Chapter 15 #2
He went right in for another bite, spearing a cheese curd with his fries and gravy this time. Briar did the same, pure satisfaction driving through her that he liked what she’d made him for his birthday lunch.
Her own stomach growled just as she put her first bite in her mouth, and the creamy, hot gravy coated her tongue with its salty, savory goodness. The French fry added the right texture—crisp and creamy at the same time—and the cheese curd squeaked against her teeth.
“Oh, I’ve forgotten how much I love this stuff.” She wanted to shovel the food into her mouth with both fists, but she carefully arranged another bite, this one with a hefty shred of beef to go with her potatoes and cheese. After she finished that bite, she looked across the table to Tarr again.
“It would be great if you could give me your top three movies,” she said. “And I’ll see where we can stream them for our movie afternoon.”
Tarr grinned at her. “You’ll watch anything I want?”
Briar’s first reaction was to say no, of course not. They could find something they both liked, couldn’t they? But she forced herself to casually shrug one shoulder. “It’s your birthday, cowboy.”
“Did you get everything you wanted on your birthday growing up?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “My mom and dad would take me wherever I wanted to eat, and we’d do whatever I wanted that day. From the time I was one until the time I was eighteen, they got me the same number of presents as my age, which I might have done for you if I’d had ample time to prepare.”
“Well, now you know my birthday is December eleventh.”
“Exactly two weeks before Christmas.” She smiled at him and took another bite of poutine.
“I like all kinds of movies, Briar. We could do action-adventure with something like National Treasure, or we could do a musical like The Greatest Showman, or we could do a rom-com….”
Briar grinned at him. “You don’t know the names of any rom-com movies, do you?”
He burst out laughing and shook his head. “No, ma’am. I sure don’t.”
“So, action-adventure,” she said. “Maybe Jumanji, or—”
“The new one.” He pointed his fork at her. “I don’t like the old one.”
“The new Jumanji,” she said. “Jurassic Park, National Treasure….”
“There’s also that new one with the guy from The Office,” Tarr said. “I don’t know the name of it.”
“I think I know what you’re talking about,” she said. “It’s on one of the streaming services.”
“Yeah. Or we could watch something like a documentary. I like those ones about people living in Alaska, or the guys who rock climb.”
Briar wanted to wrinkle her nose and shoot him down, but she said, “Yeah, I can look those up,” instead.
“Are we having cake now or later?”
Briar glanced over to him and found that his plate had been emptied. “You can have more if you want,” she said.
“I’m deciding based on whether we can have cake now or later.” He grinned at her. “You know what? It’s my birthday, and I should’ve had cake before lunch.”
“I’ll get it.” Chuckling, Briar got up and hurried into the kitchen, where the enormous cake she’d had to buy off the shelf waited.
If she’d had more time, she would have ordered something custom, maybe put Wiggins on the top of it or something.
As it was, this was a male-themed birthday cake decorated in black, yellow, and blue, and it said Happy Birthday in perfectly piped cursive letters.
She grabbed two fresh plates and a spatula server on her way back to the table, then returned to the kitchen to get a knife.
“The yellow is kind of gaudy,” she said.
“It’s perfect, Briar.”
She cut into the corner of the cake. “I know you love frosting, so you can have this corner piece.” Extra piped frosting decorated every edge almost an inch high, and she cut him a healthy piece, slid it onto the plate, and put it in front of him.
Before she could pick up the knife to get herself a smaller portion, he grabbed her hand and tugged her closer.
“Tarr,” she warned as her balance started to fail her.
“Just sit with me for a second.”
She practically fell onto his lap, and he grunted, which caused a stream of embarrassment to erupt inside Briar’s chest.
“It’s my birthday and all.”
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tilted her head back as he nuzzled his face into the soft skin there.
“You smell amazing.” He placed a kiss against her skin, and Briar shivered. “Yeah, this is going to count as my fourth birthday gift,” he whispered.
Little by little, Briar relaxed as Tarr held her and placed gentle kisses along her neck, ear, and jaw. At this rate, she wasn’t sure why touching her lips to his would be that big of a deal, and she pulled back to look him in the eye.
Just then his phone rang, the shrill sound of it piercing the tender, intimate moment between them.
“That’s Tuck.” He pressed her closer with one hand while he released her with the other so he could silence the phone. “I’m not talking to him right now.” He got the ringing to stop and refocused his attention on Briar.
Her heartbeat stampeded through her whole body, and she swallowed, not quite sure where to put her hands or what to say.
In the next moment, a beep unlike she’d ever heard before filled the house, and then the electronic voice of Bobbie Jo said, “I got it. Tuck—it’s working. They should be able to hear us.”
“Tarr!” Tuck practically yelled, and Briar’s eyes shot to the intercom system on the other side of the kitchen. The security voice talked through that when doors or windows were opened.
Tarr swore under his breath as he twisted toward the security system panel too.
“Hey, brother,” Tuck said. “Uh, hey, we’re just letting you know that we’ve got cameras in the house, and we can see and hear everything you and Briar are doing.”
“Well, turn it off,” Tarr said.
Pure humiliation ran through Briar, and her eyes immediately swept the corners of the room and along the ceiling where cameras might be hidden. She didn’t see them at all—the mark of what a lot of money could buy.
“I don’t know how to turn it off,” Bobbie Jo said.
“You don’t have to watch,” Tarr called.
“We get a notification every time there’s movement,” Tuck said. “And we’re not sure how to turn that off either.”
Tarr swore again, and with everything shattered between them, Briar managed to slip off his lap, serve herself a piece of cake, and return to her seat.
“Sorry, Tarr,” he said.
“And Briar,” Bobbie Jo called. The irritating beep filled the house again, lasting for a good three or four seconds and reminding Briar of the way her dryer alarm went off when the cycle had finished.
She ducked her head, glad she’d removed her ponytail after feeding the goats that morning.
Surely she was the color of a bright red boiled lobster, and she put a bite of cake in her mouth without even tasting it.
Across from her, Tarr’s thumbs flew across his phone screen, and after a minute or two, he threw it down in disgust.
“Cameras on the front porch,” he said. “All over the main living areas and in the backyard.”
Briar looked up. “I feel like I have to text you so I can talk to you now.”
“Yeah, it feels stupid, doesn’t it?” He wore a dark look of disgust, and Briar really missed the way his hands had felt on her waist and her back, and the soft warmth and urgency in his touch against her neck and cheek.
“What about the basement?” she asked.
“Tuck said he wasn’t sure, because they never go down there,” he said. “When we go down for our movie afternoon, he’ll let me know.”
Briar swallowed and left the rest of the cake on her plate in favor of the poutine.
She knew her house didn’t have any cameras, but she didn’t know how to invite him back there for his birthday dinner.
Would that be too forward? And would he make assumptions about how far he could go?
Not only that, she wasn’t even sure she was ready to kiss him yet, which made no sense, as he’d definitely just kissed her a couple dozen times.
No, not on the lips, but in intimate places nonetheless.
She dove into her phone too, looking for the movies Tarr had mentioned, so she’d have something to distract herself with.
As Tarr served himself another piece of birthday cake, Briar snuck a look at him. No matter what, she was definitely falling for a cowboy, something she’d vowed she’d never do again.
But things change, don’t they? she asked herself, immediately agreeing with the sentiment, because if there was anything Briar had learned about living life, it was that it changed constantly, and she needed to adapt with it, or she’d always be broken.
Tarr healed so many cracked and bleeding things inside her, and she decided right then and there that falling in love with him wouldn’t be so bad after all.