Page 35 of Double Bucked

Ransom does it the hard way. He leans over and plucks out a beer himself, opens it up, and then hands it over to me.

We click necks and both take a swallow. It’s cheap beer, but it’s cold and somehow comforting.

We both stare at the TV without watching.

A shiver comes over me before I can stop it.

“Cold?” he asks.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re stubborn. Here.”

He takes off his jacket and throws it over my shoulders. It’s a canvas jacket with soft lining on the inside. I slip my arms through it, tug the collar close to me, and inhale.

There’s that scent. Smoke, ash, and dirt.

When I open my eyes, Ransom is watching me sniff his jacket.

Oh, God. I look insane.

I quickly pretend to scratch my nose instead. I motion toward Chaucer and the coin-operated horse, drawing attention away from me. “I can’t believe Daddy kept that old thing.”

“What? Miss Penny? Sure did. He’d have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. Chaucer loves that girl.”

“It’s old.”

“What’s wrong with that? Some of us never forget our first love.”

His eyes follow me. I shrug his gaze off. “Someone should throw that thing out.”

“Claire Preacher. You touch a hair on that penny-horse, and I swear to God, I’ll never forgive you.”

I can’t help the smile that crawls over my mouth. “I forgot that.”

“What?”

“What a hopeless romantic you are. You wear your heart on your sleeve.”

He shrugs. “I love hard. I don’t know how to do it any other way.”

I pull a slow, cold drink from my beer.

I can feel Ransom watching me. He asks, “Does James?”

“Does James what?”

“Does he…love you? Hard enough?”

I rub my thumb over the neck of the beer. The low ache in my cunt says yes. James loves me very hard. On the other hand…he’s been pulling away. Ever since we arrived in Belleflower. There’s a coldness to him that I love, but this coldness…

It’s new. Unnerving. Troublesome.

I want to choose my words carefully, but it’s hard to hold myself back with Ransom. When I’m with him, everything comes flooding out. “Sometimes…I’m afraid James doesn’t want me the same way that I want him. He’s so stoic. A tin man. I think that’s what attracted me to him in the first place. He was a challenge. I wanted so badly to crack him open. But what if there’s nothing inside?”

“He might’ve been a tin man when he met you, but no man can stay heartless around you for long. That’s your…Claire power.”

“My Claire power?”

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