Love Me Again, Cowboy

“Can I get your drinks?” Her attention is reserved for Jax. She doesn’t even seem to notice Audrey and I are at the table. I’m usually the focus of attention, and I find it a nice change. Jax is more the celebrity here than I am, it would seem. It doesn’t bother me that Jax gets the attention, even if it is from a young girl flirting with him. I know from my own experience that just because someone else flirts with you, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to act on it. We give her our order. She stares at Jax for a moment, then leaves to get our drinks. I try to hide my smile but fail miserably.

“What?” Jax asks.

“Nothing,” I say, looking at the menu. “I’m just finding your groupie very amusing.”

He looks at the waitress, and his brows crease. “Her?”

“Oh, yes. She’s smitten,” I say with a giggle.

Jax shrugs like it’s the most normal thing, but he has a grin when he does.

“Wha

t’s smitten mean?” Audrey asks.

“It means she thinks your dad is very nice,” I say.

Groupie-girl comes back as often as she can throughout our meal to be sure we are happy, and by we, I mean Jax. I enjoy teasing him about it. Jax and Audrey show me how to play table hockey, and I show them how to turn your straw wrapper into a worm. The whole meal is normalcy at its best. As we sit here laughing at Jax trying to balance his spoon on his nose, I think that I could do this with the two of them for the rest of my life.

It’s my turn to balance the spoon and my phone rings. I see it’s JulieAnn and decide to ignore it. A moment later, it rings again. JulieAnn. Jax gives me a questioning gaze. “Sorry,” I say. “I’ll put it on vibrate.” Just as I’m turning the sound off, a text comes through.

JulieAnn: Stop ignoring me. I’m here in Bisboo. Where are you?

I drop my phone. “What the. . .?” I say, picking it back up.

“Everything okay?” Jax asks.

My phone rings for the third time. “I’m so sorry. I have to take this.”

“Go ahead.” He winks. “We’re not going anywhere.”

I kiss him on the cheek and slip out of the restaurant. I don’t want to take the chance of Jax overhearing us. She might reveal that I’m not planning to tell the truth about fake rehab. I want to tell Jax later when I can explain it without Audrey around. Will he understand? Or will my career be too much for him to handle? I push the thought away and answer my phone.

“JulieAnn?”

“It’s about time,” she says in her gravelly voice. “I thought you’d never answer.”

“What do you mean you’re in Bisbee?” I’m at the top of the mini staircase connecting the restaurant to the sidewalk. I look down one of the streets with nervous anticipation. I spot some teenagers riding skateboards and a couple pushing a stroller.

“Yes, darling. We’re here. We went to your sister’s house, but they said you were at some Mexican restaurant. Now I’m wandering around this strange, eclectic little town, trying to find you. I think I just got a contact high passing some old hippies. I finally see the appeal of this place. It’s like entering a real-life wonderland. You never know what you’ll see at the next bend. I walked past a drag queen and then a cowboy. It’s very avant-garde.” I hear her last words outside of the phone, from the other direction. My veins freeze over when I see who walks around the corner with her.

Trey Wentworth gazes up at me with a huge award-winning smile. He’s wearing dark-washed jeans, a black shirt, aviator glasses, and a leather jacket. A camera man stands behind Trey, looking into the viewfinder and adjusting the dials. JulieAnn has her hair in its signature updo with hairspray keeping it vertical enough to add three inches to her tiny frame. She wears oversized sunglasses, a black outfit, and gaudy gold jewelry that matches her gold platform shoes. A cigarette burning in her left hand.

No, no, no. What are they doing here?

My jaw must have fallen open because JulieAnn waves at me. “Stop catching flies, darling, and come down here.”

I descend the steps in a daze, clutching my phone and trying to figure out what is actually happening.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, pointing the question to all of them.

Trey pulls down his glasses and gives me a crooked grin. “You miss me, sweetheart?”

I give him a glare. “You know how much trouble you’ve caused me?” But then I consider all the wonderful things that have happened as a result of his bad choices with women, and I shake my head. “Never mind. Why are you here?”

He puts his sunglasses in the front pocket of his shirt. They stick out awkwardly. “I’m trying to make up for cheating on you, babe.”

I sigh. “You don’t have to do that, Trey. It’s fine.”