Need Me (Broke and Beautiful #2)(38)

“Good old Teddy.” Katie shook her head. “Ran into him in the supermarket last week. He was buying four boxes of Cocoa Crispies. Sweet as all get out, but high as a motherf*cker.”

“That’s my dear brother. I reckon that cereal didn’t last him the ride home.” Honey slid her Coke off the bar and took a sip through the straw. “I’m just here through the weekend helping out. My daddy has to get this crop into the ground before next week when the dirt gets hard and stops cooperating.”

Elmer laid an arm across her shoulders. The most natural thing in the world, and yet it felt different. Too heavy. Too close. Like that arm was trying to suck her back in and she hadn’t decided whether to be sucked yet. Damn. What was in that tequila? “Why didn’t you call me when you got into town? I could have come by and lent a hand.”

Honey felt a pang of guilt over the hurt in Elmer’s voice. “Ah, you know that tractor. Only works for us Perribows.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “But I’m here now. What are y’all up to tonight?”

They all looked at each other. “This,” Darlene laughed. “This is what we’re up to.”

“I—right.” Honey’s neck heated. Wednesday nights in Bloomfield were spent at Calhoun’s. It was a constant this crew never deviated from. They were all staring at her now like they were seeing her for the first time, probably wondering if she’d changed. If she’d forgotten. Hoping to recover by taking the focus off herself, she smiled at Katie. “I haven’t had a chance to say congratulations on your engagement. Have you set a date?”

Katie held out her hand so Honey could see the ring. It was simple and beautiful. Big enough to catch an eye, small enough not to get in the way. Something like Honey might pick for herself. “We’re thinking next summer. Will you come on down and be a bridesmaid?”

Honey’s throat felt tight. “Of course. Yes. I’d love to.”

“It’s not going to be fancy or anything.” Katie and Darlene exchanged an excited look. “We drove to Lexington last weekend and picked out bridesmaids dresses. I wish we knew you were coming. Would have been one heck of a fun road trip.”

Darlene rolled her eyes, but her smile was good-natured. “Maybe with two of us in the car, we could have convinced Katie to play something besides her worn-out Luke Bryan CD.”

“You won’t hear me apologizing.” Katie nudged Jay with her elbow. “My future husband has given me a hall pass with Mr. Bryan’s name on it. A woman can dream.”

Honey was distracted from Katie and Darlene’s friendly bickering when Elmer pulled her even closer. She could feel the group watching as he tipped her chin up with his fingers and smiled. “Hey. It feels right having you here. You know?” He was so close. Too close. As much as Honey loved Elmer, she knew now what it felt like to feel breathless and desperate over a man. Settling for anything less wouldn’t be fair to either her or Elmer. She needed to stop this before it got off the ground.

“Elmer—”

The bar’s front door slammed—loud—and they all jumped. Honey’s attention flew to the entrance, and everything stopped. Time. Her heart. Gravity.

Ben.

Here? No. No way. It had to be the lighting messing with her eyes. Or maybe something had really been in that tequila. Her brain could barely comprehend him in Calhoun’s, in her tiny Kentucky town of Bloomfield, but he looked so out of place that she knew it had to be him. Because no one else on earth looked at her like that. Like he wanted to pounce on her. Read and decipher her thoughts. Then blow the very mind that held them together.

He wore a dress shirt as usual, white this time, and pushed up to reveal his strong forearms. His slacks were gray and travel-worn, wrinkled, but it didn’t take anything away from the straight-up sexiness of him. She managed to drag her gaze from his and found his hand, white-knuckled around the handle of a suitcase. That sealed the deal. This had to be Ben. And if he was here . . . he had to be here for her. Why else would be come?

Too bad, though. Too bad, because all the pain rushed back in the longer they stood there, staring at each other. It gushed through her chest, knocking down dams and filling in cracks. She was suddenly so mad at him she wanted to throw her pint glass full of Coke at his head. For making her feel this way, for making her question herself. Her goals.

“What do you want, Ben?”

“For starters?” He actually had the nerve to look angry as he shoved his suitcase up against the wall, leaving it there as he came toward her. “I’d really like you not to have this guy’s arm around you.”

OKAY, THIS WAS starting off swell.

He’d shown up prepared to beg. In fact, he’d written it all down, neatly and concisely, in a notebook. Everything he wanted to say. He’d readied himself for the gamut of female emotions, according to Russell. Yes, Russell. Ben was that desperate. Tears, epithets, shouting. He’d come equipped for every possible scenario. And then he’d walked in and seen her cozied up to a guy who looked like he crushed Budweiser cans on his head for fun. The headache he’d managed to curb with the promise of seeing Honey had torn back through his skull like a rodeo bull. Someone was touching his f*cking girl, and she looked so crazy pretty he couldn’t stand it. So, yeah. Sayonara notebook.

Ben stopped in front of the beer can crusher. “Okay, look. I’m her least favorite person in the world right now. I’ve already got a mountain to dig myself out from under. We’re talking Everest. But if I have to bury myself a little deeper in order to get your hands off of her, I’ll do it.”