13. Cash
CASH
Today has been dragging.
I couldn’t begin to tell you half the shit I’ve had to do today because Rhett decided to just not show up.
I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the fight he and Colt got into the other day—which, for the record, I still don’t have the full story on, and I’m choosing not to ask because some things are above my pay grade, and whatever’s happening between those two is between them.
All I know is that when Rhett goes dark like this, the rest of us pick up the slack, and today, that slack has been considerable.
So, I’ve been out here since six a.m. doing the work of two people while Dawson runs his horses for his competition this weekend instead of helping.
I’m not complaining.
I’m complaining a little bit.
I haven’t had time to go anywhere or do anything that isn’t directly related to keeping this property running and that means I haven’t seen Halle in two days.
Two days.
She hasn’t texted, hasn’t called, which tracks. After anything real happens between us, she goes quiet and lets me stew in it while she rebuilds whatever wall I managed to knock down. I know the pattern now. I’ve been watching her run it for months.
Doesn’t make it less annoying.
I reach into my back pocket.
Her underwear is still there, warm from being in my pocket since the other night. I’ve been carrying them through every task on this ranch for two days like some kind of feral man who has completely lost the plot, and I’m not even slightly embarrassed about that.
I check my phone.
Nothing from Halle.
I put it away, get back to work, and try very hard not to think about the way she sounded when I finally let her come.
I’m midway through something Rhett was supposed to handle when I hear it.
I straighten up.
The car turns into the yard.
I watch her park near the barn, cut the engine, and step out.
I’m already walking toward her.
She sees me coming and crosses her arms over her chest.
She looks good—she always looks good. Today, she’s in cutoffs that show off her tattoos, a fitted tee, and her hair is still slightly wild.
She looks like someone who doesn’t sleep great and is running on coffee and determination, and I want to put my mouth on her neck so badly I have to actively talk myself out of it.
“Morning, Darlin’,” I say.
Her jaw tightens. “Don’t start.”
“I haven’t started anything.” I stop about three feet from her—close enough to watch her clock my sweaty tank and sleeve and look away, like looking at me directly is a thing she has to ration. “You came to me. That’s new.”
“I came to say something.”
“I’m listening.”
She takes a breath. “The other night was a mistake.”
I wait.
“I was rattled and you pushed and it got out of hand and I’m not … that can’t happen again. It shouldn’t have happened at all.”
“Okay,” I say.
She blinks. “Okay?”
“Keep going. You’ve clearly been rehearsing this.”
Her eyes narrow. “I’m still technically married on paper.
I just got out of something that took everything from me, and I’m not …
I don’t want to do it again. Any of it—the dating, the feelings, the whole mess of it.
I want to be left alone and figure out who I am without someone else’s idea of me attached to it. ”
She crosses her arms tighter. “You deserve that—someone without all of this.” She gestures at herself. “Baggage. History. That’s not what you need.”
I look at her for a long second.
Then, I take two steps forward.
She holds her ground but her chin comes up and I can see her recalculating.
“You came on my face, soaked my hand and the floor, and made a sound I’ve been thinking about since the moment the taste of your cunt left my mouth. And now, you’re standing in my yard, telling me it was a mistake.”
Her cheeks go red. “Cash—”
“Your body doesn’t lie, Halle. I was there. I felt exactly how much of a mistake that was.”
“That’s not … that’s just … a physical response doesn’t mean—”
“You’re right,” I say. “It’s not just physical, though. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
She opens her mouth, then closes it.
I take the last step—close enough now that she has to tilt her chin up to hold my gaze. I can see the pulse at her throat, and I can smell whatever she’s wearing underneath the morning air.
“Cash.”
“The nice-girl thing. You want to know something? I don’t want a nice girl.
I’ve had plenty of nice girls. I want you.
Not some idea of what my life is supposed to look like.
Not someone easier or less complicated or ten years younger.
You. Baggage and history and half-renovated house and all of it.
” I take her chin in my hand, leaning down until we’re inches apart.
“So you can stop trying to protect me from yourself. I don’t need protecting. I need you to stop running.”
Her breath comes out shaky, and her eyes are doing the green-not-blue thing.
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” she says quietly.
“I know exactly what I’m saying.” I let go of her chin. “I’ve known it for a while. You’re just the last one to catch up.”
“Cash—” Her hands come up to my chest.
“Tell me you don’t want me to come over tonight and make you fall apart on my cock.”
She looks at me.
I hold her gaze and wait.
The silence stretches between us, and only makes the corner of my mouth curl up.
“Thought so,” I say against her lips.
I slide my hand up her thigh, slow, watching her face. Her breath grows unsteady. My fingers brush the inside seam of her cutoffs and she makes a sound low in her throat as she uncrosses her ankles. I slide my hand up further and find the edge of her shorts. She’s already warm and—
Tires hit the gravel drive and the moment is broken. I’m already stepping in front of her, blocking her from sight of anyone coming up the drive—my back to the road. She goes rigid behind me.
“Cash—”
“Don’t move,” I say under my breath.
The truck engines cut, doors open, and boots hit the ground. Then Colt’s voice, loud and completely unbothered, asks, “Cash, who’s the flavor of the week you got hiding over there?”
I close my eyes for exactly one second.
Then, I turn around.
“Hal—Halle?”
I’m the same color as my hair right now—I know without looking in a mirror. I can feel it.
Halle, for her part, does something I did not anticipate.
She moves around me, holds her phone up, and says with complete composure, “Thank God. I’ve been so worried. I’ve been watching your location all day.”
I stare at her.
She doesn’t look at me.
I have no idea what she’s doing. I have no idea what the right move is. I open my mouth to say something, and she cuts her eyes to me for exactly half a second and something in that look says, shut up and follow my lead, so I shut up.
“Thanks for the warning, guys. Rowdy Randy was not what I expected her to be at all,” Rhett says.
Halle wraps her arms around Colt, says something quietly in his ear that I can’t catch, and then she’s pulling back and smiling at all three of us before saying her goodbyes and heading for her bike.
Then I make some shit excuse about something that needs doing on the south end of the property, and I get out of there before Rhett can look at me for one more second.
I pull out my phone before I’m even out of earshot.
Me:
So you ran from me...again
I lean against the fence rail at the south end of the property and look out at nothing and wait. She’ll be back at her house by now. She’ll see it in a minute.
Three dots.
Darlin’:
I didn’t run. I left because our brothers showed up. They can’t see us together. There’s a difference.
Me:
Sure there is.
Darlin’:
Don’t.
Me:
Don’t what?
Darlin’:
You know what. Don’t.
Me:
Darlin’?
Darlin’:
Cash, I swear to god.
I grin at my phone as I reach into my back pocket, then unbutton my jeans. I wrap my hand around myself, slow, not trying to get anywhere yet, just taking the edge off while I wait for her to say something I can work with.
Darlin’:
What do you want?
She’s running out of reasons to fight this and we both know it.
Me:
I want you to leave the back door unlocked tonight.
Pause.
Darlin’:
Absolutely not.
Me:
I have something of yours.
Longer pause.
Darlin’:
What.
I take the photo—her underwear stretched over my fist, which is wrapped around my cock, the black fabric against my skin. I make sure my dick is rock hard and fully in view for her.
Three dots appear instantly.
Darlin’:
WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET THOSE?
Darlin’:
Benjamin Cash Thornwood
Darlin’:
I tore that entire back room apart looking for them. I thought I dropped them in The Bar like an idiot.
Me:
You didn’t drop them. I took them right after you came all over my tongue like a good girl.
Darlin’:
YOU STOLE MY UNDERWEAR?!
I’m grinning so hard my face hurts.
Me:
I found them.
Darlin’:
YOU TOOK THEM
Me:
I kept them. Big difference. They smell like your soaked cunt. Been carrying them in my pocket while I work. Makes me hard every time I move.
Darlin’:
That is deranged.
Me:
Let me give them back to you tonight.
Darlin’:
No. You’re insane.
Me:
Probably. But you’re still staring at my dick right now, aren’t you?
Darlin’:
I hate you.
Me:
No you don’t. Your pussy loved being tied up and edged until you squirted for a man ten years younger than you. Bet you’re wet again just thinking about it.
Long pause. The dots appear and disappear three times.
Me:
I’ve been hard since I had my hand up your shorts. Been thinking about bending you over in that house tonight. Spreading those thick thighs wide and fucking you deep until you forget Zach’s name. Until the only thing you can scream is my fucking name.
Darlin’:
Cash…
Me:
Looks like you’re already practicing. Make sure it’s breathy and on a whimper, like I had you begging the other night.
Me:
I’m coming over. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do to you properly. In a bed. With time. You want me to describe it?
Another long silence.
Darlin’:
Only if you do the thing with the tongue again. Be there at 8.
I laugh low, button my jeans, and tuck her panties back into my pocket. I’m not coming in them this time.
I’m saving every drop for her.