The ride home was awkward and silent. Shelby’s whole body felt like a live wire, overstimulated and buzzing. Sitting between Matt and Jake in the front of Matt’s pickup, she wanted to giggle at the absurdity. To her left, confident behind the wheel was the boy-next-door who had loved her almost their whole lives. On her right, sitting stiff and awkward with his hands in his lap was Jake, the big city boy who had crashed into her world, stirring up her heart. There was the crushing disappointment from her meeting at the bank mixed with the echo left in her ears from the Lucky Line. Her life had turned into a freaking movie.

“What’s funny?” Matt said.

Shelby cleared her throat. “Nothing.”

“Why are you laughing?”

“I’m not. I was…coughing.”

“Are you okay?” Matt asked.

“Peachy,” Shelby said. Jake didn’t look at either of them, but stared out the front window, his jaw tight. Was he upset about something? Rhett interrupting their slow dance? Matt making them leave early? The night had done a great job of taking her mind off losing her property. Now she had other worries, all centered around a tall redhead who was due to leave town before the week was over. The thought was like a rock in her stomach.

Matt pulled up in front of her house. Jake practically jumped out of the truck. “Thanks for the ride, Matt,” he said.

“I’ll be by tomorrow morning and then I can let you borrow my Jeep for the rest of the week.”

“I really appreciate it,” Jake said. “Goodnight, Shelby.”

“Jake—” Shelby started to slide out of the car after him, but Matt grabbed her arm. She paused, legs already halfway out the open car door. Jake was already to the Airstream. Shelby stared down at Matt’s fingers on her arm, then pointedly at him. He let her go and rubbed his jaw.

“What is it this time, Matt?”

“This time?”

“You know. You’re always trying to stick your nose in my business. To ‘look out for me,’ as you say. Spit it out. Want me to stay away from Jake?”

As soon as the words left her lips she felt the guilt lapping at her insides. Matt traced the steering wheel with his fingers, stopping to pick at a loose thread in the cover. It wasn’t fair. Matt had always been nothing but kind to her and went out of his way to help her in a way that didn’t make her feel indebted.

If only she felt something for Matt. Something other than the affection she imagined people felt for their siblings. As an only child, she had never known that, but always thought of Matt like her brother. It had especially been clear the time he tried to kiss her. They’d been in ninth grade at a party when he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Shelby slugged him. He nodded and walked off, and the next day things were back to normal, only there was a new, very clear line. But Shelby knew that if she ever wanted to cross the line, he’d open his arms wide, like he was just on the other side of it, always waiting.

There was so much to love about him. He was a handsome man. She could objectively say that, looking over at his square jaw, even as it clenched and unclenched. His eyes were beautiful and surprising—a light gray framed with lashes that any woman would be jealous of. A thin, muscular frame that looked as good in a T-shirt as out of it.

Finally, Matt’s face relaxed and he smiled. Shelby could see that it was strained. An attempt at a smile rather than the real thing. “Nothin’. Just that I’m real sorry.”

Her stomach clenched and she crossed her arms over her chest. “You know?”

He shrugged. “It’s Lucky, Shelby. Secrets don’t keep. Wanda practically went around town with a bullhorn.”

The only thought on her mind was her daddy. What if he found out from town gossip and not from her? Shelby jumped out of Matt’s car without even shutting the door. “Hey!” he called, but she ignored him and sprinted up the front steps, waving him away.

“Daddy?” Shelby called as she came through the door. Shelby’s shoulders relaxed at the sight of her father in his familiar chair, a look of surprise on his face. She could tell right away that he didn’t know. Yet. She leaned against his chair to catch her breath.

“Well, who’s chasing you?”

“No one. I just got back and wanted to check on you. It’s late. Why are you still up?”

He pointed to the TV. “Got caught up on one of those docu-thingies.”

“A documentary?”

“Yeah, that. It’s about cheese.”

“You’re watching a documentary about cheese? At midnight?”

“You wouldn’t believe what I’ve learned, Shelby. I don’t know that I’m going to keep eating cheese. I mean, unless it’s imported from France. Because that’s where they actually take care of the cow and—”

“Daddy, can we talk cheese in the morning?” Shelby yawned. “I’m tired.”

“Sure thing, pumpkin.”

Shelby went through the normal nightly routine: his water, his pills, his blanket. The movements that she could have done in her sleep gave her time to think. Not about what they were going to do—she wasn’t ready for that. Instead her thoughts went to Jake. He had the kindest blue eyes and a smile that made her feel all quivery inside. When she’d jumped on his back at the Lucky Line, he carried her like she weighed nothing. She could still remember the feel of the muscles in his back and arms as he went through the motions of the line dance. She felt safe and cared for.

With a flush, Shelby realized that she was thinking of Jake like he could actually be a potential boyfriend. As if. In a few days, he’d be gone for good. No chance someone from Chicago would want to live in Lucky. She couldn’t leave.

Not that he would ask her to. Jake probably thought she was some weird, hick girl. In her emotional upheaval tonight, she had come on a bit strong. Remembering how she jumped up on his back, she felt incredibly embarrassed. Who does that? Not respectable women, that’s for sure. Definitely not the kind of women that Jake probably spent time with in Chicago.

Shelby had just gotten her daddy settled when her phone buzzed. It was an alert from the rideshare program she’d signed up for months ago. Who in the world needed a ride right now? She had actually forgotten about the program, since no one in Lucky ever needed a ride anywhere. Her car, a Miata with a penchant for overheating and a mostly-duct-tape convertible top, hardly ran. Matt started driving her around after he got tired of having to come pick her up when the thing broke down. The rideshare was just one more thing she’d put on the list for making money. Next she’d be selling macaroni necklaces on Etsy. Anything for a buck.

Not that it matters now.

Shelby sighed, realizing that she didn’t need to work fifty crazy jobs. The settlement from the bank couldn’t replace what they had, but she and her dad would be okay. More okay than they were now. She could stop scrambling and just work at the diner and try to finish her college classes.

She stared down at the app to see who needed a ride from where. It was probably a joke. Slim, maybe, or one of her girlfriends. But when she saw the pickup address, rage filled her, hot and sudden. The phone screen swam before her like even her eyeballs were bathed in lava.

It was her address. And there was only one person who could be wanting a ride.

Jake had felt claustrophobic the moment he walked through the door of the Airstream. Panic, guilt’s kissing cousin, was starting to hit him now. He needed to tell Shelby. Yet the thought made him break out in a sweat. Shelby couldn’t find out about him while he was still staying here. He had visions of her pushing him into the lake where T-Ball waited. Maybe getting out her daddy’s shotgun and chasing him down the road.

Or the worst possible thing, which would be watching the light in her eyes dim, crumbling into pain and tears. Anger he could take. He didn’t want to see Shelby hurting.

The memory of her laugh rang in his ears. He could still feel the smooth, taut skin of her legs under his fingertips as she perched on his back, showing him how to line-dance. She made him brave. And maybe stupid. He wasn’t here for this. Worrying about Shelby wouldn’t do anything to help secure this deal for Obsidian. That was his job, and there were too many loose ends that might unravel the whole thing. He needed to focus and certainly couldn’t do that if he was worried about the person owning the property that they’d just secured.

The integrity move would be to tell her the truth. But Jake was going the cowardly route—he was going to run. He could pay a service to tow Layla to another town and garage. And if he could get a ride, he’d go to Orange, the nearest town that had actual, normal hotels. Money couldn’t fix everything, but it could certainly get him out of Lucky and fast.

It took five minutes to pack his bags and to set up a call for a ride share. It was shocking that there was rideshare out here at all. He half expected to see Matt’s truck in the driveway when he walked out of the trailer, duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

Instead of Matt’s truck or any other vehicle, he saw Shelby storming across the yard. Instinctively, Jake dropped the bag and put his hands up in front of him. She must have found out somehow. Matt probably told her and now he’d face her wrath. It was almost a relief, just to have the secret breathing out in the open air instead of rotting away inside him.

“Shelby,” he said, but before he could say anything else, she had reached him.

She gave him a shove that sent his back against the trailer and waved her phone in his face. “You want to leave? Right now? Really? Why don’t you tell me! Why are you trying to leave now?” She shoved him again. “Care to explain?”

“What?”

He couldn’t see what was on her phone because her hand was moving so fast. She kept waving it as she yelled. He grabbed her arm, thumb against the inside of her wrist. Her pulse was racing. But almost instantly, he wasn’t thinking about that anymore.

The phone was open to the rideshare app.

Of course. Shelby was the rideshare driver.

Jake dropped her wrist. “You have a car?”

Shelby shoved him again. “That’s not the point, Jake. Why are you leaving?”

Jake ran a hand through his hair and leaned back against the Airstream. He put hands in his pockets and levelled his gaze at her. “I’m not.”

“Then why’d you call for a ride? Why is your bag packed?” She punctuated every question with a finger to his chest.

He tried to take her wrists, but she shook him off. Stepping back, her face hardened. This was the perfect time to tell her. She walked right into it and was already at her worst: flaming mad.

But those words wouldn’t come. “I changed my mind.”

“Now that I caught you trying to sneak off? Now that you realized I was the one you were trying to get a ride from? What happened to change your mind in the two minutes since you walked out of here with a packed bag?”

“You,” he said.

Jake hadn’t meant to say that. But it was like being around Shelby did something to him. Maybe he didn’t have the courage to tell her yet about the land, but he had never been bold like this with a woman he liked.

He could visibly see the anger falling off her in waves. “Oh,” she said.

“Want to come in?” he asked. “For a cup of coffee…or something?”

“There isn’t a coffee maker in there. Only water in the mini fridge.”

“Okay,” Jake said. “Want to come in for water?”

Shelby stared for a moment, then nodded. “Sure.”

She led the way into the trailer and got out the water as though she had been the one to invite him, not the other way around. They sat in the tiny dinette area with their water bottles. Shelby curled her knees up to her chest on one side of the booth. Jake was too tall to even get his legs under the table, so he sat sideways with his legs hanging off the edge of the seat.

“Were you always this tall? I mean, obviously, you weren’t always this tall. When did you get so tall? Like, was it a middle school thing or a late bloomer college thing?”

“Definitely late bloomer,” Jake said. “I was a short, fat kid with fiery red hair and zero friends.”

He hadn’t meant to say that much or with the bitter edge the words had. But there it was: the reminder that he still carried around open wounds.

Shelby unfolded her legs and leaned across the table on her elbows. “You were not.”

“I totally was.”

“Photo. Or I won’t believe you.”

“I’m not showing you a picture! It’s humiliating. Plus, it’s not like I carry my childhood photo album around with me. It’s a time of life that I’d prefer to forget, thank you. You wouldn’t understand.”

Shelby gave him a dark look. “Wouldn’t I? You think I didn’t have ugly duckling days?”

“Did you?”

She stared at him for a long moment, then giggled. “No. I didn’t.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“You’re not off the hook, City. I want to see a photo of young Jake.”

“Why?” Jake watched her face. She was rolling her water bottle back and forth on the table, but looked up at him when she spoke.

“You’re so handsome now. It’s just hard to believe you were ever…not.”

Jake knew even the tips of his ears were red. He pulled out his phone. Despite his denials, he did have an old photo. He kept it as reminder to himself or a warning or…he didn’t know why, really.

Jake held the phone close to his chest. “Promise me one thing.”

“What?” said Shelby.

“You won’t laugh.”

The corners of her mouth twitched and she covered it with her hand. “Sorry! It’s like a natural reaction when someone tells me not to do something. I do the exact thing I shouldn’t do.”

“Well, you better rein that in right now,” Jake said. “Or no photo.”

Shelby took a deep breath, her shoulders rising and falling with the effort. “Okay,” she said. “Give.”

Jake slid the phone across the table and watched her face. The picture was of Jake in seventh grade. He had acne across his forehead, plump cheeks that were way more than baby fat, and hair that was almost orange, sticking up despite his mother’s best efforts to comb it down.

To Shelby’s credit, she didn’t look shocked or horrified. She stared at the picture, then traced a finger over the screen. She looked up at Jake and slid the phone back to him. When he went to take it, she covered his hand with hers.

“It’s funny, Jake. You look different, but I can see you in there. Definitely not as bad as you made it out to be. I think young Jake is adorable.”

Blushing was just going to become the norm around Shelby. Jake wished his face and neck would just stay red so it wouldn’t be as obvious when he felt embarrassed or flattered. Basically, anytime Shelby said anything nice, his face flamed. He glanced at her, his heart speeding up. “Just young Jake is adorable?”

She smiled, still holding his hand loosely. One finger traced over the ridges of his knuckles and that tiny movement made every nerve ending in his arm sing. “Current Jake is pretty easy on the eyes,” Shelby said.

“Good to know,” he said. “I’d hate to think that you prefer young Jake. Quid pro quo, Clarice.”

She laughed. “Silence of the Lambs? I don’t know how appropriate that quote is right now…”

Jake loved that whenever he tossed out a movie or book reference she seemed to get it. “It’s highly appropriate. I want to see a picture of you in junior high. Since you basically said you were cute back then, too, I want to see the proof.”

“So, I’m just cute?”

“Current Shelby is more than cute. But it seems a little Lolita for me to say more than that about junior high Shelby.”

She giggled. “Good point. Did you actually read Lolita?”

“Nah. If I’m going Russian lit, I’m much more Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov, not Crime and Punishment.”

Shelby fanned her face. “City, you need to tone down the literary references. A girl can take only so much.”

He grinned. “Stop changing the subject. Picture.”

“Tomorrow. I’m not going back in there to get it and risk waking Daddy. I can’t promise he won’t come out here with a shotgun if he knows we’re in here alone.”

“Uh…tomorrow’s fine. I’d like to avoid shotguns. I already had some beautiful girl wave a pistol in my face today.”

Now Shelby was blushing. It took her a moment to respond. “It’s not that exciting anyway. I don’t look all that different. I had bigger hair back then, just like the rest of Texas. Thank goodness most of us got over that. My late growth spurt never happened. I am exactly the same height as I was at twelve.”

“I like your height,” Jake said.

Shelby seemed to realize that she was still holding his hand and pulled away. She looked down at the table, picking at her fingernails. “You’re not looking for…someone taller?” She made a face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even ask. Do you already have a girlfriend back home?”

“I don’t,” he said. Shelby didn’t smile, but the corners of her mouth twitched, like she wanted to smile and was trying to hide it. “To answer your question, no. I’m not looking for someone taller. Honestly? I wasn’t looking for anyone at all. But you can’t choose when you find someone. It just happens.”

Xander would be cheering him on if he could hear this conversation. Sure, most of it was talking around how he felt. But Jake was never this flirtatious or bold. Something about Shelby made him want to say more than he usually did. He felt the layers of insecurity falling away.

But he was still avoiding what he should say: that he and his company were responsible for her land getting annexed by the city. A wave of nausea passed over him. For a few moments, caught up in her touch and the banter back and forth, he’d forgotten. Now the realization hit him again. Harder.

As sick as he felt knowing that, he still couldn’t say the words. The fact that Shelby seemed interested in him just made it harder.

You’re leaving in a few days anyway, he reminded himself. What do you think is going to happen here?

Shelby glanced up at him through her lashes. “I like your height too.”

Jake felt a simmering warmth rising in his chest. Gone were worries about the land or him leaving. There was just this moment with this woman and her power to knock him off his feet.

Suddenly Shelby made a gagging sound and started to laugh, putting her head down on the table. “Oh my word. Could I sound any dorkier? ‘I like your height too.’ Please shoot me. I’m not good at this.”

Her laughter was contagious and he found himself laughing too. “You’re not good at what?”

She looked up at him. “Jake. Come on. At flirting.”

He grinned. “You’re flirting with me?”

“Aren’t you flirting with me? Maybe if we have to ask, that’s the confirmation that neither of us is good at it.”

Now it was his turn to laugh. He rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, definitely not my strong suit.”

“Maybe we should just say what we’re thinking,” Shelby said. “Be direct.”

“I don’t know,” Jake said, rubbing his jaw. “I kind of like our attempts at flirting. I mean, no woman has ever complimented me on my height. It’s refreshing.”

“They’re probably all caught up in your eyes, huh? Or your broad shoulders. Or your smile.” Shelby covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh my gosh. I have to stop talking.”

“I don’t mind,” he said. “To be honest, most women are just after my money.”

A palpable tension filled the room suddenly. “I’m not like that,” she said. Her face looked suddenly closed off.

“I know you’re not,” Jake said. “I wasn’t trying to say that.”

“Good.” She glared.

“Does it…bother you that I have money? It seems to. But maybe I’m wrong.”

It hurt to watch her face. Pain shuttled across it like clouds in the sky before a storm. He didn’t think she would answer, but finally she spoke, not looking at him. “I guess I just grew up without it.”

Jake may not be able to read Shelby yet the way Matt could, but he knew that she wasn’t telling him the full story about why.

“I grew up poor,” Jake said.

Her face snapped up. “You did?”

“Very. Thrift-store clothes, no money for sports or activities, eating from cans that came from the dented and damaged shelf. I get it.”

Before he’d even finished talking, her eyes, so sweet and soft moments before, were narrowed pools of fire. “We’re not poor.”

“Shelby, I didn’t mean anything by it. I just meant that I didn’t have money. I wanted you to know that it’s not like I grew up with a silver spoon or something. I was poor, then I got lucky and worked hard. I really didn’t mean anything by it.”

“It’s fine.” She rolled the water bottle back and forth across the table as Jake tried searching his mind for a safe topic of conversation. She stood and held out a hand. “Come outside with me?”

He loved holding her hand, no matter where she was taking him. Though he was a little nervous thinking of T-Ball out there in the dark as Shelby led him out to the dock. She let go only as she sat down on the wooden bench on the dock. He sat down beside her, wishing he had half her courage so he could pull her closer. She leaned in and his heart sped up. He put an arm around her and she sighed into him.

“Is T-Ball out here?”

“Probably,” she said. “But don’t be nervous. He won’t climb up here or something. He comes out a lot when I’m here. It’s like…our bonding time.”

“As long as he doesn’t have a jealous streak,” Jake said.

Shelby giggled and poked him. “Guess we’ll find out.”

Quiet settled over them. They stared together out over the water and the woods beyond. Jake guessed that the Sabine River was just on the other side of the woods. He should have known from the beginning. He should have looked at the map or paid attention when Greg dropped him off the first night or when he saw the map on Airbnb. It was all right there.

“I’m losing everything.” Shelby’s voice startled him. It sounded softer, broken in the dark.

He closed his eyes, feeling the guilt like a weight crushing his chest. “I’m really sorry, Shelby.”

He had to tell her. But the cowardly, selfish part of him was too tied to this moment, her body curled into his and the feeling of protecting her. It should have been someone else, like Matt. But Jake was here and Shelby wanted him. Guilt or no guilt, he couldn’t resist her.

“It was inevitable,” she said. “I mean, I’ve been putting it off for months. Years, even. It’s probably a good thing.”

“Good? How is it a good thing?” Jake wanted more than anything for it to be something good. For her welfare and so he wouldn’t feel badly about what he’d done. But he couldn’t picture that. This place held a magic to it, and he’d only been there a few days. She’d grown up here.

Shelby sighed and then waved her arm over the lake and toward the house. “This isn’t…sustainable. I’ve been living on borrowed time for a long time now. I can’t afford the payments and this is too much for me to keep and to keep Daddy too. The house is falling apart. I can’t fix it or pay someone. I can’t keep relying on Matt to keep it up and I don’t know how to do some of the things myself. The bank is just forcing my hand. If it hadn’t, I’d just keep on doing this. Spinning my wheels. But this isn’t working.”

“What will you do?”

“That’s the million-dollar question. Or the one-hundred-seventy-eight thousand-dollar question, since that’s what they’re giving me for the property.”

“That’s it?” Jake was shocked. “It seems like it should be worth so much more. That’s really what the city offered?”

“Yep. And the bank essentially said I had to take it. I mean, I could not take it, but I’d still lose the property.”

Jake felt sick. She was losing her whole world for so little money. If he wasn’t part of the reason she was losing her land, he would put down the money right now. It would be nothing to him. But present circumstances aside, he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t accept.

“Matt wants to marry me,” she said. Jake’s stomach clenched. “He always has. It would be so easy. He’s a good guy and would take care of us. My dad knows him and wouldn’t put up a fuss at letting Matt help. It makes sense.”

“So why don’t you marry him?”

Shelby picked at the hem of her cutoffs and didn’t speak for long minutes. The sound of the summer insects and frogs rose around them. Jake couldn’t get over the sound. It was deafening. He’d heard similar sounds in the summer at his sister Candace’s house, but nothing like this. It was a wall of sound, surrounding them.

“I don’t love Matt. That wouldn’t be fair.”

Jake struggled with words. He felt such an intense jealousy, even as Shelby said she didn’t love him. Because Matt hadn’t been the one to destroy her. Matt had only ever cared for her. Jake thought of Hannah. How she’d pretended for so long just so she could have the security from Jake and his money. When he had broken up with her, he could see her panic below the anger. She’d been trusting in what he could give her. She didn’t love him but loved and wanted what he had, what he could offer. Matt was the opposite: a good man who loved Shelby and offered her what she needed, even if he got nothing back.

“I was in love once,” Jake said. He hadn’t planned to say it. Shelby had a way of drawing out these words, even without asking the questions.

“Just once?”

“Yeah. And she didn’t love me back. I thought she did, but she just loved what I had and what I could give her. She loved the money and the security. I had trouble trusting before. I still can’t. Not very well. Because I don’t know whether it’s real or just about the money.”

“You must have a lot of money,” she said.

“Too much,” he said. “More than one person needs.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you have it? Why do you keep working for it? Do you love it?”

Jake thought about these questions. Because they were not ones he’d ever considered. Did he love the money? Why was he working still? He was starting to realize how much of it was for Xander. So Jake wouldn’t disappoint him. The money, the success, all of it pleased Xan and Jake saw for the first time how much he longed for his approval. More than a mentor, Xan was in some ways like the father Jake hardly knew and had never impressed. Xander’s belief in him meant more than the money ever could.

As he thought about his life, though, he didn’t want a corporate job or the reputation of being a Billionaire Land Baron. He wanted simple. No strings or fears or high pressure. Something real that he could trust. A life like the one Candace had: a family. A home. Love.

Right now, he wanted Shelby. One full day with her and he felt like everything in his life had shifted.

This had him circling back to the idea of leaving Obsidian. He needed to talk to Xander, but maybe not in the middle of this deal, which felt precarious to begin with. Then again, if the deal fell through, maybe Shelby wouldn’t have to lose her land. His success meant her pain.

But he couldn’t live for that.

“I don’t know why. But I don’t love it. And I’m not sure I want it. Not anymore.”

“I hate money,” Shelby said.

“Why?”

“Because I want it so bad. It would fix the things on the surface that I need fixed. I could have paid off the bank, kept our home. Hired help if I needed it with daddy. I could travel like I wanted. That’s why we bought the trailer. It was supposed to be for me. A graduation present from college, but I couldn’t ever go. Not to college and not to travel. I’m stuck. Money seems like it would be the answer, even though I know it’s not. It can’t fix my mama or bring her home. It can’t fix Daddy’s brain. It can’t make me feel free enough to leave. To love.”

She was crying and grabbed his arm, pulling it across her chest as she swung further away from him, her back fully up against his side, legs stretched out on the bench. Her tears fell on his arm and Jake’s heart broke for her. What she didn’t say was something he knew: even if he offered or tried to fix things with his money, which wouldn’t even pain him she wouldn’t and couldn’t take it.

It was ridiculous. She needed what he had, but she wouldn’t take it. He knew that to offer would be the worst thing he could do. It felt like there was a gulf between them.

“I wish it could be different,” he said.

“What?”

“This. I wish I could...make it better for you. In a way that wouldn’t make you feel pitied. Because I know if I offered, you would say no. You’d hate me for offering and hate yourself for wanting to say yes.”

She pressed her lips to his forearm, then laid her cheek along it.

“You shouldn’t be able to do that,” Shelby said.

“Do what?”

“Know me so well. After, what—a day?”

“It seems longer. I feel like I’ve known you forever.” Like I want to know you forever.

“It’s too bad. You leaving.”

“I told you I’m not. I’m staying.”

“I don’t mean tonight. I mean whenever your car is fixed, City. You’ll go home.”

Home. This felt more like home to him than anything had in a long time. Not the place—the Airstream with the too-small shower and the tiny house in need of repairs. But being with Shelby. Being with her felt like home. The thoughts going through his head were crazy and he knew it. Yet knowing it and acknowledging that didn’t make him feel them any less.

Silence stretched between them. Her tears had stopped. Jake wasn’t ready yet for the night to end.

“Tonight was fun,” he said. “It was my first time line dancing. Obviously. Also my first time dancing while carrying someone piggyback.”

“If it makes you feel better, it was my first time doing that. Not sure how well it worked as a teaching tool.”

Jake grinned. “I thought I did okay.”

Shelby laughed. “Sure you did, City.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Can you handle it if I am?”

“I can take it,” he said. “Thanks for inviting me. I feel a little more Texan now that I’ve officially been to a honky-tonk bar.”

“Yeah, you blend,” she said with a terrible attempt at a New York accent.

“Was that…My Cousin Vinny? It’s a little hard to tell because you can’t do accents. It’s adorable.”

She poked his bicep. “My dad loves that movie. We watch it every year at Christmas.”

“Why Christmas?”

Shelby shrugged. “I don’t know. Christmas is such an intense time, you know? Family, God, all that kind of aimed at you like a cannon—just BOOM! Merry Christmas. We have a few comedies we watch every year. Mostly non-Christmas, other than Die Hard.”

“You’re one of those people who thinks Die Hard is a Christmas movie.”

“I don’t think it. Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Period.”

“We can agree to disagree on that,” Jake said. “What other movies are on the Christmas list?”

Shelby tapped her fingers on the table. “Okay, so we do twelve. Because, you know, twelve days of Christmas and all. Some are my choices, some are my dad’s, and some are both. We’ve got Die Hard, My Cousin Vinny, Office Space, Waiting for Guffman, Happy Gilmore, The Money Pit, Death at a Funeral (the British one), Lake Placid, The Naked Gun, Mean Girls, Waking Ned Devine, and Return to Me.”

Jake shook his head at the list. Mentally he found himself wondering which were her choices and which were her dad’s. He had seen most, but there were a few he’d never even heard of. “That’s quite a list. Merry Christmas, indeed. Isn’t Return to Me a chick flick more than a comedy?”

“Have you seen it?”

“No,” Jake said.

“It’s got romance and some sweet moments, but it’s definitely comedy. Romantic comedy. The supporting cast is amazing.”

“And Lake Placid? That’s a horror movie, right? About a giant alligator?”

“It was billed as horror, but it’s really more of a satire or dark humor. It’s hilarious. And fitting. You know, with our own friendly neighborhood alligator.”

Jake tried to picture Christmas at Shelby’s house, twelve nights of watching these movies with her and her dad. His heart ached a little thinking of it. Christmas was always a hard time for him. As a kid, it had been the time of year where he saw the strain on his mother’s face. She wanted to give him and Candace a magical Christmas, but it was hard. His dad often had to drive his truck on Christmas, so wasn’t always home.

Now he usually celebrated with Candace and her family, but they also spent time with her husband’s family, so weren’t always around Christmas Day. Watching this list of movies with Shelby and her dad sounded surprisingly great. But where would they go this year? They wouldn’t be here.

“Do you decorate and all that? Or avoid the whole Christmas thing altogether?”

“This is Texas. We put lights on everything that’s not nailed down. We get two trees, because I want fake and Daddy wants real. I’m all for the decorating, but as far as the family traditions, we keep it light.”

Jake shook his head and smiled. He loved unwrapping the details about her. Everything was like a little surprise, revealing just how different she was from anyone he’d met. “Shelby, you’re the craziest girl I’ve ever met.”

Something shifted. She stiffened and jumped to her feet. She was off the dock before Jake could blink. Her face looked hard and angry, angrier than she had been when she came over waving the rideshare app in his face. That didn’t even touch this look on her face. “Goodnight, Jake.”

“Shelby—wait!”

But she spun on her heels and sprinted back to the house. Jake stood staring at the space next to him where Shelby had just been, trying to figure out what he’d said or done wrong.