In fact, even though her feet ached she'd rather be back in Lavender Dreams with customers three deep at the register than sitting her with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc in front of her. Instead she was staring at Wyatt's jean clad backside. It pissed her off that she was still attracted to him when he had moved on.
"Juliette? Juliette, wherefore art thou?" Ariana said with a knowing smile.
Damn.
"Right here. Just sort of spacing out after the long crazy ass day we had. I'm so glad that Britt featured us. That is the kind of exposure I'd been dreaming about when I suggested we give-away the lotion but I never expected it would happen so quickly."
"Me either. I guess I'm going to have to start reading her gossipy newsletter and blog. I hate that kind of thing," Ariana said making a face before she took a sip of her wine.
"I'm pretty sure that's not necessary. I was already following her. I sort of borrowed the idea for our packaging based on something else I saw on her blog. She likes things that look pretty."
"Don't we all," Chloe said, sliding into the booth next to Ariana.
Juliette was struck for a moment at how nice it was that Ariana was finally leaving the house. She still insisted on wearing her hair to cover her scar most days. But she seemed less aware of it and more the woman she'd been before the crash.
"Speaking of pretty," Chloe said. "I think we owe Trey Kelly a drink for getting you out of the house."
Ariana flushed. "I'm not here because of him."
"No, but he helped. You've really changed since you and he hooked up," Juliette said.
She hoped she didn't sound envious. She was so happy for cousin. But deep down she wanted some of that for herself. Chloe had a sort of wistful expression on her face too. Why was Wyatt so damned stubborn? Hell, for that matter why was she? He'd moved on, she should too.
"To Trey and Ariana!" Juliette said lifting her wine glass.
The other women did as well and they all took a sip. "I wonder if tomorrow is going to be as crazy at the shop?"
"Probably. I heard about your lotion at the grocery store," Chloe said. "You know that you're the shit when people are talking about you in the check out line."
"We are," Juliette said. A little thrill went through her. "We did this, Ariana. No one thought we could but we made our little shop and the lotion into something big."
"We did, didn't we?" Ariana said with a huge smile on her face. "To us."
"To us."
They toasted again. Juliette exhaled. Let out a long breath and sent her troubles with it. She was young, single and successful. Life didn't get much better than this.
"Was there any other hot gossip at the grocery store?" Ariana asked after the plate of nachos they'd ordered arrived. Time to stop thinking about sweet cheeks Kelly at the bar.
Juliette scooped up a chip ready for some gossip. She wanted to focus on whatever the dirt was in Whiskey River instead of her own chaotic emotions.
"Well … there was some other talk but it's not important," Chloe said.
Ariana put her chip down and reached up to draw her hair forward making sure it covered the scar. Juliette reached over and tucked the strand back behind her ear. "Stop it."
"Was it about Trey and me?"
"No. Sorry, no, Ariana, it was about Juliette," Chloe said. "Everything I've heard from Riva's to the grocery store is that you and Trey are too cute. The entire town is holding their breath waiting for a wedding announcement."
"They can keep waiting," Ariana said, "We haven't been dating that long."
Chloe laughed and then sort of stared at Juliette.
"What? Was it about me?" Juliette asked. "I did look pretty fab the night of the Gala."
Juliette realized maybe she shouldn't have started on her second glass of wine given that the chip she'd just downed was the first thing she'd eaten all day. She felt good about what she and Ariana had done with cousin Violet's old lavender farm.
"You did look fab," Ariana said with a smile. "Was that the gossip?"
"Uh, no. It was about whose boots were under her bed."
"Wyatt's? I hoped no one would have noticed," Juliette said.
"Everyone noticed," Chloe reminded her. "He danced with you all night. People saw him walk you to your car … "
"So what are they saying?"
"That he's still a one night stand man," Chloe said. "Sorry. I should have-"
"No. I'm glad you told me. I would have heard it from someone else," Juliette said. She took another swallow of her wine and noticed that Nicholas Blue was looking over at them. She smiled.
He arched one eyebrow at her and winked.
Flirt.
He wasn't serious about anyone or anything. Why couldn't she have danced with him? Instead of going for tall, dark and brooding?
Why couldn't she now?
"Excuse me ladies, I need a refill," Juliette said.
"The waitress can bring you what you need," Ariana said.
"No, she can't."
Juliette pushed herself out of the booth and put on her own flirty smile. Time to show Wyatt he wasn't the only one who could move on.
Chapter Nine
‡
Wyatt drove out of town like the devil was chasing him but the truth was the devil was in the car. Deep inside of him. The man who never wanted to stay. He'd known from the moment he'd pulled Juliette into his arms that she was different.
So instead of keeping his distance, he'd taken that attraction as a dare.
Wanted to prove to himself that he wasn't going to break his rule because she made him hotter than a five-dollar pistol as his gramps used to say. But hell that had backfired.
She was different.
Hell, he'd known that every damn time he'd pushed her away. Any time he was even within seeing distance of her he got hard and wanted to claim her again as his.
His.
But he had no idea if he could keep her. Was this just some sort of fucked up reaction to his father's death? Now that dad was gone he was ready to settle down?
Or maybe having two half-brothers he'd never known existed made him want … what?
A family of his own? He wasn't sure about that but he did want Juliette. He wanted her to be his.
He slammed his pick-up into park in front of the ranch house and hopped out stomping up to the main building. George was sitting on the porch with one of the ranch dogs and started to speak to him but the thundercloud expression on his face must have convinced the kid he didn't want small talk.
He went into his suite but the last thing he wanted was to see the rooms that his father had lived in. There were no answers to soothe his troubled soul. Not in the rooms of a man who had been running from commitment for a long damned time.
Trey stuck his head around the corner.
"So, you lit out of Booze's pretty fast, what's up?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing, huh? If you say so. I'm not ready to call it a night, want to play a game of pool?" Trey asked.
His older brother was watching him with the same concern that Wyatt had seen in his eyes when he'd been eight and had fallen off one of the beams in the barn and broken his collar bone. Wyatt knew he had to get his shit together.
"Yeah, pool sounds great."
He followed Trey down the hall to the billiards room. Playing pool wasn't exactly the way he wanted to spend the evening. But the alternative was hitting a bottle of whiskey and doing something dumb like driving over to Juliette's place and making sure she was alone. Like he had a right to do that. He'd walked away.
They'd said goodbye.
He'd been the one to make that permanent and he had to stick to it. She was doing it, why couldn't he? Hell, tonight she'd looked right through him at Booze's Place. That had floored him.
He'd thought …
"You going to stare at the table all night or take a shot?"
"In a hurry to lose your money?" Wyatt asked.
He eyed the table. He lined up his shot; he was solids and took his shot. He hit it too hard and it hit the bumper and spun away from the pocket. It was bad enough he was playing Trey who pretty much always beat him.
Trey took his turn sinking three balls in a row but honestly Wyatt couldn't have cared less. He walked over to the bar and grabbed a beer, opening it and taking a long swallow.
"What's up with you tonight?"
"Nothing."
"Is it Xander? Is he not fitting in at Kelly Boots?" Trey asked.
"Nah, Baily said he's some sort of financial wunderkind," Wyatt said. For the first time since his dad passed away everything seemed to be back on track at Kelly Boots. Nicholas was doing a photo shoot next week and would be the spokes person for their new rodeo line of boots.
"Then it's got to be woman trouble," Trey said, putting his cue on the rack on the wall and coming over to him. "Or was I supposed to ignore that thing between you and Juliette at Booze's."