Chapter 5 #2
Assuming Rhys wouldn’t be far behind me, I left the gate open as I headed down the long dirt road that forked off to my house. The other direction headed out to my uncle’s place.
Not wanting to make her uncomfortable, I opted not to stop by my house. I had the guns I needed with me, enough to help her get started, anyway. However, I did have to pass by the place.
“Is that your house?” Amy leaned forward and stared out her window as we passed.
“Yeah.”
“Wow.” Her head jerked around, her eyes stopping on me. “It’s beautiful, Wolfe.”
“Thanks.”
“You said you built it?”
I was a little surprised that she’d caught that part. “Yeah.”
“With your own two hands?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. Well, I had some help. My dad’s pretty handy with a hammer, and Lynx’s good with tile.”
“How long did it take?”
“About a year.”
“That’s impressive. More so that you had family to help you.”
“Yeah, well, in return, I helped my dad upgrade the kitchen in the apartment.” I smirked. “And Lynx … because he helped, I don’t stomp his ass when he makes a fool outta himself.”
I pulled the truck to a stop out near the makeshift range Lynx and I had put up. It wasn’t much more than a tin roof awning with a railing and a few barrels set up about thirty yards from two bales of hay along the fence line.
“This is it?” Amy glanced around, her eyes wide as she took it all in.
I had no idea what she was thinking.
“This is it,” I confirmed. “I’ve got a couple shotguns in the back. Figured we’d start with that.”
“Okay.”
Opening my door, I glanced over at her. “Stay there. I’ll open the door for you.”
Not waiting for a response, I hopped out of my truck.
As I headed over to help Amy out, I hoped like hell I could make it through the next hour without making a complete fool of myself. Whatever it was about this girl, I felt like a gangly teenage boy all over again. My hormones were on the fritz.
God only knew how bad it would get when Rhys showed up.
Rhys
I pulled up in time to see Wolfe getting Amy situated with a shotgun. He was helping her with her stance, and I had to sit in my truck for a second longer than I should have.
My dick was being a nuisance as I took in the sight of Wolfe touching Amy.
It was a sight most people wouldn’t have thought twice about, but since my most recent fantasies involved the two of them in a similar position, only naked, horizontal, and without the shotgun, I was having to count backward from one hundred.
If I got out now, there’d be absolutely no way to disguise the hard-on threatening to break my damn zipper.
It wasn’t that I cared that Wolfe saw it, but I knew for damn sure that Amy wasn’t ready for me to declare my craving to strip her naked and feast on her for a while.
Hell, I wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready for that.
Certainly not ready to be the filling in a sandwich that had Wolfe on one side and me on the other.
Wolfe peered over his shoulder at my truck but then turned back to the task at hand.
One hundred.
Ninety-nine.
Ninety-eight.
Wolfe said something to Amy. She adjusted the protective glasses on her face, then loosened her stance. Wolfe helped her position her hands around the gun, then pointed out toward the target. He took a step back and then we were both watching her.
After a few seconds of hesitation, Amy pulled the trigger, the recoil knocking her back, but Wolfe was there to steady her.
She looked up at him over her shoulder, shifting the ear protection off one ear, and I was surprised to see she was smiling.
A grin that held a million megawatts and transformed her from cute to downright beautiful.
I had no idea what Wolfe said to her, but she nodded, and they went through the motions once more.
Eighty-nine.
Eighty-eight.
Eighty-seven.
Yeah. This was bullshit.
I was a grown man, not some horny fucking teenager.
Surely I could get out of my truck, walk over to them, and not slobber all over myself in an effort to stave off the lust. It had been a difficult week.
I'd done my best to stay away from the pair of them, wanting to play it cool. As much as I wanted to kick this into high gear, to make my move and see what their reactions were, I knew I couldn’t.
I needed to lie low for a while. There were too many prying eyes on Wolfe and Amy right now.
Ever since she’d started working at Cedar Door, rumors had started. There were some doozies, too.
Amy was Lynx’s long-lost sister.
That was an interesting one. I had no idea who would’ve thought that one up, but hey. Gossip had no rhyme or reason.
Amy was Lynx’s new wife.
Considering the first one, that one kind of creeped me out. But still, it wasn’t as hard to understand. Since Lynx’s impromptu nuptials, no one knew what to expect from the guy. But seriously, the ink wasn’t even dry on the divorce papers.
Amy and Wolfe were undercover, working with me.
How I'd been dragged into that one, I wasn’t sure. It could’ve had something to do with my repeat visits to the shop. Hence, I had been playing it cool. The last thing I wanted was to be caught up in the rumor mill.
I opened the truck door and climbed down. I adjusted myself, my jeans damned uncomfortable, but I sure as shit wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.
“Hey, Sheriff,” Wolfe greeted.
Amy glanced back, her eyes rounding slightly before darting over to Wolfe.
“It’s cool,” he assured her. “He’s off duty.”
“Oh.”
That seemed to appease her somewhat. I wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting. Maybe she thought I was there to stop them?
This was the country. I couldn’t stop the Caines from taking up target practice on their own land. They were secluded, and with all the animals on the far side of the ranch, not even they would get in the way.
“Go ahead, try again when you’re ready.” Wolfe stepped back.
Amy held the shotgun steady, her eyes trained on the bale of hay at least thirty yards out.
I refrained from talking, not wanting to startle her while she was getting ready. She pulled the trigger, and this time her shot went way left.
“You’re jumpin’ before you get the shot off,” Wolfe informed her.
“But I didn’t do that the first time,” she countered.
“Because you hadn’t felt the recoil. Now you’re expectin’ it.”
“Oh.”
“Remember how to load it?”
Amy nodded.
“I want you to do it yourself this time. It’ll hold five in the barrel and one in the chamber.”
I leaned against the wooden rail and watched. Amy caught on quickly. She loaded the shotgun in no time and had it up and aimed before Wolfe said anything more. When she fired the shot, her aim was significantly better, although she missed the target by at least three feet.
“I’m gonna step back here. You’ve got plenty of ammo. Shoot until your heart’s content. Remember, five in the barrel, one in the chamber. And when you’re not using it, keep the barrel aimed at the ground.”
Amy smiled up at Wolfe, and that lightning bolt of lust shot through me once again. There was something seriously hot about a pretty woman with a pump-action shotgun. Provided the shotgun wasn’t aimed at me, of course.
Wolfe joined me, hefting his big body up on the railing beside me.
We weren’t quite close enough to touch. I was tempted to remedy that, but I kept my cool.
I had all the time in the world when it came to moving this forward.
I'd waited years for an opportunity at something that wasn’t casual.
Which meant I couldn’t treat it as such.
No reason to push when the timing wasn’t right.
With every shot, Amy’s aim was better, the slug moving closer and closer to the target.
“She’s good with the twenty gauge,” I said, keeping my voice low.
“She is.”
I didn’t have to ask why Wolfe had made the offer to teach her to shoot. That was pretty damn obvious. The woman was running from something. It only made sense that she knew how to take care of herself.
“You have a .22 in your truck?” Wolfe asked.
“No. Got a .45 though. Plus, a twelve-gauge and a thirty ought six.”
Wolfe shook his head. “Nah. I want her to focus on aim this go ’round.”
“Next time you invite me, I’ll bring one.” I peered up at him.
“You do that.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes while Amy continued to load and shoot, load and shoot. She was getting better, the target taking a few slaps from the slug with the last shots.
When she turned around to face us, she was sweating, but she was smiling. “I never thought shooting a gun would be fun.”
I smiled, then looked at Wolfe. “You up for a little friendly competition?”
“Always.” Wolfe hopped down from the wooden rail. “Mind if I borrow that, darlin’?”
Amy handed over the shotgun, and I grabbed the other that was lying across one of the barrels.
I smiled at Amy as I passed her, and my breath slammed to a halt in my lungs when she smiled back at me.
It was a feeling I knew I would never forget for as long as I lived.
Why it meant so much that she’d smiled at me the same way she’d smiled at Wolfe, I wasn’t sure, but it was something, all right.
“You ready, farm boy?” I taunted, then hopped the railing to the side closest to the targets.
Wolfe hopped over, then reached back and grabbed several shells. I did the same. Once loaded, I turned to my friend, nodded, then faced the targets.
There was no doubt who would win, but I was all for giving it my best shot.