I could see Lacey shrugging from the corner of my eye. “Let me know. Seems like forever since we grilled some burgers.” She didn’t say another word on the matter, just sank into her chair a little more as she took a swallow of her beer.
I cursed myself up and down for lying to her. I shouldn’t have to do this kind of shit. Emma wasn’t the type to get jealous. And Lacey and I were best friends.
After all the time Emma and I had spent together and how I was feeling for her — the same way I hoped she was feeling for me — I should be able to hang out with Lacey whenever I wanted without worrying about how it looked. I almost told her that we could eat together tomorrow, but I’d already told that damned lie.
“Maybe we can see about the next day,” I said.
“I got plans Wednesday,” she replied. She didn’t seem too bothered about it either way.
I relaxed, but still felt like I was stabbing her in the back.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Emma
Thursday
I was getting the horses put back in their stalls for the night with Lacey, both of us dripping sweat from a hard afternoon of riding. I’d ridden Elroy for the first time, and it was like trying to herd a cat. He kept jumping around and straining against the reins. I didn’t know how Lacey would get him to the point where she could race him around three barrels the way she had Max. But since she’d trained Max, too, I had complete faith in her.
I closed the door to Lucy’s stall, the little pinto insisting on another scratch behind the ear before she’d let me wander off. Lacey had kept us rolling with laughter all afternoon with silly stories about her and Pete growing up on the farm. Right now she was in the middle of telling me about the time Pete fell off the tractor and had to chase it across the far field while she watched, wailing with laughter.
“You should’ve seen him running after it!” she said, giggling so hard tears were pouring down her cheeks. “His daddy was screaming at him to get after it, but laughing, too. I couldn’t even stand, I was laughing so hard.” She wiped at her eyes as she shook her head.
I was giggling, too. “How’d he fall off the tractor?”
Her dark eyes went wide, her shoulders shaking with the force of her laughter, so it took a few seconds for her to get the words out. “That was the best part! He saw me and his daddy talking out behind the barn and yelled out to us, asking if we wanted to see something neat.” She wiped her leaking eyes again. “Right after he stood up on the seat, the tractor must’ve hit a bump that made it go off course. He fell right off into the grass and was damned lucky not to get run over by the rear tire. Me and his daddy just busted up.”
We laughed together again while the horses whinnied, not quite knowing what to think of the sight of us bending to hold our stomachs. I could easily believe that Pete was silly enough to do something like what she’d just described.
Once we straightened up and got busy putting the barn in order for the night, another feeling dropped into my stomach, making me uneasy. Mostly because I hadn’t felt anything like it before. As I walked to the tack room to put away saddles, pads, halters, and everything else we’d used with the horses all day, it occurred to me that I was jealous of Lacey, and not just a little bit.
I hated the feeling. It was petty. She’d been nothing but nice to me. I relaxed a little, my stomach unclenching as I worked through it.
I wasn’t jealous of her because I thought something was there between her and Pete — I knew that wasn’t an issue. Not only had Pete and Lacey both told me that, but I could plainly see it in the way they acted around each other. Lacey kept after Pete the way she would an annoying younger brother, and Pete returned fire as often as he could. But the fact that she knew him so well — as well as I’d like to know him one day — rubbed me the wrong way.
I couldn’t really control the feeling. I wanted to know everything I could about Pete Gains, and it burned me up that some other woman already did. I was determined not to make a big deal out of this. I knew Pete would tell me whatever I wanted to know about his past. I just wished I didn’t have to ask. I wanted to know everything already, like Lacey did. That was my issue, though, and I was prepared to deal with it without messing things up between me and Lacey or me and Pete.
I’d just finished up in the barn when my cell phone rang. I pulled it out of my back pocket. It was Jack.
“Hi, stranger,” I said, smiling.
“Howdy, Em,” he replied. “I drove into town this morning to see my folks. You up for dinner tonight? We could hit up our local place.”
Pete and I didn’t have plans until tomorrow. I stayed after work a few nights a week, but I liked having a night or two to myself, too.
“That sounds great. You thinking the Round Rock Diner?” I asked. That had been our usual place back in the day, and it wasn’t far from my house. I needed to shower before I went anywhere else. Pete might not mind me stinky — hell, most of the time he stunk more than I did — but I didn’t want to inflict a day’s worth of sweat and dealing with horses on poor unsuspecting Jack.
“That’s just what I was thinking. Is eight o’clock too late?” he asked.
I glanced down at my watch. It was inching towards seven now. I’d stayed a little later than I’d planned, but
Lacey and I’d had so much fun running the horses through their exercises. I loved that she was teaching me something new. I’d ridden horses for so many years. It was rare to learn a new task. I didn’t race or anything like that, but I could care for a horse with my eyes closed and one hand trapped behind my back.
“Yeah, that sounds great,” I said.
“Okay. See you then.”
I hung up, bid Lacy goodnight, and strode out of the barn. Pete was sitting on the porch, a cool beer in his hand. I loved the nights we just sat on the porch, drinking and trading stories until we ran out of time to make a good meal. Those were the nights we threw a frozen pizza in the oven and ran back to his messy bedroom for a quickie while we waited on dinner. I hated to miss that tonight, but I was excited to catch up with Jack after spending so much time apart.