“See?” I said, handing him the hat.
He took it and resettled it back on his head.
“I never…” He shook his head. “I’m going to have to forego wearing a hat when I come here. Jesus Christ, I feel naked when I don’t wear a hat.”
I snorted. “You’re funny.”
He looked down at me. “Why?”
“You went half of the morning without your shirt on. First when you were mucking out stalls, then when you were trying to catch that horse. Yet, when you have to take your hat off, you feel naked?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Yeah.”
The storm that’d been brewing all morning started to fall out of the sky, and I gasped as cold rain started to pound onto me.
People all over the campus scattered like bugs, going this way and that.
Yet Darby and I continued to walk at a sedate pace, getting thoroughly drenched as we moved.
“I don’t see the point in hurrying,” I said. “This way I get wet, or more wet, who really knows? But I also don’t fall down on my ass like that girl just did.”
I pointed to a girl that’d been running through the grass. She’d hit a slick spot and had gone face first into the fluffy, green grass.
Darby snorted as he pulled a set of keys from his pocket.
“Gibson call you to ask you to meet him anywhere?” Darby asked.
I shook my head. “I left my phone in the truck—thank God—but he’d texted me when we’d pulled in saying he wouldn’t need me today. Something about getting the place bombed for termites or something.”
“He should just start all the way over,” he mentioned. “I told him that in the beginning, but he swears that the place will bring back old memories. That he needs to just re-do it. And I guess I can see where he’s coming from. All the old-timers will like that it’s not changed. But I don’t think that the old-timers will really even be able to utilize the place like they used to.”
I burst out laughing at that, thinking about all the old people coming out that used to hang out at it in the beginning.
“How does that work?” I asked him then. “Isn’t showing a porn movie going to be one of those things that will lead to sex in their cars?”
Darby shrugged.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I realize that it’s gonna happen. And so does GQ. And from what I can tell, as long as they keep it in the car, it’s private. The Apache is also on private land. But there’s also beer served here, so there will be a twenty-one-year and older thing at the gate. Meaning that anybody underage won’t be getting in. I don’t know the legalities of it or anything,” he said as we finally made it to the truck. “But I imagine there’s more to it. I just didn’t think to ask Gibson yet. But I’m sure he’d be willing to share his knowledge. He owns a strip club. I’m sure that the two properties are very similar in what is and isn’t allowed.”
I got into the truck as he held the door open for me and tried not to look at the way the white shirt clung to Darby’s neck and shoulders.
And oh, God. His chest.
It was nice and defined, and I could see his tan nipples through the nearly translucent fabric.
He got in then, slamming the door closed hard behind him, then looked at me.
“Want to go to your place, change, and then go to the grocery store?” he asked.
I was already nodding enthusiastically.
The idea of getting to go to the grocery store was exciting.
So fucking exciting.
“Yes!” I clapped. “Yes, I do!”
So that was exactly what we did.
Gathering enough essentials to get us through tonight, with a promise to go back once we got back home from Houston, we went grocery shopping.
Then, we went and checked on the horse that Darby had sequestered at Gibson’s place.
Followed shortly by us going home, and once again sleeping in the same bed.
It was only a little bit better than last night, and I say that loosely, seeing as I was so exhausted that I fell asleep right away.
It didn’t matter, though.
When I woke up that morning, I was so hot and bothered that it took everything I had to not wake Darby up as I pulled myself away from him.
The only thing that saved me was the screeching of the water heater as it turned on and scared the absolute crap out of both of us.
I didn’t miss the way he looked at me, though.
Nor the way he turned so abruptly away the moment he realized we weren’t going to die from a water heater malfunction.Chapter 10
I paused my audiobook to text you.
-Waylynn to Darby
Waylynn
“Hey, Darby! Waylynn! What’s shakin’?”
I turned to find Paul staring at me with awe.