CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
EPILOGUE
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, Emily Parker would rather be at the cemetery.
Instead, she pointed her truck in the direction of the Silver Saddle because when her sister, Molly, got an idea in her head, she was like a pit bull with a bone. Today that bone was dancing, and she’d cornered Emily into going along.
“You can go to the cemetery any ol’ time. All those dead people aren’t going anywhere.” Molly pulled down the passenger-side visor and smoothed on bright red lipstick.
As if Molly needed any help channeling her inner hussy. “A little respect, please. Some of them might be our relatives. I have a lot of gravestones to inspect if I ever want to complete the Parker family tree.”
Emily pulled into the gravel parking lot filled with cars and eased her truck into a space in the back. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. There might be men in there. There would certainly be plenty of smart women glancing in her direction and whispering. Did you hear? Poor Emily. She didn’t see it coming, but maybe she should have. After all, didn’t everyone?
“Awesome. Friday night and this place is crazy.” Molly unclicked her seat belt. “What are you waiting for?”
Emily didn’t move as she glanced out the windshield from the safe place inside the cab of her truck. Couples were milling around the entrance, fools on a quest for the impossible. “I’m not so sure about this.”
“Why not? You’re not still on the giving-up-men thing, are you? I thought you were kidding.”
“You know, there are more important things in life than men.” Emily fiddled with her keys, still safely in the ignition. She hadn’t made any firm commitments to getting out of this truck.
“Name one.”
Think, Emily, think. “Family, of course.” There was more, but she didn’t work well under pressure.
Molly scowled. “Fine, but you can’t do the really fun stuff without a man.”
Spoken from a woman who loved men a bit too much. “What did being man-crazy ever get you?”
“Don’t start with me. I swear the condom broke. Why won’t you believe me?” Molly slapped the dashboard, reminding Emily of the little girl she’d once been, raising hell wherever she went. The red hair fair warning to anyone crazy enough to tangle.
The fact that Molly was seven years younger than Emily and already had a child shouldn’t have bothered Emily. Except, sometimes it did. As usual, Molly didn’t appreciate what she had.
“Let’s not talk about this now.” Emily resisted the urge to pound her head on the steering wheel.
“You brought it up. You might want to be a mom, but that doesn’t mean every girl wants that.”
“Who says I want to be a mom?” When Molly got mad she tried to hurt anyone within spitting distance. Pulling the keys out of the ignition, Emily grabbed her purse, opened the door and leapt out of the truck. She needed to blow a little steam off now, thanks to her bratty sister.
“Well, your biological clock is ticking.” Molly followed.
“It. Is. Not. Ticking!” Emily could give as good as she got with her sister, even if her blond hair wasn’t the slightest shade of red. Even if she’d always had to look out for the little squirt.
“You’re twenty-eight. I think it’s started to tick.”
“Twenty-eight is the new eighteen.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if fifty is the new forty, and forty is the new thirty, then what the hell do you think the new twenty-eight is?” Emily spoke loud enough some of the patrons hanging outside the entrance turned to stare at them.
Emily grabbed her sister’s hand and pulled her toward the entrance. “I’m doing this on one condition. All we’re doing is dancing, and then we’re going home. Alone. I don’t go home with anybody, and neither do you.”
As the big sister, it was Emily’s duty to remember Molly only served up her parade of big hits when she hurt inside. Sooner or later Emily would have to figure out what bug had curled up inside Molly this time and probably help her with it, too. But for now, Denial was a river they would drown in together.
Opening the door to the Silver Saddle felt a little like opening death’s door. A bit like entering a battlefield without armor. No self-respecting woman would do that, and yet, Emily was here.
Bertha, the broken mechanical bull, sat in the corner, warning the games were about to begin. From somewhere within, Emily drew a deep breath and placed an imaginary shield on her chest. There. Let someone get through that.
“Hey, it’s the Parker girls.” Thomas Aguirre sidled up to Molly. Everyone knew he’d had a crush on her since third grade.
Emily shoved her body between them. “We’re here to dance. And nothing else. Right, Molly?”
“Right.” Molly may have said what Emily wanted to hear, but her eyes said Open for Business.
“How about this dance?” Thomas didn’t even wait for a reply as he grabbed Molly’s hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. Molly shoved her purse in Emily’s hands before going far too willingly onto the crowded dance floor.
Emily
