He just had to hope that when the right woman showed up, it wouldn’t take much convincing at all.

CHAPTER TEN

“LET’S GO OUT,” Beatrix said.

“Oh, yes,” McKenna agreed. “We should go out.”

Beatrix had come over that night to talk about the horse, and had been round-eyed and overly concerned about the fall that Jamie had had. McKenna had stopped by Jamie’s cabin, too, and for a moment Jamie felt content. Like maybe life wasn’t so different and difficult, after all.

“Out?” Jamie wrinkled her nose.

“Yes,” McKenna said. “I’ve gotten domesticated. And I’m getting married in five months. I have to get out and enjoy my freedom while I can.”

“Me, too,” Beatrix said.

And just like that, Jamie’s stomach curled in on itself. “Well, I have endless freedom stretching before me. So I feel no particular pressing need to go out to a bar. But if you really want to...”

“I do,” Beatrix said, nodding.

“Fine,” Jamie said. She picked up her flannel shirt she’d been wearing earlier and shrugged it on. There was a little bit of dust on it, but otherwise, it was fine.

“Is that what you’re wearing?” McKenna asked, her tone absent of judgment, but the fact that she asked the question at all impressed upon Jamie the judgment all the same.

“Yes,” she said. “You have a problem with it?”

“Well,” McKenna said. “It’s just that you mentioned your endless freedom. And perhaps, you could be less free if you...”

“I am not dressing up to try to get a man’s attention,” Jamie snapped. “If I wanted a man, I could go out and get one.”

Men were simple, after all. She’d seen it over and over again. It played out all the time in her family.

She flashed back to Gabe, the way he’d looked at her when she was down on the ground, and she pushed that image to the side.

“Okaaayyy.” The skeptical word came from Bea, and Jamie bristled.

“What?”

“I’m just... You don’t... Okay. I love you, Jamie, but you don’t actually know anything about men.”

Jamie frowned. “What?”

“We’ve listened to you talk like this for months. You tried to give us both advice on our relationships,” McKenna said.

“I was helpful,” Jamie insisted.

“You meant well,” Bea offered.

Jamie huffed and McKenna went on. “We let you talk. No one wanted to hurt your feelings. We still don’t. But now we need to have a real conversation here because you’re about to bite off more than you can chew.”

“I literally grew up in a house with all men,” Jamie protested. “I know more about men than any one woman could want to. I helped you out with Dane.”

Bea and McKenna exchanged a glance that turned Jamie’s blood to lava. “No offense, Jamie,” Bea said slowly. “But no. You didn’t. And no, you don’t. You know about men as brothers. You don’t know anything about... You don’t know anything about sex.”

Jamie’s whole face felt like it had been lit on fire. And she wanted to push against this. Against this feeling of being lost and of not knowing. “I know about sex,” she said.