Page 106 of The Promise Of You

Six weeks since I had her.

No one since her.

Not that I wanted anyone else.

“Wear that dress and underwear tonight.” She said something about taking a shower, and hell if I’m gonna miss out on peeling those clothes off her later today. “Gonna fuck you in that little dress,” I say, and she does a whole body clench around me that just nearly undoes me. “Been teasing me thirty hours, babe.” I run my thumb across her nipple, and she arches into me, throwing her head back.

Colton honks his horn, and I peel myself off her.

“Not kidding, Clo. I want you in that little dress tonight. At my place. You know how to get there, right? Staircase at the back of the pub. Gonna cook you dinner.” I give her lips a quick kiss, whistle softly for Moose to follow me, and get back in the truck.

Colton says nothing, but his eyes are dancing, and his mouth is twitching.

“Broken timing belt,” Colton says as he wipes his hands in a rag. We’re in his garage, I’m sipping a soda while he’s under the hood of my truck. “I’ll keep her a coupla days tops. You can use the Chevy.” He grabs the moving blankets from the bed of my truck and hands them to me. “For Moose,” he says.

I glance at the vintage car he’s been lovingly fixing up for years. It’s proudly displayed on the patch of grass at the entrance of his shop, gleaming under the sun. “That Chevy?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“You’re gonna need something to impress your girl when you take her out.” He slides back under my truck.

I roll my eyes. “Seriously, dude. I can borrow something from the farm. I’ll just call one of my brothers to give me a ride.” I’m dying to drive the Chevy, but from his joke, I don’t know if he’s serious or not.

“Keys are behind the door. Have fun with it. Just go easy on her. And keep Moose on the blankets.”

I guess he’s serious. “Geez, thanks, man.”

“Treat her right.”

The pub is busy when I get there late morning. I barely have time to update Shane and Haley on my truck issues.

“So you spent the night out in your truck?” Haley asks. “How d’you get Colton to pick you up?”

“I flagged down the first person I saw, a dirt bike. He called Colton when he got service.”

“Huh. That’s funny. Colton must have been busy this morning.” She wipes a perfectly clean spot on the bar, ignoring the dirties piling up on empty tables.

“Yeah?” I log into our POS and check last nights’ numbers.

“Yeah,” she trails. “Same thing happened to Chloe last night. I was trying to reach her, and this morning she finally answered, and she said she was stranded overnight and that Colton had just dropped her off.”

“Uh-huh.”

She plants herself next to me, hands on her hips. “Tinman,” she says, using my childhood nickname.

“What.”

“Spill.”

I clench my jaw but at the same time I feel happy. I’m trying to keep everything in but it’s hard. I feel like a bottle of beer ready to explode from being shaken too much.

Haley shrieks and throws her arms around me, squeezing me and doing a jumping-up-and-down dance.

“What’s going on here?” Shane asks, poking his head from the kitchen.

Haley lets go of me. “Nothing!” she singsongs and finally gets started on clearing tables.

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