Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 115683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
I mean, Colt and I haven’t even talked about what we are and where we see this going. Are we dating? Exclusive? Somewhere in that nebulous region between more than friends but less than boyfriend-girlfriend? I’m pretty sure he’s not seeing anyone else, and neither am I. We’re enjoying the hell out of each other, sure. But we still haven’t kissed.
And the fact of the matter is there’s a very real end date to our involvement. Once I make my presentation, get the family’s approval, and launch the new branding and website, I’ll be heading…well, I don’t know where yet. But I do know I won’t be staying in Hartsville. And Hartsville is Colt’s whole life. He’d never leave, and I’d never ask him to.
Hurts, thinking about having that conversation. I’m sure it’s coming. But for right now, I’m happy to pretend like these precious final weeks will last forever.
I’m putting the final touches on my presentation a few days after Thanksgiving when my phone lights up.
COLTON WALLACE
Morning
LAINEY BROWN
Good morning sunshine.
COLTON WALLACE
You’re funny. Long time no see. Any chance you’re free for lunch?
I was over at his house again last night. We get more daring each time I stay past Dean’s bedtime. This time, I nearly fell asleep cuddling with Colt after the hot, slightly buzzed sex we had. I jolted upright in a panic, terrified we’d be caught by Dean and forced to explain our extremely disheveled state.
LAINEY BROWN
Are you asking me out on a date in the middle of the day?
COLTON WALLACE
Yes
Picnic lunch. I’ll pick u up. Say yes. Bring your toy. How we keep forgetting about that thing I don’t know.
LAINEY BROWN
You mean business today
COLTON WALLACE
Have you ever known me to joke around?
LAINEY BROWN
If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were addicted to me
COLTON WALLACE
I’m trying to kick nicotine. Replace one addiction with the other. That’s how it works.
LAINEY BROWN
Ah. Should I be afraid?
COLTON WALLACE
Very
LAINEY BROWN
11 is good. What can I bring? Other than my vibrator?
COLTON WALLACE
Nothing. Not even clothes.
Colton pulls up to my apartment at exactly 10:55.
Dropping my sketch pad into my lap, I feel a head rush of anticipation as I watch him hop out of the Chevy.
It’s obvious he just got out of the shower. His hair is still wet, and his simple white T-shirt clings to spots on his chest and stomach where he didn’t dry off.
He smiles, and my heartbeat scatters. He took time in the middle of his workday to clean up for me.
To put together a picnic lunch for me.
“Whatcha doin’ there, Fort Worth?”
I straighten in the makeshift chair I constructed from some bales of hay I found in the barn underneath my apartment. “Working. The light is so pretty this time of day.”
“That’s right.” He tucks his hands inside his jeans. “Yellow’s our new color.”
I screw an eye shut against the sun as I look up at him. The day is bright and clear, the sun’s warmth seeping through my jeans and shirt. “You’re coming around to it, aren’t you?”
His lips twitch. “Maybe. Yes. C’mon.” He pulls a hand out of his pocket and holds it out to me. “I brought some goodies for you.”
I grab the tote bag beside me on the ground. “Great minds. I brought some for you too. Well, just one. But it’s a good, er, goody.”
His eyes flicker. “You really did bring it.”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.” I let him pull me to my feet.
His hands move to my hips, and he pulls me against him. The man smells delicious, like his woodsy body wash and clean laundry.
He gives my hips a squeeze as his eyes rake over my face. “You’re so fuckin’ pretty, you know that?”
“You tell me enough.”
“I’ll keep telling you, ’cause it’s true.” His eyes move to my mouth.
The air vibrates with his very obvious desire to kiss me. I’m dying to kiss him too. But something inside me still hesitates. Or maybe it hesitates for a different reason now. In my heart of hearts, I know I’m falling for this cowboy. And if I let him kiss me…
I mean, what happens when I fall totally and completely in love with him? Then what?
I swallow, hard, and hook my first finger through his belt loop. “Can I show you just how much I like your freshly showered look?”
“Lainey.”
“What?” I say innocently.
“I’m tryin’ to be a gentleman here. Feed you first.”
“Feed me what exactly?”
His nostrils flare. “Fuck it. Fine. In the truck. You—you’re fuckin’ shameless, you know that?”
“How so?”
He’s tugging me toward the truck now. “You know I’m always gonna give you what you want, so you just—you come right out and ask for it.”
My heart dips. “It’s a new thing I’m trying out.”
“Yeah, well, I hate it.” He helps me up into the truck, then looks me in the eye, suddenly all earnestness. “You know I like it, right? So fucking much.”