Chapter 51
HART
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I DRIFT INTO that half-dream state when I hear a faint zip. It’s the sound of the tent opening just enough to slip someone inside.
I’m too tired to move.
Too tired to care.
If my brothers and that asshole Bronx are planning some prank, let them at it.
I’m lulling back into that sleepy state when the soft pressure of her body is against mine.
Jade.
I smell her.
I feel her.
I hear her.
Her breath tickles the side of my neck, and without a word, I pull her close. My arm wraps around her, and she fits snug against me like we’re meant for each other.
She sighs, and that soft sound settles inside me.
Her head nestles perfectly into the space beneath my chin, and her hand rests on my bare chest. Strands of her hair brush my skin, and my fingers instinctively thread through it, to feel her there.
Everything else, the night, the trees, the quiet outside, fades away.
It’s just us—the steady rise and fall of my chest and her warmth against me.
It feels right.
Perfect.
I tighten my grip, pulling her a little closer. The steady beat of her heart is in sync with mine. Her breath slows, soft and constant, and I can’t help but smile.
I don’t need anything else.
Just this.
Just her.
I rest my cheek on the top of her head and close my eyes, letting the moment hold me. It’s simple and everything.
And I sleep better than I have in years.
On this blow-up mattress, in a tent, in nature.
How many nights can I sneak her away to spend the night in a tent just like this, but out in the wilderness by ourselves.
We can ride our horses to a location deep in our family’s properties and pitch a tent, cook food over a fire, and make love under the moonlight.
It’s a perfect dream. Only, this time, it has the opportunity to be so much more than a dream.
It’s my future.
Our future.
The first light of dawn hasn’t even begun to creep through the thin canvas of the tent, and I’m already awake. My senses are alive to the cool air and to Jade’s body pressed against mine. Her warmth is a stark contrast to the chill that lingers in the early hours.
My arms are tightly around her, my face buried in her hair, and I inhale the faint trace of wildflowers from her shampoo.
This is what I envision waking up like on the trips I plan to take with her, and waking up with this sense of calmness and completeness.
Then I hear the zipper on my tent, and my eyes pop open.
“Hart?”
Fucking Dean.
His flashlight hits us.
“Shhh.” I wave my arm at him.
“Oh shit, sorry.” At least he says it quietly enough, I almost don’t hear him.
He holds the flashlight to his face, and I don’t really need his stamp of approval smirk. But I get it anyway.
“You didn’t reply to my text.”
“Because I didn’t get it,” I hiss.
“No time to waste. Let’s go.” He waggles his eyebrows in Jade’s direction, and then he’s gone, leaving the tent zipper undone.
I want to groan, but instead, I quietly slip away from Jade.
I miss her immediately.
I grab my jeans, but all I want to do is crawl back into bed with her.
“If I’m not getting any this morning, you’re not getting any”—the tent rattles under Bronx’s fucking hands—“rise and shine, lovebirds.”
I whip aside the flap and step out. He runs away like a little damn chicken.
Idiot.
I take one more look at Jade tangled in my sheets, in my bed, before I zip shut the door.
“This better be fucking good,” I snarl at my brother, yanking the denim up my legs as we follow that lunatic of a man away from the tent.
“You get lucky last night?” Dean elbow jabs my side.
So lucky.
Luckiest guy on the fucking earth.
But not for the reasons he thinks. Not for the sex he’s undoubtedly playing in his mind like a little pervert. Lord, it’s too early to deal with these assholes who wouldn’t understand I’m lucky because I got to spend the night with the woman I love.
Hold her.
Love her.
Just be with her.
“What’s the emergency?” I zip up my pants but leave my belt and buckle hanging, scrubbing my hands over my face.
I’m a morning person, I am. But leaving Jade makes it feel impossible.
“It’s setup detail,” Dean says, as if I should know what the hell that means.
I stare at him as he waits for me to clue into whatever he’s talking about.
“And?” I ask.
“Stage and truss guys.” He sips his travel mug of coffee. “Like, everything. Platforms, scaffolds, the whole skeleton. They’re dumping it now.”
Shit.
He’s right.
The Foxes were in charge of music, which they locked in Bronx’s brother, a top-charting country singer.
The Wildes are in charge of setting up inside the tent.
The days are all mixed up in my head, thanks to the woman sleeping in my tent, soaking her scent into my blanket and pillowcase.
I might never wash that pillowcase again.
“And they’re asking where the stage faces, where to unload, how to build it out. If we don’t get over there, they’ll start guessing.”
“Fuck.”
Dean slaps my shoulder. “Yeah. Sucks walking away from your woman, doesn’t it?”
Normally, I’d snarl that she isn’t my woman, but today, I love how it sounds.
“Yeah, it does suck,” I mutter.
“Aw, poor little guy.” Dean’s arm snakes around me. “Here, I got you, bring in the love.”
“Get off me.”
He slaps an extra shirt against my chest. “If we don’t get the setup right now, we’re spending the afternoon redoing everything. We don’t have time for that and operate our booth."
He’s wrong. With Mayor Thomas, the Quylt sisters, and my Ma, there’s plenty of hands to run the booth. But I want the setup to go off without a hitch, so he’s right, I gotta go.
"Come on.” He struts away, meeting up with Wyatt, Levi, and Bronx.
“Give me a minute.” I can’t leave Jade without an explanation, and I’m not waking her.
I scribble a quick note and grab a little surprise out of the bus. I add some wildflowers I picked from beside the tent and set them all on my pillow.
I brush a kiss against the side of her head and duck out before I do something reckless. Like strip naked and crawl back into bed with her.
Walking away from her is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It leaves this sour ache in my chest. I don’t want to admit it, but I’m scared to let her out of my sight.
Scared it might be forever, like last time.
How long will this feeling last? Will I ever stop fearing that she’ll slip away, just out of my reach?
Levi hands me a travel mug of steaming coffee, and we’re off.
Boots crunch over the ground, all of us walking fast. But we don’t make it twenty steps from the campsite before I hear them buzzing like flies on fresh gossip. I ain’t gonna be escaping the inevitable.
“Well, well, well.” Wyatt draws out each word like a villain in a bad movie. “Look who didn’t sleep alone last night.”
I don’t say anything.
Just kept walking.
My body still tingles from her warmth.
“Guess your tent was warmer than ours last night?” Bronx says it with a smirk so smug I want to slap it off his face. “You know, since you had a surprise guest and all.”
I keep walking, picking up the pace as if I can outrun this conversation.
“Did she sneak in or did you leave a trail of flannel?” Dean’s tone is pure bait.
I grunt. “Go choke on a cactus.”
They all laugh like they’re so damn funny.
“So, when we get back home, what’s the deal?” Levi switches the coffee cup between his hands, playing a game of hot potato. “You guys dating now? Taking it slow? Moving in? Have you been thinking about where you two will move? You’re still living at Ma and Pa’s.”
“In a cabin by the bunkhouses.” I glare at him. “You were living right beside me until last year, after the town awarded you and Hope Nofarre Stretch as a wedding gift.”
“Then I guess you gotta get married.”
The Matchmakers were right. What is with the shotgun weddings and my brothers?
“Maybe they’ll just be frequent tent-mates? Hey, darlin’, you need a hand?” And just like that, Bronx veers off the path like a damn bloodhound, tracking down some random woman carrying a handful of something to a car.
“And he’s gone.” Dean turns to watch while he keeps up with our pace. “Bet he gets her number.”
“There’s room to build another house close to us.” Levi ducks under a branch on the path.
Doesn’t he think we’ve lived close enough up until this point?
“We own lots of land, I’m sure we can figure out a location. Like the North Wilde Ridge.” I name off the first property that pops into my head to shut him up.
“That house is a dump.” Dean straightens, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s falling apart. Why would you want to fix that shithole?”
I shouldn’t be surprised that he only finds more to discuss.
“Why not?” I haven’t thought much beyond today with her, let alone our future.
But as long as we’re together, I’m good. I also wonder if I can get this setup organized and slip back into bed with her before she wakes up.
“The ceiling is falling in at the North Wilde Ridge. You’d be lucky one doesn’t fall on your head while you’re sleeping or fucking.” Dean snorts.
“We could fix it up.” I pray he leaves it at that and finds something else—anything else—to talk about.
The first taste of coffee hits my tongue with a rush of warmth and bitterness, pulling me out of the morning fog.
“That place would take a miracle and a hell of a lot more than your weekend handyman skills.” He yawns loud enough to wake the campground.
“I got Levi, right?” I glance at my brother, only to find that his surprise quickly shifts to happiness.
Good Lord, don’t get too happy, I don’t even know what the hell we’re doing yet.
Hell, maybe I’ll move in with her. Or perhaps we won’t move in at all. That idea of not spending every night with her and not waking up next to her doesn’t sit well with me. But we’ve been an item for less than twenty-four hours, so I don’t know what the fuck we’re doing.
I don’t say any of this.
“Yeah, for sure, man.” Levi claps a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll always be here to help you with whatever you need.”
He’s the fix-it guy on the ranch. He can patch a pipe, wrangle a fence, and rebuild a carburetor before breakfast.
“Jade crawled into your tent like a possum on a mission.” Bronx is back and missing most of our conversation.
“Zipper woke me up. Sounded like a damn chainsaw. Thought a raccoon was eating you. It turns out you were the one eating. Metaphorically speaking but not metaphorically speaking.” He sticks his tongue and waggles it like he’s between a pair of legs.
“Ah, hell,” I mutter, rubbing my eyes.
Bronx chuckles. “All I’m sayin’ is, you’re a grown man. She’s a grown woman. She could’ve walked in with you last night when the rest of us went to bed. Why the sneaky sneak? Huh? What was that about?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Ohhh, he’s spicy now.” Bronx’s steps are heavy on the ground. “You know what that means? That means he’s in deep. That boy got feelings.”
“You gonna hold hands on the drive home?” Wyatt teases.
I send him a warning glare that I’ll drag Hannah into this conversation.
“Or maybe a road bang.” Dean clicks his tongue. “Neither of you drives home and locks the bedroom door in either vehicle.”
Here we fucking go.
“Lapsnorkeling?” Bronx adds.
“The Snorkel.” Dean punches him.
“Roadside roastbeef!” They shout at the same time.
“Y’all are acting like horny sixteen-year-olds,” I mutter, but it continues all the way to the crew unloading quickly, stacking trusses and deck panels.
I jump in straight away, directing what goes where.
We rip open the tarp on the last load, expecting a scaffold. What’s inside isn’t a scaffold. It isn’t even close.
It’s risers. Theater risers. From a completely different rental outfit.
“This isn’t our order.”
The driver checks his tablet. “I mean, it’s what’s on my manifest.”
“Your manifest is wrong. We were supposed to have the main stage skeleton—scaffold, risers, decking—the whole buildout.”
He squints at his paperwork again and curses.
I fold my arms over my chest. “What?”
He slaps his hand on the paper. “This was supposed to be dropped off at a venue three towns over.”
I shrug. “Not an issue. We’ll help you load it back up and unload ours.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“It sounds pretty easy to me.”
“Your order isn’t on the truck.”
“Where’s my order?”
“I don’t know. If you call—”
“If I call?” I hear my patience running thin. “You delivered me the wrong goods, you call.”
The driver half-sighs. “Okay. Look, I get it. But I’m just the driver. I go where I’m told. If there’s a screw-up, dispatch handles it.”
“Call dispatch. Inform them that we need the right equipment here. Now.”
The driver is already pulling out his phone. “I’ll call, but I’m telling you now, they’re probably not gonna pull me off my route. I’ve got two more drops this morning. Both are time-sensitive.”
“This is time sensitive.”
The driver steps a few feet away, speaking low into his phone.
I stare at the pile of incorrect gear, and although it’s not funny, I smile, imagining old Jade’s reaction, imagining me trying to hide it from her. We’ve come so far. Now, she’d offer to help and find a solution.
“What’s going on?” Levi asks, and I give him the rundown as we wait for the driver to return.
“Alright.” The driver slides his phone away. “Dispatch confirmed this order was supposed to go to a venue three towns over. Your stage? It’s probably sitting there right now, confusing the hell out of some wedding planner.”
“Perfect. Go back and get it.”
“Can’t. I still have two stops on this route, and if I miss them, we’ll get slammed with late fees. Company policy is I finish my route, then re-evaluate.”
“Re-evaluate? You’re joking.” Now I’m feeling the anger.
“Not up to me, man.” The driver shrugs. “They might send another truck if they can reroute someone, but it won’t be fast.”
“Fuck.”
“What’s going on?” Dean is beside me.
“Not our stage.”
He curses.
“Yeah.” I look down at the pile of someone else’s gear.
Look at the clock.
Look at the road.
“Where exactly in the other venue?” I ask.
The driver raises an eyebrow. “You serious?”
I turn to Dean. “You think you can rent us a big truck?”
Dean grins from ear to ear. “Fucking right. Road trip?”
I nod.
The driver gives a slow whistle. “You really think they’ll let you walk off with it?”
“They’re gonna let me, or they’re gonna stop me. Either way, I’m not standing here doing nothing.”
Dean’s already dialing someone. Now I wish I’d stayed in damn bed.