Page 16 of The Story We Wrote

Did it bother me that much? I’m not used to attention being on me. I’ve flown under the radar most of my life so having all these eyes acknowledging my existence made me feel scrutinized. I didn’t want to take time away with Boone. If he was okay with it, I could be too.

“No,” I replied, looking back down at the menu. “I’m okay. Thank you for asking.” My eyes flicked back up to him and I saw a smirk pull at the corner of his lips as he read the menu.

I liked that he was confident, it was kind of contagious. I’d learned a lot about Boone Cassidy over the last week or so. He was blowing apart all the things I once thought about him and proving my judgments completely wrong. Boone may have once been chaos and bad decisions. Now, he’s a man with a good head on his shoulders.

Eight

Boone

Monday meant the start of another week at the ranch. Today, Rhodes was helping me fix a fence on the pasture. We had a steer try to run through the barb after some crazy storms threatened to get closer.

Rhodes had been non-stop asking questions about Saturday night, demanding to know what happened after they went to bed. He was delusional if he thought I was going to spill that easy. That’s a secret I plan on keeping to myself. I didn’t need the boys to have that information and slip around Aspen. She finally seemed to be comfortable enough to carry a conversation with me. It felt like she opened up, and I’ll be damned if I let Rhodes or anyone else ruin that. I liked her. I liked being around her, hearing her laugh, seeing her on the porch swing every night, a glass of her favorite red wine and a book in her hand. I found out she loved Sweet Red, a locally curated wine in Faircloud. I made sure to shove that little bit of information away for later.

I’m not typically a relationship guy. I didn’t make a point to pay attention to what girls like or dislike or remember muchabout them; however, Aspen had always caught my eye. It started as curiosity, wondering what she was always doing by herself. I would watch her from a distance, her nose in a book. The simple things seemed to make her happy, and I liked that.

In high school, a part of me always wanted to shoot my shot, but what would a girl likethatwant with a boy likeme? She never showed interest, which I think added to the appeal. Whether she believed it or not, Aspen had always been on my radar. Getting to know her more over the last couple of weeks had been a pleasant surprise.

“Come on Boone, don’t be shy,” Rhodes said, lining up the post in the hole we dug.

“I’m not shy, dumbass. I’m not telling you shit because I know you. You’re trash at keeping secrets.” I squatted down, filling the hole to hold the post.

“Why’s it a secret? I think we all know what happened. I just want to hear you say it,” Rhodes pushed.

“I don’t need you running your mouth and making Aspen regret it.” I looked up at Rhodes from my position, a smug grin on his face. “Wipe that look off your face,” I said. Standing, I wiped my dirty hands on my jeans, placing both hands on my hips. The details of what happened between Aspen and I were ours. These feelings I had, I needed some help hashing them out.

On my exhale, Rhodes replied, “You like her.”

“And?” I said, taking the post digger from his hands. I moved to the next spot we marked with spray paint indicating where the next post went. “I like spending time with her. She’s a nice girl.”

I drove the post digger into the ground, pressing the two handles together to remove the dirt until the hole was deep enough.

“She is. And it ain’t like you to spend time with a woman during the day. Fixing her car? Lunch? Come on.” I tossed the tool on the ground, breathing a little heavy. Rhodes grabbed thenext pole and placed it in the hole. I squatted down, filling it up with dirt.

“She paid for lunch, for your information. I’m done talking about this with you,” I huffed.

I needed to move the conversation away from Aspen. Like the asshole I could be, I threw it back at him. “How about you, have any ladies you wanna talk about?”

Rhodes refused to look at me, his cheeks getting red. Either from the heat or anger, I’m thinking the latter.

Rhodes had been single for the last year and change. Mac, Logan, and I didn’t even know if he had been with a woman since Jess.

Jess and Rhodes were high school sweethearts. They started dating at fifteen, eight years is a lot of time to be with someone. Jess moved away to the city, knowing damn well Rhodes wouldn’t go. She needed “change,” and I guess that included letting Rhodes go. He hadn’t been the same about love since, and he didn’t share much about his dating life, besides the fact he swore it off since his heart was broken. He didn’t use those exact words, but we all got the point. Around here, most people have a high school sweetheart. It’s deemed taboo if you don’t marry the person you spend high school with. Personally, I thought that “rule” was archaic because two of the people closest to me tried to follow and ended up with their hearts broken.

“Nope. I see what you’re trying to do, and I’ll let it slide today. You can’t deny it forever because it isn’t like you act this way,” Rhodes said.

“That sounds awful,” I responded. There was a misconception about me that I use women and throw them away when I’m done. That’s far from the case. I always laid out my expectations before. I cherished women, my mama raised me better than that. Since I started getting involved with the opposite sex, I always laid down the foundation before I got tooinvolved. I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t looking to hurt anyone in the process.

“You know what I mean man,” Rhodes cautioned, stopping his work to focus on the conversation.

Whatever was happening between Aspen and I was new for me. I didn’t know what these feelings I was experiencing meant or how to handle them. The fact I wanted to see her every day scared me a little. I loved being in her company. “Right now, we’re friends and that’s all,” I pledged.

Rhodes nodded and resumed his work. He could tell he had struck a nerve; he wasn’t one to roll over easily. I told Aspen yesterday that it didn’t bother me that people stared or, in this case, had their thoughts on who I was as a person. I don’t usually care; however, it was different with her. The last thing I wanted was for people to think Aspen was just another name to add to my list.

Rhodes and I finished the last few posts in silence, both working to get the new fencing up between the posts before retiring to the main house. It was late afternoon and time to call it quits for the day. When you start as early as I do, and typically work long hours, you take the time when you can. Today, Logan and another ranch hand ran around doing the other tasks on the list for the day.

“Mom!” I yelled, letting the wooden door slam behind me. Rhodes walked in first, I followed. We both made it to the kitchen where my mom was wearing her apron, cooking something for dinner. Mom had a half day at school today, some kind of event was going on in the auditorium, so the kids and faculty got an early dismissal.

“What are you making tonight, Mrs. Cassidy?” Rhodes asked, sipping from the water he helped himself too.

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