None of this was funny to me, though she seemed to find it all to be hilarious.
“Let’s just call it a night, lover girl.”
She sighed. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Always,” I said, turning around as the light from the moon made a halo around where she was sitting up in bed. I couldn’t see her face, but I knew her eyes were on me.
“I told you what I liked, and now I’m curious. When you were in the shower tonight before dinner,” she said, her voice just above a whisper, “what were you thinking about?”
You do not want to know.
“I don’t even remember. Probably the last time I had sex,” I said, happily leaving off the fact that it may have started that way, but it sure as hell didn’t end that way.
She fell back on her pillow. “That makes sense, because it’s always good for you, right?”
“Sure,” I said as I knocked on her doorframe. “I guess I’ve got plenty to teach you.”
She chuckled. “Good. I’ve got plenty to learn. Sweet dreams, Bear.”
After this talk, I had a hunch my dreams would be plenty sweet.
On Friday afternoons, if we were all in town, my boys and I always met at Bennett’s for lunch. It was where we’d catch up without any distractions. The restaurant wasn’t open for lunch, but Bass always had five steaks with wedge salads on the side ready for us as soon as we sat down.
“Hey, hey, look who made it just in time.” Brody smirked.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said as I walked around the circular table and fist-pumped each one of them. “Gracie and I had a meeting with the Petersons because they are in desperate need of a designer.”
“You couldn’t handle her being so far away, and you managed to get her back here in Blue Sky Bay, and now she’s living at your house and working with you,” Cannon said, clapping his hands together twice like the cocky bastard he was. “You are one lucky son of a bitch.”
“Says the dude who recently won the world finals event.” I laughed at the cocky bull rider as I settled in my seat between Cannon and Phoenix. Bass and Brody sat directly across from me at the round table.
Cannon had just upset the competition with a huge win in Texas that we’d all been present for. The dude was an absolute rock star. A six-foot-tall bull rider wasn’t exactly the norm, so he had the odds stacked against him because of his height, yet he just kept winning. He was a natural. He’d been riding since he was a teenager, entering his first competition when we all left for college. His family had a long history of riding bulls, and Cannon had proved himself over the years, but this past season had been his best.
“Well, the goal is to be the overall world champion, win more than just the finals.”
“Take the win, asshole. It was damn cool to watch you pull that off.” Bass shook his head at Cannon.
“I’m just saying, my biological clock is ticking, because I swear, I have a hard time getting out of bed most mornings.” He reached for his beer—there was one already sitting at each of our seats—and we all held our bottles up to clink them together, like we always did.
“To C-dawg and Heart, the two luckiest bastards I know,” Brody said as our bottles tipped together and we all took a long pull.
“Have you ever considered that it’s painful to get out of bed in the morning because of all the action you get in that bed every night?” Phoenix asked just as Joey walked out with our steaks. He was Bass’s assistant chef, and he always made lunch on Fridays. He had five plates displayed across his two long arms, and he set them down in front of each of us. He knew exactly how we all liked our meat cooked.
“I can’t be the only one riding the bull.” Cannon winked, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “How about you, Heart? How are you going to bring women home if you’ve got Gracie living at your house? That could put a real damper on your sex life.”
“I don’t give a shit. I’d be celibate to have that girl here.” I shrugged, cutting into my perfectly cooked T-bone steak.
I still couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d asked me the other night. She hadn’t brought it up again, and I was grateful, because obviously she’d had too much to drink.
We couldn’t go there.
No fucking way.
Didn’t stop me from thinking about it…multiple times a day.
“My dick just flipped you off because we don’t use the word ‘celibate,’” Cannon said over his laughter.
“You haven’t been going out much anyway these past few months. What’s going on with you?” Brody asked as he glanced over at me.
