Chapter 6
HUNTER
“Uncle Hunter!”
I heard Ruby before I saw her. I turned toward the sound and watched her climb out of Colt’s truck and take off toward me before he’d even cut the engine.
She sprinted across the grass, and I leaned my hip against the dock railing and braced for impact as she started down the ramp. She launched herself right at me, full force and fearless, arms thrown wide.
I caught her in my arms and spun her, her head falling back with that gap-toothed grin that was the cutest damn thing I’d ever seen.
“You’re getting fast,” I told her, and she beamed up at me as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
I shifted Ruby’s weight against my side, my eyes drifting between Colt and Blaire walking toward the lake.
“I’ve been training.” Ruby grinned. “My other front tooth is loose, and I’m going to try to catch the tooth fairy this time.”
I snorted. “What? You think you can outsmart her?”
Ruby shot me a look, one eyebrow raised like I’d just asked the dumbest question. “Yes. She’s magic, but I have a plan.”
“Oh yeah? What’s your plan?”
She leaned in close, cupping her hand around her mouth. “I’m going to sleep with my eyes open.”
“That’s…terrifying.”
Her smile only widened. “And I’m going to put sticky stuff on my pillow, so when she tries to sneak my tooth—” She smacked her palms together an inch from my face, making me flinch. “—trapped!”
“And then what happens?” I asked, genuinely curious about her endgame.
“I yell for Blaire, duh.”
“Solid plan.” I looked between her and Blaire. “Always good to have another maniac on standby.”
My gaze then drifted past Ruby to the driveway, but there was still no sign of Maggie. Since Friday night, I’d slept like shit. My thoughts wouldn’t stop circling back to her, a place I had no business going.
Every thought looped right back to her, and every memory felt like a goddamn itch beneath my skin.
I thought maybe if I kept my mind on everything else, I wouldn’t think about her. Maybe if I just kept moving, all the shit between us would settle like silt on the bottom of the lake.
But it clearly wasn’t working.
“Is that my girl I see?” McCoy yelled as he stepped out onto our porch.
“Uncle Coy!” Ruby squealed and tried to wiggle out of my arms, but I didn’t let her go.
“Oh no.” I wrapped my arms more firmly around her. “You’re not leaving me for him.”
Ruby’s giggle burst out of her like she couldn’t hold it in, the sound bright and wild as she wriggled in my arms. I held tight anyway, ignoring the way her sharp elbows dug into my shoulders.
Ruby might have been tiny, but she hit like a freight train of pure joy every single time.
I held her close, breathing in her hair and letting her chatter work loose the knots in my chest. Some days the world pressed in, but then she’d look up at me with those wild blue eyes and suddenly it didn’t matter how much shit I carried.
I would carry anything for her.
“C’mon, darlin’. Dump the dead weight and come see your real favorite,” McCoy called, his voice carrying over the lake.
“Don’t you dare.” I tickled her ribs, and she laughed harder. “I’ll only let you down if you tell Uncle Coy that I’m your favorite.”
“Uncle Coy isn’t my favorite.” Ruby giggled so hard I almost dropped her. “You are!”
I grinned and loosened my hold, dropping her to her feet on the dock before I ruffled her soft hair. “Damn straight. Don’t ever let him forget it either.”
The words were barely out of my mouth before she was off again, barreling up the dock and yelling for McCoy. “I lied,” she yelled over her shoulder, and I was about to take off after her when I saw Maggie’s truck pulling into the driveway.
My pulse kicked up, and I tried to look anywhere but at her truck. Blaire stepped onto the dock, her eyes narrowing as she studied my face. She dropped her lake bag near my feet before she turned, following my gaze to exactly where I’d been looking.
Blaire sidled up next to me and bumped my shoulder. “I hope it’s cool that I invited Sutton and the new sheriff.”
I forced a casual shrug, even as my chest tightened, but Blaire’s knowing smirk told me she wasn’t buying it for a second.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I looked down at her, and I swear she was getting a thrill over making me uncomfortable. “Always room for more.”
“Mmhmm,” she hummed, just as Colt thudded a cooler down beside us. “I just wasn’t sure since you looked like you wanted to kill him when he was dancing with Maggie.”
“Hey, man.” Colt nodded at me before immediately wrapping himself around Blaire and burying his face in the crook of her neck.
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?” You literally just drove here together. This is starting to get a little sickening.”
“Someone sounds bitter,” Blaire teased before looking over my shoulder. “And I’d bet that bitterness is only about to get worse.”
I followed her gaze and my throat went dry.
Maggie climbed out of her truck wearing that pink bikini top I’d stupidly mentioned yesterday and a pair of cutoff shorts that barely covered anything.
Her blonde hair caught the sunlight as she hefted a lake bag from the truck bed, then leaned back in for a casserole dish, giving me a view that nearly stopped my heart.
“I’m going to go help her,” I muttered, already moving.
“Oh, he’s going to help her,” Blaire whispered loud enough for me to hear. “I can think of a few ways he’d like to help her.”
I shot her a glare over my shoulder. “You know I can hear you, right?”
“You know I don’t care, right?” She mimicked my tone perfectly.
I looked at my brother. “Rein her in.”
“Can’t.” Colt laughed. “Have you met Blaire? I’m just along for the ride.”
“And what a ride it is,” Blaire purred and winked at me.
“Jesus,” I muttered, walking faster as Blaire’s laughter followed me across the yard.
The sun beat down mercilessly, but my skin burned from something else entirely as I crossed the grass toward Maggie.
She stood near her truck, one hip cocked, and her legs stretching beneath those ragged cutoffs.
The pink of that bikini top clung to curves I’d dreamt about, and my mouth went dry as I ran my eyes over every inch of her golden skin, remembering how she’d felt beneath my fingertips on a different night in this same damn spot.
I swallowed hard, the air suddenly feeling suffocating, and I knew I should have looked away. But I couldn’t.
Brody and Sutton were coming out to the lake today, which meant Brody was going to see her in that damned bikini, and something possessive twisted in my gut at the thought. I wished I’d never fucking told her to wear it or that I’d told her to wear it only for me.
“You know staring is rude, right?” Maggie asked, but there was a blush spreading across her cheeks.
“Mmhmm.” I stepped closer and took the casserole dish from her hands. “I think I’ve changed my mind about that bikini.”
Her smile faltered. “You don’t like it?”
“Oh, I like it.” My eyes dropped to where the pink fabric strained against her skin before forcing myself to look down the empty driveway. “I just didn’t realize so many people would be coming today.”
Maggie’s smile returned slowly. “You mean Sutton and Brody?”
My jaw tightened.
“Hunter Calloway,” she whispered, leaning in until I was surrounded by her scent, “are you jealous?” She let out a small laugh.
“You do know that plenty of men have seen me in a bikini, right? Hell, maybe I’ll let him see me without it.
” She smirked, and the urge to throw her over my shoulder and drag her to my bedroom surged through me.
“You don’t even know him.”
“It might be better that way.” She glanced away from me. “No history to complicate things.”
Unlike me.
Her words landed square in my chest, and I shifted my grip on the dish, knuckles straining.
“I don’t think he’s your type.”
Maggie let out a snort as she cocked her head. “And what is my type, exactly?”
“He’s a sheriff, Maggie,” I said, not backing away from her pull. “I’d say he’s a little too by the book for what you really want.”
“And you know what I want?” Her eyes flicked up to mine, challenge written in every line of her body.
“I know you’d eat that man alive.”
Maggie’s laugh caught in her throat, her flush blooming all the way down her chest.
She stepped closer until her fingertips brushed my bare chest. “Okay, Calloway.” She patted her hand against me as if she were placating me. “That needs to go in your fridge until we go to your parents’ later.”
I inhaled her scent as she slipped past me, her hip grazing mine. My fingers twitched with the need to grab her wrist, to spin her around and back her against her truck until there was nothing left between us but that pink scrap of fabric.
Instead, I followed her, watching the sway of her hips until she veered toward the lake and I forced myself toward the house. In the kitchen, I shoved her dish into the fridge and gripped the edge of the counter until my knuckles went white. What the hell was wrong with me?
I’d spent years with Maggie living in my head, haunting my dreams, but this was different. This was a hunger that threatened to break what little self-control I had left.
I didn’t give a damn who showed up today, didn’t want to give a damn about Brody or any other man who thought they had the right to touch her. But fuck, I had no right either. I had less right than anyone.
I’d been trying for years to convince myself I wanted a clean slate, wanted the freedom to fuck around and not think about what it felt like to want someone so recklessly that I didn’t give a damn that I was the worst possible decision for her.
Maggie Dawson was gasoline and a lit match, and every time I got near her, I wanted to burn.