“I’m glad you asked…” Clay starts then launches into a long-winded story about something he and his girlfriend got into while he helped her record a baking video at the co-op last week.
The rest of Thanksgiving dinner is filled with light, happy banter with the Camerons. As the meal winds down, Clay and I offer to do the dishes and clean-up since we didn’t contribute to the preparation. A few minutes later, I find myself elbow-deepin soap suds while the Cameron spouses take a stroll around the property, pushing the twins in a stroller and enjoying the cooler evening before we all head over to the co-op for dessert.
“You have a fun family,” I tell Clay while handing him a dish to dry.
He chuckles, “They’re good people. It’s gotten a lot better since Jovie and Stevie married my brothers. My dad and their mom are in Australia for the holiday but if they were here too, the conversation would have been even wilder.”
“I can imagine it’s a lot when everyone is together.” I hand him another dish to dry.
“So, what’d you do to Dove Hart?”
My brows furrow as I continue to scrub at the porcelain dish in my hand, “What do you mean what did I do to her?”
He shrugs, “I mean, I get the whole pen pal story you just told us about how y’all met but the look on her face last night when she realized who you were had way more of a story behind it. I've known Dove for years, she's just a few years older than me, and she’s always been a spit fire, wild spirit doing her own thing. Not much catches her by surprise but she looked shocked to see you.”
“It’s like I said, life happened, and we stopped writing to each other.”
“And then you just showed up in her hometown? A little creepy, don’t you think? I bet that’s why she was freaked out.”
“She doesn’t think it’s creepy.”
Clay snorts, “You’re probably right. She probably thinks it’s romantic. That’s something that happens in those romance books Savannah reads and when it's done in a book, it’s all ’so romantic,’but have a man do that in real life and the woman is screaming ‘stalker!’”
I laugh, “I’m a former marine. If I wanted to stalk her, she wouldn't know. I was never hiding here.”
Clay nods as he finishes drying another glass and places it in the cupboard.
“So, Savannah is the hopeless romantic type, eh?”
He snorts again, “Definitely the hopeless romantic type.”
“What about you?”
He shrugs, “We officially got together just a year ago, but I guess she’d been crushing on me for a while, and I hadn’t noticed. I love her and think we'll end up together but we're still really young. I've been itching for something more than working on the ranch, ya know? I’m just trying to figure out what that something more is.”
“I get that.” I dry my hands and clap him on the back. “Sometimes you gotta keep trying new things until you figure out what you’re not good at, but enjoy, and that’s where to put pressure, you feel me?”
He nods, “I do. Is that what you did?”
“Sort of.”
He’s quiet for a few minutes, deep in thought. “I’d like to hear more about how you landed on the marines. You want to ride over to the co-op together?”
I smile, “You got it, Clay.”
Chapter 22 – Paloma
Everything about what I’m wearing tonight feels wrong.
I am much more confident now than I was when I was younger. I am a woman who embodies and promotes through her music, women's rights, not taking shit from anyone, and body positivity.
My belly may be softer than it once was, and my hips curvier, but I love the way I’ve changed physically and will change as I age. I love everything about myself. Yet here I am, nervously twisting the bracelets on my wrist and overthinking everything about the simple outfit I’ve picked out to wear to dessert at the co-op.
It’s not an actual first date. He thinks you’re in love with some guy.
A pair of bell-bottom jeans that fit my thick hips and ass perfectly, showing off my pear-shaped figure, and an all-white, V-neck T-shirt. It couldn’t be simpler, but it’s me.
Does Dallas find me attractive?
