Free Boots and Lace by Myla Jackson

feet.”
    “I’ll take my chances.”
    Trish hadn’t wanted to go out dancing since the day they’d gotten married. With him, anyway. From what he’d learned through the grapevine, she’d been cuttin’ a rug in the neighboring county. If he’d known it during the divorce, and that she’d been having an affair, he would have stuck to his guns and kept the ranch. She’d led him to believe it was his fault their marriage didn’t last. He’d given her everything her lawyer demanded, guilt playing a big part of the concessions. He’d even begged her to stay and give their marriage another chance. Not so much because he loved her, but because he hated admitting failure at anything.
    Now that the divorce was final and all the dirty laundry had been discovered, he wished he’d taken more time to investigate and ferret out the truth.
    Audrey hooked his arm and tugged him out of the chair. “Come on, I think you need this more than I do.”
    Nick dared a glance at Lacey.
    Her eyes shot daggers at him and he knew he deserved them. “Yeah, I think I do.”
    Once out on the floor, and under Audrey’s lead, Nick got his dancin’ legs under him and settled into a smooth Texas Two-Step. “Thanks, Audrey.”
    “I shouldn’t speak out of turn, but Lacey is kinda in the same boat as you.”
    “How so?”
    “Her ex cheated on her and left her high and dry. She’s dead set on never getting hitched again, and who would blame her?”
    So Lacey had been dumped as well. “That explains a lot.”
    “Yeah, a lot of us have been down the wrong path a time or two. It takes the right person to make us want to try a new one.”
    Nick glanced at Lacey, weaving through the tables, balancing a tray full of beer mugs and long-necks. “I’m not in the market for a wife.”
    “You may not be, but sometimes the best thing to ever happen to you happens when you least want or expect it. Don’t let it slip through your hands because some stupid woman hurt your pride.”
    “I loved Trish,” Nick argued.
    “Yeah, and that’s why she filed for divorce based on neglect.” Audrey patted his arm. “If you’d really loved her, you would have had a hard time leaving her alone.” Audrey spun away from him as the music came to a halt. “Thanks for the dance.”
    Left standing on the dance floor, his head spinning from what Audrey had said, Nick glanced around at the tables, hoping to find someone he could sit with so that he didn’t have to talk to Lacey. There was an empty seat at the table with Mark and Luke Gray Wolf. 
    As he crossed the floor toward them, Libby Jones stepped between them, setting a bottle of beer in front of each. When she turned to leave, Mark grabbed her around the middle and pulled her into his lap. She squealed and laughed, planting a kiss on his lips. When he set her back on her feet, Luke didn’t let her get far before he tugged her into his lap and kissed her soundly.
    No. Nick didn’t feel like being around all that hugging, laughing and kissing. It reminded him too much of what he’d always thought love would be. Fun. Sexy. Absolute commitment by both parties in the union. In Mark, Luke and Libby’s case, make that all parties in the union. How the brothers could share her was a mystery to Nick. Perhaps because they were so close in age and were twins, they were used to sharing everything—even their woman.
    Ed sat at the bar, stealing every bit of Kendall’s spare minutes between the time she took orders and delivered them to the tables.
    Finally Nick allowed himself to look for Lacey, though he’d been tracking her in his peripheral vision all along. She was in the farthest corner of the bar.
    Nick opted for the empty stool next to Ed, praying the man didn’t mention their afternoon sex session with Kendall and Lacey.
    “Can I buy you a beer?” Ed asked.
    “Thanks.” Nick eased onto the stool and propped his boots on the brass footrail ringing the bar.
    Libby returned to the bar, her face