Chapter 3 – Wilder
I’m not like my twin, Cody—possessive over my belongings and women, but this truck means a lot to me.
I've never let anyone else drive it—not even Cody. Yet strangely, I'm okay with Teagan driving it right now, even though she's doing a shit job. I'm not convinced she's ever handled a stick shift before.
She goes slowly down the dark, unlit backroads towards Ashwood Ranch, jerking back and forth even though I know that there’s no stop signs on the route.
She shouldn’t be shifting gears, but I don’t say anything because maybe she isn’t and that’s just how she drives.
I wish I could see her face while she’s doing it.
I imagine her little button nose is scrunched as she tries her hardest to concentrate.
We drive in comfortable silence while I attempt to calm the six baby kittens that are still climbing all over me.
Finally, I get four to stay in the box, purring contentedly, and hopefully falling asleep soon.
But the grey one and one of the orange ones keep climbing up my chest and trying to perch on my shoulders like tiny little, noisy parrots.
Their claws puncture my skin as they meow in frustration and each time that I remove them and place them back in the box, they dig right back in, climbing up me like a tree.
I hear Teagan chuckle from next to me. “I wouldn’t fight it. Some kittens enjoy sitting on their owners’ shoulders. I don’t know why.”
“Do they think I'm a pirate or something?” I joke.
I can’t see her face, but I hear the smile in her voice. “You could only see out of one eye tonight, so it isn’t that far-fetched for them to assume.”
I chuckle internally, wetting my lips, and trying to figure out how to make witty conversation with this mysterious woman who smells like warm cocoa and is driving me back to my house.
I'm not good at this. The flirty banter necessary to get a girl to be interested in you and show that you have a personality. Sure, I’ve talked to plenty of women before.
I feel like I also have a healthy sex life, engaging in sex occasionally when I run into an old friend from high school or go out with Dalton and end up dancing with a stranger at Rex’s Rodeohouse Bar, the city’s largest facility where people in their twenties like me go to party.
It certainly isn’t anything regular or routine, but I’m not celibate, and it’s not like I don’t like sex.
I just don’t have the time and, you know, seclusion on a ranch and all that.
“I hope I didn’t ruin your night,” I say
She laughs gently. “Not at all. I was looking for an excuse to bail on that mess back there.”
I smile silently as the two rowdy kittens now perched on both shoulders finally settle down since I've given up on wrestling them—grey on the right, tabby on the left. Like an angel and a devil, whispering different things I should say to show Teagan that there’s more to me than being a kitten savior.
The kittens stare straight ahead as if they know the way to where we’re going and are ready to meet their new home. Meanwhile, I’m wishing I knew where this night was headed with my new, mysterious friend.
“My twenty-year-old sister’s the bride. Can you believe that she’s only twenty and thinks she’s ready to get married?
I didn’t know anything at twenty years old.
I’m twenty-two now and I still don’t know anything.
I’m pretty sure your brain isn’t fully developed until well after twenty-five, so no major life decisions should be made before then,” she laughs.
I smile but don’t respond, thinking back on the slew of mistakes I’d made at twenty years old when I thought I had things figured out.
We continue the drive in silence for a few more minutes until she speaks again.
“What you said back there... it really resonated with me. You aren’t wrong. Most people do talk just to hear themselves speak. Like they aren’t confident enough to be comfortable in the silence that comes with conversation.”
I nod.
I hear gravel crunching under the tires and realize she’s turned into the Ashwood ranch driveway.
A few miles of silence later, the truck comes to a standstill as she parks in front of my parent's ranch home.
I open the passenger door, the orange and grey kitten are still perched on my shoulders, their claws digging in to hold tightly as I slide out, bringing the box of the four others that are sleeping along with me.
“Can you see well enough to walk?” she asks.
I nod. “Yeah, I know this path well. Walked it a few times while drunk which is how it feels right now not being able to see. Follow me. I’m sure my parents are asleep, and I don’t want to wake them.”
We go around the back of the ranch house, crossing over the deck and out towards the pool house.
“This is where you live?” she asks as I open the door for her.
“Yep.” Maybe it should be embarrassing that I’m in my twenties still living with my parents in their pool house, but this wasn’t the way things always were for me. It’s just a temporary stop along the way, a minor bump in the road while I recollect my life and figure out my next move.
“Wow, this is really nice.” I can hear her voice trail off as she moves around the space, likely taking in the few belongings that I have in here and the lack of any sort of personal effects. Most things were either donated, tossed or put in storage after I moved back in almost two years ago.
“Give me a second, I’m going to run into the bathroom and put on my glasses, then we can take these kittens to the barn to find the cat that just gave birth,” I say.
She waves her hand, her voice somewhere in the corner of the pool house now. “Take your time, Wilder.”
A few minutes later, I return, finally able to see her again, and find her standing by my floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, reading one of my old notebooks dated with the year 2016 written on the front.
Well, shit.
“What's this?” she asks, holding it up in her hand to show me.
“Words.”
She smiles. “I know that they are words, but did you write these particular words?”
I nod.
“They’re… beautiful...” she murmurs, her voice trailing off as her eyes scan them frantically like she’s trying to memorize them. “Poetry.”
“Thanks, but it isn’t poetry.”
She raises an eyebrow as her eyes shift back to the page she’s reading. “What does this mean?
'Pleasure for a moment,
yet resulting in a lifetime,
pain turned into joy,
joy turned into sorrow,
sorrow turned to eternity?’”
I shrug, not wanting to get into the depths of my mind.
Music.
Lyrics.
My past on a page.
Her gaze catches mine and then she nods, realizing I’m not in the mood to open to her.
She closes the book and slips it back on the shelf.
Thankfully, not pressing further. I’m not trying to be a dick, but some of the stuff contained in those notebooks was written during extremely painful periods in my life and it’s not something I’d like to rehash with a stranger tonight.
“Let’s go find these kittens a home.” I gesture back outside and take the box back into my arms.
We head towards the barn where I know the new mother cat is located.
It doesn’t take long to find her nursing her four kittens, nestled into the warm hay.
She looks exhausted, so I give her some fresh hay straight out of a bale, fill up her food and water, and give her a good pet, scratching gently behind the ears and under her chin.
Teagan stands in the doorway, watching me silently.
“Hand me the box, please,” I say, and she passes me the six orphaned kittens. The grey one jumps out immediately and rushes towards the others as if he’s been here before.
Slowly, I place one at a time near the mama cat as they cuddle in close.
We both wait, holding our breath as we watch to see what she does.
She lets out a meow as she notices the additional kittens and then finally relaxes, the babies nuzzle in deeper, and she allows it.
I hear an audible sigh from where Teagan is standing behind me.
“I have some kitten milk replacer I can mix up inside and bring out to them, too, if you want to wait here,” I say. “It might take her a while to adjust to feeding all ten of these.”
She nods as she watches the new kitten’s bond but remains in the barn at a careful distance away.
A few minutes later I return, placing a bowl of the kitten milk on the floor and guide a few of the smaller kittens who haven’t eaten yet over to it.
They eagerly lap up the formula, all of them finally calming down enough to bond with their new mom and take in their warm home.
“It’s no guarantee, but it looks promising,” I murmur, smiling and petting the mama cat. “Good girl,” I whisper.
Teagan’s eyes catch mine, something flickering behind them as she watches me carefully. “Thank you,” she whispers again as I brush myself off, stand up and turn to look at her.
She really is beautiful in any lighting.
Tiny little thing, probably only an inch or two over five feet tall now that she isn’t wearing those ridiculous heels she was wearing earlier tonight.
I look down and see she’s barefoot in the barn and I like that she’s comfortable enough around me and the ranch life to take off her shoes without worrying what she might step on.
Maybe she shouldn’t be, scorpions and all that we’ve got here in Texas, but her ease tells me most of what I need to know without saying any words.
Her black dress shows off her curves, and her green eyes sparkle in the moonlight. She’s easily one of the most stunning women I’ve ever seen and there’s something about her that tells me the inside matches the outside just as well.
“Will your sister and her friends be wondering where you went?”
She shakes her head no. “My sister’s probably too drunk to even realize I left.”
“I can drive you back to the bar now that I can see better, or you’re welcome to stay here, and I’ll drop you off in the morning. It’s almost two now, so the bar is probably closed.”
She's quiet for a minute as she thinks. “I’d like to stay here tonight.”