Chapter 5 #3
She had started feeling like she was behind.
Like being the only single one, like being a twenty-five-year-old virgin who had never even really flirted had made her into something not so impressive for her age.
But she part owned a ranch that was a thriving business.
She helped manage it. She knew how to trailblaze, wood carve, and whitewater raft.
She could rock climb and ride horses, shoot a gun, shoot a bow and arrow. She was a damn fine accomplished lady.
And to this group of men who didn’t know her, it was impressive. Maybe it was just him wanting to get into her pants. But she didn’t even care, because he was making her feel good. He didn’t look at her and see a child. He didn’t touch her and feel like she was a piece of furniture.
Maybe it needed to matter a whole lot less what she felt, and she needed to go ahead and focus on the importance of what the guy felt. Yeah. Just maybe.
“I could wait until the end of the trip, but I really need to get your number,” he said. “Unless you can’t do that until we’re actually off the tour.”
“No. I can give you my number. And I want to. So, I will.”
She realized then that she had no idea what the protocol was. Did you actually, like... Pass a note? She didn’t have a note to pass.
He thrust his phone into her hand, and she stared at it.
“Call yourself,” he said. “Then you’ll have my number, and I’ll have yours.”
“Oh.”
The phone was unlocked, larger than hers, and heavy in her hand, and she clumsily dialed her own number. Her phone buzzed from its dry bag in the raft. And she hung up, handing the phone back to him.
“Great. I’m going to save it in my contacts.”
“Good.”
“We’ll be here all weekend, but, you know, wedding stuff.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“But I’d be happy to take you out here. Or somewhere in Bend. Whatever you want.”
“Any of those things are good,” she said.
Wow. Don’t be thirsty.
By the time she got back in the raft, she was feeling ridiculously pleased with herself.
By the time they boarded the rafts again, she was feeling invincible, and for the rest of the float, she was just showing off.
Because she had skills and they were actually impressive to people who didn’t possess them.
That was another part of her problem. Not only was she always surrounded by people who knew her, they also knew how to do all the same things.
And in many cases, they could do them better.
Nolan and his wood carving being a great example.
Not that she had dedicated herself to it as an art the way that he did.
But the point was, Jason would probably be very impressed by those things.
And would probably find them unique and interesting, instead of just commonplace things that he could also do.
Honestly, knowing that the guys were watching her, commandeering the boat in this way, it made her feel sexy, and she couldn’t say that she had spent much time feeling that way.
When the trip finished, the van was there waiting to load everyone up. Pike was the one driving, but she wasn’t even irritated by his ribald storytelling. No. She was too busy feeling awesome.
The van was overly full, but they were only on ranch property, so she sat cross-legged in the back, and Jason joined her.
He didn’t say anything to her, didn’t do much of anything other than press his shoe against the edge of hers.
They made eye contact, and this felt so...nice. It almost felt sweet and innocent, and it probably wasn’t, but it was also something she’d never really experienced before.
Nolan was sitting in the passenger seat all the way up in the front, and he had been staring hard at her and Jason when they loaded up in the back. And Pike had shut them in.
Good. She wanted to rub this in his face.
Wanted to tell him that he couldn’t stop her from doing whatever she wanted.
Because she was a grown-ass adult. Of course, maybe he didn’t actually care all that much.
Maybe he just felt honor-bound to report back to Cody.
It was possible he didn’t care at all, and this felt like a bigger thing to her because she knew what her feelings for Nolan had been.
So, she would keep her gloating turned down a little bit.
There was no need to make it weird. But, still, in her heart, she would feel triumphant.
The van stopped, and Jason looked up at her. “I really am going to call you.”
“Good. I want you to. But if you don’t, I’ll call you.”
He smiled. Slow and sweet. “I believe that you will. Given how well you steer a raft.”
“I am a take-charge kind of girl,” Lila said.
“Even better,” Jason said. And yet again, she thought that maybe she was missing something but couldn’t quite dig deep enough to figure out what it was.
When the van parked back at the raft barn, the doors all opened up, and Jason crawled up over the back of the seat, giving her a wink as he left. “See you later.”
She just sat there for a moment and smiled.
When the back doors opened, it was Nolan, hands pressed wide on both van doors, giving her a hard look.