Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Hunter
Cassidy: Image attached.
I stop cold in my tracks.
This girl is going to be the death of me.
I look around my land and all I see is green. I’ve been out riding for a bit since I paid a hand to do my Sunday chores and got to relax. I stopped by the large pond on our property to let my mare, Legacy, have a drink.
That’s when Cassidy first started responding to me. I knew it was her all along. I was worried for a little bit but messaged Lynn around the time I sent the second set of messages. She produced a screenshot of Cassidy’s contact information to ease my worry.
Now I’m looking at a picture of Cassidy, lying on her stomach on top of her peach bed sheets. I see a good portion of her face, without makeup and perfect. Her brown hair messily cascades over her shoulders and draws attention to the plump roundness of her natural breasts, braless. Then over her shoulder, I see her ample ass peeking out from lacy underwear .
I feel like a Peeping Tom. I look over to my horse where she’s now grazing, and I feel like she is avoiding eye contact with me because she knows I’m a pervert. I adjust myself, and my phone pings again.
Cassidy: You jerking it already?
I throw my head back and laugh. I’ve learned some things about Cassidy this morning. One, she likes her sleep. Two, she thinks I have an impressive erection. Three, she quite possibly likes to be spanked. And four, she doesn’t think twice about what she says and where that will land her.
Me: If I were in bed like you, I probably would be.
Cassidy: Tsk Tsk Hunter Hill. Here we are Sunday morning basically sexting when you could have very easily still been in bed WITH me.
Cassidy: No need for jerkin’ it when we could be doin’ it.
Me: I’d like a little more than that.
Cassidy: Wake up blowjob that turns into sex?
I’m immediately laughing again.
Me: How about another dinner with me?
Cassidy: Pass. But thank you.
I scowl.
Me: For real?
Cassidy: Yeah for real, we already had dinner at my place. Why do we have to eat again? Unless by chance you want to eat me, then yes, I accept.
Me: Why don’t you want to have a meal that involves food with me?
Cassidy: Because I don’t need to date you to know I want you, Hunter Hill.
This girl is going to be a tough one to figure out. I thought women were always looking for men to court them. Take them out to fancy dinners, open doors for them, show them they’re special. Cassidy wants none of that. If anything, I want that. I don’t want her to take me to dinner or open doors for me. I want to do those things for her.
My pop used to tell me sometimes we have to think about what our woman wants and not what we want for her. The thing is, if I give Cassidy what she wants I’ll lose her faster than I can blink. Maybe I just have to think of a way to get Cassidy to want the same thing.
I don’t know what her reservations are when it comes to dating. I can’t say I’ve ever really been a relationship man, but for me, it was because I was so focused on my career.
She didn’t seem to either love or hate her job, so I don’t get a feeling it’s that. This is going to be harder than I thought. I can’t deny I want her, because I do. I have to play this carefully or I’ll find myself on my ass without a chance, again.
Me: No. You need to date me to realize you more than just want me, Cassidy Walker.
Cassidy: Awfully confident aren’t we Country Charm?
Me: I think I can offer you a hell of a lot more than those city boys who can’t keep your interest.
I see the three dots that indicate she’s typing arrive and disappear. I wait a few moments before I decide that I can’t just stand here and text her all day. I hop on Legacy and start riding back toward my main property.
I see Harrison’s trailer in the distance. He’s out in front sitting at a small outdoor patio set. He catches me passing and waves. I didn’t tell him I went out last night, but if he had gone to the main house at all, he would have seen my truck gone. Turning my horse, I head in his direction.
As I approach him, he stands. “You hungry? I got chili inside.”
“Yeah, I could eat.”
Harrison heads inside the trailer and I hop off the mare, letting her loose to graze. I pull my phone out and vow to myself that I won’t be attached to the thing. I see one unread message. With just two words the woman causes my lips to turn up and my dick to rise in appreciation.
Cassidy: Prove it.
“What’s up?” my brother asks, coming out with two bowls of chili and a Ziploc bag with corn muffins in it.
I sit down at his two-seater patio set; it’s nothing special, just a small wrought iron table and two chairs. He spray-painted it grey a few years ago because when he had bought it off someone in town it was pink. A few years of being outside and getting the usual wear and tear caused some of the pink to peek through. The cracking on the grey paint makes the set look like it has pink tiger stripes. On a usual day I’d make fun and tell his lazy ass to sand and repaint it, but today I just sit.
“I went to the city last night,” I start, taking my bowl. I know Harrison will ream my ass, but he’s a lot better at getting women to stay for more than one night. I’m sure I could be too if I asked the ones in town, but I don’t want any of them.
“What for?” he says, stirring his bowl.
We eat and I tell him from beginning to end about Cassidy. The app, the prank, the date. All of it. I expected him to laugh and poke fun, but he just listens and eats, the occasional question here and there. He laughed at the prank and admitted he was surprised city girls could cut loose like that.
“So now what?” he asks, setting his empty bowl down.
“Shit man, I don’t know. I know there’s something about this girl that’s different from the rest.”
“’Cuz she’s a Betty?”
“Nah brother… more like Veronica.”
My brother blows out a whistle. “That’s trouble. Get yourself a Betty. Franny in town has been patient as can be, watched you date everyone in town but her.”
Frustration surges through me. Did he not listen to a word I said?
“I don’t want Franny, that’s why I won’t ask her out. I won’t lead the poor thing on. I don’t want someone just to have them here for namesake. I want them here because I want them here.” I feel as though I’ve made this known but saying it out loud puts a finality to it that others must need to hear.
“And one date with this Cassidy girl was enough for you to know you want her?” Harrison looks at me suspiciously.
“Enough that I have to see if it will go anywhere if I put some effort into it.”
“Brother, you could turn a trailer into a mansion with the kind of effort you put into things. That bein’ said you can’t force things to happen if they aren’t meant to be.”
I consider his words.
“And I won’t know if something’s meant to be without trying.”
“It takes two to tango. You going to go back into the city for a second date?” he adds, and I appreciate his devil’s advocate manner. Sometimes we need that input, it helps keep our outlook realistic.
“She won’t agree to a date. She wants one night.”
My brother slaps his knee and barks out a laugh. “From the sounds of it, she sounds like the female version of you last week. Now you’ve met the girl and gone soft.”
I punch Harrison in the shoulder, and he immediately rubs the spot.
“I ain’t soft.”
He just rubs his shoulder and smiles at me. “Okay, brother.”
We sit for a bit longer before I take my leave to head back to my place. I have laundry to do, books to keep, and a house to clean before the start of the week.
When the house is good and ready for the week ahead, I step out onto my front porch and make my way over to the porch swing. This swing is older than me; my parents said this was the first thing they added to make this place feel like a home. It looks over a large span of the property covering a part of the grazing meadow and the main barn.
The swing had seen a lot and been through its fair share of repairs. It’s made from wood and is long enough to fit two adults and maybe three healthy kids. Deep-seated and sturdy. Every year I make sure to check that it’s in good shape and cover it with a new coat of white paint. I can tell the older original pieces of wood, like the arms, compared to some of the newer pieces that sit on the bottom.
Ma had sewn a big comfortable cushion to run along the bottom and throw pillows to arrange however you wanted along the back. Growing up, she used to read us stories and poems at night on this old thing, or she could be caught sitting out here reading by herself.
The strange part is I could see Cassidy out here on this swing. Sitting on the opposite end with her feet in my lap, her nose in a book. I like that thought and I file it away.
A week ago, I was bustin’ Harrison’s balls for daydreaming about coming home to a girl. This week as I sit on my porch swing, I’m the one daydreaming.
I stand up and go inside to grab a cold beer before taking my seat again and pulling out my phone. I turn on some music and think back to Cassidy’s words. Prove it.
Me: Hey Beautiful, what are you reading?
I set the phone down next to me and take a long drink. Only a few minutes go by before I hear it ping through the music.
Cassidy: Like right this very minute or collectively this week?
Me: Right now.
Cassidy: How did you know I was reading?
Cassidy: Are you stalking me?
Cassidy: OMG. You’re totally a serial killer.
Me: Damn girl, you type fast. I just had a hunch. I live too far away and have too much to do in the morning to be stalkin’ a girl over an hr away.
Cassidy: Gone Girl.
Me: My ma liked that book a lot. She read it a few years ago.
Cassidy: It’s a good book. I’m rereading it, which is kind of a nasty habit of mine.
Me: Rereading a book?
Cassidy: Yeah, I annoy the girls because I’ll freak out about little things I missed during the first read.
Me: That’s cute.
Take my man card, I used the word cute, but it was appropriate.
Cassidy: Your ma likes to read?
Me: That’s an understatement. I’ve got a library in this house and as a kid growing up if I set foot in there without cleanin’ up first Ma would slap me up the head so hard I could see stars. Then she'd kick me out.
Cassidy: YOU
Cassidy: HAVE
Cassidy: A
Cassidy: LIbrARY?!
Me: Yes? But so do you?
Cassidy: Haven’t you heard?
Me: ???
Cassidy: Bitches love libraries.
Me: I’m not following.
Cassidy: Ever see Beauty and the Beast? Here, I’ll spoil it. He gets her a library and she falls for him.
Me: So, if I give you a library, you’ll fall for me? That’s why I’m gettin’ from all this.
Cassidy: Oh, I don’t fall for anyone, but I’ll give you a really great blowjob for a library.
Me: You already have one!
Cassidy: No, I have a ton of books that take up my living space. Not a dedicated space just for my books. There is a difference.
Me: Do you want a library?
Cassidy: Are you asking for a BJ?
Me: NO!
Jeez, this woman is worse than I was. Her mind goes in two directions. Sex and books. I’m not complaining, but I am trying to get her to open up more.
We text a little bit more before she tells me she’s going to get back to her book.
I finish my beer and head in. She’s not ignoring or blocking me, so I’ll take that as a small victory.