14. Lust and Longing
Lust and Longing
Ivy
“The usual?” Sage greeted me at The Copper Cup. The smell of pumpkin spice and Harper’s baked goods permeated the air, acknowledging that fall was here.
“Better make it a pumpkin spice latte.” I slid onto a stool at the counter and dropped my bag at my feet.
The shop was half full, with some retirees and ranchers and a couple of women from the salon next door.
Harper waved at me from the kitchen in the back, the sound of mixing bowls indicating the next round of pastries was coming soon.
Sage set my to-go cup down. She had that quiet, observant look she always had, like she could see right through me. Her hair was in a braid, and she wore the Copper Cup apron over a flannel shirt. She looked like exactly what she was: the quiet, unassuming sister who noticed everything.
“So, how was your night with Colt in that cabin?” She asked as casually as she might ask how my shop was doing.
I wrapped both hands around the cup. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you haven’t been home since, like you don’t want to tell your own sisters all the details.”
Heat climbed my neck, probably red and flushed. Our father used to get that way when flustered. “The storm hit, and we got stranded. Not a big deal.”
“We got stranded, is all?” Sage’s mouth twitched. “In a cozy cabin for two, during a storm? Tell me, was there only one bed? Or was he a gentleman and let you have the bed and he slept on the couch?”
The bell above the door chimed. I turned on my stool to see who entered, grateful for the interruption, and the gratitude evaporated instantly because the person walking through the door of The Copper Cup was Colt, followed by Knox, Jake, and two of the newer ranch hands whose names I kept forgetting.
Colt was in his work clothes, dirty boots with a flannel over a thermal, his cowboy hat pulled off the moment he cleared the door.
His eyes found me across the room. In four unhurried strides, he reached me.
He set his hat on the counter. Looked at me for one long second, close enough now that I could smell hay and pine air and him.
Then he lifted me clean off the stool and kissed me. His hands on my waist felt like the answer to every question I had. My core tightened and ached for him, and those damn butterflies wouldn’t stop fluttering.
With my fingers in his hair and my body pressed against his, for several seconds the Copper Cup and everyone in it disappeared.
Knox cleared his throat and muttered, “Everyone’s staring. Might want to get a room.” The ranch hands snickered and joked. Whispers broke out across the room.
Colt finally set me down. I sighed, and my face was on fire, and my ponytail had come half undone. Behind the counter, Sage was leaning on her elbows with her chin in her hands and a smile that meant we’d showed her everything she needed to know.
To top it off, Colt plopped his cowboy hat on my head. Too big for me, I blushed and set it higher on my forehead so it’d stay on.
“Well, with his hat on your head, we all know what that means,” Sage said. “Guess you’re claimed, sister.”
She turned her attention to the ranch hands crowding the counter, taking their orders one by one, oblivious to the flirtations and stares of these men who’d been up since dawn and smelled like hay and horses, and set their eyes on one of the Wylde sisters, like she was the prettiest thing they’d seen all month.
Except for Knox, who casually grilled her on Daisy’s whereabouts today.
Colt stayed beside me, his hand resting on my lower back as if it lived there. He leaned down and spoke into my ear.
“Go out with me tonight.”
“Didn’t you get enough of me already?” I teased.
“Absolutely not.”
“Well, I have to close the shop and then I’ve got inventory to do.”
He took my hand. Lifted it. Pressed his lips, traveling my knuckles, one by one, sultry enough that I felt each kiss from my fingers to my core, tingling at the apex of my thighs. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather come with me on a date, overnight?”
“Overnight?” I was sure of nothing. The opposite of sure. My brain sent frantic signals about self-preservation and the word temporary, while my body said, ‘Yeehaw, saddle up this cowboy for another ride.’
“We’re taking some horses tonight into Bozeman for a family auction.
They’ll find good homes and people to care for them.
Ash is bringing Willow and wants to make a night of it.
Knox is pissed because I want to bring you instead of leaving space for whatever his agenda is, but he’ll get over it.
We’ll go out to eat, do some axe throwing, find a bar and dance, stay the night, drive back tomorrow.
” He chose one knuckle and sucked on it, flicking his tongue at it, his eyes never leaving mine. “What do you say?”
“Yes.” What I wanted to say was yes, and also please never stop doing that thing with my hand.
“Maybe I can convince Daisy.” I glanced over at poor Knox, who was leaning on the counter telling Sage about a horse that had allegedly tried to bite him that morning.
Colt followed my gaze to Knox, and something complicated crossed his face. “I don’t know about those two. Sometimes I think they’re friends. Other times enemies. It’s like they run hot and cold with no in-between.”
“I’ll handle her. Text me what time we’re leaving.” I rose on my toes and kissed him once, quickly, putting his hat back on his head.
The guys left with hands full of pastries and coffee. My lips and knuckles buzzed from Colt’s attention. I turned back to the counter to find my coffee had gone cold, and Sage was watching me with an expression that was equal parts amusement and wonder.
“He’s done something to you. I don’t know. Made you happier or something.”
“Hm. I hope it’s a good look on me.” I winked and took my cold coffee and headed back to work.
Daisy surprised me by showing up around noon. She came through the front door with a look on her face that said she’d already heard about Bozeman from Sage.
“I’m not going with you tonight,” she announced.
My shoulders dropped. “Why not? If you ask me, you could use a night of fun.”
“So… you and Colt. It’s the real deal?” She diverted attention away from her and Knox.
“Yep. Me and Colt.” I remained behind the register, doing an inventory of the items in our glass case.
Daisy crossed her arms and leaned against the boot display the way she did when she was settling in for a conversation she intended to control.
Her auburn hair was up in a clip and she had hay dust on her shoulder and grease on her hands, and she looked exactly like what she was.
The responsible Wylde sister, the one who’d held everything together after our parents died and made sure the rest of us survived somehow.
“Talk to me,” she said. “For real. Not the version you’d give Sage or Poppy.”
I sighed and finally told her about the cabin without telling her about the black SUV and a few other sexy details she didn’t need. I told her about the Hollis Ranch, about Caleb, about the way Colt had broken open in front of Ron and Dana, and the way he saved their ranch with a phone call home.
“You have feelings for him,” she stated.
“I have… something for him.” Lust. Longing. I pushed the inventory screen away and faced her. “It might be feelings. Or it might be that I’ve never been with a good man and I don’t know how to act around one. I keep waiting for the catch, and it never comes.”
Daisy looked pensive, fiddling with a price tag on a boot, leaving me feeling exposed, wishing I hadn’t divulged that much.
At last, she said, “Maybe there’s no catch. Maybe he’s just a good man who likes you.”
“That would be a first.”
Daisy’s face softened in the way it only did when we were alone. She was tough with the world, hard jaw and sharp tongue and hands that could shoe a horse in fifteen minutes, but with me and Sage and Poppy, the softness was always there if you waited for it. “Don’t you want more?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Maybe. But I’m not going to force something that could have an expiration date just because it feels good right now.” I leaned forward. “What about you? Don’t you want more?”
Daisy’s soft expression shuttered. Quickly, like a door closing. “You know my answer. I made a promise to see you girls settled before I worry about myself. That’s always been the deal.”
“Daisy, we’re all old enough to take care of ourselves. I’m running a business. Sage has several jobs. Poppy is in college. You don’t have to mother us anymore. You can take some time for yourself, and for someone special.”
“There is no ‘someone special.’”
“What about Knox?”
The softness didn’t just close. It slammed shut, bolted, and barricaded. Daisy’s jaw tightened and her arms uncrossed. “I have horses to shoe.”
“Daisy, don’t take too long stringing Knox along. Some other woman could come in and steal him from you.”
“Horses. To. Shoe.” She stomped out of my shop.
Daisy Wylde had many talents, but lying to her sister was not one of them, and the speed with which she’d fled the building told me everything her mouth refused to say.
She had it bad for Knox. She just wasn’t ready to admit it. Why did she have to be so stubborn about things?
I picked up my phone and typed a text before she could drive away.
Ivy: Bozeman tonight. Me, you, and the boys. Pick you up at the house at 5:30. Don’t argue.
Daisy: Told you I’m not going.
Ivy: Yes, you are. Or I’ll get Knox drunk and force him to tell me his real feelings about you.
Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.
Daisy: Sometimes I hate you.
I grinned wider and went back to my inventory.
For the first time in weeks, every piece of my life felt like it was falling into place.
The shop was thriving. Cowboy Night was a hit.
The Brewster threat was still there, lurking at the edges, but it felt manageable, smaller somehow, because I wasn’t carrying it alone anymore.
Tonight I was going to Bozeman with a man who kissed me like I was the only thing in the room worth looking at. Maybe I should let myself enjoy it without guilt or fear or the constant, exhausting calculation of how much I was allowed to want good things in my life.
Just tonight. I’d let myself have tonight. The rest I’d figure out later.