“Do you know how?” I can’t help but notice how different our hands look next to each other. Hers are paler than mine, and about half the size.
“No.” Her pinkie darts out to brush my thumb knuckle. “But you could teach me.”
It’s all I can do not to hang my head. This girl ain’t afraid topushmy goddamnbuttons.
Problem is, I like it.
“Should you be driving with that hand?” I motion to her broken arm.
“My elbow’s busted, not my hand. I’ll be fine. But maybe you should keep your hands close to mine on the wheel, just in case.”
I chuckle, a low, gravelly sound I don’t recognize. “Billie.”
“I know.”
“Billie.”
“Iknow. Now show me how to drive this tractor, damn it!”
“Fine!”
“Fine!” She’s giggling now, and so am I.
I carefully glide my hands over hers, ignoring the way my core pulses at the smoothness of her skin, and move them to the correct position on the wheel. “Ten and two. Nice and easy.”
“Just like me,” she deadpans.
“Hey. You’re not nice.”
“But you are easy.”
“Easy to please, yeah.”
“I bet you are.”
My dick twitches. “That tool been buggin’ you? The bull rider.” I only ask the question because I need to change the subject, quick.
Only this is not a subject we should really be talking about either.
“Xander…” She sighs, and together we make the turn around another row. “I don’t know. I think he might be history.”
Relief swoops through me.Thank Christ.
“Good. He sure as hell isn’t gonna help you thrive.”
“What should I do, Ryder?” She pauses. “What wouldyoudo?”
“Not date bull riders. That’s just life 101.”
Somehow she manages to elbow me. “Talk about someone needing to mind their own business. I’m talking about mylife, not who I’m sleeping with.”
“I think…”I actually can’t think when I have you in my arms.“I think you try to follow that feeling.”
“What feeling?”
“The one you get when you’re doing the stuff you mentioned. Like, how did you feel during that race before you fell?”
That makes her smile. “I felt free. And scared, but also…alive? Like fully, completely, totally alive. Connected to the universe, as dumb as that sounds. I washappy. So freaking happy, Ry, I can’t even tell you. But I think you get it, though, because it looked like that’s the way you felt when you and I were playing your cute little humming game.”
