and smells wash over her. Normally the faded sound of the television that never went off or the country station in the kitchen if Daddy had the TV muted. If she woke early, sometimes it was his snores. She loved candles and traded them out month after month. Nothing too fruity or sweet. She preferred vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, or hazelnut. This month it was coffee.

As she drifted awake, she smelled a light floral scent mixed with an underlying smell of something fresh and clean. She frowned but didn’t open her eyes yet. Stretching, the sheets felt kind on her skin. Not hers. The bed was bigger and her back didn’t hurt from her sagging mattress at home.

The hotel.

She opened her eyes, the night before coming back to her in a rush. Light streamed into the room from a massive window. Sheer curtains hung to the floor, allowing the light gently in. This room was twice the size of her bedroom at home and everything looked new and clean and expensive.

In the light of morning, she felt foolish and out of control and exposed. A wave of shame hit her so powerfully that she couldn’t breathe. Tears ran down her face. She pulled the covers tighter around her. Why had she come? Why had she told Jake about her mother?

She had gotten Matt to drive her over an hour to see a guy she hardly knew, fallen asleep in a hallway, and then spilled everything about her family. Jake had asked her to spend the day together, and she had said yes in the soft past-midnight darkness. Now she only felt embarrassed. She sighed. This was a terrible idea. Maybe she could sneak out. If she got out without Jake noticing, she had no ride home. She could not call Matt again. But she didn’t want to talk to Gracie, who would be all weepy and emotional. Shelby wasn’t ready for that yet.

Now that she was fully awake, Shelby smelled coffee and heard Jake moving around in the living portion of the suite. Running wasn’t an option. He would see her before she could get to the door of the suite. Shelby breathed deep.

Pull it together, Shell’s Bells. Get that hitch out of your giddyup.

Long ago she had mastered the art of self-talk. The voice in her head pulled phrases from her Granny and the nickname her daddy used to call her. He had stopped using Shell’s Bells when he came home the last time. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the brain injury or something else, but she missed it. Shelby adopted it when she talked to herself, just to keep the name alive. It made her feel like she wasn’t just running on her strength, but her daddy’s, as she remembered him when she was just a child: a tall, powerful man with a shaved head and a massive frame. He used to do bicep curls, using her as the weight. The memories hit her like a punch in the gut.

Pulling back the downy comforter, Shelby stood slowly and stretched. She needed to splash water on her face. And coffee—she really needed coffee. Maybe she would just stay for the morning. The idea of an entire day without some kind of work, spent with Jake, gave her a flutter of excitement.

She wished that she hadn’t looked in the mirror. There was little she could do with her unruly hair except try to smooth it down. She didn’t even have a ponytail holder and it was too slippery to tie up in a knot. Her eyes looked puffy and the darkness underneath them couldn’t have been helped with concealer. After the pool, her hair was matted and messy. She still had on Jake’s T-shirt, which smelled like him. She threw on her cutoffs underneath.

When she opened the door to the suite, he jumped up from the couch with a beaming grin. Her heart squeezed. He lit up at the sight of her, messy and all. She felt suddenly shy as he crossed the room to her. Before she could say a word or decide what she should say or do, he wrapped her up in a hug, lifting her off her feet.

“Oof,” she said. Her cheek pressed into the solid mass of his chest. She circled her hands around his back, feeling the muscles shifting as he squeezed.

“Too tight?” he asked, without loosening his grip.

“Nope.”

He settled her back down on her feet then took her hand, practically dragging her to the sofa.

“Sit! I have coffee. I didn’t know what you’d want for breakfast, so I ordered a few things. You can choose.”

Shelby watched with disbelief as he wheeled over a silver cart covered with a dome. Lifting it, she could see a platter of eggs, a bowl of fruit, a stack of pancakes, bagels with cream cheese, and a plate filled with bacon and links of sausage.

She laughed. “Did you buy a whole breakfast buffet?”

He smiled. “Maybe. They didn’t have chorizo.”

He remembered. Small, but it mattered to her. “Not as likely to find it over here.”

“They had something called boudin, but I didn’t know what that was.” He pronounced it BOO-den.

Shelby giggled. “It’s boudin, like boo-DAN. It’s like a blood sausage with rice mixed in. Kind of like a dry jambalaya in sausage casing. It’s good. You should try it sometime.”

“Want me to order some?”

“Jake, no. This is more food than either of us could possibly eat. No more! You didn’t need to do this.”

Jake waved a hand. “I know. But you put me up at your place and fed me. Consider this me returning the favor. Enjoy. Eat. Let me get your coffee. Cream? Sugar?”

“Cream is fine. Just a little.” Shelby didn’t feel like she could touch anything on the cart. She knew the cost of things like room service, not that she had ever used it. Other people spending money on her made her twitchy. “You paid me to stay. This is…”

“Nothing. Please. Eat if you’re hungry. Don’t if you’re not. I can send someone up for it if you aren’t. Here’s your coffee.”

Jake set a china cup and saucer on the table, her coffee with just enough cream to turn it mahogany. He touched her shoulder before moving to a chair across from her. She relished in his touch and wished she could ask him to sit beside her. He sat in a chair across from her, grinning and watching as she sipped her coffee.

She set down the mug. “Okay, you can’t look at me like a kid on Christmas. It’s freaky. And too early. I can’t eat if you’re staring.”

“It’s almost noon,” he said.

“I slept that long? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

Jake shrugged. “You must have needed the rest. And I want today to be all about you.”

“Oh,” she said, heat rising in her cheeks.

“And because it’s all about you, take your time with breakfast, but I do have someone coming up in a few minutes.”

Shelby loaded a plate with some eggs, bacon, and a bagel loaded with cream cheese. It made her uncomfortable to think about how much he spent, but the food was already here. “What kind of someone?”

“You’ll see,” he said, his smile making her stomach lilt. Other people talked about butterflies, but she remembered reading a book that talked about that feeling as hummingbirds. Shelby felt as though her stomach was filled with them, their tiny wings beating too fast to see. She set her plate down.

Jake’s face fell. “Is it not good? I can send it back and get something else for you?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m just—”

A knock at the suite interrupted her. “Be right back,” Jake said.

More room service? Shelby turned toward the door and her mouth dropped open. A woman in a black pantsuit was wheeling in a sliver rack of clothing. Jake followed her, his face smiling, but a little timid now. Shelby stood.

“Jake?”

The woman stopped behind the couch with the rack of clothing. Jake put his arm around Shelby. “This is Maria. Maria, Shelby.”

Maria put out her hand and Shelby shook it, then pulled down the hem of Jake’s big shirt, feeling underdressed and out of place. Her cutoffs were hidden under it and it probably looked like she didn’t have on pants at all.

Maria seemed unfazed. “Pleasure to meet you,” she said.

Shelby looked to Jake, a question on her face. “I knew you didn’t have a bag packed, so I thought you could pick out some things. Depending on what you want to do today, we’ve got a range of casual to dressy. A few things for me as well, depending.”

“Jake—I can’t let you buy me clothes.” Shelby pulled out of his embrace and crossed her arms.

Jake’s face fell and Shelby felt bad for half a second. “Why not?”

Shelby just stared at Jake. She wanted to walk right over to the rack and touch every piece of fabric. She had never had nice clothes. Not even tried them on. Her best dress had been for prom and came from Dress Barn. But her pride pulled in on the reins, hard. He couldn’t just throw his money around and expect…what? What did he want from her?

Shelby stepped away from the rack of clothes. Jake looked surprised. “Don’t you want something?”

Shelby stomped off to her suite and closed the door.

Jake knocked and then came in, closing the door after him. “Shelby?”

She whirled to face him. “Jake, I can’t let you buy me clothes for a day. That’s too much. I don’t need anything from you.”

He came close but seemed to sense that she wouldn’t want him to touch her when angry. When he spoke, it was softly, gentleness in his voice. “Look, I want to spend the day with you. I want to spend money on you. I can see that you feel uncomfortable. Or indebted. I don’t want you to feel either of those things. Please. Whatever we do today won’t make a dent in anything. We could fly to Vegas if you wanted and it wouldn’t matter.”

“You want to go to Vegas?”

He grinned. “Do you?”

She studied his face, seeing his eyes light up, waiting for her answer. If she said yes, he would be making arrangements. “No. But Jake—”

He pressed a finger to her lips, not pushing her mouth closed, but gently tracing her mouth. She fought the urge to kiss his fingertip.

“Shelby, let me do this. Please. I want to and I can. For today, let me spoil you. Relax. And if you just want to hang out and not do anything fancy or fun, we can sit in here in the same clothes all day and watch TV. I don’t care. But I thought we could do some things that would be fun for you. Things you can’t do in Lucky. Please let me. It’s not charity and I’m not trying to buy your affection. Just let me do this because I enjoy it. I think you will too if you can just stop thinking like you owe me or something.”

Shelby felt herself wavering and guessed that Jake did too, because he placed his hands loosely on her hips. She didn’t fight him. His touch somehow disarmed her anger and made her feel giddy. She blew out a breath.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” His face lit up and he grabbed her in another crushing hug. Then he took her hand and led her back out to Maria, who looked evenly at them both, as though nothing had happened.

“I have a selection of dresses, casual wear, and bathing suits.”

Shelby looked to Jake for the telltale blush as it lit his cheeks. “Uh,” he said. “I’m going to leave you to it. Why don’t you pick a bathing suit, something more casual, and then a nicer dress for dinner?”

“That’s a lot. And I have a bathing suit,” Shelby said.

He waved a hand. “Get another. One special day. I’ll jump in the shower. Maria, set aside whatever you think would be best for me. I don’t need a bathing suit. Just a suit for dinner and maybe something casual for daytime.”

Jake excused himself to take a shower and Shelby found herself standing alone with Maria, suddenly shy again. Was this normal life for Jake? Ordering boutique clothing up in a suite bigger than Shelby’s house?

“He said that you were petite, but some of these might even be too big,” Maria said, eyeing the rack and then looking Shelby up and down. Shelby crossed her arms over her chest. Maria pulled a few things off the rack and handed them to Shelby. “Why don’t you start with these? You can try anything, of course, but these would be my personal recommendations for your body shape and skin tone.”

Shelby nodded and smiled brightly, though she had never considered things like skin tone or body shape when shopping. Maria was good at her job. Shelby never would have picked the silver one-piece bathing suit, which looked flashy on the hanger, but somehow once it was on, seemed more sophisticated. There was also a light blue sundress that Shelby loved and a short black cocktail dress which fit well and had a skirt that lifted when she twirled. The fabric of the dresses felt luxurious, not like anything she’d owned.

When she had all three pieces off, she took a breath and looked at the price tags, wishing she hadn’t. Her throat felt tight. She couldn’t accept this kind of a gift. The bathing suit alone was probably more than she had spent all last year on clothes.

He wants to, she told herself. But then thought of Matt, who had also wanted to do a lot of things like drive her around and any other favor small or large. Because he wanted more.

What did Jake want? What did she want?

Sighing, she went back out to Maria. Jake was holding a suit jacket, but hung it back up. He and Maria looked expectantly at Shelby. “Well?” he said.

“I love all three,” Shelby said. She tried not to smile, but couldn’t help it. Jake grinned back. He seemed more energized out of Lucky, more open. Maybe fancy suites were more his element than Airstream trailers and small towns. Shelby felt a little unsteady.

Shelby was entering into a sort of dream world of denial. Jake would leave her. She would have to go home.

But if she could stop thinking about those things, today could be beautiful. A tiny, delicate joy-filled blip in the center of a life that was otherwise falling apart.

STOP IT, she told herself. That mess at home ain’t going anywhere. It will still be there when you get back. Shut up and enjoy this one day.

Maria asked her shoe size and said she would send someone back up with shoes and intimates. Jake blushed at that and it made Shelby laugh. He was so adorable when blushing. Which seemed to be just about all the time.

A few moments later, Maria was gone, the silver cart of clothes along with her.

Jake still had a wide grin on his face that made it hard not to smile back. “What, you goof?” she said.

“I’m just really happy you’re here. And we’ve got options for today, so tell me what you want to do first. It’s all about you.”

Shelby felt a nervous excitement. This was so strange—to have choices of things to do. Just for her. He rattled off a list of activities like the spa, the pool, golf, gambling on the casino floor, or eating.

“I highly recommend the spa, though. Have you ever been to a spa?”

He had to know the answer to that. She resisted the urge to answer with sass, Do I look like I’ve been to a spa? He was being so kind. Instead she simply shook her head.

“That would be good after a swim if you’re up for it. They’ve got great pools here. Or…anything really. It’s up to you.”

Shelby thought about the list of things he’d mentioned. Other than swimming, she hadn’t been gambling or to a spa or golfing or to a fancier restaurant than Outback Steakhouse in Orange. Instead of feeling excited, she oddly felt pressured, like she needed to make the right choices. What would he want her to choose?

He loved swimming, obviously and wanted to do the spa. Maybe some gambling and then dinner? She listed these off and was glad to see his big smile get bigger.

“Sounds like the perfect day—date. The perfect date.”

“A date, huh? I don’t remember being asked on one.”

Jake laughed, then got down on a knee, grabbing both her hands in his. Though she knew it wasn’t a proposal, the sight of him on one knee made her happier than it should. Her cheeks flushed.

“Shelby, will you please go on a date with me today?”

Her cheeks were going to hurt by the end of the day from smiling, she could already tell. “I will.”

When he stood, she hoped he might kiss her, but instead he wrapped her up in a big hug again, his lips close to her ear, sending tingles down her body. “I’ll hold you to that,” he said. “Though I prefer ‘I do’ to ‘I will.’ Now go get on your bathing suit.”

He released her with a gentle shove toward the bedroom as her mouth hung open. He was joking about marriage. But hearing him joke and seeing him down on a knee stirred up an ache for something she hadn’t even considered for her own life: truly falling in love. Marriage. A happily ever after.

It had seemed too cruel and an impossible scenario for her with her father and knowing basically everyone in Lucky. But now Jake had busted into her life, shaking everything up. Tomorrow was really going to hurt.