“Okay,” he confirmed.

Starting into a kind of alternative melody, he listened as she added her words: ‘and if you thought you broke my heart, you never really knew who I was. I should have known it from the start, you’ve always been wrong about me.’

He matched the rhythm but added a nice backbeat.

They played like that for a few minutes, and they both seemed to get lost. When he glanced at her, he saw tears in her eyes.

At the end of the song, Jared started clapping and let out a whistle. “Seriously, guys, is this the first time you’ve played together?”

Tiffany wiped beneath her eyes, but beamed at him. “Yep.”

Sam winked at her. “That was fun. Let’s play some more.”

Jared pointed at Sam. “Hey, whoa, dude…Wait a sec, are you that famous football player? The one that single-handedly destroyed the…Destroyers?” He let out a stupid laugh. “Get that…destroy the Destroyers?”

Glaring at Jared, Sam didn’t move. “Super funny.”

Tiffany let out a light laugh. “Wh-what?” She made an annoyed face and let out a sigh. “Seriously, Jared, you’ve been hitting the bottle a bit too much. This is my cousin from back East I haven’t seen for…” She hesitated.

“Like twenty years.” Sam filled in for her, playing along.

She grinned. “I guess it has been that long. We were like six or something.”

Jared scowled at both of them, seemingly not believing, but he turned, going back to the bar. “Yeah, uh-huh. A cousin.”

Tiffany gave him a conspiratorial look then reached out and took a cowboy hat off the back of her chair and plunked it onto Sam’s head. “There. I’m gonna turn you into a cowboy. We’ll make sure no one recognizes you.”

Sam gave her a mock smile. “Yee-haw.”

Tiffany hesitated, cocking her head to the side, and a slow smile lifted the side of her lips. “How come you’re doing this for me?”

Part of him almost felt frozen at this moment. She was beautiful. The way her blonde hair caressed her shoulders, the way she smiled, and the way the natural beauty of her skin was accentuated by her pink lips. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to taste the fruitiness of her lip-gloss, but he looked back to the guitar, tuning it and strumming it. “Because your mama mentioned Brett was a jerk, and I figured you could use tonight.” He shrugged. “So what the hey?” He said hey in a really redneck way, and she laughed.

“Well,” she said, leaning back and pumping her heeled feet back and forth, “We have about four hours. So let’s decide on about six-ten songs we can do.” She snapped her fingers. “Oh, what if you did a solo for one? You have a great voice.”

“No.” He knew he could sing okay, but he’d never done it for a show.

“Yes!” Her eyes sparkled, and she grinned wider, tapping the hat on his head. “Totally yes.”

Butterflies erupted in his gut. He felt like he was about to throw the first down of the entire game. “This is your show.”

She kept smiling. “Okay.”

Her lips turned down, and the bottom one stuck out in a pout. “Fine.”

He strummed out a Garth Brooks song he knew.

Her face got excited when she recognized the song, and she started playing with him too. They played through the song smoothly.

At the end, she put her hand on his guitar to stop him.

He moved her hand and strummed into another eighties rock song.

“Ohmygosh.” She followed his lead and played through that song too.

He loved the fact they could lead one another or catch onto what the other was starting. At the same time, it bugged him, knowing this was most likely how it had been with Brett. He didn’t want to be Brett.

8

As Tiffany led the way out of the side door to MacCools that dumped them onto Washington Street, Sam realized this was the street for Ogden. There were signs everywhere explaining the history of this outlaw town and the fugitives it had harbored. There was a large park with an amphitheater and everyone from yuppies to homeless people. Once again, Sam thought about how much he liked being here.

“Good thing you’re keeping the hat on.” Tiffany looked him up and down. “No one will recognize your height, build, or boyish good-looks. Nope, no one will at all,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “You’re completely incognito.”

He honed in on the one thing he liked that she’d said. “You think I have boyish good looks?” This made him extremely happy.

Giving him a ‘whatever’ look, she shook her head. “Did I say that? I meant you should take off your shirt and distract everyone from your horrifying face with your abs.” Her face was getting red.

This was even better. “You noticed my abs the other day?” He couldn’t stop smiling at the fact he was enjoying being with her so much.

She wagged a finger at him and looked completely flustered. “Only to avoid looking at your face.” He didn’t think her face could get any more red.

He let out a light laugh and rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to be intimidated by my good looks, I’ll still be your groupie and follow you around when you’re famous, yelling for you and throwing my shirt at the stage.”

This got him a smile and a shove in the shoulder. “You’re kinda proud of those abs, aren’t you?”

He laughed. “C’mon, I could catapult your career into the spotlight like your mom said.” He pointed at her with severity. “And don’t think I didn’t notice you saying that you would prefer to have Roman launch your career.”

“I didn’t say I would prefer anything. I just…”

“What?”

“I just…” She trailed off. “You won’t get it.”

“I won’t get what?”

They walked for a few seconds, going past a bookstore and a coffee shop. She glanced up at him. “I just want to do it on my own.” She lifted a shoulder and then let it drop. “Brett never thought I was lead material.”

Anger seared his gut at this new information.

Her blue eyes blinked rapidly. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”

He stopped her by reaching for her forearm. “Tell me. What did Brett say?”

She looked even more embarrassed, but she held his gaze. “After he’d put together the band and we’d started playing, he just made it crystal clear I was lucky to be his back up.”

“That’s not true.” It wasn’t. He’d just heard her belt out songs with a compellingly clear and pure voice.

She continued walking and shook off his arm. “Yeah, he was a jerk, but now I want to prove it to myself that I can do this.”

Falling back into step, he nodded, completely getting it. He thought of what Sheena had said to him when he’d shown up at her place and tried to get her to take him back.

“What’s wrong?” Tiffany stopped, staring at him.

“Oh.” He kept walking. “Nothing, I’m hungry, let’s eat.”

She motioned up ahead. “We’re almost there.”

They kept walking together, and Sam realized he better understood why this woman was so prickly. She’d been through her own hell. Granted, it wasn’t the exact same thing he’d been through, but it’d made her doubt herself, and he recognized doubt all too well.

“So why are you still wearing the hat? Because we’ve established it’s not easy to hide who you are.” Tiffany smiled up at him.

He touched the front of it, nodding to her. “Well, ma’am, I’m just a regular Cowboy.” He was trying to sound like John Wayne but didn’t pull it off at all.

She sputtered out a laugh. “That was horrible.”

He laughed too.

When their eyes connected, he felt the same kind of connection from that first night when he’d seen her bare feet in the bathtub. He tried to play it cool. “I think I like to not be recognized all the time. It’s kind of nice. I mean, hey, you treat me like a nobody…maybe I’m getting used to that.”