A Wedding in Wyoming

“Sure,” Jenn agreed, sounding, at least to Johnny’s ears, quite reluctant. Then she chuckled, surprising him with her sudden change in spirit. “Maybe Johnny can comment on the stars again.”

That got the family laughing.

“Just be sure and get his telephone number this time,” Scotty teased. “’Course, there ain’t no cell phone service out on the range.”

Jenn shrugged. “So I’ll get his house number. He has to go home sometime.”

Johnny cringed inwardly until his gut was in knots. The last thing he wanted to think about was going home. He rose to his feet and offered Jenn his hand. “Let’s go see those stars.”

Jenn took his hand, but dropped it the moment she was standing. She strode to the door, not even looking back to see if Johnny was following.

Johnny barely made it out the door after Jenn before he threw back his head and laughed heartily. “Darlin’, you really know how to spin a story.”

Jenn scowled and turned away from him, wrapping her arms around her, both for warmth and the sense of protection it offered. “Do you know what I just did?” she ground out from between clenched teeth.

“No. What?”

Jenn turned to him, her chest squeezing so tight she thought she might suffocate. “I just lied to my family.”

Johnny frowned. “Yes, we both did.”

Jenn shook her head. “It bothers me. I know I started it with that whole sending-myself-flowers thing, but I never dreamed I would end up creating an entire backstory to go along with the flowers. I feel so awful about deceiving everyone. They asked, and the words just flew out of my mouth before I could think about them.”

“I understand,” Johnny said softly. “You were under a lot of pressure there.”

“But I shouldn’t have made up a story. I should have told them the truth.”

“Yes,” Johnny agreed. “The truth is always best. But even without words, we’ve been lying to your family since the moment I walked in the door.”

Jenn clutched at her chest, which was still spasming so erratically she couldn’t take a proper breath. “What did I just do to the two of us?”

Johnny shrugged and shook his head but didn’t offer any kind of answer, not that Jenn really expected him to. It was right there in front of them both, whether spoken or unspoken.

“I’ve buried us, that’s what,” Jenn said with another scowl.

Johnny blew out a breath. He hadn’t been prepared for the way Jenn’s family had questioned them over dinner, though he realized now he should have been. Jenn’s family was boisterous and openly curious. They were bound to ask questions about his and Jenn’s relationship.

Johnny hadn’t been ready at all, and Jenn had simply panicked and spun a quick yarn to ease them out of a tense situation. He certainly couldn’t lay the blame at her feet. He didn’t want to. It was at least as much his fault as it was hers.

But no matter how he cut it, what they’d done was still lying, wasn’t it? What did it matter who said the actual words?

Guilt weighed heavily on Johnny, as it obviously did on Jenn. He wasn’t sure what the right thing to do was at this point. If they went and told the truth, he’d have to tell the truth about who he was.

He wasn’t ready to do that. Not for him, and definitely not for Jenn’s sake. He knew he was being stubborn and bullheaded, but he also knew, without asking, that Jenn was purposefully shielding herself from something, and hiding it from her family.

The problem was, he couldn’t straight-out ask Jenn what was wrong. He wanted to support her, he just wasn’t sure how. She’d made the rules, after all.

“I don’t know what to do now,” Jenn admitted in a coarse, conspiratorial whisper.