Chapter 22 Collie
COLLIE
I can’t keep my feet from thumping to the music.
“Burn It To The Ground” by Nickelback resounds from the jukebox across the bar, practically calling me to dance. The girls on the bar top line dance in sync, and my eyes shift to Easton’s across the pool table, already watching me.
He never lets me out of his sight. Never once glanced at another woman in this bar.
Not in a creepy way. But in a protective way. He’s protective of me, and despite not knowing what to do with that feeling, it’s electrifying to have his eyes on me.
Eyes I know don’t focus on just anyone.
Am I someone special to him now? Even after knowing each other for such a short amount of time?
Easton’s declaration to bet on this game and fuck it out later feels like a fever dream. I had to remind myself that this is real and I’m not imagining it.
This trip. Our time together. Him.
Not one part of me has thought about work or what’s next for me after Wyoming. Although I know that’s still something I need to figure out. And I will in time.
“I’m gonna grab another round. What can I get you?” He nods to the bar before placing a gentle kiss on my cheek. I love the way the Cattleman hat I designed for him sits on his head with ease, making him look like the most fuckable cowboy.
And fuck him, I most certainly will do.
“Whiskey and ginger ale, please,” I tell him as he saunters off to the bar.
I take the free moment to pull out my phone, given this is one of the rare times we actually have service.
As expected, there she is. Mom.
Mother Trunchbull
I expected to hear from you by now. Your father and I are worried, Collie.
I’m fine, mother. Traveling a bit. I’ll be home in a few days.
Mother Trunchbull
Good. Your sister could use help with the wedding. 2 months and counting.
She must not realize Capri is my literal best friend, and I already know everything there is to know about her wedding with Jones. Maybe if she asked, she’d know that, too.
Already on it. I have my final dress fitting when I get back to SC. Minimal cleavage. You’d be proud.
Mother Trunchbull
You know this could be you if you ever settled down.
Who shit in your English breakfast tea?
Mother Trunchbull
Collie Charlotte. That mouth will get you nowhere.
Oh, this mouth gets me plenty. Not really in the mood to argue with you over text mother. I’m about to have hot sex. Ttyl.
Mother Trunchbull
Don’t get pregnant.
“Everything okay?” Easton asks, handing me my drink. “And is that Miss Trunchbull I see?” His brows rise in question.
“Oh,” I sigh. “Yeah. Well, kinda.” I hold up my phone. “Mother Trunchbull. Minus the baggy sweats and greasy hair. She was just kindly reminding me how much of a lost cause I am. Nothing unexpected.” I chuckle, attempting to play off the disappointment that comes with talking to her.
From the outside looking in, my mother is kind. But to me, she favors snide comments and any reason she can find to make me feel small.
Again, Capri has never seen it. She’s been through enough, and there’s something bitter inside of my mom that feels the need to take it out on someone.
And I refuse to let it be Capri. However, no less tragic that’s it's me.
Easton settles beside me, leaning against the table, and sips his whiskey neat. I can’t think of anything to do with my hands but spin the wooden pool stick, hoping it provides me with a bit of distraction.
I never should have checked my phone.
Easton must sense the change in my mood. “Need me to handle her?”
I roll my eyes and cut him a sharp look. “Easy, Superman. Save the hero complex for another day. Pretty sure she’d roll over in her perfectly manicured grave if you called her.”
Surprising me, Easton’s head falls back, chuckling the loudest I’ve ever heard him laugh. “I’m flattered, but that’s not what I meant.” He must see my confusion because he holds his hand out flat toward me. “Hand it over.”
“Hand what over?”
“Your phone.” He nods to the hot pink phone I tucked into my purse. “Give it to me.”
“Why?” I pull it out and hold it to my chest, refusing to go along with his plan until he fesses up to his intentions. “What’re you gonna do with it?”
“Stubborn fucking woman,” he gripes, pulling me toward him and snatching the phone from my grip. When his hands find my hips, all logic from before flies out the window. I’m right back where we were just minutes ago, his voice teasing me and his touch stirring a fire inside of me.
At this point, he can have it all.
He unlocks my screen with a single swipe—my fault for not putting a damn lock code on it—and eyes the text conversation between my mom and me. An odd intensity replaces his muddled brown eyes as he reads our messages. “Is Easton Voss, whiskey drinker, superhero by day, lineman by night, snooping?”
“Sure as fuck am,” he snaps before locking my phone and tucking it into his back pocket.
“What kind of mother talks to her daughter like that?” I start to speak, but his finger covers my lips before I get a chance.
“Don’t answer that. It’ll just piss me off even more.
Time for another game, lost girl. Wanna know what it’s called? ”
Just when I think Easton couldn’t astonish me anymore than he already has, something new happens, and I’m back to square one with the guy. “The suspense is killing me. Truly.”
“It’s called Mother Trunchbull gets lost.” He winks, and suddenly everything with my mother is forgotten.
“See what I did there. Out of sight, out of mind. Be with me right now, Collie. Don’t let her lies get to you.
You are doing so great. Right here with me.
Exactly where you’re supposed to be. You hear me? ”
I nod, whispering in response. “Okay. Yeah.”
But Easton’s not done yet. “I said…do you hear me?”
“Yes,” I rush out, laughs bubbling out of me in contagious waves. “Yes, I hear you.”
“I said…” Easton chants loud enough for the entire bar to pause. He never brings unwanted attention to himself, but for me, he is. To make me happy and smile. “Do. You. Hear. Me?”
“I hear you!” I yell at the top of my lungs, wrapping my arms around his neck in a tight hold and drinking in his intoxicating smell of coffee and leather. He returns the hug in seconds, his big frame relaxing against my small one.
“Just be here with me, baby.” His voice and term of endearment send goosebumps across my skin. “I can’t have you upset. I can’t promise what I’ll do.”
To Easton, his comment may have multiple meanings. One of them being the thing he claims to be his biggest downfall. But from where I’m standing as the recipient of his care, it’s the grandest gesture of compassion I’ve ever witnessed.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.” He kisses my neck softly before hyping himself up, my mood already dialed in on the reason we’re here. “Time to get your ass beat, beautiful. Take a seat. Take a drink. Steal a photo. Whichever you’d prefer to help soften the blow.”
I tap my pool stick to the table, meeting him step for step as we circle each other. “We’ll see about that, Ranger. I’m putting everything I’ve got into this game, and I’m not giving up without a fight.”
He centers the cue ball. “Atta girl. You break.”