5. Cameron
I was the king of bad ideas. Caleb used to give me shit for it all the time. Somehow, whenever I went searching for fun, that fun usually ended my ass up in deep water. Normally, on the back of a horse. Sometimes tugging a calf up Main Street in our hometown.
In my defense, it wasn’t my fault the day one of our steers got loose. That was the result of a wicked summer storm.
But when I went out riding to lasso the big old jerk, did I end up with us both stuck in knee-deep mud so my oldest brother, Dalton, had to come pull us out?
Yeah.
None of my ideas were as bad as goading Ava to get her sweet little ass with her tanned thighs and that stupid, fucking horrific sunshine scent into the cab of my pickup truck.
So what if I wanted to get Ava to admit something between us happened. Sure would be a hell of a lot easier for her to scream at me and yell at me for being such an asshole to her all those years ago than admitting I remembered every beautiful, sexy minute of her hands exploring my body.
Except now I was stuck in the smallest, enclosed space I’d shared with Ava since we were both in high school, and she was huffing and puffing so hard next to me, ignoring me, while pissed. It was a wonder she hadn’t blown my Super Duty Ford pickup truck off the road.
There was no reason to be pissed. She could have said no to the trip.
I could have also not been an idiot and considered how I’d react to her closeness, but there we were, ignoring each other, steam building in my truck as I drove us down the hill of my neighborhood and into town.
Me, continually shooting glances at her creamy thighs. Her slim fingers were fisted together in her lap. The way her skintight shorts rode up while she hid her eyes behind a pair of sunglasses she’d thrown on earlier and stared out her window.
“How’s work going?”
“Fine.”
Fine. Awesome word. Loved it.
“Busy?”
She sighed. My bad for being the world’s most irritating housemate. “I manage social media for a farm and feed company. It’s not exactly thrilling work.”
Said to me like I was an idiot, like I didn’t know she got the job right out of college because my own dad put in a good word for her. It wasn’t my fault if she was bored to tears with what she did.
I ignored the attitude wafting off her. It wasn’t like I didn’t know that a lot of the reason for it came from the way I treated her. The way I’d essentially forced her into the truck with me. Not physically, but my dare had put her ass next to me, so whatever. She could be pissed at me. I’d still try to be nicer.
“Do you like it, though? The work at least?”
A brief hint of a smile curled her lips, then vanished. Probably when she realized I was the one who’d asked.
“I like the marketing aspect. I like being able to go to customers’ farms when they let me and take pictures of them using our store’s equipment or feed, that kind of stuff. And yeah, I enjoy making a living taking pictures and creating content. But do I like working at Farmer’s Farm and Feed Supply store?” she scoffed and shook her head. “Not really. I guess I’d always imagined I’d be doing something different.”
I was pretty certain that was the most words she’d said to me in the last decade, except for the times she threatened to tear off my balls or called me an asshole.
“What would you do?”
“What?”
She turned her head toward me. It was tilted to the side, and her braided hair fell down, brushed over her chest, where I had not for a single second forgotten about the pink lace behind the shirt.
My hands squeaked on the wheel as we came to a stoplight, and I forced my attention back to the road. I flicked on the blinker before I repeated myself.
“Your job. If you could do anything. What would you do?”
“Oh.” She turned to face the front windshield. “I don’t really know what I want to do for work. Guess I always saw myself on a farm like my parents, working in the garden and the chicken coop or something. You probably think that’s dumb.”
Far from it. I was suddenly imagining us having a house right next to where Caleb and Emily had built a home, chickens running around the yard. Ava chasing them, barefoot in cutoff denim shorts that would show the curve of her ass when she bent over.
And I was getting hard again. I cleared my throat. “I think you and I grew up in a town where we had the best possible childhoods. There’s nothing wrong with wanting an entire life like that.”
That was the truth of it, too. Something I’d always considered once my playing days were done. Should an injury take me out sooner than I wanted, I wouldn’t struggle like other football players in trying to figure out what was next. My next stop was the Kelley Ranch, working alongside my brothers, right next to Dalton. If I got extra lucky, I’d coach the high school football team, but I’d definitely coach my kids’ sports, whatever they chose to play.
The light turned, and I made the left to take us to Sprout’s Farmers” Market.
“I guess,” Ava muttered. “Feels like a small dream, though, when it’s possible to do anything.”
“If it’s the life you want to live, then there’s nothing small about it. Dreams are dreams, they don’t have to make you a billionaire to be successful.”
“Says the man who comes from a billionaire family.”
“Not quite.” I chuckled. We were several millions away from that.
“Fine. Says the man who recently signed a forty-million-dollar-a-year contract.”
My brows jumped, and I had to stop my jaw from dropping. She knew that? There had to be only one reason. “Isaiah tell you that?”
Her mouth clamped shut, and her face paled before she went back to staring out her own window. The knuckles on her fingers grew whiter as she fisted her hands into tighter balls.
Oh, she’d given herself away with that one.
“Look into me often, Sunshine?”
“Don’t be a dick,” she muttered right back.
But that was all she said, which said enough.
My little sunshine paid attention to me.
She didn’t hate me nearly as much as she wanted me to believe.
And that just made my entire day shine a whole lot brighter.
“I told you not to buy all that.”
Ava glared at me, then back to the fridge, then to the remaining bags of groceries. The fridge was now so full it’d be impossible to get everything in there, but she’d insisted on putting everything away.
She wanted to put away the groceries. I’d let her.
I didn’t, however, leave her to her peace and quiet like I’d promised her earlier. Nope, I was standing on the opposite side of the island, eating a banana.
“Can you stop being such a dick?”
“I paid for your groceries. I wasn’t being a dick.”
“I didn’t need you to pay for my groceries.”
“You bought three times the amount even I need for a week, and I eat four thousand calories a day. And I told you I already had enough shit to stock the fridge, and you still kept buying shit.”
Hell. When she said she needed groceries, I figured some salads or yogurts or more fresh fruit. I didn’t think Ava was some gourmet cook for herself.
Thank God I had a wine cellar for the amount of wine she bought. Wine she didn’t need to buy because I told her about the cellar as soon as she headed to that section at the grocery store. She’d glared at me, grabbed three more bottles, and dropped them in the cart.
She slammed the fridge, and this time, when she was glaring at me, I felt nothing but excitement. We’d been like this all day, but instead of firing back with venom and fury like Ava usually did with me, there was a playfulness to her irritation.
“Fine. You put the rest of the crap away then.”
“All right.” She’d be super pissed when she learned I had a garage fridge for the rest of the shit to go. I almost grinned at the idea of seeing how pissy she’d be when she learned about it, too, before I was smart enough to hide it.
I bit off the rest of the banana and tossed the peel into the compost bin.
My teammates gave me shit for it, some friends, too, but I was raised on land where we farmed and ranched to keep as healthy as possible. Every couple of weeks in my off-season, I hauled my compost out to the ranch and dumped it in Mom’s garden. During the season when I couldn’t get out there as often, I dumped it in my own landscaping on the edges of my yard.
“I thought you said you would make yourself scarce while I was here.”
“It’s the weekend, not a lot to do.”
“So your chosen form of entertainment is to annoy the hell out of me?”
I mean, it seemed like a good idea. Sparring with Ava got my blood flowing in ways football didn’t. It energized me. Even when my lap ended up full of beer or I felt the sting of her slap—which only happened once—I was having a blast.
“Actually, I’m thinking I’ll head out to the ranch for the night. Wanna come?”
I was never going to get rid of her scent from my leather seats.
Ava’s eyes practically bugged out of her head. I thought it was excitement.
“We just bought enough food to feed an army for a month and you’re leaving?”
Oh. So not excited. Pissed off. Funny how those looks on her face looked so similar.
I grinned. Took a few steps back in case she launched herself over the island to kill me and grinned. “Like I said, Sunshine. I told you not to buy all of that shit.”
Steam flew from her ears. Hand to God, I almost thought her head was going to pop right off her neck as she blew out a breath. “You’re a fucking dick, Cameron Kelley.”
I was. I definitely was.
I grabbed my keys. I had clothes there. Mom would have plenty of food even if I didn’t give her a heads-up I was coming. Besides, I had a bone to pick with Isaiah and perhaps, a punch to throw. Assuming I survived the drive, that was.
“So, what’s it going to be? You want to come with?”
“You’re an idiot.”
I took that as a yes.