Fucking hell, do I love the way she reacts every time I say those words. I don’t even know if she’s aware of how obvious her wanton expression is, but the way her lips battle a smile and the change in her breathing are clear as a damn bell. I can’t help but wonder if she’s already getting wet under that pretty little dress.
“Hey.” Her eyes cut to Jonas, who’s clearing the table of cheese and sausage faster than Beryl can cut it. “What did the mechanic have to say?”
I killed forty-five minutes at Anette’s after leaving their house to make it believable that I went back to the mechanic. That’s how they beat me to the party.
“Oh, you know…wallet’s a few hundred bucks lighter.”
Around a mouthful of cheese, Jonas mumbles my name, stealing my attention away from his mom. Wide-eyed and clearly eager to tell me something, he races to swallow his food before exclaiming, “Austin gave me money for working here all summer.”
“Are you offering to pay to fix my truck, moneybags?” I ask.
Jonas aggressively shakes his head. “No way.The money’s all mine.”
“Forcollege,” Whit clarifies. “You’re too young to have an actual job, but the ranch generously contributed to your college fund…like a scholarship.”
“So I bust my butt all summer and my reward isschool? This is a scam.” With a snarl, he turns back to the cheese platter.
Laughing under our breath, Whit and I focus on each other again. Her squint in the afternoon sun has me reaching for the dark glasses sitting on top of her head without a second thought, and her nose crinkles slightly when I slide the black frames over her eyes. The self-control it takes not to kiss her is waning fast, so I nod my head toward the guys circled up in lawn chairs.
“Come sit when you’re done,” I say, reaching into the cooler at her feet.
Beer in hand, I grab a folded-up lawn chair and drag it across the ground, the metal legs bouncing and clinking over rocks. And I set it up on a shady patch of lawn next to Red, who has his sleeping baby tucked into the crook of his arm. He glances at me in his periphery when I plop down, nodding a hello.
Denny and Blair are spread out on the lawn, lost in their own conversation. They got engaged a few days ago, and apparently also found a way to permanently conjoin their bodies. I haven’t seen Denny without Blair at his side in weeks.
“How’s the little one?” I peer over, pulling my sunglasses from my face and hanging them off the collar of my sleeveless T-shirt. Hazel’s all passed out and floppy in a pink T-shirt and diaper—no pants. Damn, babies really do have it made in the shade. I’d kill to zonk out like her right now. I was so paranoid about oversleeping and breaking Whit’s trust that I barely closed my eyes last night.
“She ate her weight in pureed carrots and apple sauce before this nap, so pretty damn good day for a six-month-old.”
“She’s sleeping like Austin had her up for work at three a.m.”
“She’s up at four every morning like clockwork, man.” Red slips a finger into her splayed hand. “Born to be a cowgirl. Cass fucking hates it.”
Denny pipes up. “Put her in a baby carrier and bring her to work. We already listen to Rob’s crying every day. What’s a little more?”
“I’d rather hang out with a cute baby at four a.m. than Rob.” I twist my fingers around the long neck of my beer bottle and pull it to my parched lips. “I like babies.”
Cassidy sinks into a chair next to Red, reaching out to massage the nape of his neck. “Are you guys talking aboutbabies? What bizarre alternate universe did I walk into?”
Hazel stirs in Red’s lap, waking up with a slow blink up atthe sunny sky. Scooping under her arms, Red lifts her so she’s sitting in his lap, yawning and simultaneously shoving her entire hand in her mouth.
Blair stretches her casted foot out in front of her. “Hazelnut’s so cute, even the boys are getting baby fever.” She leans over to nudge Denny, letting her head fall to his shoulder.
I need my mom to give her wholetake it slowspeech again so I can record it and keep that shit on loop in my ear at all times. It’s fucking killing me not to publicly declare that Whit and I are together so I can pull her into my lap.
“Nah, we just like getting practice formakingthe baby. Speaking of which—” Denny’s focus veers to me, bringing everybody else’s eyes along for the ride. “Heard you didn’t come home, and Betty was howling outside your door all night.”
“A gentleman doesn’t fuck and tell, okay?”
Cassidy slaps a hand over her mouth to keep from spitting pop everywhere. “It’skissand tell.”
“Even if we did more than kiss?”
“Jesus Christ, man.” Red shakes his head, ignoring the way his kid has now started trying to shoveherhand intohismouth.
“That’s all I’m saying about that.” I slump farther into my chair with a discreet peek at my girl.
Betty trots up alongside Kate, and she circles around at my feet to get the perfect spot before craning her neck to lick my hand—Betty, that is. Not Kate.
