She’d been leaning forward expectantly, but now she sat back, leaning against the back of her chair. A tiny laugh stuttered out of her mouth as the light in her eyes dimmed. “Yeah. Of course.”
I got the feeling she knew I’d been on the verge of saying something big.
Her gorgeous, kissable lips turned down at the edges, and we sat in silence while the roar of the axe house went on around us.
When she finally spoke she said, “I was banking on that promotion. I have so much student loan debt, and I’m never going to dig my way out of it if I don’t get a full-time job. That’s why I was thinking of Santa Fe. There’s even a sign-on bonus if I stick it out for two years.”
She was leaving for money.
That’s what it always was. People either left Red Oak Mountain for money or an adventure.
“How much do you owe?” I growled out.
Rissy sighed. “Around twenty-five thousand.”
That’s when our burgers arrived.
As I dug into my meal, I thought about what she’d said.
After some careful consideration, I told her, “I could help out with that. Plumbers make good money because no one else wants a crappy job, pun intended. I’ve got that much sitting in my savings account.”
She paused with her burger in mid-air. “You didnotjust offer to pay off my student loan debts, Sawyer.”
I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. That’s less than the cost of a new truck.” Which is what I’d been saving the money for. But I’d rather give it to Rissy if it could take a burden off her.
She gave me a tiny smile. “That might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever offered, but there’sno wayI can take your money. The most I’ll let you do is pay for dinner.”
“Well, I’m definitely doing that,” I joked as I stuffed a few French fries in my mouth. “You’ll emasculate me if you try to go Dutch with me tonight.”
Marissa laughed and tossed a French fry my way. “No one couldeveremasculate you. You’re made of testosterone and bull rides.”
“Hey,I only did thatonce.”
“And you should never do it again. I almost had a heart attack.”
A decade ago I’d gone to the rodeo like a tough guy and rode the surliest, nastiest bull they had. I’d come out the other end as the champion, but it easily could have gone the other way.
I’d been a young buck with a puffed-up chest, strutting around with balls two sizes too big and a complete lack of common sense.
Marissa’s dad had tried to talk me out of it, but once I’d announced that I was doing it to the whole town, I felt like I couldn’t back out.
I still remembered that day because afterward Rissy had run right up to me and planted a kiss on my lips. A victory kiss, she’d called it. And even as she’d stood there, hope and expectation on her face, Matt had been right behind her hollering, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, Rissy? Get off him!’
My adrenaline had been pumping hard, the thrill of the bull ride still racing in my veins. And I would have kissed her back if Matt hadn’t pulled his little sister right out of my arms at that moment.
“I thought that bull was going to kill you. I was so worried about you that day,” she murmured, her expression turning soft.
“Yeah. I was worried, too. I don’t know if you noticed, but I never rode a bull again.”
Her lips quirked up. “Not arealbull. But now you’re the mechanical bull champion of Red Oak Mountain.”
I shrugged, enjoying the attention. “It’s notmyfault that I live up here with a bunch of sissies.” I had the title of the longest ride on the mechanical bull at the Bear Den.
Max had my picture up on the wall next to my time with a note that said, “Top this, fuckers.”
I figured I’d pulled in a couple thousand dollars in quarters for the bar over the years as men tried to beat my record. But riding the metal bull was acompletelydifferent experience than riding a real bull. The guys who did that all the time had a death wish.
If the bull at the Bear Den got too intense, you could just twist the dial and stop the ride. Real bulls didn’t work that way.
