She stared at him.
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes, grabbing her plate. “But keep up. I walk fast.”
“You talk fast too,” he muttered, falling into step beside her. His eyes went to her ass that moved even in jeans. Meadow was stacked.
She wasn’t like the super slim girls he usually found himself pining over. Or the ones that did the most to grab his attention. She was one of one to him. Beautiful beyond comparison. Sexy without effort. He loved that effortless shit.
They cut across the open part of the range first, then past the old barn Ray still swore he was gonna fix.
“You ever get bored out here?” Zaire asked, hands in his pockets, chain bouncing lightly against his chest.
“Every day,” Meadow answered. “But then something happens to remind me why I’m here.”
“Like what?”
She thought before answering. “Like Mama having a good day, like Daddy laughing at something stupid…like remembering this land is the one thing they worked for their whole lives.”
“That’s a lot to hold.”
“It is.”
“You hold it anyway.”
She shrugged. “Somebody gotta do it.”
Zaire didn’t say anything back. But she heard his silence…soft, respectful, truly seeing her.
She pointed toward a narrow path between tall grass. “C’mon.”
Zaire followed, quiet but present. Meadow felt him beside her like heat.
“You ever take breaks?” She tucked her lip in. Meadow was eager to know if a man like him sat down and just enjoyed life.Did Zaire Cooks have a place like her where he could just float on nothing but absorb everything?
“From what?” he questioned his brows rising at the tips.
“From worrying, from thinking, from being so damn…tense all the time.”
He smirked. “You know me, cuh?”
“You tell me a lot without even opening your mouth,” she said. “Even when you’re quiet, you’re loud as hell.”
He chuckled. “Crescent Park don’t raise silent kids.”
“You said you don’t talk to your people anymore.”
His jaw flexed. “I don’t. It ain’t the same no more.”
“What happened?”
He kicked a rock. “I started livin’. A lot of ’em didn’t want to.”
Meadow slowed her pace. “That sounds lonely.”
“It is,” he said plainly. “But bein’ dead is lonelier.”
The honesty hit her right in the chest.
She nodded toward a cluster of pecan trees up ahead. “We’re eating over there.”
