That didn’t change the way she felt about him one bit. It didn’t change that she was going to text him as soon as she got home. As she drove through Charming, she promised herself that she wasn’t going to run from this. If things ended between them naturally, so be it. But she wasn’t going to push him away. Not again. He was too good of a kisser, too easy on the eyes, and brought her too much laughter and joy. She was going to hold on to Sam Pleasant.

At the last stoplight before she turned onto the highway, a text message popped up over her navigation map. She grabbed her phone and clicked over to her conversation with Tex.

There was just a screen grab. It was a cropped screenshot of a conversation with his agent.

Tuesday. I want to talk to you about
Black Death.

Fuck yeah, man. Let’s do it.

Amanda wished she had the resources to put herself out there like that. In the meantime though, she was pretty proud of her brave cowboy.

* * *

Sam knew he would get shit from his family for strolling back in wearing the same clothes as the night before, but when he walked into Miss Leona’s kitchen he realized what he was wearing and what he’d gotten up to was the last thing on anyone’s mind. Jesse was straight up pacing back and forth in their grandmother’s kitchen. Zach and Evie were standing guard like they were waiting for him to start smashing shit any moment. Lilah was sitting on a stool, just chillin’ like Jesse wasn’t about to implode.

“Heey, hey,” Sam said cautiously. “What’s going on?”

“Um—Miss Leona—” Evie started.

“No. Fuck that. What happened?” Sam felt like he was going to throw up.

“No, no, she’s okay,” Evie rushed to say.

“She didn’t come home last night,” Zach explained. “And she didn’t stay at Mig’s.”

“Oh shit,” Sam whispered. She’d spent the night out with her new mystery man. And Jesse was fucking losing it.

“Yeah,” Lilah said before she cringed. She knew too. Of course she did. They all knew the truth before last night. All of them but Jesse.

“She’s on her way home now,” Evie said.

“And I’m trying to tell our brother here that she is beyond grown, but he doesn’t want to listen,” Zach said.

“What is there for me to listen to?” Jesse asked. “She lied about where she was going and spent the night out with God knows who. That doesn’t bother you?”

“I mean, it does, but I think it bothers us for different reasons,” Lilah shot back.

Zach turned to Evie, squeezing her hand. “Babe.”

“Yeah.” She squeezed his hand back before she left the room.

“Li, can you give us a sec?” Zach said.