Ready to Run (I Do, I Don't 1)

She looked down at the dog and rubbed behind his ears. “Fair enough,” she agreed, looking back at him. “Yes, I miss New York.”

Her words did something obnoxious to his chest, but he refused to back away from the conversation. “We have too much fresh air for you?”

“Something like that.”

Her voice was light, but her face was sad, and Luke knew he wasn’t getting the full picture of whom Jordan Carpenter was. She kept putting up walls, but that was too damn bad. If she was going to scale his, he’d happily launch a counterattack.

“What’s your story, City?” he asked, grabbing the pot of coffee and coming back to the table. “You born and raised on Park Avenue?”

She sipped her coffee. “Hardly. I was born and raised in a town a lot like this one.”

This news both surprised the hell out of him and also…didn’t.

“Explains why you look so good in the cowboy boots,” he said, trying to keep the mood light to keep her talking.

“Simon will be glad you think so. They were his doing.”

“Small-town life wasn’t for you?” he asked, topping off her cup.

She ran a nail along the handle of the mug as she considered. “I don’t know that it was like that. I mean, like most people, I went through a stage in high school where I dreamed of getting out, living a more

glamorous life, but I wasn’t one of those Big Lights or Bust kind of dreamers. Keaton was home.”

“But you left.” He took a sip of coffee.

“I left.”

They locked eyes for a long moment, a silent battle of wills, and as much as he hated it, he got it…she wasn’t going to spill her guts when he wouldn’t spill his.

He gave her something—as much as he was ready for.

“Bride number one was Hailey,” he said, continuing to meet her eyes.

He’d been pretty sure that nobody had mentioned that fact to her, and the shock on her face told him he was right. “Hailey? How the heck did I not know this?”

“Honestly, I don’t have a clue, since the town’s run its mouth about everything else. Best guess, Hailey asked them not to.”

“Because it’s a painful story?”

“Not really. At least not for her and me. Her parents are still a little pissed about the money they spent on a wedding that didn’t happen, but they got a far better son-in-law in Tim than I’d ever have been. My guess? Hailey figured you might treat her differently if you knew and had already pegged you as BFF material.”

“I suspect everyone’s BFF material to Hailey.”

He smiled. “You know her well.”

“I thought I did,” Jordan muttered, tapping her fingers against the table, her mind clearly racing. “So what happened there?”

He shrugged. “We were kids. I proposed when we thought she was pregnant. Started her period a few days before the wedding, and I think we were both relieved. We loved each other, but neither of us was even close to ready for marriage or kids.”

“And yet once again you took the blame,” she said.

Her tone was a little cranky, and Luke nearly smiled, wondering if perhaps Jordan Carpenter wasn’t a bit protective on his behalf. It’d be a nice change from a town that, while affectionate, had always been all too happy to play up his reputation while letting the women get off easy.

He’d wanted it that way, sure, but look where that had gotten him. The bull’s-eye of a fucking reality TV show.

“All right, your turn,” he said, lifting his cup and winking at Jordan.

Her face went perfectly blank, and Luke tensed, sensing that whatever she was about to share was a good deal more gut-wrenching than his and Hailey’s failed childhood romance.