Aiden and I stand toward the back of the room at the end of what has been a perfect day, close enough that I can feel the warmth rolling off him more than I can feel it from the rest of the bar. Both of us watch the dancers up on stage, grinning as we see Lula give Sammy a cheeky wave whenever she looks up from behind the bar.
“How long have they been together?” Aiden asks between songs.
“They aren’t.”
“Why not?”
“Sammy is shy,” I explain, biting the inside of my cheek at Aiden’s sudden concern with local gossip. “Or so I’ve been told.”
“She obviously likes her,” he argues. “She doesn’t look atanyone else all night. What’s she nervous for?”
I shake my head, my eyes straying toward the ceiling in search of a more perfect display of irony. “Couldn’t tell you, wolf.”
I glance around the room, for once not because I’m looking to join a game, just looking for a couple open seats. When I spy a few, I tentatively place my hand on his lower back and point their direction. “You want to have a seat?”
He frowns. “Someone could see us.”
“Someone could see us here, too,” I point out, removing my hand from him since our current spot, while inconspicuous, is not invisible.
“I don’t want people to…” He sighs, and my stomach drops, leaving me wondering if he’s going to say he doesn’t want to be seen with me. If, as much as I’d like to tease him for feeling nervous with me, I’m much better.
He’s going to see. If we keep going like this, he’s going to end up seeing that I’m—
“I don’t want people to see me,” I hear him say as I stare at his perfect face. “I don’t want to deal with the questions.”
“The questions?” I repeat, not following.
“About who I was before,” he explains, and I swear my knees almost buckle from the relief as he leans his shoulder into mine and keeps talking. “This is nice. Back here. Just us.”
I love you, I think, still staring at him though his attention is back on the stage.I’m so much in love with you that I feel like it could kill me, and I don’t even care.
“It is nice,” I say instead. “Just us.”
If only it could last…My gaze is drawn away from him as I see Dolly striding across the room while talking to someone, clear concern etched into her expression before she grabs for her shotgun behind the bar and walks toward the front door.
“Aiden,” I mutter, and he immediately turns, seeing the same thing and already reaching for his own gun.
No one else notices us go, the music and the party still in full swing behind us while we pause on opposite sides of the main door to listen and check our weapons. Outside, I can hear talking, raised voices, one of them Dolly’s.
Aiden and I exchange a glance, and for a moment it looks like there’s something he wants to say before he nods and holds up three fingers to count.Three. Two. One.When he lowers the last one, we burst through the door in perfect sync with guns drawn, one in Aiden’s hand and two in mine, but based on the crowd already assembled, it’s not nearly enough.
While Dolly stands alone, there’s fifteen men on horseback facing her out in front of her place, all of them armed and all of them looking particularly unhappy to see us, although none more than the one near the middle…who still has a good amount of earth on him.
Upon seeing us, Tom starts for his gun, but another man holds up his hand for him to stand down as Dolly does the same with us. Both sides begrudgingly follow orders, but Aiden steps closer to me, positioning himself so that he’s slightly in front.
“That was fast,” Aiden murmurs, looking at Tom, too.
“They must have already been searching for him as he said,” I guess.
“Him, or the money,” Aiden agrees. “You burn it yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Should have burned it all with the body. Two birds…”
This time, I can’t help myself. “I find you incredibly attractive. Do you know that?”
Aiden smirks as he shakes his head, about to respond when Dolly turns toward the two of us. “Finished?”