Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
RYE
Damn. She’d felt good in my arms, and that kiss? Fucking epic. I literally took her breath away.
And now I had her comfy and cozy in the bed of my truck. It’s where I’d always wanted her, though, in my imagination, she was sprawled out beneath me, naked under the starlit sky, moaning my name and arching to my touch.
But now that we were here, the walls surrounding her heart had only cracked open the tiniest bit.
It was a start. A slow, small start, but I’d take it any day of the week.
“Wine or beer?” I asked as she sat across from me on the truck bed and crisscrossed her legs like a little girl.
“Water,” she said with finality.
“As you wish.”
“What I’m wishin’ for, Rye, is for you to tell me this plan of yours. What the hell can I do for you that’s worth five grand?”
I smiled. Anything she did for me was worth a hell of a lot more than that. I kept having to remind myself why she’d said yes and why we were really here.
But I couldn’t stop from teasing her a little. “I want you…”
Her eyebrow twitched and her eyes narrowed when I didn’t finish my sentence, but then I grinned, and she rolled those beautiful browns.
“I want you to help me convince my parents I’m capable of runnin’ my family’s ranch.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that, but how exactly do you see me doin’ that?”
“Well, you’re a business owner, a valued member of the community. My parents respect my Uncle Red a lot, and he respects you. It’s been a while, but they always loved havin’ you over, you know, back when you and Tommy?—”
Some kind of regret flashed in her eyes and she interrupted me. “I remember.”
“And, I dunno. Maybe you could talk me up a bit. Maybe then my parents wouldn’t doubt everything I do. God, you can’t know how ridiculous I feel even sayin’ that at my age.”
Aubrey laughed quietly, but she said, “Rye, I think you might be overestimatin’ the power of my influence.”
I studied the curve of her face, wanting to reach over and feel its softness and thinking she had no idea how she’d influenced me over the years. She’d kissed me tonight, but that had been about me seeing her, the real her.
It was a gratitude kiss. Nothing more. At least not to her.
“I’ll be plain, Spitfire. My mama won’t see me as a man until there’s a steady woman in my life. It’s sexist and stupid, but that’s how she views the world. And my dad won’t let me have any control until my mama tells him I’m ready. So I need you.”
And I want you. I wanna bury my body inside yours until my truck bounces to the rhythm of your pleasure, and when I make you come, I want you to scream my name while you dig your nails into my shoulders and draw blood.
Aubrey cleared her throat. “My eyes are up here, Ryder.”
“Huh?” I said, dragging my attention away from the open space between her legs. I could imagine how warm she was there and how good she’d taste.
“You’re droolin’,” she said sarcastically, but she couldn’t hide the smile curving the corners of her mouth.
As much as she wanted me to think she didn’t care about my attraction to her, I could see by the light in her eyes it excited her. And when she stared at my biceps or my lips or at the way my hungry gaze caressed every inch of her body, it was easy to see I wasn’t the only one feeling… something .
If we’d been here a year ago, things would’ve been a lot different. She still would’ve been closed off and mourning a love that was so much less than she deserved.
But it wasn’t a year ago. The time was now. Tonight, and she was opening up right in front of me. The realization that I might have a little something to do with that made me happier than I’d felt in a long time. It also made my dick so hard, it throbbed.
“So you think if you take me home and show me off, your parents will magically change their minds about you? I think that plan is a little flawed.”
“Why?” I asked as I handed her a tin plate from the camping pack I kept in my truck’s crossover box.
Against Devo’s advice, I’d picked up a special meal from José’s Diner made just for Aubrey and me. José whipped up something he’d called a “mini charcuterie board” himself when I asked what to feed a woman on a date in the back of my truck in the middle of nowhere, with fancy wheat crackers, purple grapes, soppressata, sharp cheddar, and smoked Gouda. He’d offered to make a quick quiche, but Aubrey didn’t like eggs. At least, she didn’t used to. I still remembered how she’d slipped the scrambled eggs my mama had tried to force her to eat to my old German shepherd, Mikey.
Man, I miss that dog.
Aubrey took the plate from my hand along with a napkin and bit into a cracker with a little cut of Gouda on top as I set a bottle of water next to her leg.
“Thank you,” she said carefully, chewing and blushing a little because I couldn’t take my eyes away from her mouth. “This is good. I haven’t eaten much today.”
Dang it. I should’ve taken her somewhere for a steak.
She probably had no memory of it, but once upon a time, my mama had gotten it in her head that she wanted to open up a cheese section in the little store we ran on the ranch to sell our beef to our direct customers. Most of G&S’ product went to be processed and sent around the world to supermarkets, but we still sold to locals who wanted a side of beef to keep in their deep freezers for the winter.
But back then, Mama had spent months perfecting her cheese recipes, and then she’d called all us kids, the cowboys working the ranch, and my dad inside the house to taste test. She’d bought ten different cheeses from a little international cheese shop in Jackson, and then we had to try her versions and compare them to the store versions.
When Aubrey had bitten into the store-bought Gouda, she’d closed her eyes and smiled. My mama’s Gouda was disgusting, still to this day, but I remembered just how much that creamy bite had lit up young Aubrey’s face, so that was why I picked it when José told me the options earlier tonight.
“Your plan is flawed because it was Tommy your parents loved, not me. Back then, I was just ‘the girlfriend.’”
“You’re wrong. My mama still asks about you.”
“Really?”
I nodded.
Furrowing her eyebrows, she asked, “Why?”
I tossed some soppressata in my mouth with a hunk of cheddar, then wiped my lips with my napkin. “If you want my opinion, I think it’s ’cause she saw some of herself in you. She gave her whole life to my dad, and while I know she doesn’t regret her decision, maybe there’s a little bit of herself she wishes she could’ve kept separate from my brothers, my dad, and me.
“I think she sees you as someone who did what she couldn’t. Now, don’t get me wrong, she bosses my dad around like nobody’s business. She’s one hundred percent in charge at the ranch. My dad would disagree behind her back, but inside he knows it’s true. But the ranch has always been my dad’s dream, and she followed because she loves him. In her mind, that’s what women do, but I think she wishes she could’ve followed a dream or two of her own, like you did with your bookstore.”
“Wow. That’s…”
“What?”
“I’m not sure.” She shrugged. “Flatterin’? But it surprises me. I wouldn’t have thought your mama would even remember me.”
I laughed. “You kiddin’? You spent whole summers down at our place. Why wouldn’t she remember you? Where else would I have fallen so?—”
“Rye.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m gettin’ ahead of myself,” I said and felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d blushed for any reason, but tonight, Aubrey was heating up the blood in my veins at every turn and making me say things I swore I never would.
“Listen, in a few weeks, we’re goin’ on our big spring drive. I don’t know if you remember, but we have a cookout so all the cowboys head out to drive the cattle to range with full bellies. I’d love it if you’d come and see me off.”
“That’s it?” she said. “That’s all you want me to do? And that’s worth a five-thousand-dollar loan to you?”
“You don’t have to pay me back, Aubrey. I’m happy to help you.”
“Oh yes, I do,” she said. Then under her breath she muttered, “Or else this whole transaction might be illegal.”
Pretending I hadn’t heard that, I said, “Yeah, it’s worth it. I mean, I hoped we’d go out beforehand, get to know each other again so it looks more natural when people see us together.”
She hesitated for a moment, looking down at her still-full plate. “I’m gonna ask you somethin’, Rye, and I want you to be honest with me.”
I promised, “Always.”
“Did you pay five-thousand dollars just so you’d have an excuse to date me? Trust me. I know how ridiculous that sounds, and I’m not tryin’ to be conceited, but?—”
“Aubrey, if I thought money’s what you wanted out of life, I would’ve offered it up months ago. I know how independent you are.” I winked at her when she looked up, and she tried not to smile. “And how stubborn. But I also know you’ve been strugglin’. So have I. I thought I might be able to help you, and you might help me.
“And if that puts me in your crosshairs in other ways, I’ll always be waitin’ for that, but if you don’t want me, then I won’t push.” I might nudge a little.
“When’d you get so grown up?” she asked, her eyes steady on mine.
I shrugged. “Dunno. Sometimes I’m not sure I did, but I think I have an old soul. It’s just that nobody can see it ’cause I’ve always been Grady Graves’s baby boy. I’ve got all these ideas about how to make the ranch better, more efficient, and more profitable, but nobody listens to me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s gotta be frustratin’.”
“You ain’t kiddin’.”
She took another bite of her cracker and then shoved the rest in her mouth and chewed. “I’m so glad you didn’t feed me oatmeal.”
“I should’ve taken you out for a better meal. But why would I bring oatmeal on a date?”
“No reason.” She laughed softly. “Never mind. And this is a perfectly fine meal. Not too heavy, not too light. Also, this isn’t technically a date.”
“You kissed me,” I said. “So I think it does make this a date.”
Twisting her lips to one side, she narrowed her eyes again. “Have you always been so… persistent? I don’t remember that about you.”
“You never really got to know me.”
She nodded. “You’re right. I was young, and I was in my own little world. But now I’m thinkin’, if I’d peeked out of it once in a while, my life may have been very different.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I think we get to where we need to be when we need to be there. So maybe you had to go through some shit to get you here, but you made it through, and don’t that feel good?”