“Good start.”
“I’m here to ask if she wants me here.”
Hot Mama looks at me for a long moment.
Then she smiles again.
Not soft.
Approving, maybe.
“You broke my girl’s heart or came to fetch it?”
My chest tightens.
“Came to ask if she wants to come back.”
“Good answer. Wrong tone. Try again with respect.”
I inhale through my nose.
Every instinct I own wants to snap. Every mile behind me wants to come out of my mouth with teeth.
I think of Legend at the clubhouse.
You get there, you ask.
I think of Amelia’s note. Please don’t follow. I think of August asking if I fake like him too.
I look at Hot Mama.
“Please,” I say, and the word feels like gravel under my tongue. “I need to see her. If she tells me to leave, I will.”
The campground goes quieter.
Hot Mama studies me.
“You’ll leave if she tells you?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll ride all the way back to Kentucky with your little heart dragging sparks if she says no?”
“I ain’t got a little heart.”
“Debatable.”
“I’ll leave,” I say. “If she tells me to.”
She nods once.
“Better.”
I hate this woman.
I may respect her.
Terrible combination.