Page 44

Sunshine: Bored. Can’t sleep. Entertain me.

Me: Careful what you ask for, Sunshine.

Sunshine: Big talk from a man sleeping in my sheets.

I turn over the whole day in my mind. The impromptu karaoke. Her sexy red toes on my dash. The water she poured over herself, running down beneath that soaked shirt. Me pinning her against the side of the truck, one breath away from taking whatever she was willing to give me.

Fuck it.

Me: Send me a picture then.

Sunshine: A picture of WHAT?

Me: Don't play dumb. You know exactly what.

Sunshine: You did NOT just ask me for a nude.

Me: I asked for a picture. You went straight to nude. Says a lot, honestly.

Sunshine: In your DREAMS, Walker.

Me: Knew you wouldn't have it in you. I guess that means I win.

She doesn't respond, and I know I’ve gotten her. I’m just starting to type another response, giving her shit for folding so easily, when the photo comes through.

I can’t do anything but stare. Every nerve ending in my body lights up. It's honestly better than a nude. A nude would've been too easy—too obvious, and not Addie.

She's on her back on my blanket, in my bed. Her phone's held above her, the picture looking down the length of her body. Her shirt's ridden up just enough to bare her stomach, and a damn pair of black panties sit low on her hips before the frame cuts them off.

That's my blanket bunched under her. My sorry air mattress she's stretched across. My tent she crawled into, half naked, while I lay here breathing the scent of her off the pillow like some idiot. She's lying in my sheets right now, on my blanket, in nothing but those panties, and she made damn sure I'd know exactly where she was when she did it. Fuck. I’m so fucked.

Sunshine: Your move, Cowboy.

This is a whole new side of Addie, and it’s this side that's going to put me straight in the ground. She doesn't flinch. You dare her? She rises to the challenge. I asked for a picture to make her fold, and instead she climbed into my bed and turned the whole thing around on me.

I look at it too long. Way too long.

Sunshine: Nothing to say? First time all summer.

Me: I’m busy. Give me a second…

Sunshine: Why do you need a second?

Sunshine: OMG! You’re disgusting!

Sunshine: Are you really???

Me: Maybe I do have your picture up, and my hand down my shorts? What are you going to do about it, Sunshine?

The dots come. Vanish. Then come again.

Sunshine: You can't just SAY that.

Me: You sent the picture, Sunshine. I'm just filling in the details.

Sunshine: OMG

I decide to let her off the hook, texting her back that I'm just joking. I take the loss on this one, and let the phone drop to the mattress, screen up, that photo still glowing, and I close my eyes.