“Bash. Thought you’d have the bar open today,” Logan said.

Bash swung his legs over and took a seat at the picnic table. “Why would I do that, when I knew everyone in town would be here? Besides, Martha makes great food, and I can drink beer instead of serving it up.”

Logan grinned. “Glad to see you.”

“So what you’re telling me is that all the drunks will be on the ranch today,” Luke said.

Bash nodded. “Pretty much.” He turned to Logan. “Nice fan club gathered at the gates. How’s the movie business?”

Logan shrugged. “Hell if I know. I just rent the land.”

“And he’s dating the leading lady,” Carter added.

Bash gave him a look. “No, shit. That didn’t take long. I never knew you had such smooth moves.”

“We’re not dating.” Christ, all he’d done was hold her hand. And this was just with the guys—his friends, who were gossiping about it like the Sunday after-church ladies.

“So you’re not with her?” Bash looked confused.

“Not in a relationship sense, no.”

Luke laughed and slapped him on the back. “Poor, Logan. You don’t even know how to define your relationship with Des. Does she know this?”

“Know what?”

They all stood as Des came over to the table. “Your boyfriend/not boyfriend has no idea how to explain what the two of you have going on,” Luke said.

Logan panicked, just knowing that they were all going to tell Des how he’d colossally f**ked this up. And then she was going to be pissed, and this easygoing thing between them was going to be over.

Des quirked a smile and slid into a spot next to Logan. “Oh, that’s easy. We’re having smoking hot sex as often as we can get our hands on each other.”

Leave it to Des to shut everyone up.

Luke cleared his throat and Carter laughed.

“I like this woman,” Bash said, grinning at Logan, then stood and leaned over the table, his hand outstretched toward Des. “I’m Bash.”

She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Bash.”

Carter introduced himself, too, and Logan exhaled. “Have fun with the girls?”

“I did. And my friends seem to have disappeared.”

“They’ll be fine. I saw Colt leading them down the path a ways toward the corral. I think he’s showing them the horses.”

“Okay.”

Luke brought Des a beer. “Thanks,” she said. “So, you’ve all been gossiping about Logan and me? I expected that from all the women, not a bunch of guys.”

Bash laughed. “We weren’t exactly gossiping. We just asked a simple question that Logan had a problem answering.”

“I see.” She looked over at him. “The sex answer usually shuts everyone up.”

Logan nodded. “I’ll be sure to use that answer with the ladies from church.”

Des laughed. “Okay, maybe not them. But everyone else would be fine.”

“You really don’t care much about gossip, do you?” Logan asked.

She took a sip of beer. “Not really. So much is written about me in the gossip columns, anyway. Most of it untrue. Why would I care if you say something and it gets out? It’s true, isn’t it?”

She was so refreshingly honest, she kept him off balance. “I guess it is.”

Des turned to Carter and Bash. “So tell me about yourselves. I know Luke’s the cop. What do you both do?”

“I own some auto repair and body shops in Hope and in Tulsa,” Carter said.

“I could have used you when I backed my Honda into a fence post,” Des said with a wry grin.

“Recently?” he asked.

She laughed. “No. Back when I was a teenager. I try to avoid being an idiot these days. And I’ve since learned how to use a rearview mirror.”

Carter nodded. “I don’t think many of us escaped the teen driving years unscathed.”

“I did,” Logan said.

“So did I. That’s because we learned to drive as soon as our legs were long enough to reach the pedals,” Luke said.

Logan nodded. “Yeah, living on a ranch has its advantages. We were maneuvering tractors around before any of the rest of you got your permits.”

“Braggarts,” Bash said. “Some of us didn’t get early driving lessons and had to learn the hard way.”

“So you’re saying you had your share of car issues?” Des asked.

Logan let out a snort. “How do you think he earned the nickname Bash?”

“Oh.” Des looked at him. “That bad, huh?”

“Hey,” Bash said. “My name is a shortened version of Sebastian.”

“And because you drove too fast and got into three fender benders in the first six months after you got your driver’s license,” Logan added.

“Really,” Des said.

Bash shrugged. “Those weren’t all my fault.”

“Yes, they were,” Luke said. “You were a road menace.”

“But you all still got in the car with me.”

“You got your license first,” Carter said. “We had no choice.”

Des laughed. “And what do you do for a living, Bash?

“I own a bar.”

“In Hope?”

“Yeah.”

“How fun.” She turned to Logan. “We should go there some night.”

“If you’d like.”

“Do you have music?” she asked Bash.

“Yeah. And pool tables, and TVs. A little of everything.”

“Awesome. We’ll definitely come by.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Logan finally stood. “I’m going to take Des for a walk, see if we can find her friends and introduce her to a few people.”

“In other words, you don’t want us grilling her anymore,” Luke said.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

Des waved. “See you later, guys.”

He didn’t even think, just slid his hand in hers.

“You sure about this?” she asked, looking down where their hands were linked. “People might talk about us, or God forbid, ask you more questions you’re too uncomfortable to answer.”

“Okay, so I didn’t handle that well. After our talk, I wasn’t prepared yet to deal with the onslaught of those ass**les hitting me with questions about our relationship.”