She shakes her head and licks her lips. She’s getting to the juicy part. “Whit wanted to break up for good after prom. It was because he wanted to go to college and be single. I think he had scholarship offers, but Britt went crazy when he mentioned it. She took a whole bottle of headache reliever and wrote a note professing her undying love. She ended up at the hospital getting her stomach pumped.”
I raise my brows. “They’ve been together ever since?” It’s a foregone conclusion. People attach themselves to those they think they deserve—to the comfortable agony of false truths.
She nods. “Insane, right?” Caroline’s eyes are wide as she nods her head. “They deserve each other, but I still can’t believe they’re getting married.” She says the word “married” like a spoken reverie, and I know her stance on the subject without asking.
“I can’t believe they haven’t gotten marriedyet. Idiots like that usually do stupid stuff sooner. They don’t make people wait to show their true colors,” I proclaim. “Ready to go in?”
“Marriage is not idiotic,” Caroline hisses. “It’s romantic and sweet, and it’s one of the only things that’s the same as it was way back when. It hasn’t changed.”
I knew it. Unsurprising, but a conversation I’d avoid having with another living human like the plague.
The word spoken aloud makes my heart race. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never considered marriage before, or maybe because it’s something so permanent in my world of impermanence. The divorce rate among the Teams is nothing to shake a stick at either. Last time someone spouted off that as a reason for staying away from it, it was over seventy-five percent. Those are about the same as BUD/S dropout odds. Even with Stella, after years of dating, I wasn’t ready to take the plunge, and I thought she was my forever. I’ve lived a wild life full of change and variables. A constant never appealed to me. “It’s an old-fashioned way to tie a ball and chain around balls. Just think, back in the day you wouldn’t be flying your airplane or twisting a wrench. You’d be pregnant in the kitchen, resenting the very institution you deem so worthy.”
She crinkles her forehead and purses her lips. “I’d never resent love. The real kind that makes you want to do things like be pregnant in a kitchen. Lucky for me I can also turn a wrench and fly a plane as well. Marriage is love, and I have to believe in that. If I don’t, what else is there?”
The determination with which she makes this proclamation shakes me to my core—makes me want to believe in something just as fiercely. Something morethan life, death, breathing or not, good or bad. I can’t help it. I let my guard slip, and I envision what Caroline wants. It’s not Stella who I picture in my life, wearing my ring, either. I swallow hard, noticing how her eyes are dancing over my face. “Okay,” I state simply.
A megawatt grin splits across her face. “Okay? That easy, huh? You don’t want to argue.”
I can’t help but smile back. “Or you’re right. I’m the first to admit when I’m not an expert on a certain subject. Given our current subject matter, I’m definitely not. You could be right.”
She presses her lips together. “I am right.” This is all it takes to lighten the mood. Caroline’s face falls. “Guess we should go in.”
My throat is still tight, and my mind is still fuzzy with images I’d like very much to get rid of, but I’m not sure how. “You talked mad shit about them. Pretty sure meeting these two is going to be the highlight of my evening. Let’s go.” I open my door when she hops out.
She waits for me at the tailgate. “Can you behave in the mildest manner you’re capable of?” she asks, clasping her hands together in front of her stomach. “I wasn’t talking bad about them, either. I just told you the truth.”
I wrap my big arm around her shoulder and pull her against my side. “I can try, but nothing about me is mild.” I ignore her correction, but I mentally note she doesn’t even like the suggestion of meanness. She’s that good.
My dick twitches.
SIX
Caroline
Bobby’s Barsmells like sweat and lies. The music is blaring from the beaten-down jukebox, and Tahoe looks right at home as he edges in at the bar to grab us a couple of drinks, his monstrous figure forcing those sitting nearby to part. I play with the hem of my shirt and try to focus on the present instead of the way he made me feel in the cab of his truck. He almost kissed me. Told me I could be his girlfriend if I wanted to, basically said I already was. Words likeI like youandmore than likedid things to my proverbial armor—pierced me directly in my heart. You’d think there would be something other than stroked desire after his spoken words, I don’t know, maybe something such as anger or disdain, but nothing else came. The wordsyes, pleasenearly popped out of my mouth the second Malena banged on the window. I could have killed her for ruining that moment, but I was also grateful because I don’t seem to be thinking very clearly when I’m around Tyler these days. Or ever, honestly. A man like him doesn’t pursue a woman like me. If theydid, I wouldn’t be single without a solitary prospect.
I never pictured myself with an outsider, an intruder, but it’s easy to let my mind reason the magnetic draw to the massive, arrogant stranger. I can’t trust myself around him. It’s why I took the entire month to make a decision about the airport. Can I be around him on a regular basis and keep a level head? Do I trust myself to get closer to him than I already am? In the end, the money offered won out regardless of my feelings toward the man. Plus, my daddy didn’t raise a fool. When a once-in-a-lifetime deal comes along, you take it. Isn’t that what being Tahoe’s girlfriend would be, though? A once-in-a-lifetime deal? How do I adhere to one while abolishing the other?
Casually, I watch Tahoe as every woman in the room watches him. Even old Magdalena, who hasn’t so much as looked at a man’s foot since her husband, Curtis, died, has her mouth open as she takes in Tahoe’s physique.
Malena and a group of girlfriends, all of which I recognize, point at him. Even men narrow their eyes with contempt and jealousy as they study him. They don’t know that inside the rough, rogue exterior, he’s a decent guy. A smart man. A man who, despite my best efforts, still hangs around after I’ve pushed him away. Sure, he says stupid things once in a while, but what man doesn’t?
Tahoe glances over his shoulder, a lopsided smirk morphing his chiseled features into something more boyishly handsome. I grin back, even though I have no idea what he’s smiling about. Surely being polar opposites never damned a relationship from the start?The possibility of success must be buried somewhere behind our vast differences. As I smile back at him, I’m aware that everyone is looking at me, a fact that would typically send me running for the hills. He’s looking at me, at no one else but me, and I’m basking in that knowledge. I make my way closer to him and grab for the foamy glass mug he’s extending. “What’s so funny?” I ask, sipping the white foam before it spills over the rim. “This place is kind of comical, but anything in specific?” I amend.
Tahoe takes a long swig while watching me over the rim of his beer. After he swallows, his neck working with more muscles than I have in my entire body, he lets out a long, satisfied breath. “Just how out of place you look here. Don’t come here often?” He grins.
“I should have known you were making fun of me. And to think, I was thinking…” I halt my words before I finish my thought.
“Thinking about what?” His laconic voice sends a shiver from the tip of my toes all the way to my head. “What we were talking about in the truck? The g-word?” He nods his head toward the door. “Want to go back and talk…some more?”
I shake my head before he’s finished speaking. “I was thinking that this whole room is staring at you right now.”
He heaves a shoulder up and down quickly. “And while I’m only interested in looking at you, I’d be remiss if we didn’t meet your friends.” Tahoe runs his tongue over his front teeth, and he catches me watching hismouth. He quirks one brow in question. “What else were you thinking?”
I chug my beer while staring down the dusty, wooden ceiling. I can’t trust myself around him. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. “That they’re all staring at you because you’re so good-looking.”
“Ohhhhhhh!” Tahoe yells, drawing gazes our way once again. “You actually said it out loud. It only took a month.”
