Page 57 of Fastlander Fealty

Chapter Eleven

The drive from Cheyenne back to Laramie could be made in under and hour, thank goodness.

Silver snuggled deeper into the flannel Owen had declared now belonged to her, and checked the front of the coffee shop again. She was parked next to Owen’s truck, and they had pulled into this parking lot just a few minutes before the coffee shop was set to open. It was still raining, and the fire ban had been lifted for Owen to work this morning. He had said he needed a pot of coffee to stay awake for his shift up on the logging jobsite, and told her to wait in the car out of the rain while he ran in and got them drinks.

Her phone vibrated with a text, and she smiled as she read Owen’s name on the ID. Want caramel drizzle?

Yes please! Thank you! Send.

An image came through from him and she gasped and immediately blushed at the picture of her lying on the bathroom floor last night, completely naked except for her pair of shorts that was positioned around her ankles. She set the phone down fast, and smiled blankly at the front of the café, then pulled it back up and looked at herself again. Okay, she looked satisfied as hell. That man had fucked every thought of the outside world right out of her head last night.

She laughed and messaged him back. Don’t be sending that to anyone else.

That’s all mine. This one too. An image of her boogying on the dancefloor in the cowboy bar last night came through. She hadn’t realized he had taken this one. Most of her body was a blur as she spun, and her smile was megawatt. She had one hand on her cowboy hat to keep it in place, and the other in the air as she danced.

She looked so genuinely happy.

Silver rested her elbow on the side of the window of her car and chewed the corner of her thumbnail as she remembered how much fun it had been to dance the night away with Owen last night. Best night ever.

The café door opened and Owen jogged out into the rain, holding a couple of coffees. Hers was iced and full of sweetness on account of her not liking the taste of coffee. Owen drank his black, which she would remember forever, just like he would remember her liking light olives on her pizza.

He looked so good in the rainy grey dawn light. His hat was on backwards, and he wore the T-shirt she’d bought him last night. His eyes were the stormy blue of his human side, and that smile damn-near stuttered her heart.

She rolled down the window and he handed her coffee through. “You’re a lifesaver,” she murmured after the first sip.

He leaned down on her window and pushed inside, kissed her. When he pulled back, he told her, “I’ll get you settled at my place and then I’ll have to bolt. I’m sorry to run, but Gunner will have my ass if I’m late.”

“I don’t know if you know this about my car, but it can go almost sixty miles per hour,” she said of her little old rust-bucket. She reached through the window and slapped his butt as he began to walk away. The echo of his laugh through the parking lot pulled one from her too.

The rest of the drive up to 1010 Winding Way, where Gunner and Hallie had set up the Crew territory was only fifteen more minutes. She’d downed the delicious caramel macchiato by the time she eased her car up into the clearing.

“Whoa,” she murmured as she took in the trailer park. The cream-colored singlewide on the left had a perfectly manicured yard with flower bushes and mulch, and even brick trim around the flowerbeds. There was a firepit in front of it, and three more singlewide mobile homes scattered around the clearing.

Owen parked in front of one in the middle that was painted dark brown on the outside, with lighter beige trim. There was a neon green plastic chair sitting beside a barbecue grill on a small concrete pad beside the stairs that led to the front door. It was cute!

Owen was waiting for her as she parked, and he pulled her suitcase out of the back without any prompting. He was a man who anticipated needs, and though Silver could do all this on her own, she did appreciate that he seemed to genuinely enjoy taking care of little things for her.

She followed him up the stairs, but just as he was about to go inside, a booming voice sounded behind them.

“Seriously?” Gunner demanded.

Uh oh.

Owen set the suitcase inside and made his way past her. Low, he said, “I’ll take care of it.”

She felt awful as she watched Gunner give Owen what for in the pouring rain. This was her fault. Gunner had ordered that she leave the territory, and here was Owen bringing her right into the heart of his property.

The others apparently had heard the commotion, because one by one, the doors to the trailers opened up. Hallie came out of the cream-colored house, hair mussed and looking sleepy with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The trailer on the end, closest to the trees apparently belonged to Captain. He was leaning on the porch railing watching Gunner and Owen yell at each other with a grin.

“You’re trouble, aren’t you?” he called over to her.

“Not trying to be.”

“Fuck, Owen! Why can’t anyone in this Crew listen to one goddamn direction?” Gunner yelled.

“Because you’re rules suck,” Owen muttered, and Gunner looked like he would Change for a split second before Hallie said, “I’ll keep an eye on her today. I’ll get Corey to come over and hang out with us too.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Gunner said.

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