Chapter 20
To celebrate all the work they accomplished at the summer pasture, the ranch hands decide to have themselves a good old-fashioned movie night.
According to Caleb, it’s a rare, special event that only occurs maybe once a year, mostly because hardly any of them can stay awake through an entire movie.
Once camp is packed up and everyone is settled back in the bunkhouse, the guys start buzzing around animatedly, getting things prepped before the sun goes down.
They move the bunks first, arranging them against one wall so the main floor is mostly cleared out, then they yank everyone’s mattresses off their beds and toss them into a haphazard pile.
Mikey rearranges them neatly into rows as Pierce pulls out a projector and a rolling cart from the utility closet.
Once it’s placed strategically in the middle of all the beds, he opens his ancient-looking laptop and rests his hands on his hips.
To no one in particular, he asks, “Who gets the honors this time?”
They’re all in the midst of various tasks—Forty standing at the microwave popping a sixth bag of popcorn, June lounging on her mattress and playing a game on her phone, Caleb and Raymond both changing into pajamas, Harrison preemptively tossing back a couple of antacid tablets, and Bryan stocking a Yeti cooler with Coors—when the conversation erupts, a roar of bickering with movie titles tossed in.
Grace observes it all with a kind of awe—as organized and efficient as the setup had been, it seems to all go to hell in a handbasket the second they start arguing over genres and Rotten Tomatoes scores.
Eventually, Forty shuts them all up with a loud slam of the microwave door, and, once he has their attention, says, “I believe I am up next for picking.”
Mikey opens his mouth to argue, but Pierce shoots him a glare. “Shut up and let him pick. If we don’t, it’ll be midnight before we even start a damn movie.” He turns to Forty and points at him. “You have one minute, or your turn is forfeited.”
Forty rolls his eyes, reaches into the microwave for the steaming bag, and dumps a pile of popcorn into one of the many bowls that are strewn about the kitchen counter.
He purses his lips, thinking, and then smiles—wide and wry.
“I quite liked Tweedledum and Tweedledee having to hold on to each other through the entirety of The Babadook,” he muses with a mischievous glance in Mikey and Caleb’s direction.
“So, let’s keep with that theme and go scary.
What about…” He taps his chin, then snaps, a light bulb clearly going off.
“Wasn’t there a movie a few years back about a gal who watched a tape and then weird stuff started happening?
Ghosts crawling out of the television and such? ”
“The Ring,” Raymond supplies flatly. “He’s talking about The Ring.”
Forty snaps again, pointing victoriously at Raymond. “That’s the one.”
Grace watches with endless amusement as Mikey and Caleb share a brief, concerned look, and then do their best to swallow their collective concern.
“Sure,” Caleb says, a little too chipper.
“Great. Fantastic. The Ring. An early-2000s classic.” He clicks around on his laptop for a few minutes before seeming to find what he’s looking for, and then everyone starts to make their way to the center of the room to find their place.
Grace looks around, knowing she won’t find Crew among them but missing him all the same.
He’d gone into town to grab a few things but encouraged her to come up after the movie was over and spend the night with him.
It takes a surprising amount of willpower not to just go now, to drag him into bed and have her way with him without the looming dread of a 4 a.m. alarm.
But this little gathering is a special, sacred thing—that much is extremely evident—and she doesn’t want to miss it.
Grace drags her mattress toward the back of the room and lies down on top of her comforter, happily taking a small bowl of popcorn when Forty offers it.
Once everyone’s settled, they flip the lights off and start the movie, and Grace learns very quickly that she, too, is perhaps not a scary movie kind of person.
But she doesn’t have a Caleb to her Mikey to grab on to, so she grimaces and covers her eyes, trying her best to not look up when anything too creepy is happening.
It’s a difficult feat—The Ring is pretty creepy all around.
About a quarter of the way through, she nearly launches fully off the mattress in shock when someone crouches down next to her and invades her space.
Scared and tense as she is, she’d been engrossed and hadn’t heard the bunkhouse door open or noticed the hulking figure lumbering over until he was right next to her.
Grace gasps, then swings her head abruptly to look at the offender, only to find Crew staring at her with a cheeky little smirk on his lips.
“Rude,” she whispers.
“Sorry,” he whispers back, but he doesn’t look very sorry at all.
Grace decides to forgive him, mostly because she’s so pleasantly surprised that he’s here. “Couldn’t stay away?” she teases.
He shakes his head, then gives her an earnest look. “I missed you.”
Something warm blooms in her belly, and she bites her lip to resist the need to kiss him.
He nods toward where she sits, and Grace understands instantly, scooting over on her mattress and making room for him beside her.
Crew moves in, wrapping a long arm around her shoulder.
He reaches into his shirt pocket with his other hand and pulls out a little yellow bag of something that has Grace’s full attention—cursed video tapes and creepy ghost children be damned.
He holds the bag flat on his palm and offers it to her, and she’s pleased as punch to find it’s peanut M his eyes are still lingering on her mouth, and his hand is hovering right at the hinge of her thigh like he’s two seconds away from pulling her on top of him.
“They’ll see us leave,” Grace whispers.
Crew blinks, finally breaking free of the haze for a moment to scan the room. “They won’t,” he says, then looks back to the door behind them. “They won’t even know we’re gone. Follow me in two minutes.”
The truck is parked a few blessed paces from the front door—far enough that someone would have to walk right up to it to see anything happening inside.
The windows are tinted, too, which is good—because Grace is completely naked and writhing in Crew’s lap about ten seconds after they pile into the cab.