Free Why not Wyoming? (Wyoming Wilds Series Book 1) by Anneliese Brand

flowing, everyone
could relax.       
    Fighting the urge to find somewhere to hide, Annie instead
settled in a vacant seating area over by the windows. Pulling her wrap around
her bare shoulders, she found herself missing the bridal party onesies. Chiffon
wasn’t going to keep her warm, even with sparkles.
    “Cold?”
    Annie looked up into a boyish smile and an offered tux jacket.
    “My hero,” she said, standing to let CJ drape it over her
shoulders. She hummed happily and snuggled her nose down into the body warmed
material for a moment. “Thank you.”
    “My pleasure.”
    He sat down across from her, his intense eyes raking over her
and his forehead lined in a frown. Annie glanced down self-consciously, trying
to decipher what was bothering him.
    “Are you okay?”
    Her head jerked back up and tilted in question. “Um, yeah.
Why?”
    “After that bullshit with your aunt this morning—”
    Annie waved him off before he could finish. “She was just
stressed and freaking. I’m fine.”
    “Stressed didn’t give her the right to talk to you like that.”
    She started to wave it off again, but the look on CJ’s face
gave her pause. He cared. Really cared. She fiddled with a jacket button and
finally nodded.
    “You’re right. It pissed me off and made me feel about two feet
tall.” She shrugged. “She apologized for yelling at me. Crys apologized again
for her later. I don’t think either one of them gets that it wasn’t the
yelling. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to stay angry.”
    “Ignorance isn’t an excuse.”
    “You’re right again,” she agreed with a nod. “But sometimes
it’s not worth the fight, and in this case, there’s only one thing that she
said that is important. It’s Crystal’s day. I don’t want her to look back on
this weekend and remember family squabbles. It’s not worth it to me. I want her
happy.”
    “She’s lucky to have you in her corner.”  
    “Thank you. I think so too.”
    CJ laughed.
    “I know, right? All this and modest too,” Annie said, waving a
dramatic hand at herself.
    “Nothing like a woman with a healthy, and accurate, sense of
self-worth. That trait probably had a lot to do with you having the guts to follow
your dreams.”
    “I think a desire to hole up and hide from the world was right
up there in the decision-making process.”
    “Were you always an introvert?”
    “I don’t know. I have my own way of thinking about things. It’s
never bothered me to be alone. My dad described it as marching to my own drum.
It seemed to get stronger as I got older. I always had friends in school. They just
all sort of went their own way after we graduated, which I guess is normal. A
lot of people didn’t know what to say to me after my parents died. I was
suddenly in a different place in life than they were.”
    “You had to grow up.”
    “Pretty much.”
    “What about now?”
    “Now, my focus is on writing. If you think about it, most
people our age make friends at work, the gym, or at a club. I work alone. My
building has a gym I never use, and I’m not much of a party girl. I make a
pitcher of margaritas every now and then when Crys comes over, and the rest of the
time caffeine is my drug of choice.”
    CJ nodded slowly like he was thinking about what she’d said. He
leaned back in his chair.
    “Damn. You’re right.”
    Annie nodded with a little shrug.
    “There are plenty of people I’m friendly with in the community
that I know from school, or just from living here my whole life, but most of my
guide clientele are from out of state. I don’t belong to a gym. When I do go
out to the bar, it’s with the same guys. All three of them go back to
elementary days. Other than you, I haven’t made a new friend since third
grade,” he said.
    His words wrapped around her heart. As attracted to CJ as she
was, she liked him too. He was so easy to talk to.
    “Thank you for letting me in. I’m honored. I hope the rest of
the gang will like