She spots me—or feels my gaze—and says something to my sister before hopping off the tailgate and making her way toward me. There’s a slight sway to her gait, and even though she doesn’t appear to be drunk, she’s most definitely a little tipsy.
“Hey, you,” she says, stepping to my side and facing the warmth of the fire.
“Having a good time?” I ask.
“I am. Your sister and Sommer are fun,” she replies, taking a drink of her seltzer.
I just smile, especially since those two have probably told every embarrassing story they could think of, as long as it starred yours truly.
“So, I have a bit of a problem,” she says, leaning toward me.
I bend down slightly, her body brushing against mine as she gets nice and close. “What’s that?”
“Well, I’ve been drinking. I said I’d only have one so I could drive home, but then one turned to two, and now I’m feeling all warm and tingly and I know I shouldn’t drive home.”
“Definitely not,” I confirm, already knowing where this is going—or at least, where she’s gonna end up. “I do have a solution for your dilemma.”
“You do?” she asks, turning to face me. Her chest presses against my arm, and it takes all the strength I possess not to just pull her into my embrace, ensuring her entire body is pressed firmly against mine.
“I do.” I reach for her hip and rest a light hand against her. “I happen to have a tent.”
“I saw,” she sings, dark eyes darting to where I told her my tent is positioned.
“And I might have a big blanket in there. Big enough for two,” I confirm, doing all I can not to move my hand or flex my fingers, even though they itch to slide beneath her shirt and touch her soft skin.
“Do you have a pillow?” she asks, her question laced with humor.
I tsk and mumble, “Only one. We’d have to share.”
“Hmm,” she says, twisting lightly from side to side. Not enough to dislodge my hand but enough for me to notice her movements. “Do you hog the covers?”
“Oh, I’m a blanket hog for sure,” I state, unable to fight the grin.
“I bet you are, but if I bunk with you, you’ll have to share the blanket and the pillow. That means we might be closer than normal. I mean, we won’t be able to put a buffer of pillows between us to keep from touching.”
“No, we won’t,” I agree, feigning disappointment.
“I think we can do it though.”
My eyebrows raise as a wolfish grin spreads across my face at her unknowing innuendo. “Are we still talking about keeping our hands to ourselves…or not keeping them to ourselves.”
One of her adorable blushes creeps up her neck and stains her cheeks pink. “Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we.”
I lift my arm and sling it around her shoulders. She sags against my side, her own arm wrapping around my waist. “Oh, beautiful, you are definitely trouble.”
She sighs and rests her head against the side of my pec. “I could say the same about you, slugger.”
I don’t know how long we stand here, my arm slung over her shoulder and hers on my waist, but it’s quite a while. Alex comes over and chats for a while, even going as far as to go to my cooler and grabbing Oaklee and me each another drink. I might bake him a cake tomorrow as a thank you, because letting go of her wasn’t something I wanted to do.
When my sister and Sommer come over, Alex slips away to throw a little more wood on the fire. “You two look cozy,” Charli sings, waggling her eyebrows.
“He’s warm and strong and holds me up so I don’t face-plant onto the ground,” Oaklee states with a drunk little giggle.
“Well, come on. It’s potty time,” Sommer says.
“I can run you up on the Mule,” I suggest.
“You will do no such thing. We’re perfectly capable of walking up to the barn, thank you very much,” Charli sasses, pointing her finger at me. “Besides, now that she has some liquor in her, we can get her to talk about what happened when you two went for that ride and were gone for a good forty-five minutes.”
