Chapter 19
Maggie
The music is pumping as the crowd pulses to the upbeat bass of the after-party. I sit at the bar nursing a soda water as I happily people watch. Well almost happily. The mosquitos have also decided to join the fun, putting a damper on ours.
With the loud music, I don’t hear the buzz of the tiny bloodsucker until it’s seconds away from landing on my neck. Ever since the sun went down they have been getting worse. I slap a hand to my neck and when my palm comes away full of somebody else’s blood, I decide to call it a night.
Remembering Hadley’s stuff is in my van, I wander through the crowd to find him. Finally, I catch a glimpse of him in the sea of hats at one end of the bar. I weave my way through sweaty bodies until I stop at his side. He stops talking immediately, those dark eyes of his homing in on me.
Levi’s, Brady’s, and Spencer’s gazes do much the same, only with less intensity.
“I’m calling it a night, you want your bedroll left outside?”
“Yeah, thanks.” The smile growing over his face lights up his eyes.
Heat rushes up my neck, flooding my face fast. Shit.
“Okay, well. Night, guys.”
Levi tips his hat like the old man he is. Brady and Spencer say their good nights, but Hadley just stares at me. Now his smile has dipped, and a mix of concern and something I can’t read is etched over his face.
Pushing back the way I came, I brace myself for the onslaught of mosquitos. I barely make it out of the event area when they track me down and come flying over. I wave my hands around, trying to bat them away. By the time I reach Betsy, I’m slapping the damn things all over me.
Urgh, this is horrendous.
As quick as I can, I slip the side door to the van open and rush inside, slamming it shut a beat later.
Three mosquitos make it in, and I kill them before letting out a whole-body shudder. “God, this place. Sucked me right in with its pretty lake. Only to be eaten alive hours later.”
I sit on the bed, eyeing the van space as if I’ll catch another one inside.
A hard knock rattles the side door. “Maggie! Let me in.”
Hadley.
“Get rid of the mosquitos first!”
I shove the curtain aside and peer out the window to see him flapping around.
His hat falls to the ground and when he comes to the small door again, I open it quickly and only wide enough for him.
Which, let’s face it, is a big enough space for a colony of them little bloodsuckers to breach my tiny home.
He’s inside and slamming the door behind himself a heartbeat later. Hunched over, he swats the few that made it in. Two sit on his shoulder and I slap them, instantly regretting my decision to help when blood bursts all over my hand. Again.
God, I’ve never wished for a steaming hot shower more than right now.
But over hell’s warmed-up carcass am I going outside this van until it’s time to go home.
I’ve been many places in this world. Traveled to some incredible destinations, and many not so incredible, and these tiny insects that want to drain the life out of you take the cake.
Especially after tonight’s events.
I drop onto my bunk with a heavy sigh. “You’ll have to stay in here. There is no way we’re opening the door again.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll be right outside in my bedroll, zipped up.”
“You’ll be eaten alive by morning. Take the bunk, I’ll sleep in the driver’s seat. It reclines most of the way.”
“Not a chance.” He sits next to me, running a hand through his hair. A mosquito that must have been trapped in the luscious dark mess flies up and hovers in front of us. Hadley claps his hands around it, killing it. “Little fuckers.”
“God, why are they so bad here?”
“Most likely the enormous water source mere kilometers away.”
I roll my eyes at the connection, annoyed I didn’t see it before.
“They were okay after lunch today when we were in said enormous water source, swimming.”
“They’re worse after sunset.”
“Yes, they are.”
I yawn, holding a hand in front of my mouth. I lean back and turn on the small air-conditioning unit Brad installed last month. It purrs to life, shooting out its cool breeze.
“You should get some sleep. I’ll take first watch.” Hadley pulls his boots off, setting them by the door.
“First watch?”
“Skeeter watch. So we’re not eaten alive.”
I chuckle, and he turns on the bed a little. What I want to do is move closer. He smells incredible, like his sandalwood cologne and soap. The dark team shirt is doing things to me. He looks otherworldly in the navy shirt after seeing him in lighter colors . . .
I swallow, dipping my head. After the kiss at the lake, and now in the dim light inside Bets—
“Maggie,” he breathes.
I snap my gaze to his.
Bad move.
It’s darkened over his set jaw as his chest rises and falls quicker than it did a moment ago. I stand, almost tripping over his overnight bag.
“Let’s catch some sleep. Maybe they’ll be gone in the morning.”
Hadley runs a hand behind his neck. “Yeah, we can hope.”
He picks up his overnight bag and dumps it up near the cab. Unbuttoning his shirt, he sinks to the floor and lies, his head propped up on his bag, his knees bent to fit the length of his body in the small space.
He looks utterly uncomfortable.
The floor must be so hard.
“I’m going to . . .” I hike a thumb over my shoulder toward my bunk. Climbing back onto it, I pull the privacy curtain closed and peel off my clothes, piece by piece. The fact Hadley is just outside the curtain has my body coming alive.
He moves, the sound of his buckle being undone, the slide of fabric over his back as I make out his movements through the thin curtain, sends my heartbeat racing. After taking his shirt off, his jeans go next.
My mouth dries out, and I have to wet my lips and force a swallow to sate it. He rifles through his overnight bag before making quick work of washing his face and brushing his teeth over the tiny sink. All as I stare through the thin veil in front of me, watching like this is voyeurism at its best.
Not a routine so basic as getting ready for bed.
Resetting my out-of-control response to the man on the other side of the curtain, I strip down to my panties and pull on a tank and sleep shorts before pushing the curtain back. Hadley’s eyes are closed, his jaw flexing as I move around him to brush my teeth and turn out the light.
My foot brushes against his calf as I try to clamber back up into the bunk, leaving the curtain pushed aside. My head hits the pillow, and I stare up at the dark ceiling just over a meter from my face, tugging my bottom lip through my teeth.
I can’t stop thinking about how hard the floor must be.
And that kiss from earlier.
If he had the desire to repeat it, he hasn’t said so. Or done anything to make me think he wants a repeat. The bare-bones memory of it has my breath shortening.
“Maggie?” His voice is gravel, splitting the buzzing quiet white noise around us against the backdrop hum of the after-party.
“Yeah?”
He groans and I see his silhouette rise off the floor to sit up. “Got any spare blankets up there? I’m not used to AC.”
Oh.
I open one of the compartments by the bunk and pull out a throw blanket, tossing it to him.
Pulling my own blanket over, I lay back down, staring into the dark.
Every time Hadley rolls over or readjusts, the van moves.
An hour later, I’m practically seasick. I sit up and wriggle my ass to the edge of the bunk before slipping down off it and padding to his shoulder.
“Let’s go. On the bunk, cowboy.”
His eyes fly open. The blanket is tucked around his shoulders as he lies on his side. On the hard floor.
“Sorry, just give me a minute to fall asleep and I’ll be out like a light, promise.”
That option doesn’t really appeal to me, either.
I take his blanket and earn myself a protest as he sits up with a shiver. He really doesn’t do air con. I lean over and turn the unit off.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Have another way of staying warm?” The words leave my mouth before my brain gets a chance to vet them.
I’m so glad he can’t see the blush that just covered my face.
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, Maggie.”
“You don’t.” The words are soft but sincere.
He hauls his huge frame from the floor and crawls onto the bunk, hitting his head as he tries to fit in the small space. I huff a laugh and he looks back at me. It takes me a second to realize he’s holding out a hand.
I take it, warmth enclosing around my hand as his closes over mine. The sensation is too much and not enough. I scramble onto the bunk and wait until he’s laying down. I lift the sheet over him.
Me, I hover, sitting on the bunk and taking him in. His large frame hangs over the end of the bed.
“Lay down, Maggie.”
“In a minute . . .”
Something like butterflies take flight low in my belly as I take in the angles of his face, the toned ridges of his shoulders. The corded arms folded over his defined chest to make more space for me.
Finally, I lay down. Flat on my back. The van is still cool and my hardened nipples brush against my tank. With the heat of Hadley’s body warmth in my bed, I could lose myself entirely to this. Instead, I roll over, hands pressed together under my head. “Tell me what makes you tick, Hadley Jones.”
“Is this an interview, Gallagher? Or you and I getting to know each other?”
Huh. Perceptive man.
“The latter,” I breathe.
He chuckles, low, soft and the rumbling sound does something to my insides.
“Well, my three sisters and my mom are my life, ranch aside. My dad’s not around, so Kayley and me take care of the ranch. Mom, she . . .”
I pop up onto an elbow, frowning lightly as I try to read his expression in the dark. It’s sad, and I am desperate to touch him, to soak up his sadness and carry it away for him if I could. “What happened to your dad?”
Was he a rodeo man who met his untimely end like mine?
“He left with the milk when I was twelve, didn’t even bother sticking around to see his fourth child take her first steps.
So I worked the ranch before and after school.
Mom tried, she really did, but between losing the love of her life to his poor choices and having a baby . . . You can imagine how it went.”
“That would have been so hard for her.”
My own mother only had me to take care of. Her parents were her financial support while I was little before she took on the lodge.
He sighs, and the weight of it inflicts more emotional damage than his words. “She’s never been the same.”
“No doubt.”
“I know she blames herself, but the four of us understand it was a fault of our father’s, not hers.”
“You’re a good son, Hadley.” I trace the angle of his jawline with my fingertip, unable to resist the urge to touch him any longer.
He pops up on his elbow, his face inches from mine. “Tell me what makes you tick, Maggie Gallagher.”
“You might not like the answer,” I whisper.
“Try me.”
Now I’m the one loaded with heavy sighs. “I feel like if I don’t at least try to make a difference in this world, I’ve wasted my time here. We have such limited lives, and even those can be taken away without a second’s notice . . .”
His head tilts a little, and I swear he’s stopped breathing.
I close my eyes, inhaling to steady my racing heart currently doing its best to leave at full throttle.
Knuckles brush over my cheek before his palm presses to the side of my face. His thumb drags over my bottom lip, and my last breath hitches. Eyes fluttering open, I see him more clearly now in the dim space. And there is no denying the heat in his gaze as he leans in.
“You are already making a difference, believe me.”
I open my mouth to say something, anything, only managing to swallow back a cluster of incoherent words. A kiss presses to my forehead before he lies on his back and slides his hands underneath his head. “Night, Maggie.”
Stunned and teetering on the edge of something I’ve never felt before, I shuffle back down to my side and pull the sheet up. I roll onto my back and stare into the nothingness around us.
The realness of what just happened between us sinks in.
I don’t think the universe was listening when I said I’d never fall for a rodeo man.
Or maybe it was, and it’s out to spite me.
Hadley’s steady, slow breaths fill the space. Now I’m anything but tired.
Uttering a curse under my breath, I roll over and slam my eyes shut. Everything will feel a lot less complicated in the morning, I’m sure.
Right?