Jake was getting pretty used to the front of Matt’s pickup. Today Shelby was in the center seat as they drove from the diner back to her house. It was a lot more comfortable than it had been shoved in between Matt and Slim. They were headed back to the Lucky Line after changing at Shelby’s. Just thinking about dancing in a bar made Jake’s palms start sweating. He hated dancing. And crowds. Shelby, on the other hand, seemed to have a manic energy and was practically bounding in the center seat between them, flipping back and forth between country stations and rock.

“You sure this is okay?” Jake said, pointing down to his worn jeans.

“Stop sounding so nervous. There’s no dress code. This is a honky-tonk bar. If you had a hat and boots I’d tell you to wear that, but since you don’t, this’ll do just fine. You’re going to stand out either way, City. People in a small town always notice strangers.”

“Stranger danger, huh?” Jake said. She giggled. “Why are you laughing?”

“You’re about as dangerous looking as a field mouse.”

“Huh. I’m not sure if I should be offended or not,” Jake said.

“Probably,” Matt said. He hadn’t spoken much on the car ride from the diner or now. He was wearing another flannel shirt, open over a tight white tank top and dark jeans that were faded at the knees. “Shelby doesn’t like nice guys.”

“Hey!” Shelby punched him in the arm. His hands didn’t move from the wheel.

“Try denying it. You’ve always liked the bad boys.”

“When have I dated a bad boy? I have had like one and a half boyfriends. Come on.”

“Okay, maybe you didn’t date them, but you like them. That guy Marcus? You know, the one who ended up in juvie? And then there was Demarius.”

“Oh. I forgot about him.”

Matt snorted and then went on. “You don’t ever like the nice guys. We have no chance.”

An awkwardness hung over the cab of the truck now. Jake found himself blushing, which was stupid because this had nothing to do with him. He was just listening to a conversation that felt way too private for the cramped cab of this truck.

But he couldn’t help wondering about what Matt said. Jake was also a nice guy. And he liked Shelby, even if he shouldn’t, considering the fact that he’d be leaving as soon as his car was fixed. It was also very obvious that Matt liked her, despite Shelby insisting they were friends. This might be a long night.

The Lucky Line looked like a big wooden barn out by the side of the highway leading out of town. There were hardly any lights and a gravel lot. When someone opened the door to come out for a smoke, light and music thundered out. Jake wished that he wasn’t stuck without a car. He wished that he’d said no. But he had a hard time turning down anything Shelby asked, no matter what it was.

Jake had to beat down nerves for every event he had to attend with Xander. And there were a lot of events, especially after Obsidian went public. High profile people, professional stylists (at Xan’s insistence), and hours of schmoozing. It simply wasn’t Jake’s scene, both because of the crowds and because of the particular rung on the social ladder. Jake had the money. But he never felt like he belonged.

The Lucky Line may have been more casual, but it was still a crowd of people stuck in one room together. From the moment he walked into the Lucky Line, Jake would have given anything to be stepping into a black-tie gala. Formal, but familiar. He felt a rising panic as they moved past the door.

Shelby grabbed his arm. He wasn’t sure if it was because she noticed his nerves, or just because. “Come on, City. Let’s put a little country in you.”

Matt trailed behind them like a chaperone and as they moved to the bar, Shelby slipped her hand down his arm and laced their fingers together. A flush hit Jake’s cheeks and he was glad for the dim lighting that hid it. He wanted to turn and check Matt’s face, but couldn’t do it. Did holding hands mean anything to her? Was it simply friendly?

There was a reason that the town of Lucky was enamored with Shelby. Her father made it sound like she fought off proposals left and right. She had a magnetism and a glow that lit her up like a Christmas tree. Jake felt like a moth to her flame. He’d given up trying to resist it. Whatever happened this week, he wasn’t going to fight it.

He wished that she wasn’t wearing the cowboy hat, which made it impossible for him to see her face because of their height difference. She curled her other hand around his bicep so she had his hand and his arm. He loved the feeling of her holding onto him. Didn’t mind that at all. It helped him ignore the room full of noise and strangers.

The room was dark and smoky with the sound of country music blasting and bodies already moving on the floor. Shelby pulled Jake to the bar.

“What’s your poison, City?”

“Water.”

She made a face and ordered a beer and a water, starting a tab. She pushed the water to him and took the plastic cup of beer, knocking it back in a long swallow. Jake’s eyes went wide. She was so tiny! She’d be on the floor if she kept going at that pace. As a few girls came over, Shelby let go of his arm and he turned his back to the bar, watching her. Matt stood next to him, frowning and sipping his own beer, more slowly.

“Does she always drink that fast?” Jake asked.

“No,” Matt said. “Only when she’s upset. But she won’t get drunk.”

Shelby dragged a pretty blonde over to the bar. “Jake, I want you to meet Gracielynn, my best friend in the whole world. Gracie, Jake.”

Was she…trying to set him up? But Shelby put a hand on Jake’s chest as she introduced Gracie and Gracie’s eyes kept flicking over to Matt. Jake felt like he was in the middle of a crazy small-town love triangle. Matt liked Shelby. Gracie liked Matt. Jake was getting signals from Shelby, but maybe because of his insecurities, it was hard to know if she was just a flirt. Matt seemed to think she was upset. Was she not acting like herself?

Matt only nodded to Gracie, his eyes on Shelby still. The girls moved back to the dance floor and Jake stayed with Matt, hoping to avoid dancing altogether. Gracie and Shelby joined in the big group on the floor in a line dance that everyone seemed to already know.

Jake glanced at Matt, who was sipping his beer. “Hey, Matt—I don’t want to be...stepping on toes or something. With Shelby,” Jake said. He wanted to clear the air if that was even possible. Matt had been stiff and closed off to him since the mention of staying at Shelby’s place, where he’d seemed pretty friendly and open picking him up on the side of the road when Layla broke down.

Matt grunted. “Shelby’s grown.”

“Yeah, but people said she was your girl. I don’t know if—”

Matt turned a steely glance to him. “You believe everything you hear?”

“I believe what I see.” He swallowed. “And I see how you look at her.”

“Sort of like how you’ve been looking at her all day?”

Jake’s cheeks flushed again. Hopefully in the dark his traitorous skin wouldn’t be so visible.

“Look. I love Shelby. I have for a long time. She knows it and she doesn’t feel that way about me. It’s fine. I know someday she’ll choose someone else. Or realize that I’m what she’s missing.” Matt gave a small, bitter smile. “Either way, if she’s happy, I’m happy. She seems happy with you, but you’re leaving as soon as your car’s fixed. If you weren’t, though, and you made her happy, I wouldn’t stand in your way. I care about her happiness. Even if it’s not with me.”

Matt finished his beer and walked away, out into the crowd. Jake was relieved, because he didn’t know how to respond. The intensity of Matt’s feelings toward Shelby made his own feel like a schoolboy crush. Matt knew her and cared about her, even if that meant letting her go. Jake wanted as much of her as he could get, even knowing he was about to leave. It felt…selfish.

Jake took another swallow of his water. He shouldn’t have said yes to this. Everything about it felt wrong. The crowds, the noise, and the sinking sense that he didn’t deserve to be with Shelby. Yet when she called to him, he only hesitated for a moment.

“City!” she shouted. “Come dance with me!”

She held out a hand and he ignored the voice in his head telling him that it was selfish. He ignored the self-consciousness about dancing in public. He couldn’t say no to this woman. Shelby had tilted his axis. Whatever direction she went, that’s where he was going.

“I don’t know how to do this,” he said as she pulled him to the floor, where people were already moving to the music together.

“It’s easy! Follow me!” She shouted, pulling him next to her in the line at the back.

Jake tried. But he couldn’t keep up with the turns and the kicks and stomps and shuffles left and right. Instead he ran equally into Shelby and the people around him. He clenched his teeth and tried to stuff down the echo of jeers he could hear rattling around in his head, as though the kids he grew up with were standing in the sidelines, pointing and laughing.

After a humiliating minute or two, he tried to step away, feeling embarrassed and frustrated.

Shelby grabbed his arm. “Wait. You okay? It’s just dancing.”

He gritted his teeth. “Yeah. I don’t like dancing.”

She gazed up at him and he felt more exposed than he had on the dance floor. Because it seemed like she saw him. Really saw him. Even under the shadow from the cowboy hat, her honey eyes held a softness that made it hard for him to breathe. Jake looked away.

Her fingers traced his cheek, gently. The shock of the touch pulled his eyes back to hers and he covered her hand with his own, holding it to his face.

“It’s not just dancing, though, is it? I’m sorry, Jake. I was just trying to show you a good time. The way we do in Lucky. This is what I know. I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

“I shouldn’t be,” he said. “It’s stupid. I just...”

He wanted to tell her. How the spotlight made him feel exposed and vulnerable. How he felt haunted still by the bullying and insults he faced as a child. But he’d known her two days and it was crazy to think about saying all that right now.

“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” she said, her voice soft. Her hand pressed more firmly to his cheek.

A wave of emotion passed over him. It was likely just the stress and heat in the crowded room.

“Let’s go sit at the bar,” she said. “We can just watch.”

Shelby took his hand again, lacing his fingers through hers and pulling him back to the bar. Now Xander’s voice was the one ringing in his ears: Loosen up. Let go. Live a little.

“Shelby, wait.” She turned toward him. He searched for the words he wanted to say. “I can’t see your face with your hat on.”

She didn’t hesitate but tossed it aside to a nearby table where it almost spilled a few beers. “Hey!” The guy sitting there called. She waved a hand without looking and he shut up.

“Better?” she said.

It was. And it wasn’t. Because now her face wasn’t hooded in the shadows of her hat and he could see the full beauty there. Her hair, soft and loose around her shoulders, her eyes big and bright and fixed on his, her lips slightly parted. He swallowed.

“Teach me?” he said and her eyes lit up.

She grinned and hopped up to give him a kiss on the cheek, a hand pressed to his shoulder to steady her. Before he could react, she pulled him back to the floor, leaving a little space between them and the other lines of dancers.

“I’ll stand back here and put my hands on your hips. You follow my touch and my voice,” she said.

Anywhere, his head shouted. But he just nodded as she put her hands on his hips, sending beams of light coursing through his body. She put pressure on his right hip, pushing him to the left as she shouted, “Three steps left!”

Tugged him backwards.

“Two steps back!”

Pushed on his left hip.

“Two steps right!”

Held both tight.

“Three stomps and clap!”

Spinning him sideways.

“Turn left!”

But he turned the wrong way and went crashing into her. She giggled and grinned up at him. The tension left his body as he laughed. “I really suck at this!”

“Who cares?” she said. “Are you having fun?”

“Yes!” he said, surprised by the fact that he was. Only because of her. Otherwise he would have been hiding at a table in the corner, not on the dance floor. “But it’s hard to hear you.”

“I’ve got an idea. You trust me?” she shouted.

Yes. No.

“Sure?”

She spun behind him and he heard her say, “Catch me!”

Then her arms were around his neck as she leaped up piggyback style. His arms went naturally around her legs, the feel of their smooth muscle under his fingertips making it hard for him to breathe.

And then her voice was in his ear. “That’s better. Can you hear me now?” She giggled and he couldn’t keep a smile from his face.

“I’d have to be dead not to. Shelby, what—”

When she lightly squeezed his right hip with her boot and whisper-shouted, “Move left,” he got it. She was riding him like a horse, leading him through the steps, her voice and breath on his neck sending sparks through his skin. He wasn’t paying any attention to the steps anymore or even the people around him, because he was so focused on her closeness, her touch, her body against his back. The feel and weight and smell of this tiny girl who had become so huge in his life in no time at all.

Time. He didn’t want to think about that. Two or three more days and he’d be gone. Then Lucky would find out who he had been and probably hate his guts for turning their town into something new. Never mind how the economy would bloom. Shelby wouldn’t need to work three jobs. But he knew somehow after spending a day around town that people would probably prefer Lucky as is to the grand plans he and Xander had.

His stomach started to sour and he tried to push the thoughts away. Do what Xan does. Don’t think too hard about it.

Jake laughed and followed Shelby’s instructions and kicks and tried to rein in the thoughts and feelings that ignited at her touch.

At the end of the song, there was clapping and whooping and Jake realized that people had circled them, laughing. For a moment he froze. Then Shelby’s voice tickled his ear.

“They love you, City Boy. Now give the people what they want.”

Shelby slid from his back to stand beside him and took his hand. She gave Jake a pointed look, then took a bow, pulling his hand. Feeling silly but also somehow exhilarated, he bowed alongside her. When he stood, people clapped and whooped. They weren’t laughing at him. This wasn’t middle school.

A new song came on and everyone went back to dancing. “Another?” Shelby asked. She still held his hand and he didn’t even think about taking it back.

Jake shook his head. “I think that I exceeded my dancing quota for the year just now. But thank you. I’ve never, um, danced like that.”

She laughed and pulled him toward the bar. “I’m thirsty, City Boy. Buy me a drink?”

“Anything you want,” he said.

“Dr. Pepper,” she said.

“Really? That’s it?”

She nodded and Jake ordered a Dr. Pepper and another water. Shelby downed it and then gave him a look. “Thanks. Do you mind if I dance more?”

“Do you mind that I don’t?” he asked.

She grinned. “Nope. Unless a slow song comes on. Then you best save that for me.”

And with those words, which sent his heart racing, she disappeared onto the floor again with Gracielynn. Jake watched her for a moment, her face turned up toward the ceiling, hands tucked into the front pockets of her cutoffs, the muscles working in her legs as she moved effortlessly on the floor. He found Matt at a table to the side. Matt did not smile when he sat down and he felt the sting of guilt.

“She’s really something,” Jake said. He realized that Matt had picked up Shelby’s hat and it rested in his lap.

“That she is,” Matt said, taking a sip of beer. “Of course, you realize that she’s coping right now. This is Shelby on disappointment.”

Disappointment? Jake looked again at Shelby as she danced and laughed, her hair swinging and her eyes bright. She looked like a woman having a great time. When she caught Jake looking, she gave him a flirty wink and a wave.

Jake studied her, wanting to see what Matt could, hating that he didn’t know her well enough to know when she was having a good time or covering up a hard time. He wanted to be a student of Shelby, to know all her tells hiding beneath her poker face.

What disappointment was she facing? Jake felt the overwhelming urge to make it better if he could.

He was about to ask Matt when his phone began to buzz in his back pocket. Xander.

“I’m going to take this outside,” Jake said. “Work.” Matt didn’t react.

“Hang on,” Jake shouted into the phone as he pushed through the front double doors. He could hear Xander talking anyway, but couldn’t make out a word. He realized he was still shouting in the quiet parking lot after the din from inside.

“Are you at a bar?” Xander sounded amused.

“I think it’s a honky-tonk. Is that even a thing?”

Xander laughed. “I think so. Why don’t you ask someone?”

“And show my hand? Then they’d know I’m an outsider? No thanks.”

“They don’t realize you’re from out of town?”

“The girl I’m staying with calls me City Boy, to answer your question.”

“You’re staying with a girl?! Jake! Why didn’t you call to tell me?”

Jake grinned. “It’s not like that. I mean, I’m staying in her Airstream. It’s an Airbnb—literally the only room to rent in town.”

“Oh,” Xander said. “I got excited for a second, thinking that you might have met someone.”

Jake hesitated. He told Xander most things, but he also knew if he told him about Shelby that Xan would grab onto that like a dog with a bone. “I’ve made some friends and they took me out. You’d be surprised—I’m actually having fun.”

“Glad to hear it. Just don’t get too close.”

“I never do,” Jake said. The words felt false right now though, the last thing he wanted to say, especially about Shelby. He closed his eyes and leaned against the side of the building as Xan talked.

“Anyway, I called to let you know that we got the final property secured today. I just got the call.”

“Thank God,” Jake said. “That was the final big piece, right?”

“It’s very good. The board is happy. Unfortunately, we’ve still got a few things slowing us down, so I’m actually hoping you can handle some tomorrow. I can do the rest by phone. The mayor’s being a little tricky. I get the sense that he’s one of those too-big-for-his-britches kind of guys. He needs a little schmoozing. Someone to tell him that he’s amazing. Butter him up a bit. Make him feel important and part of the plan.”

“That’s usually your job,” Jake said. “You know I suck at schmooze.”

“But you’re there and I’m here. He said he’d love to have you out tomorrow night. Swimming and drinks. He’s got a nice pool, apparently, and I told him you’re a swimmer. Five o’clock. I’ll text you the address. Okay?”

Xander ended with a question, but Jake knew it was a formality. Though he and Xan generally played to their strengths, Xan also quietly and firmly pushed Jake whenever he could. He said that it was his way of stretching Jake, helping him build up the tools at his disposal. Usually the things Xan pushed him into made him wholly uncomfortable, but it had overall been a good thing. It helped him get out of his shell and grow in his confidence. But it didn’t mean he always liked it.

Honestly, Jake didn’t love the business world, other than the rush that came from seeing something he’d envisioned come to life. The money was great, though he hardly spent any of it and certainly didn’t need what he had. This past year he had the realization that he didn’t want to stay forever. He just hadn’t told Xan yet. In the back of his mind, Jake had been dreaming up exit strategies.

Jake sighed. “Sure. I can do that. Just send me an email with whatever I need to know about him and whatever questions and concerns I need to touch on.”

“Already sent. Call me after. Let me know how it goes. I have complete faith in you. After this, the only other thing we’re waiting on is city planning and zoning for the bridge.”

“Texas side or Louisiana side?”

“Both.”

“That doesn’t sound promising. I really thought we were further along on all these fronts.” Anxiety tightened a fist around Jake’s stomach. He hated this part. Every time they had a project, waiting for these little pieces to fall into place and everything to line up from all the different agencies sent him into a stressful tailspin. Usually his worries amounted to nothing, but this deal felt bigger, like more was riding on it. Xan still kept his cool, but Jake could tell that he was worried too. He just didn’t want Jake to know.

“It’s fine,” Xander said. “Let me worry about that. You be a good boy and fatten up the mayor. Oh, and expect that he’ll be trying to set you up with his daughter. He mentioned her no less than fifteen times. Of course, now I don’t remember her name. But she knows yours. You’re welcome.”

“Thanks,” Jake said drily. “Just what I need.”

Xan chuckled. “Couldn’t hurt. You’re out of there in a few days anyway. The mayor’s daughter could be a lot of fun. Fun with an expiration date—my favorite kind. Whatever you do, don’t tick off Daddy’s little girl.”

Now his anxiety clawed its way out of his stomach and tore at his throat like a rabid dog. Not because he had to sweet-talk the mayor or fend off his daughter. But because when Xander talked about the mayor’s daughter, Jake was thinking of Shelby. He didn’t want to talk to another girl and he didn’t want an expiration date with Shelby. But it was coming. Soon.

Xander kept going. “Not every girl is a Hannah, Jake.”

“I’ve got to go,” Jake said. The last thing he wanted was the memory of Hannah coloring his mood. Xan was right though—not every girl was after his money. Just most of the ones he’d met.

Hannah had hidden it so well that he had been at the point of proposing when she slipped up. Always sweet and demure, it was a tiny thing that made her crack. They’d been eating at the soft opening of a new restaurant with a five-star Michelin chef when he came back from the bathroom to find Hannah red-faced and screaming about a spilled glass of wine. It was white, not red, but got on her dress.

She hadn’t seen Jake at first, so she continued to berate the young waiter as well as the chef, hurling insults and making threats. “I will own you! My fiancé has more money than God and you better believe that he won’t stand for me to be treated this way!”

Then she saw Jake. He remembered his horrified fascination as her mask slipped back into place. She smoothed down her dress, smiled apologetically and gave the waiter—who was crying—a pat on the back. “I don’t know what came over me,” she’d said, looking up at Jake with big eyes.

But Jake knew that he was seeing the real Hannah for the first time: that fiery temper, the sense of entitlement, and the desire for money and power. The hardest part was that he’d planned on proposing and had been carrying around the ring for just the right moment. How could he have been so wrong?

That had been a year ago. After that, he’d been even more guarded than before, avoiding more events than before and not looking at another woman. He hadn’t been prepared for Shelby. Probably because he hadn’t expected to stay in Lucky, much less meet a beautiful, unique woman.

When he got back inside, Matt still sat stone-faced at the table, staring out at the floor. “Sorry,” Jake said. “Business.”

Matt nodded. Jake followed his gaze to Shelby and felt a golf-ball-sized lump in his throat.

“Your business have anything to do with why Shelby found out today that the city is annexing her land for some super-secret project?”

It took a moment for each of the words in the sentence to form something that made sense to Jake. The loudness of the room seemed to increase until it was nothing but a shrill scream in his ears. Jake knew his mouth was hanging open. His gaze shot immediately to Shelby. She and Gracie were dancing. Shelby threw her head back and laughed, Jake’s heart picking up at the sight of her long neck and her hair lighting around her shoulders. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her from collarbone to cheek. And then some.

But what had Matt just said?

Shelby’s land, annexed. Xander’s call. How had Matt put these pieces together before Jake did? Normally he would have known the second he saw Shelby’s property, but he hadn’t been driving or paying attention to GPS when Greg dropped him off. He simply hadn’t thought about it. He could have, but he didn’t. Since Layla broke down, he had been off his game. Then he met Shelby and it threw him even more.

The property he and Xan had been waiting on butted up against the Sabine. It was where the bridge would land on the Texas side. He hadn’t seen the river from Shelby’s, but then, he hadn’t walked the property either. He pictured the lake and how it disappeared beyond the tree line. It probably connected to the Sabine, a little offshoot of the river itself.

“I’ll take silence as a yes,” Matt said.

Jake did not answer. He didn’t want to believe it, though he knew it was too much of a coincidence.

The lights dimmed and suddenly a slow song was playing, the deep bass of a country singer crooning over the speakers. With a sense of dread, Jake saw Shelby beckoning him onto the dance floor for the slow song he had promised her.

And though he wanted to run and didn’t know how he could stand to look at her knowing what he now knew, she had that power over him. He stood and Matt said nothing as Jake met her on the floor. She called and he came.

Jake felt alternately sick and elated as her arms wrapped around his waist. She pressed her cheek to his chest and Jake wanted to bury his hands in her hair, which brushed over his palms. He wanted to lift her up into his arms and carry her out of The Lucky Line. Out of Lucky altogether. Would she go?

With a sinking sensation he realized that she might be free to leave now, since she would be losing her land. All because of him.

He wanted to be the one to protect her, but he was the reason she needed protection. Jake didn’t know what to do with that. What he should do is tell her now, himself, before she found out from someone else in a much worse way. He thought of Matt, how he would have been happy for Shelby’s happiness, even if that meant losing her. Matt would tell Shelby the truth if it were him. But it was easier for Jake to get lost in the moment. He could feel every place where she made contact with him: her hands on his shoulders, her cheek to his chest, his hands on her back.

She lifted up slightly, trying to circle her hands around his neck, giggling. “I can’t reach your neck, City. How’d you get so tall?”

“How’d you get to be so short?”

“Bad genes, I guess,” she said.

“You don’t have a bad gene in your body,” he said. As soon as the words fell out of his mouth, Jake wanted to take them back.

Shelby stiffened, and he thought she might pull away. Which he deserved, all things considered. Even if she didn’t yet know that he was the one responsible for losing her home. Instead, she tilted her chin to look up at his face. She had a half-smile on her face but her eyes looked serious.

When she spoke, her voice was low and quiet. “Are you hitting on me, City?”

His heart started up like a motorcycle’s roar behind his ribcage. “That depends.”

“On what?”

“Do you want me to?” he asked.

What was he doing? Jake didn’t flirt. He didn’t hit on women he just met, much less a woman who would hate him when she found out he was taking her family’s property to build a bridge to a shiny, new casino. The diamond ring he bought for Hannah was in his front right jeans pocket. If he focused, he could feel it there. Women were trouble. Even ones who didn’t seem to want him for his money. Hannah hadn’t seemed to either. He should be backing away slowly, or better yet, running for the door.

But something about Shelby had him dousing his rulebook in gasoline and happily dropping a match.

“That depends,” she said, a smile playing on her lips.

“On what?”

“On whether or not you—”

“Shelby!” A booming voice interrupted, and a man pulled her out of Jake’s embrace and into a bear hug, lifting her feet right off the ground. Her hands smacked at his back. Jake didn’t know what to do, so he simply stared.

“Put me down, Rhett!”

Rhett was almost as tall as Jake and so Shelby’s feet were off the floor, her cowboy boots flailing as she kicked. “Now, hang on a minute, wildcat! Don’t bruise my shins. I’ll put you down.”

He laughed, but Shelby looked ready to deck him as he set her back down. Immediately she pulled away and looped her arm through Jake’s.

Rhett was the kind of handsome that made Jake feel like the fat kid in gym class again. He had chiseled features and perfectly groomed blond hair. He narrowed his eyes and Jake tried to remember what he’d heard about Rhett. He felt like there were so many pieces of gossip that people had been tossing to him that he couldn’t keep people straight.

“Who’s your date?” Rhett asked.

“I’m not—” Jake started to say.

“This is Jake. Jake, Rhett,” Shelby said.

She leaned into Jake. Rhett’s eyes narrowed almost to the point of closing, then snapped open with intensity and understanding. “Jake? From Obsidian, right? Well, this is interesting.” He looked back and forth between Jake and Shelby, who was now the one staring with narrow eyes.

Rhett. The mayor’s son who keeps proposing to Shelby. The mayor’s son. Jake felt heat making a meteoric rise in his skin to hit his face. Rhett probably knew exactly why Jake was in Lucky and why Shelby had lost her property today.

“How do you know Jake?” Shelby asked.

Rhett gave a sly smile and opened his mouth just as Matt stepped into the middle of the conversation.

“Hate to break up this party, but your ride’s leaving,” Matt said.

Saved by the Matt. Jake did not move and Matt grabbed Shelby by the arm and turned her toward the door. “Hey,” she protested, but didn’t seem to actually be angry about it. She did pull out of his grip and walked with quick strides ahead of Matt and Jake to the door.

“Thanks,” Jake said, keeping pace with Matt.

“I didn’t do it for you,” Matt said. He pushed past Jake. As he came up beside Shelby, he placed her cowboy hat on her head. Jake hadn’t even noticed that Matt had been holding it. Matt put an arm loosely around Shelby’s shoulders and she wrapped her arm around his waist, giving him a side hug.

The current of jealousy that ran through Jake could have powered the entire city of Lucky for a week. The jealousy rivaled the guilt he felt and the anxiety. Shelby had lost her home because of him. She was going to find out. Shelby was going to find out. He had to be sure, though, and shot off a quick text to Xander, asking for the property name and location.

His mind swung back to Shelby. If she was trying to cope with the loss, did that mean that the flirtation wasn’t real? Maybe the chemistry he was imagining was only because she was dealing with the blow of knowing she would be losing her property. He should back off anyway. Because even if the attraction was real, it wouldn’t last as soon as she found out who he really was.