Frankie giggles. “So? She’s got a great ass.”
I avoid commenting on that. “He still shouldn’t be looking at it.”
Frankie tilts her head to the side, studying me, and a warning bell rings in my head. I’ve made a misstep somewhere, but I’m not sure where or how or why.
“You ever wonder why you’re so protective of Shelby?”
I shrug. “No. She’s my best friend. Of course I’m protective.”
Frankie nods but doesn’t lose that shit-eating grin. “Is it possible you have feelings for her that go beyond friendship?”
To that idea, I scoff. Loudly. “I have feelings beyond friendship for every woman.”
“But not Shelby,” Frankie confirms.
“Correct.” My brain tries to bring up what Houston told me this morning, but I tell it to fuck off.
“Have you considered why?”
“Huh?” Now she’s lost me. Woman logic is circular and windy and littered with leaps into fairytale land.
Frankie leans in, entirely too excited. “Like maybe if you ever let yourself go there with her, you’d fall head over boots in love with the woman?”
I stare at her, refusing to even acknowledge that notion. “Does Morgan know you’ve lost your mind?” I lean away and step around her. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to hose off before my sawdust causes more respiratory damage to these calves.”
Frankie’s laugh echoes after me. Goddamn, sisters are annoying.
On the side of the faded red barn, I breathe in the warm air, stretching my back and wondering if Ryder and I can sneak away this weekend to the lake. Summer sure is hot around here, but it doesn’t last long enough for my liking. We need to enjoy it while we can. Shelby can read her latest romance novel on a picnic blanket, and he and I can practice his backstroke while getting a reprieve from the heat. That idea sounds like the perfect summer weekend plan.
I grab the hose off the side of the barn and crank the spigot. Letting the first bit feed the dry ground, I strip off my shirt and belt, hanging them over the fence post. When the cooler water flows, I lift the hose over my head and let it rain down over me, washing off the sawdust and sweat. Damn, that feels amazing. The cool water reminds me of all the times us kids would run through the sprinklers in the summer.
I have to scrub my hand over my skin to dislodge off all the wood shavings, but I get the job done. It’s only as I twist to shut off the spigot that I find Shelby standing outside the paddock, frozen in place, staring at me.
My skin heats all over again, and it has nothing to do with the hot summer sun. I slowly slip my hand down my chest, flinging off some water. “Want me to turn it on again so you get a longershow?” I holler, teasing her. I don’t even think about it. Flirting is just a reflex at this point.
Shelby snaps back to attention. “No, thanks. I don’t want to get nauseous!” Then she sticks her tongue out at me.
“Real mature!” I holler back.
She spins and struts back into the paddock with the syringe in hand, giving me a glimpse of the backside that had Wade mesmerized. Can’t really blame the guy.
Then Frankie’s accusation and Houston’s warning play on repeat in my brain, and I get dressed, putting Shelby firmly back in the friend box I’ve always kept her in. Things are way less confusing that way.
Chapter
Thirteen
HANGIN’ IN THERE LIKE HAIR IN A BISCUIT
Shelby
Is cowboy porn a thing? If it wasn’t before, it sure as hell is now. Holy mother of pectorals!
Day to day, it’s easy to forget how hot Dallas is. I mean, there are so many other things about him to distract from the packaging. Like how he sings so off tune that Nelly can’t help but join in the howling, and how truly terrible his dad jokes are, and how he insists on first eating all the crust off his sandwiches and is subsequently shocked every damn time when the rest of it falls apart in his hands.
Or how he gets giddy as a schoolgirl at the start of a new woodworking project, and he rides a horse like he was born on one. And he tells the best stories about anything at all, but mostly about his family. And how he listens in a way you know he’s not just thinking of what he wants to say next.
But every once in a while—and especially in these last weeks I’ve been living with him—I am acutely reminded of exactly how breathtaking the man is. Case in point, this cowboy porn shower scene that’s playing out behind me right this freaking minute.
