It was one of those moments that felt like it was more a scene pulled from a movie or a book. Boy and girl moving in for a kiss as the band breaks into a slow song . . . girl glances for the briefest moment over boy’s shoulder before she closes her eyes to taste his lips and sees . . .

The boy’s ex-girlfriend.

“Crap,” I whispered. Josie was watching the two of us with a blank expression. She didn’t look over-the-moon pissed or irreversibly hurt. She looked more like she couldn’t quite understand what she saw.

“What?” Jesse said, pulling back right before his mouth connected with mine. I could have been kissing him . . .

But I couldn’t do that in front of Josie, not with her watching like she was the most confused person in the room. I owed her an explanation, too. I’d owed a lot of those lately.

“Hold that thought.” I shot him a quick smile before winding around him.

“Rowen?” He grabbed my hand. “Did you just miss what I said a whole two minutes ago?”

I looked at him, confused.

“The whole you-can’t-run-away-when-things-get-serious thing.”

“Jesse, trust me, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing right now than kissing the hell out of you, but Josie just walked in and saw the two of us together, and . . . Well, she looked a little . . . shocked.”

Jesse’s forehead lined as he checked behind me. He sighed when he saw her. “You want me to go with you? Talk with her together?”

I shook my head. “I think it would be a more productive discussion if you weren’t present.”

He lifted a brow.

“You distract me too much, and if I’m going to explain to Josie what I’m doing with her ex-boyfriend and come out on the other side with her not hating me, I’m going to need all my mental faculties.”

He smirked at me.

“Wish me luck,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze before slipping free.

“Good luck,” I heard him say as I made my way to the still stunned Josie.

She didn’t run off or glare at me as I approached; she just continued glancing between me and Jesse like she was trying to accept something impossible to accept.

When I stopped in front of her, she didn’t look behind me again. I wasn’t sure if that was because Jesse had moved on, or because she couldn’t look at him anymore.

“You want to talk?” I glanced at the door.

She bobbed her head.

I led the way through the crowd, and she followed. The night had taken so many unexpected turns. Good ones, bad ones. Good, bad. Good with the bad. Just as Jesse had said. I had to accept the bad with the good because it’s inevitable.

I didn’t say anything until we were outside and out of range of anyone who would listen.

I spun around and couldn’t get the words out fast enough. “Josie, I am so, so sorry you just saw that.”

She stared at the ground and crossed her arms. “But you’re not sorry for falling for my ex-boyfriend?” Her voice wasn’t especially sharp, but the words hit me like it was.

I didn’t want to lie to her, but I couldn’t lie to myself. I couldn’t make it seem like some shallow infatuation. “No, I’m not sorry for falling for Jesse,” I said slowly. Josie’s face lined. “But I am sorry for hurting you in the process. I’m very sorry for that.”

She chewed something out on her lip for a moment. “Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

“Up until a few minutes ago, I didn’t know what to say. I knew I liked Jesse. I knew he used to like me. I just wasn’t sure if he still did.”

Josie’s eyes closed. “I saw the way he was looking at you, Rowen. The way he was touching you.” She exhaled and leaned into the truck beside her. “If you’re still not sure if he likes you or not, I can tell you with a hundred percent certainty that he does.”

My heart burst at her words. It broke at her words. Damn, that was a hard discussion to have with the ex-girlfriend of the boy who made my heart go boom-boom.

“I’m sorry,” I said, because I had nothing else. I’d say it all night long if that’s what she needed to hear.

“No, I know, and honestly . . . I’ve had my suspicions that something’s been going on between you two for a while now,” she said. “It sucks, but it’s like what I told you inside. I knew when Jesse and I split up, that was a permanent thing. I knew there was no chance of us making up and moving on together. I knew he’d wind up with someone else. I was surprised he wasn’t seeing anyone sooner, given the parade the single girls practically had when they found out we’d split.” She kicked the toe of her boot into the dirt and continued to stare holes into the ground. “I also knew it would break my heart when I saw him with another girl, no matter who that girl was.” She glanced up at me and managed to form a small smile. “I guess at least I can say I like the girl he fell for.”

Another heart breaking/bursting moment. Josie had just found Jesse and me an inch away from lip-locked, and there she was, two minutes later, admitting that it sucked to see, but at least I had her stamp of approval. Why did the first girl I’d wanted to be friends with in a long time have to be the ex-girlfriend of the boy I liked?

Ah, yes. Thank you, Fates, for the reminder: life was unfair. More times than it wasn’t.

I did something totally out of character, again, and wrapped my arms around her to give her the most sincere, awkward hug in the history of hugs. “I’d understand if you wanted to hate my guts. I’d even say I deserved it.”

Josie made a noise that sounded like part laugh, part sob, then hugged me back. Hard. We were talking the hardest hug in the history of hugs. “It would probably be easier if I hated your guts. It would be easier if I could hate Jesse’s, too. But I can’t.”

I felt a couple of tears drop down my shoulder. “So you’re saying you don’t want to hate my guts? Because I’d fully support your decision if you did.”

When she made that same noise again, it was more laugh than sob. “I’m sure. But if you break Jesse Walker’s heart the way I did, I promise I will happily hate your guts then.”

I’d hate my own guts, too.

“Deal,” I said. “Any pointers on how to keep from breaking said heart?”

She leaned back to look me in the eyes. Hers were red and teary, but they were serious like nothing else. “Yeah. Stay away from Garth Black. As far as you can stay away. That guy doesn’t have a soul.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t so sure I believed that last part. I was pretty sure Garth had a soul. He’d just chosen to bury it way down deep, the way I had for so long. The keeping my distance part I had no issue following. After what I had learned, I’d avoid Garth Black at all costs.

“Okay, so stay away from Garth,” I said, lifting my index finger. “Anything else?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Be good to him, Rowen. Jesse’s been through a lot. Don’t make him go through a lot more. He’s been through more in his nineteen years than most of us will go through in our lifetime.”

I pretended like I knew what she was talking about, but really, I didn’t. Jesse had the most idealistic life I’d stumbled across. Of course, I knew what we saw on the surface was just that: the top layer. There was so much more we never knew of other people, so much kept hidden beneath the surface.

Whatever Jesse’s past was, wherever his present led, one thing was certain: I wanted him in my future.

I pulled into Willow Springs a good four hours later. And not because I’d been making out in the parking lot of a honky tonk with Jesse Walker until we were both blue in the face, as I wished I would have been.

After Josie and I worked out what we needed to, she asked me if I wanted to get out of there, drive to the closest Dairy Queen, and gorge ourselves into an ice cream coma. I said yeah. Not because I wanted to do exactly that right then, but it was the right thing to do. Josie had been a friend to me when I needed one, and from the lost expression on her face, I could tell she needed a friend.